RyanC
04-07-2003, 01:47 PM
I got home last night from the BeaveRun/One Lap of America 2 day school at BeaveRun (http://www.beaverun.com). I headed out there with my One Lap copilot Larry, and our friends Greg and Ed, who are running Greg's 99 M3 with rms stage 2 supercharger and AA software in the One Lap also. Also present was another local One Lapper, our friend Keith, who was with his wife in their '78 911 SC (he runs a '79 930 for OLOA but it's still in pieces, hence the SC).
We showed up at BeaveRun at about a quarter till 8 on Friday morning. It was pretty chilly outside, maybe 45 degrees, and we were late so the good paddock spots were taken. We camped out alongside the kart track and unpacked the cars, then headed to registration. The registration building was quiet except for us, and we got thru in record time. Surprisingly, there was no tech inspection! A hasty drivers meeting left us all wondering what run groups we were assigned to, as none were given out in the registration packets. Apparently, it was choose your own group day, so both Larry and I signed up for the 'blue', or experienced, group. We flipped coins to see who would run in the non-instructor group, and I won. Also in my group was Neil in his 99 M Coupe, and my friend Greg in his M3. Lots of other sweet cars where there, including a freshly redone E28 M5, a Ford Festiva ShoGun, and a new M5.
Our first session was about 7 laps under a full course yellow. Traffic sucked, but at least the slow laps gave us a feel for the track. It flows very nicely, and has two long straights that give you a chance to run flat out. Larry followed when we were done, and then I had another session right after his. So, within an hour and a half the car was on track for probably 70 minutes.
Once the day progressed, traffic began to clear and we were able to get some fast laps in. I was averaging laptimes in the 1:11-1:12 range for most of Friday, as traffic still kept us from a full, clean lap, and it started to rain in the early afternoon. The track surface at BeaveRun is amazing, though, so wet lap times were probably only 1-2 seconds off of dry times. I had a nice session where Neil and I met up on the track, and we got to see the power comparison between my supercharged coupe, and his cammed coupe. Well, once the straightaway was encounted, all I can say is 'au revoir, mon frere' :D There extra 60-70whp was readily apparent, and it wasn't long before traffic separated us for the rest of the session. All in all, I ran I think 7 or 8 sessions on Friday! Not a single hiccup occured with the car, nor did we have any heat soak at all. Oil temps were consistently in the 240-250 range, although they did creep to 260 on one session where I went out immediately after Larry, who had gone out 5 minutes after I had.
Saturday had better weather, although the temps were down to around 40 degrees. Traffic was lighter, and I was able to get in 3 good sessions. Lap times dropped to steady low 1:11s, and in one session I cracked off a 1:10. I think there were a couple laps in the :09s, but we were timing Greg and not me, but we kept a consistent distance between the cars so I wasn't more than a tenth or two off his time.
Going nose to tail for several laps against Greg's M3 gave us a good comparison of the Stage 2 Vortech kit versus the AA supercharger. At times, Greg would pull away a bit on the straights, and at other times I would reel him in. I think it depended more upon who was at WOT first, so I'd say the cars are quite evenly matched. Both cars averaged around 7mpg on the track, which was pretty good considering the fact that I was shooting 4 fireballs out of the exhaust pipes :devillook
Overall, we put probably 18 sessions on the car over the course of the two days. I had zero problems, and am very impressed with the durability and performance of the parts on the car. The AA kit worked great, and was bested in acceleration by only 4 cars on the track. A Viper RT-10, a heavily massaged Viper GTS, a Corvette Z06, and a real fast C4 Vette (a top 5 OLOA finisher from last year). The RT-10 looked fairly stock, and was only marginally quicker down the straight than my car (1.5-2 car lengths over the 1600 foot straight). He did cream me pretty good in the corners though :D The PSS9s worked very well on the car also. To combat the understeer brought on by the 275 rear tires and 235 front tires, we would up at full soft on the front shocks and full stiff on the rear shocks. We had very minimal understeer on turn 6, but I think more careful attention to our tire pressures (we didn't look at them all weekend) would have resolved that. Otherwise, it handled very neutrally and the ride was great.
For brakes, we ran stock rotors/calipers with Turner Motorsport 'Cool Willy' race pads front and rear. I ate up the front pads over the course of the weekend, but they were outstanding! Not many cars outbraked us, and fade wasn't an issue until my last session, when the pads were just wearing down too much. I don't think I need a brake upgrade just yet!
The track surface is very grippy, however, so the tires got worked pretty good. The drivers side front tire is totally worn, so I'll be ordering another set soon. I was running the Kumho Ecsta MX on stock wheels, and I can't praise these tires enough. In the rain, they were very good and in the dry, I felt like I was on race rubber (part of that was due to the track I'm sure). They took about half a lap to warm up, but once they were warm they didn't go away. The limit was very progressive, and if you started to slide the car it was very easy to get it back under control. These are my new favorite tire, and at less than $600 for a set, they're an incredible bargain!
Anyhoo, BeaveRun is a fine facility and a hell of a lot of fun. I'll be back May 9th for One Lap, and there again a week later for a 2 day event. If you can make it to that track, it's worth the trip (and I drove 600 miles to get there!).
Ryan
We showed up at BeaveRun at about a quarter till 8 on Friday morning. It was pretty chilly outside, maybe 45 degrees, and we were late so the good paddock spots were taken. We camped out alongside the kart track and unpacked the cars, then headed to registration. The registration building was quiet except for us, and we got thru in record time. Surprisingly, there was no tech inspection! A hasty drivers meeting left us all wondering what run groups we were assigned to, as none were given out in the registration packets. Apparently, it was choose your own group day, so both Larry and I signed up for the 'blue', or experienced, group. We flipped coins to see who would run in the non-instructor group, and I won. Also in my group was Neil in his 99 M Coupe, and my friend Greg in his M3. Lots of other sweet cars where there, including a freshly redone E28 M5, a Ford Festiva ShoGun, and a new M5.
Our first session was about 7 laps under a full course yellow. Traffic sucked, but at least the slow laps gave us a feel for the track. It flows very nicely, and has two long straights that give you a chance to run flat out. Larry followed when we were done, and then I had another session right after his. So, within an hour and a half the car was on track for probably 70 minutes.
Once the day progressed, traffic began to clear and we were able to get some fast laps in. I was averaging laptimes in the 1:11-1:12 range for most of Friday, as traffic still kept us from a full, clean lap, and it started to rain in the early afternoon. The track surface at BeaveRun is amazing, though, so wet lap times were probably only 1-2 seconds off of dry times. I had a nice session where Neil and I met up on the track, and we got to see the power comparison between my supercharged coupe, and his cammed coupe. Well, once the straightaway was encounted, all I can say is 'au revoir, mon frere' :D There extra 60-70whp was readily apparent, and it wasn't long before traffic separated us for the rest of the session. All in all, I ran I think 7 or 8 sessions on Friday! Not a single hiccup occured with the car, nor did we have any heat soak at all. Oil temps were consistently in the 240-250 range, although they did creep to 260 on one session where I went out immediately after Larry, who had gone out 5 minutes after I had.
Saturday had better weather, although the temps were down to around 40 degrees. Traffic was lighter, and I was able to get in 3 good sessions. Lap times dropped to steady low 1:11s, and in one session I cracked off a 1:10. I think there were a couple laps in the :09s, but we were timing Greg and not me, but we kept a consistent distance between the cars so I wasn't more than a tenth or two off his time.
Going nose to tail for several laps against Greg's M3 gave us a good comparison of the Stage 2 Vortech kit versus the AA supercharger. At times, Greg would pull away a bit on the straights, and at other times I would reel him in. I think it depended more upon who was at WOT first, so I'd say the cars are quite evenly matched. Both cars averaged around 7mpg on the track, which was pretty good considering the fact that I was shooting 4 fireballs out of the exhaust pipes :devillook
Overall, we put probably 18 sessions on the car over the course of the two days. I had zero problems, and am very impressed with the durability and performance of the parts on the car. The AA kit worked great, and was bested in acceleration by only 4 cars on the track. A Viper RT-10, a heavily massaged Viper GTS, a Corvette Z06, and a real fast C4 Vette (a top 5 OLOA finisher from last year). The RT-10 looked fairly stock, and was only marginally quicker down the straight than my car (1.5-2 car lengths over the 1600 foot straight). He did cream me pretty good in the corners though :D The PSS9s worked very well on the car also. To combat the understeer brought on by the 275 rear tires and 235 front tires, we would up at full soft on the front shocks and full stiff on the rear shocks. We had very minimal understeer on turn 6, but I think more careful attention to our tire pressures (we didn't look at them all weekend) would have resolved that. Otherwise, it handled very neutrally and the ride was great.
For brakes, we ran stock rotors/calipers with Turner Motorsport 'Cool Willy' race pads front and rear. I ate up the front pads over the course of the weekend, but they were outstanding! Not many cars outbraked us, and fade wasn't an issue until my last session, when the pads were just wearing down too much. I don't think I need a brake upgrade just yet!
The track surface is very grippy, however, so the tires got worked pretty good. The drivers side front tire is totally worn, so I'll be ordering another set soon. I was running the Kumho Ecsta MX on stock wheels, and I can't praise these tires enough. In the rain, they were very good and in the dry, I felt like I was on race rubber (part of that was due to the track I'm sure). They took about half a lap to warm up, but once they were warm they didn't go away. The limit was very progressive, and if you started to slide the car it was very easy to get it back under control. These are my new favorite tire, and at less than $600 for a set, they're an incredible bargain!
Anyhoo, BeaveRun is a fine facility and a hell of a lot of fun. I'll be back May 9th for One Lap, and there again a week later for a 2 day event. If you can make it to that track, it's worth the trip (and I drove 600 miles to get there!).
Ryan