Eurotrash Motorsports

So last weekend = another race!

This track was probably one of my favourites.  It was a new design that was finished days before the event by a few members of the MCO, and it was great.  There were some very technical, tight sections, but I found that they were well balanced with stretches where you could really get the power down.  It was also the longest course we’ve run this year, with times ranging from low 70s to high 80s run times.  On this run, I also realized the importance of tire pressure.  I set the the tire pressure on the bimmer in the morning, but with the cooler mornings, as it warmed up, so did the tires! Our first run was good, and so was Jeff’s second run, but when it came to mine… whoa!  The car felt REALLY loose, and it resulted in me beating my record for worst autoX run ever.  After that run, I rechecked the pressures and realized they had increased by 8psi!  After lowering them back down to what I thought was right, our runs improved.  What both Jeff and I found, as well as many other racers, was that there was only one really good line.  If you were off that line by sometimes just inches, your time would be slower.  I also found that the importance of slow-in, fast-out was made extremely obvious on this track.  It was easy to push the car because of the long power sections, but if you braked to late, or carried too much speed into the technical sections, it was pretty much over.  I really learned alot last weekend, and it was kindof humbling.  I have seen both of us grow as drivers throughout the season, but we still have a LOT to learn.  We’ve also decided that WE NEED SWAYBARS!  The body roll of the car is still significant, with the bumper rubbing the ground in sertain corners.  Many have said/will say to increase the spring rate, but I was tought that it was better to separate bump and roll.  The springs should control the bump, and the swaybars should control the roll.  Since we got a really good deal on these springs, even if they are a bit too soft, I think that the addition of swaybars would really benefit us.

 Here’s how we did:

These timese were good enough to place Jeff 13th and myself 11th out of 20.  I was hoping that we would have done better, but like I said before, we still have a lot to learn!

Unfortunately, Jeff’s video camera was full, so we couldn’t take any videos and there was no one there to take pictures :(.  Oh well, we’ve got another event in two days where hopefully we’ll get something to show you!

Last weekend was probably one of the best weekends of my life.  Period.

Emil and I signed up for the 3 Balls Racing Calabogie Lapping weekend (that’s right… saturday AND sunday).  Unfortunately, as expected, rain was expected for the entire weekend.  Although this wasn’t ideal, I didn’t mind too much because my first Calabogie experience was in the rain, and it was still a blast.  Plus, having rain makes you focus more on smoothness and line selection, and less on pushing the car 110%.  In a way, I was glad because I knew that the bimmer would be up for the challenge.  As you can probably tell by the lack of posts and pictures, Emil’s jetta is no where near ready, so he was using his daily driver – a turboed Golf.

Saturday:

With a couple of guys from last year’s Carleton University FSAE team (which we were on as well), we headed up in the morning in the wet.  The day was set up so that we would run for 30min every hour, with a total of 7 sessions.  As expected, it was a fantastic day!  I was initially suprised at how much I remembered of the track from the last time I was there, and I was also impressed at the difference the new suspension made.  The car left more nimble and stable, as the center of gravity is now much lower.  It did make me realize that the spring rates we have on our shocks are a bit too soft because there is still a lot of body roll.  3 Balls Racing were awesome hosts, and provided us with a catered lunch of steak burgers, chicken souvlaki, greek salad, rice, fruit, and deserts!  The afternoon turned out to be just as much fun as the morning, and by the end of the day, I had burnt roughly 65 liters of gas, and drove roughly 250 km.  Unfortunately, Emil was having trouble with his MAF sensor, so he had slowed down in the afternoon.

Make sure you check out the gallery for more pictures from saturday!

Sunday:

NO RAIN!  I was extremely excited to head out in the morning since they were forcasting no rain for the day!  My girlfriend, Alyssa, and I left bright and early and couldn’t wait to get on the track.  Unfortunately, due to his MAF sensor issue, Emil decided to sell his spot for sunday to preserve his car.  He picked a bad day, because when we arrived at the track, we discovered that the other group had less members than expected, so it was to be an OPEN TRACK DAY!  This meant as much track time as the car would allow!  I didn’t push it too much, because driving the car that hard for that long is very tough for it, but I definitely got my money’s worth!  Saturday I ran into an instructor, Pierre,  who also had an E36 BMW (his was a 328i), and offered to show me his lines/comment on my driving on sunday.  After warming up, I went to see him and we set off.  I learned a lot!  Generally, the lines I was taking were close, but there was a few corners where he really showed me how to improve.  I also took the time to play with my tire pressures, and by the end of the day, the car was set up perfect with 42 psi in the front, and 38 psi in the rear (once the tires were hot).  Thanks to Pierre, I felt confident pushing the car harder and harder, and by lunch time, I had improved significantly, and I’m sure that my lap times dropped a lot as well.  I was taking more corners in higher gears and higher throttle positions, and really feeling the grip of the car.  By the end of the day, I had improved even more, and I was using the rotation of the car to help me get through corners.  Pierre and I went out again towards the end of the day, and he was impressed with my improvement.  I followed his car in mine for a while, and then we switched with him following me.  I was surpised and excited that he was losing ground as we drove!!! There were two corners where he was faster than I was, but generally around the rest of the track, he was the same speed or VERY slightly slower.  Just seeing the difference between us in the morning to the afternoon made me extremely excited and anxious for more!  After that session, I went off the track to cool off a bit planning on heading out once more before the end of the day.  Unfortunately, a car went into a wall about 10 minutes before I was planning on going back out.  Luckily no on was hurt, but it made me rethink my alertness, and I decided not to push my luck, and to head home (after another 90L of fuel and roughly 280km)

It was an INCREDIBLE weekend!  Check back for videos, as we will be posting those soon!