Had the Z4 out for her first track day of 08 - it was a blast. They resurfaced the track at Portland Raceway (PIR) this winter and changed some turns.

This was a mixed day with all sorts of rides, even a 3-day old Noble was there!

Enjoy a few shots - minor apologies for the PWing. :)

Thanks to a good line, some luck, and the right suspension mods, Fiona (my Z4) took some much faster cars on paper. I love that when it happens. :buttrock

http://kiley.org/fiona/images/pir01.jpg
http://kiley.org/fiona/images/pir02.jpg
http://kiley.org/fiona/images/pir03.jpg
http://kiley.org/fiona/images/pir04.jpg
http://kiley.org/fiona/images/pir05.jpg
http://kiley.org/fiona/images/pir06.jpg

Nice - I took mine out the weekend after that with the Audi Club so I can add to your picture fest :D

I love the new pavement and turns 6/7 add a whole new dimension to that track.

http://www.lichty.org/WebPhotos/Cars/Z4/3-1-Trackday.jpg

Not an entirely dry day but this is Portland.....

http://www.lichty.org/WebPhotos/Cars/Z4/3-1-Turn-2.jpg

http://www.lichty.org/WebPhotos/Cars/Z4/3-1-2-3Straight.jpg


http://www.lichty.org/WebPhotos/Cars/Z4/3-1-FrontStraightLeadin.jpg

Nice!

The Audi club won't allow the soft-tops to play in their reindeer games anymore. Insurance and such...

My next track car will probably be a hardtop.

Agreed on 6/7/8 - that big right on the back stretch is gi-normous. If Lemans ever comes back, will be interesting to see how wide they go on that track.

Restrictions on convertibles is one of the reasons I dumped my old Honda S2000 and bought the Z4 Coupe. BMW CCA up in Seattle has banned them as well.

Awesome track pics! Thanks for sharing :)

That looks like great fun!! Alas, I won't be able to join you guys on the track. I went to Competition Motorsports yesterday and tried to fit me and a helmet in the coupe. No such luck. I either need to have a couple of vertebrae removed or figure out a "Plan B".

I'm seriously bummed!! :(
The wife has started a suicide watch just in case. ;)

So rather than dash my dreams into a thousand pathetic little pieces, and since my health insurance won't cover experimental surgery, I'm working on Plan B.

Since I can't move the roof up, I'm going to have to move my butt down, and I'm wondering how realistic is it to think I can swap out the driver's M Sport seat for something like a Recaro Pole Position just for track day weekends and then put back the OEM seat for the other 99% of time I'll be in the car. It's my daily driver, and I like my creature comforts, like heated seats, and memory (my wife is short).

The next question is how much additional headroom will I realistically see with such a swap. It looks like with VAC seat mounts, the PP can be mounted almost touching the floor.

Any thoughts for a desperate fellow? :help

RCNet

That looks like great fun!! Alas, I won't be able to join you guys on the track. I went to Competition Motorsports yesterday and tried to fit me and a helmet in the coupe. No such luck. I either need to have a couple of vertebrae removed or figure out a "Plan B".

I'm seriously bummed!! :(
The wife has started a suicide watch just in case. ;)

So rather than dash my dreams into a thousand pathetic little pieces, and since my health insurance won't cover experimental surgery, I'm working on Plan B.

Since I can't move the roof up, I'm going to have to move my butt down, and I'm wondering how realistic is it to think I can swap out the driver's M Sport seat for something like a Recaro Pole Position just for track day weekends and then put back the OEM seat for the other 99% of time I'll be in the car. It's my daily driver, and I like my creature comforts, like heated seats, and memory (my wife is short).

The next question is how much additional headroom will I realistically see with such a swap. It looks like with VAC seat mounts, the PP can be mounted almost touching the floor.

Any thoughts for a desperate fellow? :help

RCNet

Yikes, that, well, just blows! You must be a very tall guy. Is this just a standard Snell helmet or something special?

I'd let you drive my ride, especially if you funded a front BBK kit. :)

You'd certainly fit in the ragtop.

I know, not as cool/fast as your sweet MZ4...

... not sure if a different seat setup would be lower ... ?

RCNet - there are some seat mounts that are specifically designed to allow you to put in something like the Recaro Pole Positions right down at the floor level. I was looking at similar mounts when I had my old Honda S2000 just to make sure my head was well below the roll bar with my helmet on. It's definitely the case that you don't want your helmet to be part of your roll over protection if you like your neck intact which seems like a Good Idea(TM) to me.

This is one case where you might need to some checking around both on the web as well as with folks like Speedware up in Bellevue for what options exist. Speedware does make custom mounting brackets for a lot of different cars and may know whether something like this already exists for the Z4 seat mount bolt holes. They are also the NW Distributor for both Sparco and Recaro and have everything both manufacturers make in their showroom. I went to them for the seats I used in my S2000 and we did pull my seats out and tried some of them for fit before I purchased mine.

I am not sure how easy it would be to swap the seats in and out for everyday driving vs track use in our cars. Since the Recaro's will be not nearly as nice for daily driving or touring you will need to investigate this part if you want to go back and forth. Removing the seats on my old S2000 was so simple it was frightening because that also meant it would be pretty easy for someone to steal the seats and there have been a lot of instances of S2000 seats getting pinched that way.

I do know of a lot of dedicated track nuts who take their helmets into the dealer showroom to make sure they fit with it on as part of their criteria for selecting a new car. You sound like a potential candidate for this behavior pattern :D

Kiley, I don't think I'm that tall, only 6'3". They probably wouldn't let me drive your ragtop either. As Alan said, the helmet must be below the roll bar.

Alan, you didn't make it to the ACA meeting this month. I was looking forward to meeting you. I got to sit in a Lamborghini Murcielago LP640, and even though it costs more than my house, I still can't fit in it. I'll probably contact Speedware next week and see if I can get things figured out before the May DE day fills up. I'll probably still show up at the April DE day to help out if I can.

One more complication that I hadn't thought of is the SRS system. If I remove the seat and safety belt tensioner, then I'll get a SRS code that I'll have to take to the dealer to reset. I've already been told that it would cost $200 to "diagnose and reset" the SRS code. They'll do a tech inspection for free, but 5 minutes to reset a self inflicted error, and it's $200. :rolleyes Since I'm going to be talking to Speedware, maybe they can figure out how to retrofit a 2nd tensioner to the race seat mounting hardware and it won't throw a code. Removing the seat in the coupe is also too easy, 3 bolts, 2 nuts and a connector, but you can't just lift it out the top :D.

I'm done hijacking and will return your thread back to you. Still great pictures from both of you!!

RCNet

I plead guilty to bailing on driving down to Wilsonville at the last minute on Tuesday. The guys I normally car pool with to the meetings left me high and dry Tuesday morning so I decided to skip the long drive alone. I will definitely be at April's meeting since it's lots closer and am signed up for the April DE.

Bring a helmet to the April DE - you can slouch down in the passenger seat and come along for a ride. You don't need a perfect seating position when you are a passenger :D

Wow didn't know there was such a strong contingent in the Z4 forum from our area! Unfortunately I don't have a car to track this year and I'm not tracking my E90 as the people at BMW FS wouldn't really go for that if something happened to it.

So to keep this on topic with Z4 related content - my brother got one yesterday. It's really an amazing looking car.

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=957660

Finally I hope all of you are our customers at Rasmussen BMW and if you aren't I really do invite you to give us a try - I think you'll really enjoy the experience.

Gee - you don't want to bring one of your demos out for us to try out at the track? :D

Both of the cars at my house came from your dealership.

Thanks for the offer Alan. I don't yet have a helmet since it didn't make much sense to buy one if I can't fit in the car. We'll see how things go with speedware, and if it looks promising, I'll see you at PIR with helmet in hand. :D

Hey, AlanL. Good to see you are enjoying your Z.
I just have a quick question. I also had a S2000 before (AP1 - MY03) with bilstein shocks. That little thing handled great and not to mention still the best manual gearbox I've ever driven by far.
Now with the Z, I haven't had a chance to really push it in terms of handling yet, so just wondering how you compare both in cornering?
I know Z is a bigger, heavier car than S2000, but how do you like both of them?
Thanks!

skim - let me start by saying that it is unlikely I will ever push my Z4 as hard as I used to push my S2k. I beat my S2k up a lot with heavy track duty (27 events in 2 seasons) and did my best to drive it as close to it's limits as possible. It's hard not to given how well the Honda drivetrain works with the free revving engine and silky gear box. At the same time, track driving is pretty hard on the rest of the car and can introduce lots of interior rattles and creaking that you would normally expect from a car with tens of thousands more miles. I want to preserve my Z4 a little longer than my previous track toys so will always drive this a little more conservatively than the past cars I have tracked.

Handling is where the 2 cars couldn't be more different - esp. with your AP1. The AP1 was an incredibly neutral handling car but almost to the point of a fault in that it will do nothing to save your ass if you push it too far (snap oversteer). Honda recognized that after far too many AP1 owners lost control of the back end far too many times and they added in some understeer with the AP2 so the front end would give a little before the back end came flying around on you. It still had a tendency towards throttle oversteer and lifting to recover promptly left you looking down the track through your passenger side window (ask me how I know :D). It is interesting to note that as of 2006 Honda yanked the direct throttle cable and introduced drive by wire with traction control. The electronannies have arrived.

The Z4 has gobs more grip than the S2000's but is also somewhat numb in what you feel through the steering wheel compared to the S2k. I find that as I push the Z4 I am often surprised to look down at the speedometer to find that even though the car feels like I am not even trying I am going faster than I would have gone with the S2000. The S2000 made slower speeds feel like a zillion miles per hour and was lots of fun but also quite fatiguing to drive long distances and lacked the classy feel to the Z4. I do drive my Z4 with all traction control turned off and can definitely induce throttle oversteer, but recovery is very civilized compared to the S2k and there is no uneasy feeling about what is going to happen next with the Z4.

Thanks for the reply, Alan. :)
I know exactly what you are talking about regarding S2K's infamous snap oversteer. It got be paniced the very first time it happened and I was just lucky to save the car. I did get better in terms of not panicing but I never could really master it since my lifestyle got too busy to become a better driver.
That's what surprised me as well. I never thought I was going fast enough or turning hard enough to oversteer, but the car would just "snap".
I do really miss the gearbox and some topdown nights, but life's just better in a Z4. :)