Standard M on Bedford

[Pope]

Hi All.

So im looking to take the M on its first trackday, well and my first track day driving.

Im just looking into buying the day at Bedford next Tuesday.

How does the Z hold up as a standard car? I know my mate took his standard 135i and didnt like it, ended up going all out on brakes and suspension the works.

But for my first track day will the M's standard setup surfice?

Anyone else going?

 

[ga41]

It'll be fine as long as you're a bit easy on the brakes. You can brake pretty late and pretty hard with the M but doing so will boil the fluid and cook the brakes within just a few laps. Taking it easier will make them last longer at the expense of slower laptimes. It doesnt hurt to replace your brake fluid before the track day too.

Getting some track tuition to teach you the racing line is also recommended, driving a track with no knowledge of the proper line will make you think your car is rubbish, once you figure the line out the car will suddenly improve. :wink:

That's my personal experience from my limited track time, i'm sure other with more experience will come along soon.

 

[mmm-five]

The Z4M will perform much better than the 135i because:

• The Z4M doesn't have runflats
• The Z4M has a proper LSD
• The Z4M has less weight
• The Z4M has a lower centre of gravity
• The Z4M is stiffer

Although the best performance mod will be driver training, as you won't believe the speeds you can take through corners until you're actually doing it. I ended up doing Craner Curves at Donington at about 30mph faster at the end of the day compared to the beginning (after some instruction).

Take it easy and build up the speed. Try to brake early and get the car balanced for the corner, rather than stamping on the brakes harder & harder and trying to turn at the same time (which can be fun when you intend to do it) - this way it means that if you've got too much speed you can brake a little harder and scrub some more off, otherwise you're already full on the brakes with no more retardation possible.

Do short stints of no more than 30 minutes, with 1-2 cool down laps for both you and the car where you stay at 40-50mph in 5th and don't touch the brakes if possible. Then leave it for 20-30 minutes in the paddock/pits with the engine & handbrake off, but in gear so that it doesn't roll away.

 

[Franzino]

Last year I went with my standard Z4M to the Nurnburgring... It was great! You can do it, just be easy on the brakes and let them cool on the straights. IMO the only downside with the Z4M on a track are the brakes (great on the road, no to so great on track). .. It had no complaints about the power and handling of the Z4M. If you want to do more trackdays it's better that you upgrade the brakes (pads, steel hoses, brake fluid) or get a BBK. For me; I'm changing my brakes this summer and after that get some track driving lessons...

 

[tjlazer]

Bedford is great fun, book some tuition and enjoy it. Unless you're a complete maniac is plenty good enough in standard form, lots of us drive our cars on track without any radical upgrades...the car will definitely feel better by the end of the day, they love to be driven properly! Edit to say it'll probably give you 6 laps or so before the brakes need to cool, it's quite hard on them due to the speed you reach on some sections. Other than that I'd say put a bit more pressure in the tires and makes sure you have a full tank...

 

[Darren M]

If it's your first trackday I would definatlely get some training.

Brakes get a mention quite a bit. Difficult to do as a beginner but ideally you need to brake hard and late once for each bend, this helps to keep the temps down by allowing the brakes to have more time to cool before you start braking again. If you brake lightly or have multiple attempts to slow the car down that will I think create higher temps. HAving said this, don't be last of the late brakers on your first lap out !!! But possibly consider how you're using the brakes and come in early or slow down completey for a few corners if youre spending a lot of time on them and not braking hard enough. Knowing how hard you should be braking and when is hard to judge as a beginner, but be careful about not getting in anyones way though if you opt to slow down. I have no idea what the track is like so if it not hard on brakes they might not be an issue anyway.

Should mention this is not all from experience but words of advice I have heard from a very experience trackday driverin the past, which worked for me when i found i had brake issues in one of my previous cars on track

 

[Mister_dj]

If it's your first trackday I would definatlely get some training.

Brakes get a mention quite a bit. Difficult to do as a beginner but ideally you need to brake hard and late once for each bend, this helps to keep the temps down by allowing the brakes to have more time to cool before you start braking again. If you brake lightly or have multiple attempts to slow the car down that will I think create higher temps. HAving said this, don't be last of the late brakers on your first lap out !!! But possibly consider how you're using the brakes and come in early or slow down completey for a few corners if youre spending a lot of time on them and not braking hard enough. Knowing how hard you should be braking and when is hard to judge as a beginner, but be careful about not getting in anyones way though if you opt to slow down. I have no idea what the track is like so if it not hard on brakes they might not be an issue anyway.

Should mention this is not all from experience but words of advice I have heard from a very experience trackday driverin the past, which worked for me when i found i had brake issues in one of my previous cars on track

Nice post .

Particularly on the brakes bit, it really is better to brake late and hard, as that will keep the braking time shorter, allowing more time for cooling the discs/pads. I did two track days with my car, and whilst in the 1st one I was not braking as much as I could, I ended up having brake fade. On the 2nd one I started braking really hard, and had no fade!
Again, it´s important to take it easy in the first lap, asslowing for everything to warm up nicely, and in the last one, to allow everything to cool off.

Enjoy

 

[playalistic]

Just enjoy yourself and make sure you book as much tuition as you can afford. You'll be surprised how harder you can push your car after you unlearn your usual road limits.

 

[BMWZ4MC]

...try to brake early and get the car balanced for the corner...

...ideally you need to brake hard and late

I hope that's clear

When I took my ///M on track in completely stock form, my previous track day experience was limited to just my Westfield (<600kg and 150bhp, so similar power to weight ratio as the ///M).
The Westfield brakes last forever as the top speed is limited by drag, and the low mass means that there is less inertia at a given speed. Also, it will corner at ridiculous speeds before losing adhesion. As a consequence, I was pretty concerned about how the brakes on the ///M would hold up, and started off pretty ginger. I would brake far too early into every corner, then come off the brakes, before getting back on them again closer to the corner. I soon realised that the brakes on the ///M are actually pretty good even in stock form, and could confidently brake impossibly late to 30mph for a hairpin from 130+mph lap after lap without fade. I spent an entire day with both cars on the same track, driving one for 15-30 minutes, before having a rest, and then swapping to the other. By the end of the day, the ///M had consumed an entire tank of fuel and the brake pad warning light was on, but I could still drive it home safely (the Westfield went home on it's trailer ready for the next track day without needing any attention ).

I would say that the standard brakes are actually pretty good, and much more effective than I had expected. I would start off gently, but don't be afraid to really push once you're more confident and you've learned the limits of traction. Personally, I prefer to brake as late and hard as possible, but in sufficient time to come off the brakes completely and allow the car to regain poise before starting to turn in (it makes sense to me that acceleration in only one direction at any one time will allow that acceleration to be greater before the limits of grip are reached).

Enjoy yourself, and be safe, but do try turning off the DSC for a few laps, it transforms the car completely :evil:

 

[aerobod]

ATE Typ 200 or super blue brake fluid freshly bled will give quite a few more laps before pedal fade, compared with the stock brake fluid, especially if it hasn't been changed for a year or more. If you are running the OEM Continental tyres, they feel very greasy when their hot temperature gets beyond 40PSI, I found dropping the cold pressure to 32PSI all around worked much better than the 36PSI I started with. I found that after my cool-down lap, a hot pressure of 38PSI when measured in the paddock worked well for those tyres.

 

[mmm-five]

...try to brake early and get the car balanced for the corner...

...ideally you need to brake hard and late

I hope that's clear

Mine was meant to say "brake early & hard and then ease off to get the car balanced for the corner..." and is what I've said in other posts on the subject. If you brake hard & late then you've got a car that's tipped up on it's nose when it should be flat as you turn in.

But as usual what I was thinking in my head didn't actually get transmitted in full to the four fingers actually typing it

 

[Bonzodog]

Took a couple of MC's around the full circuit couple of weeks ago and great day. Both of us suffered on the brakes front Main straight is the killer with hairpin at the end but rest of circuit is fantastic View that brakes fine for road but proper track use will see lots of fade as regularly discussed on this forum.

 

[khooni]

what about tyre pressures?

Shouldn't the tyre pressures be pumped up to near max as you would during an airfield day to prevent wearing the sidewalls under high G cornering? I always find this confusing as Andy Walsh of carlimits has always indicated that road cars with road tyres need high pressures. Can anyone comment?

 

[Andy C]

We asked Andy Walsh about trackday tyre pressures and he advised normal road pressures as a starting point for trackdays. He makes you run higher pressures on the high speed cornering day to reduce the outer edge wear rate. I always found normal pressures to be OK on my 350Z however, i didn't play around with them to optimise it. I just get out there and have fun!

 

[ChawenHalo]

If it's your first trackday I would definatlely get some training.

Brakes get a mention quite a bit. Difficult to do as a beginner but ideally you need to brake hard and late once for each bend, this helps to keep the temps down by allowing the brakes to have more time to cool before you start braking again. If you brake lightly or have multiple attempts to slow the car down that will I think create higher temps. HAving said this, don't be last of the late brakers on your first lap out !!! But possibly consider how you're using the brakes and come in early or slow down completey for a few corners if youre spending a lot of time on them and not braking hard enough. Knowing how hard you should be braking and when is hard to judge as a beginner, but be careful about not getting in anyones way though if you opt to slow down. I have no idea what the track is like so if it not hard on brakes they might not be an issue anyway.

Should mention this is not all from experience but words of advice I have heard from a very experience trackday driverin the past, which worked for me when i found i had brake issues in one of my previous cars on track

+1 (refer to AP Racing BBK post) I cooked mine and am a begginer (and a very naughty one at that

But its hard not to get carried away with all that lovely noise

 

[Biscuits]

Think we were at Bedofrd on the same MSV day

I was in the Z4MR... was with a mate in his white MX5/Eunos...

Very lucky with the weather and generally had a good fun day playing with the TVR boyz (and their duck-taped down bonets lol)

 

[Pope]

I did wonder if you were on here.

I did try and give you a nod as you were driving out at one point! lol

I do remember trying to chase you down and getting it horribly wrong at one point. My fault for going crazy as i do. lol

 

[Biscuits]

I did wonder if you were on here.
I did try and give you a nod as you were driving out at one point! lol
I do remember trying to chase you down and getting it horribly wrong at one point. My fault for going crazy as i do. lol

Was on a bit of a mission that day Had been to Spa and the 'Ring a couple of weeks previous, so had had quite a bit of track time to find how the Z handled on-track

I was going to pop over and say hi.... but I'm shy

 

[Pope]

I did wonder if you were on here.
I did try and give you a nod as you were driving out at one point! lol
I do remember trying to chase you down and getting it horribly wrong at one point. My fault for going crazy as i do. lol

Was on a bit of a mission that day Had been to Spa and the 'Ring a couple of weeks previous, so had had quite a bit of track time to find how the Z handled on-track

I was going to pop over and say hi.... but I'm shy

HAHA well we are all keyboard warriors.

Was my first track session in the Z and really gave me an idea of what I can do for my ring / spa trips later this year.

Of to The RIng for N24 this weekend, gutted im not taking the z to be honest, that will have to wait till August.

Let me know if you have any more planned soon.