Watkins Glen was a great test of the cars ability. It was my first event driving with NASA in DE-2, the paddock was slammed, and the weather was perfect. I really like this group a lot! The debriefing sessions were informative and it was a largely drama-free event.
I started the day with a ride-along session in my friends E36 M3. It was wearing the same tire set-up as mine, (17” RS4’s square) and was sporting H&R sport springs. He is a fantastic driver, and competes with a fully spec’d FR-S, and he was not very impressed with the M3 on track, to say the least. I thought it felt pretty good from the passenger seat. It doesn’t feel more planted than the 2 series on track, and we both agreed on that.
Upon reviewing onboard footage, I was averaging 2:20-2:30 lap times with modest traffic and some botched braking. 120-130mph on the back straight, +100 through the S’s.
I had some brake issues early on in the day which forced me to be on them a bit earlier than I would like on entry, but the PFC-11/08 split front/rear seems to work well overall, especially for trail braking.
I think this car could be competitive in Time Trials (TT-4) with a 30hp bump, and keeping the chassis weight about where it is now at 3200lbs, giving it a power/weight ratio of about 12ish.
So there it is folks.. The 228i wins. Build thread incoming...
