So I start my "3 weekends of BMW" marathon today...

[billb]

Tonight/tomorrow: change Red Line 75W90 and D4 ATF in the 318is; vacuum/shampoo carpets in E30 and E34
Saturday: wash/wax detail E30, clay E34, change belts on E30, rotate tires on E30 and E34
Sunday: trip to Greensboro in the evening for "3 Across America" dinner gala

Next Saturday: drive to VIR to experience Formula BMW test days, lunch with some of the drivers

The following Saturday: CCA outing at VIR for BMW CCA events, parade laps at lunch, and a wine/cheese afternoon on the grassy hills of the track...

Ah, I love spring and a BMW.

[liquidtiger720]

the 3 series is a dinner gala? meaning is formal? i thought it was just a big informal thing....

have fun!

[willobmw]

Billb, Sounds like a great bunch of weekends. My friends and I have been talking about getting down to V.I.R. from northern VA for the last couple of years. Hopefully for the fall sports car race.
I'm getting stoked for the racing season also. I can hear those Formula 1 engines in Indy already. Enjoy.
Willo

[billb]

E30: tire rotation, drain/refill 75W90 Redline in the diff, D4 ATF in the tranny, replaced clutch hose, bled hydraulics, added ATE super blue as necessary, checked everything over underneath, bushings, links, etc. in prep for D.S. My oil leak fix appears to have worked on the timing cover...no drips after about 250 miles (it was leaking after 25...). Shampoo/vacuum carpets, Back to Black on the shadowline and all exterior trim, Formula 2001 on the Dunlops, washed, spot waxed, glass cleaned, dash rattle fixed, and then we drove it to Greensboro Sunday night for the "Meet the 3" for 3 Across America.

My wife and I (and our son) talked with Rich Brekus of BMW NA for about 20 minutes about the features of the new 3. He is very proud of this new 3 series, and sold us on the Touring (coming this fall...) It's a wonderful looking and feeling car, but I sure am glad they have the 50000 mile full maintenance...that thing is scary under the hood. By the way, during his presentation to the audience, he got a call from the M3 guys at Fontana, letting him know that Auberlen/Hand had won...cool.

E34: tire rotation, rotor check, fluid check. It's going to be time for tires in the next 3-5000 miles (this on the set of Yokohama AVS dB's I installed in December 2001). Currently at about 36000 miles on those tires. The E34 got no love this weekend. Maybe next.

:)

[billb]

Dad, Junior, and I headed up to VIR this morning to check out the Formula BMW Test Day on North Course (the same course I'm hoping to do my first driver's school on in July). These things are first class. Full writeup on the visit forthcoming, but here are a few pictures to share. They'll be successive posts since my gallery is hosed...

[billb]

another pic

[billb]

sorry guys...

[billb]

my Dad loved this part...

[billb]

There was a Tarheel Sports Car Club track day going on at South Course...among the vehicles present: TT RX7, Ford Lightning, Lotus Elise, NSX, Cobra kit car, lotsa E30s, E36 M3s, coupla Corvettes, some Porsches, Infiniti G35, 350Z (those guys were playing cat and mouse), but the car shown below stole the day! We watched this thing thunder around for about 20 minutes. The 325is could get it in the corners, but WHOA NELLY when the turn was done! We think it had a 428 in it...

[Paul in NZ]

wow that would be awesome,our nz bmw club is much more low key...our club didnt even get invited to the five launch...:(

[billb]

Advertised as a North Course race, turned out to be Full course. We got a late start from Apex, and didn't get to the track until 11:10 or so. Sorry Chip, we were too late to catch up with you. I think I might have seen your 535 by Skidmark (red?).

I had intentions of gridding near the rear of the field, but everyone was sort of lollygagging around, not really going to the false grid. So we went ahead and staged there. I has asked Lainey if she wanted to drive, as I'm attempting to coax an interest in a little more high performance education for her.

So, we have the full course in front of us. 3.27 miles/lap. It is advertised as a 3 laps out, come in for driver change if you want, 3 laps then in. Follow the car in front of you.

So we go out. One lap. Two laps. Three laps. FOUR laps. Oops, one extra, one more than we were told we'd have. Explicit instructions "do what the car in front of you does". Pit in. My wife pulls her door handle, so I assume she wants to take the wheel. Mind you, this is 55mph on the straights, and reasonable and prudent in the turns. I was doing a pretty fair job of keeping up with the E36 325is in front of us, who would lag off on the straights, then rocket through the turns.

Well, we pulled in at the "over halfway" point. And after the change we just couldn't keep up with the 325, or the dozen or so cars in front of them. There were probably 60+ cars behind us. And we lost sight. At the end of lap 3 back out, we came around to pit entrance, but did not see the red 325, either in front of us or on pit lane. So we went by pit in. 300 yards back, so did the E46 behind us, and a string of others. As we neared the paddock entrance, I saw the 325is ON PIT LANE. We had blown the checker. I hit the flashers and stuck my hand out the sunroof waving 1 in a circle to the officials. We got one extra lap, completely unintentional. I felt so bad, I forgot to give instructions to Lainey for a turn or two. She began asking "what do I do, what do I do?" approaching turn 1 and 2. We pitted the next time around, and I went straight to the event organizers, and apologized. I pleaded my case that we just weren't able to keep up after the driver change...oh my name is so mud...

But we had a great time nonetheless, and it got some good dialogue started about driving habits. My wife came to the realization that I drive ahead of the situation, and she drives in it. I began to talk about "soft eyes", and that was enough for today.

Pics below...
Either I'm smooth, or boring...after my 4 laps.
http://www.bimmer.info/bmw/fgump/aftermylaps.jpg

Here's the view behind us...lotsa bimmers.
http://www.bimmer.info/bmw/fgump/gridded.jpg

Notice the nicely tailored bimmer.info hat!
http://www.bimmer.info/bmw/fgump/softeyes.jpg

Here's the E36 that got us all wrong.
http://www.bimmer.info/bmw/fgump/theculprit.jpg

We had a great time, the weather was a little cool and windy, but fun nonetheless. I just hope we didn't cause too much trouble. Didn't stick around to find out too much!