My First Track Day

R

relic222

Member
Last weekend I went to my first track day and had one of the best days of my life! We had a full day on the Bedford Autodrome SEN (South, East and North) circuit with Charlie Butler-Henderson along for some tuition. Charlie is a professional racing driver and brother of Vicky B-H from Fifth Gear. My brother has known him for a few years and got him to come along for the full day to teach us how to make the best use out of our cars. The closest I've ever come to this is karting but it's always something I've wanted to try.

In the morning we spent a few sessions learning the track and the car properly, Charlie has raced on the circuit plenty of times, I just had to learn the lines through the corners. Finally, just before lunch we decided to stick some cameras on the car and get some footage. My brother was also taking photos throughout the day so we've got a mixture of things to show.

All in all the Z4 held up fantastically, even beyond my expectations. The main issue was the brakes which overheated fairly quickly, the car could only manage 3 or 4 laps before requiring a cooldown so I'm looking to upgrade them at some point in the future. My car is pretty much stock at the moment - the front discs are 300mm slotted Brembos so a slight improvement but still not as good as I want. One minor upgrade I made before the track day was a ZHP gearknob which has so far been the best purchase I've made for the car, it completely transformed the gear changes and I'd recommend it to everyone.

Anyway, enough waffling, and onto the videos.

Video 1 is the first run with cameras attached. Charlie is with me giving me instruction. Unfortunately I got a bit distracted by the cameras and so made a few silly mistakes. Towards the end of the video, while on my cooldown run a Caterham completely misjudges a corner and spins off behind me.
[youtube]98z213c76DE[/youtube]

For the second video Charlie is still with me - I did some better driving here and had a small battle with a 911. He has me on the straights but I hold my own in the corners.
[youtube]qXl7fmtMQOk[/youtube]

In the third video I take my brother out for a drive, there's a fair amount of traffic and some good corners. Unfortunately my brakes overheat going in to turn 1 so I have to back off on the third lap.
[youtube]eGfbTYj1dGM[/youtube]

In the final video I take a friend out with me. The brake light comes on towards the end of the video so again we back off but it was a pretty fun drive.
[youtube]Bfywq5bGwb0[/youtube]

Finally, here are a load of photos on my Flickr stream, enjoy.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/126300580@N07/sets/72157646253973567/
 
Great post, I'm guessing not your first video as it's so well put together. So the car performed well apart from the brakes cooking?

Ps Those pesky RS Clio's are so quick!
 
GP06Roadster said:
Great post, I'm guessing not your first video as it's so well put together. So the car performed well apart from the brakes cooking?

Ps Those pesky RS Clio's are so quick!
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Believe it or not it is my first video! I'm a web developer and pretty handy with this kind of thing so it didn't take too long to pick up. But thanks for the compliment.

Yeah, the car was excellent, going in to the day I had already told myself something would break but the car was flawless all day. I'm booked in to change the pads on Friday and it'll all be back to normal again. It was fine on the drive home etc, you wouldn't known it'd been racing all day. I was really pleased with how it handled too, well balanced through the corners and not too overpowered - I had to really work for the overtakes rather than just hooning along the straights like my friend did in his E92 M3...

Yeah, there were a few RS Clio's there, a few of them were race spec - stripped out with rollbars and stupidly stiff suspension. Apparently Bedford used to have a fleet of them but sold them off. Quite a few people still bring them back to race, they could carry so much speed through the corners but were a bit slower on the straights. Looked good fun but I think the Z4 would be more comfortable on the way home!

DPG said:
Very good.

have you modified the CDV ?
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I'm not sure what a CDV is so I'm guessing not! The previous owner was quite proud that it was kept in near stock condition (except for the front brakes) so I don't think he would have done a lot. The only things I've done are interior and cosmetic changes so far - Cruise Control, Dension Gateway, stubby aerial and cup holders. I'm looking into some exterior tweaks next - suspension and brakes as well as changing to some non-RF tyres. Any suggestions for decent performance improvement with low cost are welcome!
 
Ah, I remember sk-93 mentioned this when we met up. I'm starting to think this could be the reason for my slightly jerky changes going into 2nd gear. I'll definitely have to try this, unfortunately I have no tools so won't be able to do it myself. Fortunately I'm pretty friendly with my local mechanic so I might see if he can sort it for me. Thanks for the info.
 
Looks like an excellent first track day,
I am planning one for later in the year but as i knew the brakes were a week point i have got all the bits to do a 325mm upgrade to the front first. (hopefully the weekend). Pretty cheap to do and will make a big difference.
Ash
 
hopz121 said:
Looks like an excellent first track day,
I am planning one for later in the year but as i knew the brakes were a week point i have got all the bits to do a 325mm upgrade to the front first. (hopefully the weekend). Pretty cheap to do and will make a big difference.
Ash
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It was definitely a great day and I'd recommend it to anyone. I'm now looking forward to making a few modifications to the car and trying again!

Are you doing a full BBK upgrade or just discs? Can the stock calipers fit 325mm discs? Would you mind showing me which brakes you've gone for, I had a look at Brembo BBKs and they were £2500+ for parts alone!
 
Great videos relic....can't see those vides not wanting to tempt loads of us to the track based on those....job well done :thumbsup: :driving:
 
relic222 said:
hopz121 said:
Looks like an excellent first track day,
I am planning one for later in the year but as i knew the brakes were a week point i have got all the bits to do a 325mm upgrade to the front first. (hopefully the weekend). Pretty cheap to do and will make a big difference.
Ash
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It was definitely a great day and I'd recommend it to anyone. I'm now looking forward to making a few modifications to the car and trying again!

Are you doing a full BBK upgrade or just discs? Can the stock calipers fit 325mm discs? Would you mind showing me which brakes you've gone for, I had a look at Brembo BBKs and they were £2500+ for parts alone!
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This is what i am doing mate.

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=8399

i bought a set of front caliper and carriers from an E46 330ci that quarry motors were breaking. I then sent them away to be rebuilt (this doesn’t need to be done but i wanted to for peace of mind).

I then ordered new 325mm disc's for E46 330ci along with new pads again for the 330ci and will be fitting them along with new braided hoses this weekend.

This set up essentially makes the brakes the same as the 3.0si set up on later cars.

Hope this helps 
 
Stark said:
Great videos relic....can't see those vides not wanting to tempt loads of us to the track based on those....job well done :thumbsup: :driving:
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Thanks, I've watched them so many times myself, analysing my driving and wishing I was back on the track already! Glad you enjoyed them.

@hopz121

Thanks, that's some great information. I'd be really interested to know if you notice a significant improvement. As the OP in the linked article says the issue is heat dispersion rather than braking power so hopefully just increasing the brake sizes will help out. Are you also doing 320's on the rear or just sticking to the fronts for now? It certainly looks like a cheaper way to go than Brembo, at least in the short term.

I get the sense that my mechanic friend is about to get significantly more wealthy and my wife is probably going to want to kill me soon! I've got an ever growing list of improvements...
 
relic222 said:
Stark said:
Great videos relic....can't see those vides not wanting to tempt loads of us to the track based on those....job well done :thumbsup: :driving:
Click to expand...

Thanks, I've watched them so many times myself, analysing my driving and wishing I was back on the track already! Glad you enjoyed them.

@hopz121

Thanks, that's some great information. I'd be really interested to know if you notice a significant improvement. As the OP in the linked article says the issue is heat dispersion rather than braking power so hopefully just increasing the brake sizes will help out. Are you also doing 320's on the rear or just sticking to the fronts for now? It certainly looks like a cheaper way to go than Brembo, at least in the short term.

I get the sense that my mechanic friend is about to get significantly more wealthy and my wife is probably going to want to kill me soon! I've got an ever growing list of improvements...
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The rears won’t fit unfortunately totally different set up, so its only the fronts that i will be doing, technically i will then have the same set up all around as the 3.0SI then so it should be fine. I will also be changing my fluid to ATE super Blue when my car goes into Munich legends next for a service. :)

I think the only option if you wanted to sort out the rear would be a BBK but as most braking is done on the front i think this would be overkill.

I personally think all that is needed is upgraded fronts along with new braided hoses all around and better fluid, fast road pads hopefully will help as well.

Ash
 
On the thread you linked the OP seems to think it's possible:

If you find a E46 330i, you might also want to consider a full brake setup off this car: it would give you 325mm in the front and 320mm in the rear and it would be a bolt on swap...

Better fluid is also high up on my list, I'm looking to get that sorted at my next service and it'll hopefully prevent some of the spongey brakes! I'm really beginning getting into this whole modding business now! A few small tweaks should really improve the feel of the car. My list currently is (in the order I'll probably do them in):

Modify CDV
Non runflat tyres (and hopefully a set of 224s)
Better brake fluid
Eibach springs
Strut brace
Better brakes

Oh and I'm meant to be saving for a house too... :?
 
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