ADVANT123
11-05-2003, 04:30 PM
Event: November 1st Auto-x Englishtown New Jersey
My car is currently a 97 M3 5 speed manual that I've owned for over 3 years now. I'm 20 years old and rarely push the car on the street except for an occasional drag race here and there. My current mods are H&R Coil-overs, intake, exhaust, track pipe, pullies, basically everything you see in my signature. I'm running 235/40/17 Kuhmo Ecsta 712s(10-15k miles and they have tons of tread left) in the front and 245/40/17 Bridgestone Potenza S03 PPs (25-27k miles on them). As you can tell my S03s are pretty worn out and just hit the wear bar markers.
As I said before, I really don't beat on the car. Some of my friends criticize me for driving it like a grandma(if only they saw the repair bills, than they would understand). I do a lot of highway driving so thats why I was able to get so many miles on the tires.
The first thing I noticed about the auto-x is the environment. I've been to many drag races before at englishtown but this was my first time there for an auto-x. The people running the event and the people participating in the event were super-nice. When I told them that this was my first time, many people came up to me and just introduced themselves and asked me if I had any questions or needed advice about my setup. It felt like one big family event. It didnt matter if you were driving a miata or a corvette or a mustang, everyone was willing to help me out even though i had a different car. The coordinators of the event were also very organized and very efficient with the way things ran, so everything went along quickly. The novice walk through that they held for beginner drivers was very helpful and answered a lot of questions I had about how things were run.
Now- onto the racing. They placed me in the N-BSP class because of the modifications I had done to the car. That was fine with me since I had no intentions of taking home any wins, I just wanted to have some fun. The coordinators suggested i run with an instructor, but i declined my first few runs. I guess I wanted to prove to myself that I was best driver in the world (only for that to backfire on me). My times for the first heat went as follows:
1st run= 48.2
2nd run= 42.8
3rd run= 40.2
4th=48.8DNF (lost the rear end)
After the first heat, I went out on the track and worked the course. During this time, i observed where people were braking and where they tried to position their cars. The 2nd heat came up and this time I was a little more willing to have an instructor come along with me because of the fact that my friend with a 100hp civic hatchback with coil-overs and rim/tires was running faster than me(this was also his first time auto-xing, just like me). The instructor came along with me and gave me some advice as to where i should be braking. One thing that he mentioned(that I completely agree with) is that I looked like i was afraid of the power of the car. I was very jerky with the throttle of the car and I braked very early into the turns. I than let the instructor drive my car(who hasnt driven an E36 M3 in years) and he turned a time of 35.6 seconds on his first try. This is with a non-function ABS system (My ABS and ASC lights have been coming on for a while and my ABS didnt work). He said that with a functional ABS and some better tires up front, he could easily get into the 34s. To give you an idea of where this stands, the best times of the day were in the mid 32's by Z06s and E46 M3s on R compounds. I'm on street tires. Taking the advice of the instructor, I went back out onto the track and ran a 37.6, nearly 1.5 seconds faster than my previous best time( and i changed nothing on the car).
So here are some observations I made:
1.) Kuhmo Ecsta 712s are shit.
2.) Understeer sucks
3.) Not having ABS sucks
4.) Bridgestone Potenza S03s stick and stick and stick(even when their worn out), my back end only came out once on me and that was my mistake.
5.) Listen to the instructors, they know what they are talking about!
6.) I was too worried about the cones in front of me when I first started. I learned that once I look ahead and concentrate on things ahead of me, I became smoother and setup for the turns better(which made my times faster).
So heres my questions:
1.) What is the best street tire to run on an auto-x? As much as I would love to run R Compounds, I just dont have that kind of money right now
2.) I understand understeer is a good thing(keeps things safe), but I felt there was just a little too much. Will sway bars help remedy this?
3.) Are their any modifications you would recommend to help me improve lap times? I was thinking an X-Brace, Sway bars, and some camber plates.
Thanks for any help/advice and I can't wait to get back on the track!
My car is currently a 97 M3 5 speed manual that I've owned for over 3 years now. I'm 20 years old and rarely push the car on the street except for an occasional drag race here and there. My current mods are H&R Coil-overs, intake, exhaust, track pipe, pullies, basically everything you see in my signature. I'm running 235/40/17 Kuhmo Ecsta 712s(10-15k miles and they have tons of tread left) in the front and 245/40/17 Bridgestone Potenza S03 PPs (25-27k miles on them). As you can tell my S03s are pretty worn out and just hit the wear bar markers.
As I said before, I really don't beat on the car. Some of my friends criticize me for driving it like a grandma(if only they saw the repair bills, than they would understand). I do a lot of highway driving so thats why I was able to get so many miles on the tires.
The first thing I noticed about the auto-x is the environment. I've been to many drag races before at englishtown but this was my first time there for an auto-x. The people running the event and the people participating in the event were super-nice. When I told them that this was my first time, many people came up to me and just introduced themselves and asked me if I had any questions or needed advice about my setup. It felt like one big family event. It didnt matter if you were driving a miata or a corvette or a mustang, everyone was willing to help me out even though i had a different car. The coordinators of the event were also very organized and very efficient with the way things ran, so everything went along quickly. The novice walk through that they held for beginner drivers was very helpful and answered a lot of questions I had about how things were run.
Now- onto the racing. They placed me in the N-BSP class because of the modifications I had done to the car. That was fine with me since I had no intentions of taking home any wins, I just wanted to have some fun. The coordinators suggested i run with an instructor, but i declined my first few runs. I guess I wanted to prove to myself that I was best driver in the world (only for that to backfire on me). My times for the first heat went as follows:
1st run= 48.2
2nd run= 42.8
3rd run= 40.2
4th=48.8DNF (lost the rear end)
After the first heat, I went out on the track and worked the course. During this time, i observed where people were braking and where they tried to position their cars. The 2nd heat came up and this time I was a little more willing to have an instructor come along with me because of the fact that my friend with a 100hp civic hatchback with coil-overs and rim/tires was running faster than me(this was also his first time auto-xing, just like me). The instructor came along with me and gave me some advice as to where i should be braking. One thing that he mentioned(that I completely agree with) is that I looked like i was afraid of the power of the car. I was very jerky with the throttle of the car and I braked very early into the turns. I than let the instructor drive my car(who hasnt driven an E36 M3 in years) and he turned a time of 35.6 seconds on his first try. This is with a non-function ABS system (My ABS and ASC lights have been coming on for a while and my ABS didnt work). He said that with a functional ABS and some better tires up front, he could easily get into the 34s. To give you an idea of where this stands, the best times of the day were in the mid 32's by Z06s and E46 M3s on R compounds. I'm on street tires. Taking the advice of the instructor, I went back out onto the track and ran a 37.6, nearly 1.5 seconds faster than my previous best time( and i changed nothing on the car).
So here are some observations I made:
1.) Kuhmo Ecsta 712s are shit.
2.) Understeer sucks
3.) Not having ABS sucks
4.) Bridgestone Potenza S03s stick and stick and stick(even when their worn out), my back end only came out once on me and that was my mistake.
5.) Listen to the instructors, they know what they are talking about!
6.) I was too worried about the cones in front of me when I first started. I learned that once I look ahead and concentrate on things ahead of me, I became smoother and setup for the turns better(which made my times faster).
So heres my questions:
1.) What is the best street tire to run on an auto-x? As much as I would love to run R Compounds, I just dont have that kind of money right now
2.) I understand understeer is a good thing(keeps things safe), but I felt there was just a little too much. Will sway bars help remedy this?
3.) Are their any modifications you would recommend to help me improve lap times? I was thinking an X-Brace, Sway bars, and some camber plates.
Thanks for any help/advice and I can't wait to get back on the track!