A few impressions from the Track Day on Monday:
- The weather was fine, it stayed dry the whole time (i.e. between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m.), although a thunderstorm was announced. We were really lucky!
- There were two closures of around 30 - 45 minutes each, which reduced the driving time considerably as the track day was only half a day really.
I had no info on what exactly happened, and didn't see any major crashes while driving.
- In general people were quite reasonable on the track, although there were some overly motivated idiots driving around as well, but only very few this time (compared to other track days where I've been). Although I don't find joy in another's misfortune it is sometimes good to see someone who overtook me in a dangerous fashion a few kilometers later in the armco.
- Lots of nice cars were there. Lots of M3s of course (E46, E46 CSL, E92, E92 GTS but also a few older ones), many many Porkers as usual (some really mean GT2), a few Corvettes that were quite fast too and some more exotic cars such as a new C63 AMG Black Series, an old Opel Manta or VW Golf I. There were also two Alpina B3 GT3 from the factory in Buchloe (one black, the other one with the kermit-the-frog-green painting) that were there to configure the KW3 suspension for the 'Ring so that customers don't need to do that later on. Professional drivers of course, very very fast.
- Everything was well organised, it was easy to find a parking spot for a break between laps. Suprisingly though the petrol station near the 'Ring ran out of 98 octane fuel at around 11 a.m. - but apparently that happens from time to time.
- It was great to meet Dino (albeit too little time!), regretfully he seemed to have a few problems with his car, as well as Michal with his beautiful black 335i coupé. The day went over too fast, one of the reasons I would have preferred to have a full track day.
- Car drove very well, I'm really happy with the Öhlins suspension and the Performance Friction Brakes. The car can now handle anything that at least I can throw at it. I'm less happy with the COBB stage 3 remap, boost oscillations and retarded throttle reactions that may be due to the stiffer wastegates of the RB turbos. Time to try some different solutions in the next weeks.
A few photos:
Alpina B3 GT3 (1)
Alpina B3 GT3 (2)
Me driving
Michal
Alpina_B3_Lux