The Driver’s Edge track event at Texas World Speedway this last weekend was great. I officially was checked out to the Red run group, which is the “highest” group before you become an instructor. I felt very comfortable in Red, similar to how I felt when I first got promoted to Yellow. There were some other E36 M3s out there that I could keep up with, if not pass, and they were on race tires. In fact, I was probably one of the few, if only, cars out there still on street tires, and I feel like I held my own pretty well.
I had to get used to the race pads, as I expected. My heel-toeing wasn’t very smooth at first, because of the vastly different initial bite of the pads, but I got smoother as the weekend progressed. (My checkout instructor commented on this–I insisted it was the new pads.) Lots of dust created by the pads, as I expected, and some of the dust left some etching in my wheels. Oh well, that’s the cost of having a track car.
I’m still trying to decide when (not if) I will order race seats (leaning towards the Sparco Evo), 6-point harnesses, and a bar (probably a Kirk Racing 4-point bolt-in bar). I don’t think I’m going to tear apart my M3 to be a full race car, as I thought about before, because it’s too nice to turn into a $5000 piece of junk. But, it’s still my track car, and since I’m in an advanced run group, and the speeds (and aggressiveness) are high, I want to add some more safety equipment.
Overall, the M3 performed wonderfully, as always. Just an incredible track car. Oh, and no more coolant leaking, except for a little bit of spray, which I think was just the cap venting a little bit because the tank was a tad full. Once I wiped that off, I didn’t see any more coolant.
Next event is with Driver’s Edge, at Motorsports Ranch-Cresson, southwest of Fort Worth. I’ve driven this track once before last spring, with the BMWCCA, and I’m looking forward to going back.
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