First series race of the year, and also my first official autox (all iv done is evo school). Dropped from an 95.2 to a 84.8 so im happy. Fun day and pretty uneventful. Nobody crashed or blew anything up. I missed second, whent to 4th, a 1/4 of the race later I realized I was in 4th, tried to goto 2nd, wouldnt go, thought I blew a syncro, and finished the race in 88.6 in 3rd. Fastest stock M3 of the day ran a 79, Pretty long coarse, hit the rev limiter 3 times on the coarse in second on my fastest lap. One thing i noticed in this car is that it really needs a quicker ratio. Z3 rack, smaller wheel? Any suggestions?

Which car was yours??? Did you have an instructor ride with you? Our club has some great ones. I occasionally teach, but even today I took advice of two of them and knocked an extra second off my time. In the afternoon I rode with one to see what he was doing, and after that I knocked another second off! Had a best run of 75.0 on street tires. :)

To answer your turn-in question, adding some camber and changing the toe will help with turn-in. You really don't need to change the rack or steering wheel... just practice will help you get quicker hands. Also novices tend to over-steer a bit, which you might be experiencing. Come on back for the next one and introduce yourself... I'll be glad to help you out.

My car was the 95 Dakar 2dr in CS. I was the young kid drivin. I remember your car there with the ltw flag on it. I had steve with me one race, and another instructor another. I was probably oversteering, but it just seemed like I had to go more than a quarter turn to make even the slaloms. I wasnt crossing my hands, i was shuffle steering, but it just seemed like I was moving my hands way to much at time, especially on the back side of the course were the offsets got closer. Ill be at the test and tune May 14th and i plan on doing as many of the series events as possible. Ill defintely introduce myself, ill take as much free advice as I can, im hooked and look forward to competeing competitively in the next couple of years.

Ah yes... those Dakars are hard to miss! We had a record 3 of them there yeaterday! Steve is one of the best drivers and instructors I know so heed his advice well. I'll be instructing as well at the Test and Tune, so I'll look for ya.

There was definitely a lot of intense "back and forth" on that course yesterday with a great mix of speedy sections as well. Johnny Mac is a fabulous course designer... even HE hit some of his "gotcha" cones! It's not surprising you had to go more than a quarter turn on the back... I was probably doing a half turn as well... just the nature of the beast. You should generally only start shuffling if you need more than a half turn, unless it's some sort of slower section... All depends. I'm sure there will be a similar section to practice at the T&T. We can check it out then.

Glad you had a good time.

We had around 90 cars and a successful event for the first one of the season!

I didn't drive as well as I wanted but the new tires and reduced camber took a bit of getting use to. My best run was in the AM with a 79.8 clean. The test and tune is a great way to shake out the car and practice technique.