Tag Archives: cresson

MR2 Spyder Track Day at MSR Cresson

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This past weekend was my first “real” track day with the MR2 Spyder.  Following numerous mechanical issues, such as the coolant leaks, I finally had the car sorted enough to attempt a full track weekend.  I had recently taken the car to TWS for an Open Track Day, which wasn’t that productive other than getting the brakes bedded in.  It had revealed that the alignment was completely out of whack, which anyone could see just using their Mk-1  Eyeball.  So I had it aligned locally to -3.0F and -2.5R camber, with zero toe on the front and just a smidgen of toe-in on the rear.  The results were pretty dramatic, the car was now “driveable”.  That said, it was still very prone to oversteer, especially under braking.  I had to unlearn my trail-braking technique that was so critical with the M Coupe, and only brake in a straight line.  Any amount of braking with steering input would result in a horrific tail swing.

MR2 chased by Porsche 911All the car photos can be found here.

Most of Saturday was spent just getting used to the car’s tendencies, and relearning the proper line.  I’ve only driven the 3.1 configuration once before, and that was as a Green student in the M Coupe.  I was now in the Yellow run group, and soloing most of the time.  My instructor rode with me two sessions on Saturday, which was very helpful, other than the car being so damn loud that we couldn’t really hear each other on throttle.  He rode again with me one session on Sunday, and I even took a ride with him in a rental Camaro SS.  After the Spyder, the Camaro was like riding a Lazy Boy around the track.  Of course it’s handling was more akin to the M Coupes, requiring trailbraking to set the front and get it to rotate.

Here’s a video of my final session on Sunday, where I set my best time of 2:35.  That’s over 13 seconds faster than what I did in the M Coupe.  I’m not sure that’s very impressive, given that I’m now on NT01 tires and have a much better power-to-weight ratio.  Watch the entire video to see how the rear continues to get looser as the session goes on.  The heat was really building in the rears more than the front.

All in all it was a very fun weekend and a great learning experience.  I know I have a lot of things to work on, and the car needs a little help in the suspension setup department.  I really need to increase the grip at the rear end.  With the new square setup, the car easily (too easily much of time) rotates.  The front end goes wherever the steering wheel points it, with absolutely no hint of understeer.  That’s a huge difference when compared to the M Coupe.  I also need to get a better feel for the shifter action.  The gates are tighter, which can make mis-shifts easy.  The engine also has to be spun up to really produce power, which necessitates more shifts and use of 2nd gear in slow corners.  Hopefully I can get the car to another OTD or some other test n’ tune session to work on setup.

BMW CCA Lone Star Chapter Fall ’13 DE at MSR Cresson

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This past weekend I attended the BMW CCA Lone Star Chapter’s Fall DE at Motorsport Ranch (MSR) in Cresson, TX.  My very first track experience was with this chapter back in April of this year, on the same track in fact.  This time we ran the 1.7mile configuration clockwise.  I haven’t run this direction before, so it gave me an opportunity to learn something new.2013-10-19_BMW_6869

For the first time I trailered my M Coupe up to the track, figuring I’d save a little wear and tear on the car and also carry some extra tools and equipment.  I spent Friday going over the car at the house, to include bleeding the master brake cylinder and flushing the system with some new Brembo 600 LCF fluid at the recommendation of BJ from Clown Shoe Motorsports.  I threw some extra fluid, my pressure bleeder, and waste fluid bucket in the trailer and hit the road that night.  I pulled into MSR about 2100 and unloaded the trailer at the track so it’d be ready in the morning, then headed to the hotel in Granbury.

The next morning I put the Coupe up on jack stands to do another bleed.  I attempted to get my new DIS/TIS laptop setup to connect to the car in order to cycle the ABS/DSC, but it was having connection problems, I had only installed the software the night prior in the hotel.  So I did the best I could with the Motive pressure bleeder.

Upon registration I was handed the usual packet with a track map, vinyl numbers (lucky #13…) and run group decal.  I pulled out the run group decal to discover they had placed me in green (novice.)  I’m not sure what happened, as my registration had me going in blue (intermediate.)  So I went and talked to the chief instructor, who instantly remembered my name.  Turns out my instructor from the previous weekend at TWS was also a CCA instructor and had questioned why I was in novice.  So they moved me up to the yellow (advanced) group.

Since they hadn’t planned on me in the yellow group, I wasn’t assigned a specific instructor.  When I pulled into the grid, I sat for a while waiting, fortunately there was a spare instructor whose student hadn’t shown.  Turns out it was the same gentleman who gave me a ride along back in April in his E36 M3.  We spent most of Sunday just trying to learn the new line of the 1.7 CW.  I also had to play around with tire pressures since it was pretty cold that morning.  The track was pretty green from all the rain that week, and some morning dew didn’t help.  So the first session was pretty squirmy.  Fortunately the grip came in quickly by the second session.  I did one more brake bleed on Saturday, after taking the car on the grass to activate the ABS the old fashioned way.

2013-10-19_BMW_1583 2013-10-19_BMW_4805

Sunday was even better track conditions, with a good bit more rubber from the day prior.  It was still cold for the first session, so I had aired up the tires to my normal starting pressures.  The first session was solo, and I really dialed down my lap times, breaking into the 1:20s.  After the first session I neglected to check my hot tire pressures, which came back to bite me.  By the time the second session came around, the temps had come up to the high 60s and low 70s.  The car was skating around pretty badly, understeering on entry and oversteering on exit.  It really compounded when I attempted to set up a pass coming out of Little Bend, where there’s a small dip on the inside.  The result was the rear skipped a bit on me and then came around.  I checked the pressures after this session (including a cool down) and it was at 46psi, way too high.  Check the video below for the results.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaBhLUpI7N4

I spent the third session playing lead & follow with a friend’s E46 M3.  Passing was much better in the yellow group, and we were able to stay together through traffic.  We were even able to beat our best track times.  Did pretty well for a couple of 11 year old cars on street tires.  Here’s the complete third session, check out the end for an impressive drift by a blue ’95 M3.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6mSDJXnCEA

I also played around with an OBD-II Bluetooth scanner with the RaceChrono app on my phone.  I was able to trick it into working, but it only recorded a bit of data, which I captured in the video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRyzj6WcBRA

As with the last CCA event I attended, this one was no disappointment.  The Lone Star Chapter puts on a great event, well organized with excellent instructors.  Since I was moved up to the advanced run group they even put out some information on an upcoming Club Racing school at TWS in January, as well as the process for becoming an instructor.  Since I’m interested in both, I talked to a couple of the instructors afterwards to get some more information.  Right now I’m planning on attending the race school, as they just don’t come around too often.  I’m really looking forward to it.  Another benefit of attending the DE event is that it moves you up the list for registering for COTA next year, a track I’m really trying to get some time on.  Hopefully everything works out and I’m able to run it next year.

 Check below for all the photos from the event.

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The Driver’s Edge at Motorsports Ranch Cresson 7-8SEP13

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I normally try to get these posts up a little sooner, right after the event if at all possible.  Unfortunately I’ve been sidetracked with work on the MR2 and cleaning house in anticipation for my folks (and dog) visiting this week for the ALMS race at COTA.  I’ve already posted up the paddock photo gallery, as well as a number of videos from the event.  This wasn’t my first time at Motorsports Ranch (MSR), but it was my first time driving the large 3.1 mile configuration.  I’d heard a lot of stories about this configuration, from the horrific engine blow-up to the spinning off in to the tire walls.  But one thing everyone agreed on; it’s one of the best tracks out there, and they were right.  I was spared any mechanical issues, my previous fix on the front coilovers held up just fine.  One thing that did rear its ugly head again; brake fade.  The same soft pedal (indicating fluid, not pads, was the issue) that I experienced on the second day at Texas World Speedway (TWS) was back again, despite bleeding the day prior.  That was my last try with ATE SuperBlue, so I dropped the car off at Performance Speed Tech (PST) at 0700 on Sunday for a flush and fill with some Motul 600.  The second day I had no fade, despite turning much quicker lap times, perhaps due to a boost in confidence.

Leading an RX-7, Boxtter, and BRZ at MSR Cresson

This was my second event with The Driver’s Edge (TDE), and I have to say they put on a fantastic event.  Their classroom sessions are lively and informative (I sat through Green and Blue), everyone is extremely friendly, and everything is well organized.  I definitely recommend anyone interested in trying out a track day or driver’s education (DE) to look into TDE.  I had already been promoted to Blue group after my last event, but they were full, so I begged to get a slot in Green.  It was probably were I needed to be anyways, as I had never driven the configuration and was planning on bringing the MR2.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have the MR2 ready in time, so I packed the back of the M Coupe and drove up Friday night.  I ended up staying in Granbury, the nearest civilization to Cresson, and only about 10min away.  It’s a neat town, with a lake right in town, which my hotel was on.

As for the driving, other than the first session spent behind the slowest and longest train I’ve ever seen, it was a complete blast.  I didn’t really get that into the 1.7, but the 3.1 was is tons of fun.  Lots of variety, elevation changes, on/off camber corners, slow speed esses, and one completely blind crest/corner.  There are lots of passing areas, and speeds stay in the reasonable 100mph range.  So far (out of Harris Hill, TWS, and MSR 1.7) this is my favorite track.  The surface is smoother than TWS and way more than Harris Hill, so my head wasn’t bouncing off the ceiling.  And as with every track event, there was a great variety of cars to stare at, and the instructors were top notch as well.  Probably this best part; no heat stroke.  It was still in the upper 90s, but some very regimented hydrating and a cooling scarf made a world of difference.

Trying to stay out in front of a quick BRZ.

Driver’s Edge MSR Cresson Photo Gallery 7-8SEP13

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As normal, I spend much of my time at the track just walking around the paddock checking out the wide variety of sports cars that show up and taking pictures with my phone.  Lots of great cars at this event, including a McLaren MP4-12C.  Enjoy!

First Track-Day Experience: Lessons Learned

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I’ve been wanting to get into tracking my cars (hence my M3 beater purchase), so I’ve been checking the various organizations to see who was local and running.  I came across the Lone Star Chapter of the BMW CCA’s website, who had an upcoming Spring track-day event at Motorsport Ranch Cresson.  They still had availability in their novice group, so I signed up.  I originally had planned on bringing the M3, but it was in no condition to be driven on a track (or a public road for that matter.)  So I got the M Coupe ready, reserved a hotel room and made the drive to Cresson.

I honestly did not know what to expect, having never done any track days, DEs, HPDEs, or even Auto-X.  So I came a little unprepared.  I had just shown up with the bare essentials; a Snell 2010 helmet, cotton pants and shirt…. and that was it.  There was a wide variety of cars in the paddock, everything from pure race cars to a 335i daily parked next to me.  But everyone had at least a torque wrench, tire pressure gauge, and a sense of how the track was laid out.

MSR Cresson Satellite Image

MSR offers several different track configurations. For this weekend we ran the 1.7mile course counterclockwise.  It didn’t really matter, as it was all new to me.  Above you can see the whole track from space, showing just how large the facility is.  The small oval lake to the north is a cable-pull wake-board course.  Below you can see the course I ran.  The green areas were the straights where passing was allowed for my group (novice/green.)
MSR Cresson 1.7 CCW

After arriving at the track at the break of dawn, I made my way to the two story clubhouse for registration.  Every driver must bring in their helmet for inspections, then you are given a large envelope with a daily schedule, track map, and vinyl decals.  Each car is numbered and a small colored star goes on the front windshield, green for the novices.  Shortly after that there was the mandatory drivers meeting where they review safety items like flags and passing etiquette.  Following the drivers meeting the novice classes began.  The instructors from the BMW CCA were great, spelling out the basics of track driving, covering every imaginable subject.  Of course this was novice, so it was still very basic, but you learn the terminology.

Besides the scheduled classes, everyone is free to roam around the grounds, go to a restaurant, wrench on their cars, or whatever they feel like.  You have four 20-min sessions per day to run around the track with your instructor.  The first outing was with no helmets under yellow with the instructor at the wheel.  The idea is that you take in the proper line and see where the braking zones, turn-in point, apex, and track out are.  Having never been on a track, I was a bit overwhelmed for the first few sessions.  Fortunately, my instructor, Kyle, was extremely good and took time to talk me through the driving between sessions.

Flogging the M Coupe

I felt I was gradually improving, pushing the car harder, until the point the brakes were going soft.  Since I hadn’t intended to track the M Coupe, it was sporting completely OEM brake parts, to include the fluid.  The heat was building up and overwhelming them, even on relatively short 20-min stints.  My tires, Continental DWs, weren’t meant for this type of abuse either.  That said, they performed fairly well for a 300 tread rating.  Most of the field was running more performance oriented tires, and it showed.

Perhaps the most difficulty I had was being consistent.  I could perfect one corner then completely screw up the next one.  The problem is exacerbated with another car filling your mirror, or when closely following another car and taking their line, often times not the best one to follow.  Even though this is not racing, competitive nature can only be repressed so much.  No one wants to be passed, you want to do the passing.  It’s also a good indicator of how you are progressing, a car in the distance providing a visual yard stick.

The video above is from an E46 M3 in my run group.  He was probably the fastest out there, moving to the intermediate group on Sunday.  You can see how he chased me down, eventually passing me.  If you look carefully just prior to the pass, you can see how I got shaken from my line.  I saw his car filling my mirror, losing my focus on driving my car.  Just another lesson to be taken.  Don’t worry about the car in your mirror, just acknowledge their presence and let them pass if necessary, but don’t forget that your primary focus should be on driving the car you are in.

I could go on and on about this two day event, where I learned more than months of reading forums.  It was a great experience, and I’m definitely hooked and looking for my next opportunity to get out there.  For next time I’ll be a little better prepared; better brake pads and fluid, a torque wrench, tire gauge, and window cleaner.  I’ll also be sure to study the track layout and watch Youtube videos of the course, as recommended by my instructor.