# 08/08/04 WDCR-SCCA #5 @ FEDEX Field



## Nick325xiT 5spd (Dec 24, 2001)

Man, I had a good time out there. Even if I'm still kind of pissed off about it.

The course was one of those courses that looks REALLY tight when you walk it, but flows incredibly quickly if AND ONLY IF you can stay on line. It was so fast that I almost hit the rev limiter in second gear in a couple of spots (and would have if I'd driven them correctly and been more aggressive with the throttle). Additionally, this was my first real autox with my car somewhere near fully prepped for A-Stock. I had had single adjustable Konis designed for the rear of an E36 M3 mounted on my car as a stop gap measure. About all I can say for them is that they're better than OEM. Unfortunately, they weren't even close to the TC Kline D/A Konis I had in the front of the car and they are so far from the TC Kline D/A Koni rears that I finally swapped in, it's just not funny. It really sucks when they run out of shocks and have a 21 week lead time. Anyhow, the new shocks really, really, REALLY made the car work better. It was MUCH tighter, much more coordinated, and reacted much more quickly. I still need to play with the settings a bit--I think some more rear rebound would be helpful, and I really need to figure out what the right compression settings are, but I think my initial guesstimate was pretty close.

So anyway, about my runs...

My first run wasn't too bad. Basically went out there and tried to get a feel for the course. I turned in a 59.5, which was acceptable for my first run. I should have been more aggressive on my throw away run though. Oh well.

The second run got off to a really bad start: I launched really well, the car went faster than i was expecting, and I missed my braking point by about a foot. As a result, I took out most of a small cone wall. Fortunately for me, once I'd gotten done swearing, I spotted a downed cone that the work crew had missed. Stopping for that gave me a rerun, so the two cones became irrelevant. Talk about lucky.

The third run wasn't bad. I believe I turned in a 58.9, which was a reasonably respectable time. By this time, I'd beaten Clyde, who usually has me by at least a second. I was getting a little more aggressive, but still wasn't really doing it.

The fourth run was an absolute disaster. It worked beautifully, the car worked beautifully, everything was going great. I turned in a time that WOULD HAVE WON A-STOCK at this event. And I blew it by turning in SIX INCHES too early in the box just before the finish. So much for my 57.769. In the video footage, you can hear me scream "YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!" until the cone call came, at which point bad language ensued. ARGH.

My fifth run was OK. The car worked well and I worked well, but I just couldn't quite put it together as well. I wasn't quite as aggressive and I lost time in one of the sweepers. My 58.019 was still good enough for second place, but damn is that upsetting.

The upshot though, is that at every event, the gap between me and Burak Tuglu narrows substantially. My fourth run was NINETEEN THOUSANDTHS of a second faster than his best time, and my fifth run was only 0.231 seconds off of his best time. Assuming that I can maintain my current trend and never let the gap between us increase, I'll be in pretty damned good shape.

Argh. I still can't believe I coned out of first place.

So frustrating.

So anyway, here are a couple videos. More will come later, but that's what we had time to process last night in a hurry. Those of you who've seen my other videos will notice that I was on the throttle a lot more than I usually am, and that I was far closer to the cones than I've ever been before. I sure hope I can keep putting it together this way.

This is a comparison of my fourth run and my fifth run, notice how much better my launch was on the fifth run (on the right), but I still couldn't quite put the rest of it together.
http://nrubenstein.dreamhost.com/080804_Nick45.mp4

This is a comparison of my fourth run with Clyde's fourth run.
http://nrubenstein.dreamhost.com/08...ick4_clyde4.mp4

There are a bunch more videos at http://nrubenstein.dreamhost.com

You'll need the latest version of Quicktime to watch these.


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## FSelekler (Jan 15, 2002)

I was working while you are running, and I have to say I was impressed. Especially with the launches. So, any changes to the SMG usage to be able to do that?

I noticed Bren was launching in a similar fashion, I don't know if he has SMG or not though.


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## Nick325xiT 5spd (Dec 24, 2001)

FSelekler said:


> I was working while you are running, and I have to say I was impressed. Especially with the launches. So, any changes to the SMG usage to be able to do that?
> 
> I noticed Bren was launching in a similar fashion, I don't know if he has SMG or not though.


 Blip, Blip, SLAM!


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## bren (Jul 1, 2002)

Nick325xiT 5spd said:


> Blip, Blip, SLAM!


I was doing more of a SLAM, lift, SLAM followed by some modulation of the pedal to try and curb wheelspin. I tried to take it easier in one run but just bogged and went nowhere fast.

I thought the crowd might like the 2 M3s running back to back with tire squealing/power sliding launches.


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## Nick325xiT 5spd (Dec 24, 2001)

I've found that modulating to avoid wheel spin just seems to slow the car down.


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## bren (Jul 1, 2002)

Nick325xiT 5spd said:


> So anyway, here are a couple videos.


Wow, you don't have to slow down nearly as much as I do to turn-in 

I can definitely see where I lost a lot of time compared to you.

edit: I think you are right about the modulation, but it is sort of a mental barrier that I still have to overcome. Sort of like lifting when the rear starts to slide which I have been getting much better at controlling now after the rain event and this off camber hill climb event.


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## Nick325xiT 5spd (Dec 24, 2001)

As a general matter, I was more aggressive with the throttle than I have ever been in my life at this event. And I STILL left at least a second out there because I wasn't aggressive enough just with the throttle.


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## Andy (Jul 16, 2003)

I'm glad to see that you went with TC's DA Konis. I agree, those shocks totally transform the car. The Konis combined with the 27mm front swaybar eliminates a lot of the body roll. Have you installed a larger front bar yet? If not, I'd recommend that next!!

After running my car for half a season with the Konis and front swaybar, I co-drove a friend's 2004 BMW 330Ci at the Toledo National Tour. The car was pretty much showroom stock, except for the Hoosiers. I honestly did not realize how much of a difference the Konis and front swaybar made until I drove his car. I had forgotten what body roll felt like&#8230; you can't be as fast when you're waiting for the car to roll and settle into each corner.

Konis *+* front sway bar *+* Hoosiers *=* You'll crap your pants at what the car can do in the slalom!!


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## Nick325xiT 5spd (Dec 24, 2001)

I'm running the GC front sway, and I've had the front TC Kline shocks since just after the 1200 mile service.

My first set of Hoosiers was 245/35, and now I run 275/35. IMHO, the latter works better on a car as ponderous and heavy as the M3.

Next year, though, I think I'm going to ASP. I've been doing some measuring, and I'm about 80% certain I can get 305/30 all around witht he right wheels and NO fender work. While the car will be far from perfect for the class, I think I can make it into a decent regional contender. Locally, ASP is dog slow. I'm still pissed that ASP was won with a time that was over 7 tenths off my best clean run.


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## bren (Jul 1, 2002)

Andy said:


> Konis *+* front sway bar *+* Hoosiers *=* You'll crap your pants at what the car can do in the slalom!!


I'm running fully stock on street tires....talk about crapping your pants in the slaloms :yikes:


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## Nick325xiT 5spd (Dec 24, 2001)

Oh, and I've come to a couple more conclusions:

1) I need a harness. The Schroth is on its way, now.

2) I need to learn to left foot brake effectively. I think the M3 could be a whole lot faster in a lot of areas if I could keep my right foot buried and just occasionally dip the nose.


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## ·clyde· (Dec 26, 2001)

Nick325xiT 5spd said:


> Next year, though, I think I'm going to ASP. I've been doing some measuring, and I'm about 80% certain I can get 305/30 all around witht he right wheels and NO fender work. While the car will be far from perfect for the class, I think I can make it into a decent regional contender. Locally, ASP is dog slow. I'm still pissed that ASP was won with a time that was over 7 tenths off my best clean run.


I know that part of the ASP appeal to you is for what it would allow you to do for the track, but moving a competitive class to a non-competitive one seems to kind of lose track of the point of competing at all. :dunno:


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## Andy (Jul 16, 2003)

Nick325xiT 5spd said:


> I'm running the GC front sway, and I've had the front TC Kline shocks since just after the 1200 mile service.
> 
> My first set of Hoosiers was 245/35, and now I run 275/35. IMHO, the latter works better on a car as ponderous and heavy as the M3.
> 
> Next year, though, I think I'm going to ASP. I've been doing some measuring, and I'm about 80% certain I can get 305/30 all around witht he right wheels and NO fender work. While the car will be far from perfect for the class, I think I can make it into a decent regional contender. Locally, ASP is dog slow. I'm still pissed that ASP was won with a time that was over 7 tenths off my best clean run.


For some reason I was thinking you were on street tires... don't know why.

Keep us posted on the ASP setup, sounds like fun!! I agree, unless you have a national champion (or close to one) in your class, regionally you can be competitive in just about anything&#8230; I'm living proof.


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## Andy (Jul 16, 2003)

bren said:


> I'm running fully stock on street tires....talk about crapping your pants in the slaloms :yikes:


 :rofl:

I almost did that once on street tires too!!


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## Nick325xiT 5spd (Dec 24, 2001)

·clyde· said:


> I know that part of the ASP appeal to you is for what it would allow you to do for the track, but moving a competitive class to a non-competitive one seems to kind of lose track of the point of competing at all. :dunno:


 Unfortunately, I'm fully aware of that fact. That is the ONE thing that could keep me in AS.


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## bren (Jul 1, 2002)

Andy said:


> For some reason I was thinking you were on street tires...


RComps are street tires for Nick


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## ·clyde· (Dec 26, 2001)

Andy said:


> :rofl:
> 
> I almost did that once on street tires too!!


 bren left a stain on the RX-8's passenger seat when he took a ride with me


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## bren (Jul 1, 2002)




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## Andy (Jul 16, 2003)

·clyde· said:


> bren left a stain on the RX-8's passenger seat when he took a ride with me


Sounds like we've all done that a time or two. Like I always say&#8230; you don't know where the limit is until you've crossed over it. I'm continually learning what driving at 10/10ths really means.


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## Nick325xiT 5spd (Dec 24, 2001)

Andy said:


> Sounds like we've all done that a time or two. Like I always say&#8230; you don't know where the limit is until you've crossed over it. I'm continually learning what driving at 10/10ths really means.


 I don't think any of us on this forum, possibly excepting SoloII//M and TeamZ4 have any real conception of what 9/10ths is.


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## Nick325xiT 5spd (Dec 24, 2001)

All five of my runs:

http://nrubenstein.dreamhost.com/080804Nick full-Sequence 1-AX-singlecar.mp4

More bad language present.


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## SoloII///M (May 16, 2003)

Nick325xiT 5spd said:


> I don't think any of us on this forum, possibly excepting SoloII//M and TeamZ4 have any real conception of what 9/10ths is.


I sure wasn't 9/10ths on Sunday  but you were driving the piss out of that E46.


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## Pinecone (Apr 3, 2002)

Nick325xiT 5spd said:


> I'm running the GC front sway, and I've had the front TC Kline shocks since just after the 1200 mile service.
> 
> My first set of Hoosiers was 245/35, and now I run 275/35. IMHO, the latter works better on a car as ponderous and heavy as the M3.
> 
> Next year, though, I think I'm going to ASP. I've been doing some measuring, and I'm about 80% certain I can get 305/30 all around witht he right wheels and NO fender work. While the car will be far from perfect for the class, I think I can make it into a decent regional contender. Locally, ASP is dog slow. I'm still pissed that ASP was won with a time that was over 7 tenths off my best clean run.


Why not just run ASP now? A Stock car also meets SP rules.


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## Pinecone (Apr 3, 2002)

bren said:


> I'm running fully stock on street tires....talk about crapping your pants in the slaloms :yikes:


More tire pressure.


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## Nick325xiT 5spd (Dec 24, 2001)

Pinecone said:


> Why not just run ASP now? A Stock car also meets SP rules.


 well, whatever happens, I'm finishing the season in A-Stock.

And next season, if I go to ASP, I want to be in a position where I can be reasonably competitive with the 'vettes. Plus, I just want to say that I've got 305s under the car. :neener:


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## Nick325xiT 5spd (Dec 24, 2001)

Pinecone said:


> More tire pressure.


 When driven towards the limits, it's a suspension issue in any E46.


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## bren (Jul 1, 2002)

Pinecone said:


> More tire pressure.


Playing with the pressures may help somewhat but we are talking about bald street tires. Plus, I'm not really at that level where I am willing to document performance in 1psi increments. I like Nick's method of going in 10psi jumps


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## Nick325xiT 5spd (Dec 24, 2001)

SoloII///M said:


> I sure wasn't 9/10ths on Sunday  but you were driving the piss out of that E46.


 Now that I've had a chance to go over the video in fair detail, I think I can say I was near 8/10ths. A big issue for me to work on, in addition to staying on the throttle, is a tighter line in the sweepers. It looks to me like I missed my braking point in all of them, and lost some time because of it. EASILY half a second on my fast run, I'd say. And I think I blew my last run in the downhill left hand sweeper at the top right of the course and the left hand hairpin sweeper at the top left.


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