Friday was particularly exciting because, well, I have a new track car. Before you ask, rest assured nothing has happened to The Beast (the 2008 E90 M3). In fact, it’s been a tremendous joy to drive at the track, not mention learn to drive on a track in. But there’s this adage: Less is More. (Well More is More too, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make) The Beast has lots of driver assists that help me look good. Horsepower and the M button come to mind. My goal is to be a great driver and it’s time to branch out to make sure I have the basics nailed. So I looked for something more pure. I ended up with a very nicely prepped and well maintained 1998 Arctic Silver E36 M3 with a mere 86K miles on it from a fellow NASA time-trialer, John. And I got to take it out for my first track laps in it Friday.

After the first session, all I could think was “WOW.” This car is planted. It may have a back seat but that didn’t stop me from boogying my way to a 2:10.8 lap time. Not bad for my first time in the car! John holds the NASA TT track record at 2:07.0 in this very same car. The day ended when I cracked the front passenger rotor. It seems slowing the E36 and The Beast are two entirely different exercises. I have much to learn and am eagerly awaiting my next turn at it. Pending new rotors, of course. I’m thinking slotted…

So it turns out, it’s a good thing I have a “spare” car for the track now! (I’ll be honest. I had already planned to take The Beast out for one last day of playing.)  I mounted a new set of Conti scrubs from Turner on the APEX ARC-8s earlier in the week in preparation for a good time. Was it ever… Driving on a track full of women in The Beast with sticky tires and the S65 V8 roar made me happy. There’s no other way to put it. It was 100-degrees but I was first to grid. Because there is nothing better. Gents, trust me here. There’s nothing quite like seeing a woman get excited about turn-ins and apexing and track-outs. This event is the perfect place to get her hooked. Many thanks, again, to PCA for putting this event together!

Rest assured MW3 won’t go so long between track-time. All three of us will be out at HPR on August 5th. As a way to say Thank You to our fans and sponsors, we invite you to join us! If we haven’t already, we’d love to meet you and drive with you. We’ll even be giving rides to those brave enough to put a helmet on & strap in.

First off, I’m proud to announce both Jeff and I passed the Instructor School Saturday. NASA was confident in our abilities and promptly hooked HPDE1 students into our chatterboxes Sunday. (You may recall Jim passed the same school last year.) We’d like to thank anyone who has shaped us as drivers via instruction and coaching to get us to this point. And now we understand why folks enjoy instructing so much. It is an incredibly rewarding experience!

Now to specifics about the weekend. In between instructing track newbies Sunday, we finally got to DRIVE.

Jeff was able to get his car out to the track 2 weekends prior, but this was really the first chance he had to put ‘Little M’ through its paces. He decided to add coolant Friday to prevent any freezing since the car was spending the night out at the track Saturday. ‘Burping’ took longer than we’d anticipated. The back end still seems a little squirmy under load going around uphill corners. But we’re not complaining. Because this car rose from the ashes and is a gleaming example of what a track-prepped E36 should be.

Jim was excited to try out some new shoes this year. He ordered and had mounted a fresh set of NT-01’s and scrubbed them in on the drive out to HPR Saturday morning. He was grinning like a little kid with a giant lollipop after feeling them out on the track later that day. Then Sunday morning… someone left a trail of shrapnel on the line heading into Turn One. Sadly, the resulting gash finished the passenger rear tire off, along with his day.

‘Big M’ was lucky to have new shoes too! I ordered a set of 18×10 APEX ARC-8 wheels for a track setup and called on our friends at Turner Motorsport for a set of Grand Am Koni Challenge Continentals (compare to a harder compound Hoosier R6) to wrap them in. My first two sessions out Sunday were with passengers so I was required to keep myself in check a bit. But the last session I was all by myself. I put the new setup through its paces. To say I was pleased is an understatement. The car felt planted in a way I’ve never felt before. So. Much. Fun.

We can only hope our first event is a precursor to a wildly successful, safe and fun 2011 season. More looks back at the E36 build are coming, along with reviews of products we’ve been thrilled to use on our cars. Cheers!

• May 4: High Plains Raceway (HPR), private coaching with Ross Bentley
• May 26: BMW CCA, Golden Gate Chapter DE at Laguna Seca
• July 3: Pike’s Peak Int’l Speedway (PPIR) with NASA, backwards configuration
• July 31: Motorsports Park Hastings (MPH) with NASA
• August 21: HPR with NASA, be sure to also watch the “bonus” video where I did a little late (too late) braking
• September 25: BMW CCA,  Rocky Mountain Chatper at Pueblo Motorsports Park
• October 9: Pueblo Motorsports Park with NASA, signed off for for HPDE4 next year!

We’re all working on our own versions of that. I am lucky to be doing with this with two talented and patient cohorts. The three of us at MW3 have had drastically different summers at the track:

• Jim has been instructing and setting track records – seemingly all at once.
• Jeff and his E36 M3 hit a wall… in the most literal sense.
• I’ve been driving every track surface open at the same time I’m available.

We’ve been practicing doing without thinking, in our own ways. Unfortunately, that’s meant that between work and play we’ve failed to post updates along the way. We’re working on a series of posts that detail our travels, adventures, missteps… and attempts at recovering. Suffice it to say we all agree we’re still students – of physics. We have video to prove it.

We still maintain our vision: helping others by showcasing what we’re learning along the way. More coming over the next few weeks…

Finally, April arrived. The guys signed up with the NASA Rocky Mountain Region and ran their first day down in Fountain at PPIR. They couldn’t get seat-time with an instructor for Time Trials sign-off, but they had a great time on the oval. Jeff’s UUC exhaust roared and Jim’s Evo caught several in their HPDE class by surprise. Several folks dropped by, curious about the MW3 trailer and the cars running under our marquee.

Before we could blink, it was May. What a month for us! Jim and Jeff were in Pueblo the first weekend, looking for their Time Trials sign-off. Jim managed that, and more. We now have a NASA Instructor in our midst! Sunday the same weekend, Jeff also received sign-off for Time Trials.  Certainly a successful weekend for the team.  May got better though.

About the same time, I had the opportunity to sponge off a legend. Ross Bentley was in town hosting both a day of classroom time and trackside coaching. I signed up for both. To say the track day was fantastic is an understatement. My stomach was a bundle of nerves – this was my first stint on the track since October and Ross Bentley was there to witness what I was sure would be nothing short of a Hot Mess. Hours in front of Forza must’ve helped – it wasn’t as bad as I had feared and by lunch I’d polished off five solid sessions and a tank of gas. I was loving my new tires and Performance Friction brake pads. Also learning how the Ground Control suspension impacted both tire wear for the better (adjustable camber!) and handling through the corners (what body roll?).  A tank full of race gas and I cranked off six more sessions, including one with Ross Bentley riding passenger. Let’s pause there to let that sink in. In all, I did around 90 laps for the day and The Beast put down the fastest laps of the day with Ross Bentley’s butt in it. {blushing} What. A. Day. Epic!

It was just one day though. And we’re not the kind of team who stands still for long. The month of May had much more in store for us. Only a few weeks later and Jim was prepping for his first laps in Time Trials with NASA at HPR (I’ll leave those stories to him, though you should know he had a helluva run!). Teaser: Jeff ordered new suspension for his E36 M3.

Oh, Jeff & I went on a good old-fashioned Road Trip too. Through Wyoming… Utah… Nevada… California… The Beast was in tow and due for a treat – Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca! Back in February, while dreaming of sunny track days I learned of BMW CCA Golden Gate Chapter’s plans for a DE just before Memorial Day and signed up without hesitation – or any idea of the logistics involved. Nevertheless, we made it to Monterrey and enjoyed a few days of downtime before heading inland to savor the thrill of one of North America’s most beloved tracks. It took me both morning sessions and two lunchtime instructor ride-alongs before the bells and light bulbs went off. Then I couldn’t get enough – I’m sure you’re shocked to hear that tidbit. A bit of butt-feel feedback… The crest at turn 1: Stomach lurching, then exhilarating when done right. Turn 2: Eerily similar turn 1 at Pueblo, especially when done using the “class line”. Exiting 4 and heading into 5: Many passes executed here. Go! Go! Exit turn 5: Go more!! Turn 6: Hit the dip in the apex – it lets you know you did it right. Turn 7: That was a turn? And then. The Corkscrew: What a delight! I smiled every time. Followed by 9: Oh, the speed you can carry downhill while you slowly pull in for that apex. The only time I downshifted to second? Turn 11. Rinse. Repeat. My only regret? That I didn’t get to spend more time driving it. And so, sadly, May came to a close.

June is pretty low-key with NASA in Oklahoma. Jeff’s suspension is installed and we’ll be dialing it in at an open lapping day (HPR) later this month.

Then the July calendar hits and we’re back in full swing. We’ll be at PPIR with NASA again, where all three of us will take turns on the track. 24 Hours of LeMons comes to Colorado and HPR (we’re not driving, just admiring those defying the laws of physics lap after lap). Porche Ladies Day at HPR the weekend after that. The end of the month will find us in Hastings, NE with NASA. Whew!

We wouldn’t trade it for anything. Stay tuned for updates, photos and videos! We’ll do our best to keep you looped in on our latest escapades.

Our Mitsubishi Evolution IX will be running a new tire and wheel setup this time around. We will be running Tein Flex coilovers on the Evo and filming all  the runs throughout the day.

The pristine E90 M3 will feature a new custom MW3 camera mount for this event. This should be a great test run and we will get a lot of great footage of the event.

Come down to Pueblo and check out this event, we are always in need of corner workers! See you there