[M3-peat]

My third autoX in the M went well. Learning more and more about this car's handling characteristics each time. Ran on the stock Conti's b/c I thought it was going to rain and didn't want to slide around on R-comp tires. Well, it never rained but the Conti's performed Much better than I expected, not to say they are anywhere near the Dunlops I have, but seemed to provide more than adequate grip. For those who doubt the abilities of the stock Conti's, need to give it more respect. Ran 42.5 fronts and 36 rears for air pressure and seemed to be just fine. Took 1st out of 5, including another M and three STi's and came up 2.5 seconds shy of the FTD time. I feel the Dunlops would have knocked 1+ seconds off my time b/c it was a short course, more if longer. Using the throttle, I was able to keep the car from pushing a lot. Only thing I wasn't happy about, was the braking. At the half way point of the course, I was always overcooking it and had to swing wide at the U turn point and twice had to swing the rear out a little to get me pointed in the right direction. Even when I thought I was braking early, it didn't scrub off enough speed in time.

All in all, the car is proving to be the ultimate driving machine, again and again. I'd post a pic, but it's of me hitting a cone (happened on two different runs out of four). Another AutoX this weekend, which is a lot longer and better competition.

[bren]

WTG!

come on spring

[Idz21]

Question for you on braking. When you come up on turns, do you downshift and brake at the same time, or do you brake and then downshift?

[Eric1855]

You shouldn't have to downshift, I would think, on most AutoX courses. Unless it is super tight and you need to go to 1st gear. however, on most BMWs if driven there is plenty of torque in 2nd gear to the point where shifting to first will just cause you to lose time, not gain it.

Remember, brake hard. If you are pushing just move your braking point out a bit and brake earlier. Going slow through a turn is alot quicker than pushing around it. The turns you are having trouble on try to find a landmark with which to gauge your brake point. If you are still pushing, brake earlier and earlier in incriments out from that point until you can smoothly take the turn without overcooking.

[Ced]

Originally Posted by M3-peat

My third autoX in the M went well. Learning more and more about this car's handling characteristics each time. Ran on the stock Conti's b/c I thought it was going to rain and didn't want to slide around on R-comp tires. Well, it never rained but the Conti's performed Much better than I expected, not to say they are anywhere near the Dunlops I have, but seemed to provide more than adequate grip. For those who doubt the abilities of the stock Conti's, need to give it more respect. Ran 42.5 fronts and 36 rears for air pressure and seemed to be just fine. Took 1st out of 5, including another M and three STi's and came up 2.5 seconds shy of the FTD time. I feel the Dunlops would have knocked 1+ seconds off my time b/c it was a short course, more if longer. Using the throttle, I was able to keep the car from pushing a lot. Only thing I wasn't happy about, was the braking. At the half way point of the course, I was always overcooking it and had to swing wide at the U turn point and twice had to swing the rear out a little to get me pointed in the right direction. Even when I thought I was braking early, it didn't scrub off enough speed in time.

All in all, the car is proving to be the ultimate driving machine, again and again. I'd post a pic, but it's of me hitting a cone (happened on two different runs out of four). Another AutoX this weekend, which is a lot longer and better competition.

cool man. Any more videos?

[M3-peat]

Didn't have the need to downshift in this autoX, just stayed in 2nd the whole way around. The next one usually requires a shift to 3rd, then back to 2nd and then to 3rd again. So, I start braking and about 1+ seconds later(b/c you are going about 75MPH+ down to ~25 MPH) after the car settles a bit, I will downshift to 2nd.
Then repeat.

As far as vids, I'm too cheap at this point to buy a video camera, more focused on the car and the feeling I get from it (and the learning it comes with it) but I'm hoping I can borrow someone's camera one of these days to see what I'm really doing (wrong). A few people have the side car camera's that can be moved from car to car that would be nice to borrow.