[fastauto]

Originally Posted by mclemens

Last weekend I drove at Road America with the North America Road Race Association. NARRA is somewhat like NASA in that they have races, time trials and DE during their events. I drove my 1M in the solo DE group. The time trial group drives in the same session. It was pass anywhere with points preferred (there were very few) but not required. There were about 20 cars in my group - my 1M, a 911 twin turbo, a couple of Z06s and the rest were Vipers of various favors including a few ACR-Xs. It was interesting driving with them.

The 1M was great on the track. It was my first time on the track with the 1M. I've done thousands of laps at Road America but its always interesting the first time in a new car.

I was able to weigh my car on the platform scale in the tech building. It was 3,276 without me and with about half a tank of gas.

I have an AIM Solo DL so I was able to watch coolant and oil temps during my sessions. The coolant temp ranged from 180 to 190 on the track and the oil temp maxed out at 252. The air temp was between 65 and 70. The AIM is wired into a CAN bus connector just behind the glove box.

I drove the car in normal mode, MDM mode and with traction control completely off. Normal mode is terrible on track, MDM mode isn't bad but the traction control still comes on, mostly when applying the power just before the apex of a turn. It was best with traction control completely off. With the data from the AIM you can actually see where the traction control is applying the brakes.

I'm using the Continental (made by Hoosier) Grand-AM take-off slicks (265/35 18s). I found that starting them at 24psi was best. They would get to about 30psi at the end of a 30 minute session.

The front brake rotor temps were about 650 and rears about 450 after 30 minutes on track. The temps were taken within 2 minutes of getting off the track at turn 14. I'm going to investigate getting some backing plates so I can hook up some ducts to the RevoZport splitter that's already installed.

Here's my current list of mods:

Apex ARC-8 18x10 wheels
P3Cars digital display
Bimmerworld wheel studs and steel brake lines
Meisterschaft stainless exhaust and resonated mid pipe (GT Haus)
Burger oil catch can
Extreme Turbo System inter-cooler
Evolution Racewerks charge pipe with TIAL Q blow off valve
PFC-01 brake pads
RevoZport front splitter and trunk lip spoiler
AIM Solo DL wired directly to the CAN bus

Mods going on next:

KW V3 coil-overs
Ground Control camber plates
E9x M3 front sway bar

Overall the 1M was great on track, faster than most of the cars I've driven at Road America - Z4 M Coupe (completely stock), Audi S4 (mostly stock) and 944 S2 PCA race car but slower than my old E46 M3 (lots and lots of mods). I expect with a little more track time the 1M will be faster than my old M3.

Pics?