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On the 30th September I had a great day out at Donington Park on a trackday organised by the BMWCCGB. The weather was superb all day and my car never missed a beat. I had a new track to learn but took advantage of the FOC Instruction early in the day to point me in the right direction, (thanks Steve) it put me right for the day, at least I knew where I should be going . Averaged about 12mpg and went through a brand new set of yellow stuff pads!

Darren Teagles took picture on the day and the full set can be found here : -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bmwccgb/se ... 160644086/

A few pics of my car








More can be found here - Donington Park

A little onboard footage taken early afternoon, sorry about the poor audio, I will sort it out next time. Enjoy

It was a fantastic day!

I think I saw you on track a few times, I was going to come and say Hi but the day seems to fly by with all the . Hopefully next time.

Know what you mean. I only came in when I got brake fade and boiled the fluid!!
Looking forward to my next day out. Probably not til next year though.
Maybe by then I'll have upgraded the compact a bit more.

Looks like you had another great track day Brian. Fantastic set of pictures from Darren again.

At 12mpg, how much damage did you do to the tyres?

Ragtop wrote:At 12mpg, how much damage did you do to the tyres?

Not much at all Ron, the track flowed really nicely. I wrecked a rear tyre at Croft, Croft seemed to be a far more abrasive for me for some reason. Michelin are on hand all day to help you get the most out of your tyres, checking your tyres and pressures throughout the day if you require. It is amazing to see how much the tyre pressure raises when the tyres are properly warm.

It looked a good, smooth lap (1:31). I need to try harder (or less, but be smoother) as I only managed a 1:33. At Redgate (the first corner), I was told to not turn in until very late. You turned in where I was originally. Was that the line that you were taught, or was that before tuition?

Another advantage of a BMW day is that you can compare yourself with similar cars.

I was told to turn late. When you're almost on the service road.

pingu wrote:It looked a good, smooth lap (1:31). I need to try harder (or less, but be smoother) as I only managed a 1:33. At Redgate (the first corner), I was told to not turn in until very late. You turned in where I was originally. Was that the line that you were taught, or was that before tuition?

In reality I should have turned in a little later, I was told to use the edge of the grass as a marker but I guess I was a little too eager to get round the corner, that is the beauty of having the vidoe to analyse afterwards, this lap was after instruction and it felt pretty smooth TBH. I will find a before instruction lap and pop them side by side for comparison

pingu wrote:Another advantage of a BMW day is that you can compare yourself with similar cars.

You get a feel for the cars that are faster than you on the day, I find it is nice to do a series of laps with car that is just faster than me, I suffer from not having the grunt out of the corners though!

the_youth wrote:I was told to turn late. When you're almost on the service road.

Yep that is where I should have been

Interesting post Brian. Apart from brake pads (and presumably high perf. brake fluid ) does anything else wear out extra quickly - I've heard that drop-links wear out quickly with track use?
Nice to see a little 318is amongst the throng - I think they used to be referred to as the poor man's M in their day

Del wrote:Interesting post Brian. Apart from brake pads (and presumably high perf. brake fluid ) does anything else wear out extra quickly - I've heard that drop-links wear out quickly with track use?
Nice to see a little 318is amongst the throng - I think they used to be referred to as the poor man's M in their day

I have not noticed anything else wearing out yet Del but i did put in quite a bit of car prep about a year ago. The brake fluid was changed to dot 5.1 during this time.

Another little video before and after instruction.

your getting rather good my friend .........
we should meet up for a natter soon bud.........