Nurburgring

[tertius]

How does spa compare in terms of feeling safer driving it? From a TVR vid I saw it looked quite relaxed and was tempted but timing not right for previous car. I wouldn't want to risk stacking it but a relatively leisurely but fast trip round a circuit like that is appealing

Spa is a current F1 standard circuit so has way more runoff than the Nordschleife; so in general yes it is safer but nevertheless there are still plenty of places to have a massive accident.

Also Spa is much shorter so easier to learn (though still a relatively long circuit by modern standards).

 

[Paulwirral]

I've noticed there's been a few accidents recently involving renaults , I'm guessing they are confidence inspiring things to drive , just a pity talent runs out before confidence does , there's a few videos on b2g , including a lesson why not to follow your mate to closely !

 

[jpeeters]

Were you there this weekend, as I was parked next to an Interlagos Blue Z4MC a couple of times.

Wasn't me. I'm out with cracked rotors and waiting for my BBK to arrive...

Monday more than made up for it though, and despite the sub-zero start to the morning, I'd done 6 laps in the first hour of opening and 20 by the end of the day for a total of 33 laps for the weekend

26 laps on a single day is impressive! I've never done more than 12. How often do you go for a cool down drive? I'm doing 2 laps in a row max (15-20 mins on other tracks) before letter the car rest a bit.

 

[mmm-five]

26 laps on a single day is impressive! I've never done more than 12. How often do you go for a cool down drive? I'm doing 2 laps in a row max (15-20 mins on other tracks) before letter the car rest a bit.

It was 20 in total by the end of the day.

I do 2-3 laps at a time, left of and put the car into 6th as I pass under the gantry and less the hill slow me down. I then usually exit the car park, drive an anti-clockwise loop around Nurburg back to the entrance, and then park up for a coffee/water.

Monday morning was just too good/quiet an opportunity to miss, so I just did 3 laps, then a 5 minute break before doing another 3 laps. 25 minutes later the track was closed.

The rest of the day probably only averaged 3 laps an hour of opening - and did my last before 5pm. (14 laps in 5 hours including lunch in Adenau and 2 fill-ups at EDs).

I suppose 3 laps at my pace won't be stressing the car as much as your pace

 

[jpeeters]

20 is still more than I've ever achieved. That said, I'm usually day-tripping so have another 500km on the clock when I arrive at home again.

You're doing exactly the same cool down as I. Not only the car needs a break, it's also important for the driver

 

[Franzino]

Hi All,

I was reading the Track mode coding thread and saw that a lot of people are attending the Nurburgring in their zeds - just really interested in the best times people are generally getting BTG?

Thought it would be interesting.

My fastest BTG lap that I have timed is 8.20min with some traffic… Will upload the lap to my You Tube account one of these weeks
https://www.youtube.com/user/MisterZ4M/videos



My Z4M roadster has the following modifications

* AP brakes (Pagid RS14 front, RS4-4 rear + custom brake cooling)
* ATE racing blue brake oil
* oem M3 CSL wheels with Michelin PSS
* Bilstein PSS-10 (F: 4 / R: 4)
* oem Stutbrace
* Vibratech engine mounts (great mod!)
* Turner Motorsport Rear Trailing Arm Bushing Limiters

 

[MrPT]

8:20 in traffic is good going!

This lap amazes me:

[youtube]ntvFFtBjY5E[/youtube]

Very tidy, but are semislicks and a suspension upgrade worth 30 seconds?! There's another dude, DutchRingRacing, and his Z4M vids are cool too.

 

[exdos]

Very tidy, but are semislicks and a suspension upgrade worth 30 seconds?!

I wrote to Michelin some time ago asking about the performance difference between its tyres and this is the response:
"In summary we offer the following tyres

Motorsport Slick tyres 100% track use Not road Legal
Pilot Sport Cup2 80% track 20% road Road Legal Bi Compound
Pilot Super Sport 20% track 80% road Road Legal Bi Compound

So whilst I can't simply provide you with grip coefficient figures (for two reason: confidentiality and they vary track to track car to car, so it's not just a case of X vs Y vs Z) the following information should be more than sufficient

Slick tyres are solely for Motorsport competition use. They have no tread, and use compounds designed for race use. Hence they need to be warmed and "brought in" and don't tend to wear particularly well, as after all they only do a few hundred km maximum in a race. To be brutal, for your car, a slick is way over what you need.

Michelin currently hold several of the Nurburgring track records with the Pilot Sport Cup2 tyre. Which is from the same family as Pilot Super Sport, and runs compounds derived from our wins at Le-Mans. The tread depth is slightly shallower ( ~5.4mm) and the tread has more solid block and less grooves. Therefore I would expect the comparison around the Nurburgring between Cup2 and PSS to be in the realms of 10-20 seconds a lap (estimated) ."

Personally, I think semi-slicks and a suspension upgrade is definitely worth 30secs around The Ring. There are 73 turns in a BTG lap, and each one can be taken so much quicker on semi-slicks than with road tyres, which also means that you can get on the throttle earlier when exiting each corner, so you get the additional benefit of going faster on all the straight bits in between all the turns. You can also brake later on the semi-slicks, so this all adds up when there are so many turns per lap.

The guy in the video is also driving over a lot of kerbs, which most people don't do, so this also finds him some extra time - he can't be too bothered about damaging his car. I wouldn't say his driving is tidy either :wink:

 

[MrPT]

Good info. I guess that's one of the main reasons why a stock M4 still can't beat the laptime of an M3 CSL on Sport Cups.

 

[exdos]

Good info. I guess that's one of the main reasons why a stock M4 still can't beat the laptime of an M3 CSL on Sport Cups.

I've had some passenger laps around The Ring in a M3 CSL on Michelin Pilot Cups and it was like on rails, not having to brake in places it would otherwise need to do on usual road tyres. I've also had passenger laps around The Ring in an Elise on usual road tyres and one on Toyo R888s and the transformation is astonishing and all down to the tyres.

 

[Paulwirral]

Good info. I guess that's one of the main reasons why a stock M4 still can't beat the laptime of an M3 CSL on Sport Cups.

I've had some passenger laps around The Ring in a M3 CSL on Michelin Pilot Cups and it was like on rails, not having to brake in places it would otherwise need to do on usual road tyres. I've also had passenger laps around The Ring in an Elise on usual road tyres and one on Toyo R888s and the transformation is astonishing and all down to the tyres.

I grabbed a couple of passenger laps in a semi slick csl once , it also had suspension and apr brakes , the guy was also a semi pro racer from a Nordic country biggest difference is always the driver , but the tyres make the difference on a well set up car , so much so as most people will never get anywhere near the limits of track biased tyres . I wouldn't dare do what this guy committed to and I used to race on ovals in my youth .