2008 North Star BMW CCA Driving Events

The beast is from within. LOL She is currently spending the night at Mt Fuji for some TLC.

Its what you are able to do with what you have and not what you don't that makes the difference. :laugh:

Yes, I got a box full of fortune cookies!

 

So what that means is if you are willing and able to corner above 55mph and still make it and stil keep the black on black, you're technically legal. LOL :laugh:

 

Yeah, that fun limter of 55 comes real fast going out of the last turn before the back straight while traveling reverse course. Have fun everyone. I'm on the waiting list.

 

Show up anyway, as usual someone is bound to now show up. Either way you'll still be able to have fun with us.

 

We had a most entertaining weekend, first with a late night Friday prep and than a full weekend of fun. I will provide some write up as soon as I have more time, I had the previllage to drive quite a few cars. The other guys can provide their experiences for this weekend. But for now I have a few pictures. Thanks a bunch for making my weekend a memoriable one, its the most fun I've had at these events.


The three little kids on the right were there for the Teen Street Survival Clinic.


Wasn't mine but it was very nice to see at our events.

 

Saw this blue maching on the way to DCTC.


The Gang!


The Black Mamba!


Silver Eel!

 

Loaner STI!


The Redhead!

 

Suubaru heading straight into one of my favorite exercises. The Slalom! In Nuked Performance's Silver Eel.




That cone was down before we got there. Or could it be that the Sexy Silver Eel winked at it and it just fell over in love.


And a one!

And a two, step.

 

Some of us could learn alot from driving one of these.



Or if you want alittle more style perhaps this one is a bit more appealing.


This was alot of fun to work with. No panelty for going over the cones.


I love what the skidpad can teach you, I just don't enjoy going around in circles.

 

Perfect example of just how dedicated and focused Suubaru really is. He is sitting in front of the class. Thanks again for coming all the way from Shaborgan, WI just to entertain me. You did an exceptional job this weekend, looking forward to working with you again.

 

Alright first thing is first. I want to thank all my friends from Northstarbmw for putting on a excellent event this weekend. And also my friends from the MNSubaru forum as well as outside the forum for making this the best BMW event I have experienced so far, you guys are the best.


Our weekend started with many hours spend in Mt. Fuji's garage, lots of company and lots of work was accomplished that night. We got probably 2hrs of sleep before having to wake up for the Saturday event.
Here are some cliffnotes.

Saturaday Teen Street survival-Highlight of the day. Mt Fuji makes a huge slip up while running to pick up a cone in the wet slalom. It looked like our cameraman caught it on video.

-The volunteers got the track to ourselves during lunch, we were very conservative to ensure we didn't make any bad impressions for the Teen Students and parents.

-Hmongtimes newspaper came out to do a story and interview for their editorial. Not only did they get to experience the course in their Toyota Corolla, but also in the Black Mamb, they asked and they received alot more than they had expected. As Nuked Performance Tuning described it best, he had front row seats on the course; "It looked as though they had just seen a ghost, with their faces frozen and jaws dropped wide open." I got the Black Mamba into 2nd gear around 5500 revs and that was enough to put a huge smile on anyones faces. Hopefully this article will attrack more interest in the Hmong community and gain some interest from the street drag racing scene.

 

Wish I could have stayed longer and been there on Sunday, but apartments don't move themselves.:emo:

 

Day two Sunday Advance Car Control Clinic:

I was previlaged to work with two very good students. One of which drove 5hrs to spend the weekend with us. One who couldn't find reverse in Mt. Fuji's Black Mamba while we had sent him out todo an errand on Friday while we stood behind and watched and waited for the white reverse lights to come on, it only when our stomachs crampped from laughing hallariously. That I asked Mt. Fuji to walk over and show him how to find it.

Again we spent our lunch time playing out on the course, driving and having fun. I spent most of it sorting out the Redhead. The other guys spend time test driving each others cars so we can provide feed back to one another. Mt. Fuji and Suubaru spend some time in the wet skidpad practicing on their donuts and drift techniques, I did a little drift action myself coming around the carosel and the S"s, no ebrake, but plenty of power to swing the rear end around.

The funniest part about Sunday was Mt Fuji calls up Tbone and asked him to bring some Hmong Sausage and sticky rice from the asian store, enough for at least 6. So I'm thinking this is good planning, its early and we are going to get fed some really good food today. So it got closer to lunch time and Tbone shows up with a frozen pack of 8 Hmong sausage links in his hand and hands it over to the guys and says here ya go; and than asked where's the grill? Well guess what, no one brought a grill. And some it was off to McaDee'z again. It must of been too early for mr. Tbone.

The most fun part of the day was when a group of Drag Racers who had just been up at Rockfalls on Saturday showed up at DCTC in the later half of the afternoon. One of them had an STI with Nitto ALL SEASON TIRES. He kindly hinted his desires to see what his STI would look like at a road course and mysteriously hands me his keys, I'm told him I'm no magician and I kindly ablighed. This was after Nuked Performance Tuning had just came off the track with his Silver Eel, boy was Nuke happy, from the looks of it alot of people were. LOL

Stage II STI they would go on to tell me as I slowly started to get familar with his girlfriend Bonny, another sexy machine I must say. We loaded the car with three, one seated in back in the middle. On the second lap I picked up the pace as the music got faster, Bonny is a great dancer, strong sexy legs she had on her, she kept up beautifully, swang her around a few corners and she would roll right back into my arms, she didn't miss a beat. She had soo much torque in so many places, it was very easy to use it to manuver around the S's with it, she never complained once as we must of danced till all his friends got a ride. I am naming her Tarmac Queen of 2008, nice power drifts, slides and lots of useful power. It reminded me of my old AARRF days when I got the opporunity to drift the bugeye while everyone was lined up against the fence line watching and boy did his friends watch as I pitched the her sideways right in front of them coming out of the carosel. It took some serious persuation to get his friends to jump into the car, some just refused completely and others. Could you imagine the peer presure these guys were putting on each other. Well no one would admit it, but after the rides it started to get funky in the car, I knew some of them needed to change their shorts. Okay, just having fun on that last comment.

I must of drove at least half a dozen cars that day, It was like I was trying to catch a bus to get somewhere, constanly jumping out of one and into another, so fortunately Idget was able to track down my Subaru cap for me, I had lost it, but I couldn't remember which car. I'll need a little more time to write up about each one. Its a lot of fun for me to write about my weekends. It allows me to go back and read it and relive it again. Those were my highlights of the weekend, so much action happened and I wished I could of been in more places at once. I'll post up more as I recall them after I get more sleep and the other guys are welcome to chime in on their experiences of the weekend. We definately need a in car camera as a well as a dedicated cameraman. Words cannot describe the level of fun we had experienced over the weekend.

 

I really appreciate you taking time away from your busy schedule and stopping by. Your car is phonominal, I look forward to seeing it in action some day. Thanks again. :biggrin:

 

It was pretty FUN!

 

It will happen, its just a matter of timing. I have to be out of my apartment by the 30th and I don't know where I'm going yet :eek3:



Next time will be better. I may just slap those injectors in without re-working my fuel lines, until I can make it up to MAS. This turbo really likes 25-27psi and I may have to oblige. :biggrin:


Next time she'll be ready for a flogging, and you'll have to give her a shot. When school starts I'll be able to use the corner scales at school and I'll really be able to get the rideheight dialed in. We have a camber gauge at school and that with a tight stringline can yield decent results. I know of a shop that does that with $400,000 vipers...

 

LIAR!!

Oh yes, don't forget about the Road Race Show at RA. I'll give the place a call tomorrow.

 

I totally forgot about the classroom session and when I got there. Only the two front tables were open. =P

I appreciate it, for you taking your time on teaching me how to improve my skills. I would also like to thank, Nuke, for letting me drive his WRX for the rest of the event. I've learned so much within those 2 days, more than what I expected. Yet, I still have a long way to go. You'll be seeing me up there more often now.

....and e-brake thing, bad habit >_<"

 

I am currently in Williams, AZ just got back from checking out the Grand Canyon, tomorrow I'll be in San Diego, CA for the zoo. I will be pretty busy for two weeks till I get back into the office, so feel free to post your reviews and observations of theses cars and rides you experienced. Feedback is always good as we are looking from inside out and its very useful when we get anothers perspective. So here is your chance to make fun of me. LOL

Here is the links for photos of the events.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/northstarbmw/sets/72157606266254181/detail/

http://flickr.com/photos/northstarbmw/sets/72157606293332641/detail/

 

What's was your experience like in regard's to Nuked Performance Tunings Silver Eel monster? Don't for get the oyster sauce to go with that! :yumyum:

 

You are on the right track, the first step is asking for help. The level of commerodory was superior. Great job keeping up with the lessons as it showed when you were handling Nuke's machine, a machine you drove for the very first time.

 

Oh?
What's wrong with stock suspension and poopy AS tires? :laugh::emo:

 

Alright I'm back in the office after putting +5200 miles on my little Toyota Prius. Looks like no one wanted to make fun of me so before I start my write up's I wanted to just say that if anyone ever gets a chance to drive up into the mountains for some serious twisties, I highly encourage it, just don't drive over your head. The highlight of my vacation was not so much the site, but rather the narrow, blinding, two lane twisted roads with lots of elevation and huge drop off cliff that took you from one point to another.

One of the best part about driving a hybrid is though everyone may be passing you on the way up the hill, they're no match when it came to coming down the hill. I used no fuel and no brakes, okay maybe just a drop. LOL And there were times when this would go on for at least 45mins. I kept it safe well with in the limits, trust me, but of course it didn't take much to get my better half to start screaming and making threats.

The only thing on my mind was Mountain Touge drifting.

 

Silver Eel Monster: I was previllaged to drive mr. Nuked Performance Tuning's car once again at DCTC during our ACCC. This time with a different all season compound and power trim. The tires were responsive and predictable even at high operating temperatures. And the power delievery was alot more linear than I last recall. The car does experience some understeer, but thats to be expected, but with a little less speed coming into the corners you can easily get her to rotate just fine.

The stock four pod red brakes worked great, it didn't take much effort to get the car to setup for the turns. In one occassion we were persuing the White STI and was flying thru the chachain and I knew if we tried to upset the car at those speeds with the no season tires we could of easily been doing a rallycross instead of an autocross, so we choose to take out a cone instead, two points for every cone killed. It could of used a few more pounds of tire pressure, but we are not running a racing school and I enjoy driving cars just the way they are. LOL

The slalom was alot of fun and very easy to clear, well balanced and maintained good stability when transitioning around the cones even when taking a very tight line. A good example of just how easy it is to drive this car is how Suubbarruu was able to quickly adapt to this car from his NA Impreza. Sure there are some exceptions, but the facts still remain the same.

2.5 turbo WRX 4 pot brakes w/flash, I highly recommend this car, probably not the fastest at a timed event, but still has plenty of traction just as long as you know how to find it and use it. Fun car to push around a tight technical course and break it loose around a few corners.

Thanks to mr. Nuke!

-Cheech

 

Mt. Fuji Industry-Black Mamba

I was pretty familar with this car untill its recent redeveloped tuning of the power band. Tons of initial power, no lag, quick acceleration, short gears to move thru and amazing throttle response. Overall performance in cornering is above average, but could use less unsettling body roll and unintended weight transfer which I believe is a result of soft bushing and mounts. Though the brakes now currently have Gold 4 pod Brembo's, the paddle is a bit soft and most of the bite is with the paddle pressed down low, sometimes pumping is nessary. I believe a better master cyclinder is in the works for the near future. I also would prefer a more tighter feel to the shifter lever, as it would help prevent from second guessing which gear your going into.

So its a work in progress, excellent job on taking it this far. Lets keep working hard on getting this on a high speed track event with you as the pilot.

Thanks for your assistance and technical knowledge as always.

-Cheech

 

Idget Sweet & Shine-Hachiroku killer Civic

This little Honda has an amazing setup. Not only light weight, its also very easy to get around the corners and handling is neutral. The brakes are as Sheen has stated before, they work really well. No much body roll coming around tight turns. And you can feel the power from this little machine considering its a 1600cc SOHC and that with four people on board.

Who ever buys this car will be amazed at what it can do, so buyers beware of its potential, you're getting alot for a bargain.

And thanks to Sheen for the opportunity to drive it at DCTC.

 

Redhead 240sx

From the drivers perspective I am pretty happy with the results from the weekend. I put her thru a few tests and she held up and performed better than expected. The brakes works very well, but she could use some fresh dot4 ATE fluids, along with the clutch fluid. The alignment and corner balance allowed the car to be driven fairly easy, neutral and oversteer on power at exit.

The inner/outer steering tierods made a huge difference compared to what I had experienced when I test drove the car for the very first time. At the time even with a smaller suede steering wheel it still took alot of steering rotations to get the front wheels to turn. But now its a piece of cake, very little effort with plenty of feedback and a little heavier feel almost as nice as the one on Mt Fuji's Black Mamba.

The performance differences between the STi and 240 are very different at corner exit. Where I am able to find a much quicker opportunity to get on the gas with the Subaru, I am having to be a bit more patient with the Nissan. And with this car you really have to know how to squeeze the power on, not like the Subaru where you can almost hammer it in some cases and the AWD system will sort itself out.

I am alot more comfortable getting this car sideways than I am with the Subaru. I am finding it much easier to control the sliding with just power to the rear wheels, where as with the high level of grip on the AWD its catching everything and can easily snap around in either direction. (Both modified cars, stock is a different story.) I think they call it steering with the rear wheels.

So more R&D is underway and I'll need to start pushing it a little more in either direction to see what she wants to do when that happens.

 

A perfect example of the incentives of a collaboration between mutual friends. I greatly appreciate your review and as we continue down this path I will look forward to reading more from you.

Same car, but different characteristics, performance and driver. Next time we'll have to do it again and co-drive while the other is piloting. Could it possibly be that I didn't find these "deficiencies" because I kept it under 55mph which would result in me doing less work behind the wheel. LOL

The differences in our driving styles allowed us to experience a different animal with the same car. When driving any car after a few laps you kind of get to know what the cars limitations are and what you can and can not do. It’s the driver’s job to work thru these barriers and find other ways to make the car faster. I knew the no season tires had a very low threshold, but it’s the drivers threshold that will make the difference; finding ways to keep them maximized.

It's working with what you have and not with what you don't that makes it fun and exciting. Otherwise the bill just keeps getting larger. Personally I think a well setup track car is much easier to drive, of course you can't expect a novice to achieve these limits when it’s intended for a more experience driver, they just don't have the skills and know how. But it’s these practical street machines that I enjoy driving most. These are machines I find to bring me more excitement to the driving experience. These are machines that will really challenge you and show you just how good you truly are. Geo......FTW!

Sheen, repeat after me, "There are no such things as deficiencies, only dependencies."

Thanks again,

-Cheech

 

Few people talk much about mid corner, but its role is just as important as exit and entry. If you think about it there are few who are able to master the mid corner and its examples like Michael Schumacher who proves time after time how they are able to go purple in each sector.

Common sense: You can scrub off speed faster than you can build it. What does that mean? It means you want to bring as much speed with you into the entry as you possibly can with out it impacting your exit. How? By trail braking and slowly turning in one degree at a time and coming off the brakes as quickly as you can start to rotate the car.

Mid corner: Drivers often get the misconception they have to hit each reference point. Entry-Braking, apex-turn in and exit-track out. So they approach each corner the same way, often the same speeds and manner. This is great if you’re a beginner, but if you ever want to start getting faster you might want to try a different approach.

Try this, come into a turn with as much speed as you comfortably can, use turn in reference point and not braking points. The difference is you want to know when you need to get most of your braking done and not when you should start braking. So knowing when you need to start turning will allow you to do this. There is no law that says you have to hit the apex with your tires. What you should be more concerned about is with the added speed can you maintain it and how quickly can you straighten out of the exit so you can start putting the power down as quickly and as much as you possibly can.

You see a lot of driver sacrifice their entry speed for their exit, so they come in slowing the car down more than they really need to at the same speed everything, start braking at the same spot and turn in the same way and track out the same way. Only use as much as what the car is telling you, you don’t need to exaggerate unnecessary movement or occupy space that is not going to benefit you.


Here is another approach I often use you may find interesting. This is what I do when I’m getting familiar with a new car or a track. The first few sessions I’ll start by turning in early at a comfortable speed, taking the tighter line, staying on the inside as long as possible and I start to apply power as quickly as I can while trying to keep the car on that line.

Next session I work on finding all my turn in points, you’ll want the ones that will yield the fastest exit speeds. So basically sometimes the less steering the better, less hang time in the corner the better, all depending on the type of corner.

And the last piece, a session after being satisfied with the first two. I will start taking a wide line, I’ll run the outside of the course and stay out there as much as possible, using up as much of the track as I can. The intent of these three exercises when combined will hopefully result in providing you a good understand of the characteristics of how your car will react. This will quickly help you start to sort things our and define the fastest way around the course.

Remember to approach each exercise slowly and than start to apply power progressively and smoothly. How you apply your inputs will determine your results. And always look for run offs during practice sessions.

Another day another mile stone!

Enjoy,

-Cheech

 

North Star BMW CCA - BIR October 12-14 2008 & Motorsportreg


Hello--

As we near the end of summer, the next North Star Chapter Performance Driving School at BIR approaches. We will be running the new short track Friday - Sunday, October 10th - 12th. Should be fun to try out! Here are some details related to the event:


** Friday instructor/advanced student driving day **
We are requiring our instructors who have not driven driven the new
short track prior to our weekend to attend Friday's track day to learn
it. Friday's focus will be learning the line and passing zones; there
will be no instructor development this time. Advanced students may
inquire to join in and drive on Friday. Please contact Chief Instructor John Biesecker at [email protected] with your interest and for approval. The cost will be $150 for Friday.


** North Star Chapter brings you Motorsportreg.com registration **
Our club is always looking for ways to improve, and we have upgraded our registration process by adding the Motorsportreg.com service. We feel that Motorsportreg.com will be a one-stop, streamlined place to register for our events. Create and manage your own account profile, which you can also use to sign up for driving events with other clubs that use Motorsportreg.com (example: Badger Bimmers, other BMW CCA chapters, and Glacier Lakes Quattro Club).

To begin, visit http://www.motorsportreg.com to create your account.
Once your account is active, add 'BMW CCA - North Star Chapter' to
your Club Memberships, and our events will show up the Calendar.

If you have any questions or issues with using Motorsportreg.com,
please let us know at [email protected] or [email protected].


** Other details **
We will be staying at the Comfort Suites on 371 in Baxter. The club
has stayed here before, and our rates are $89.00 per night/$99.00 per night with waterpark pass. When making your reservation, mention that you are with the 'BMW club'. The block of rooms for the club are reserved through September 9th; register by then to guarantee your room. Rooms are available to the public after September 9th. Comfort Suites can be reached at (218) 825-7234.

For our Saturday night dinner, we will be back at the Prairie Bay
Restaurant next to the Comfort Suites. The great dinner, service, and private group room should hit the spot after a day at the track on
Saturday. The cost is $20 per person, and you will be able to
register on Motorsportreg when you register as an instructor for the
weekend. Barn spots may also be purchased during registration.

Please join us on Thursday evening, September 11th from 6:00 - 9:00pm at Motorwerks BMW in Bloomington for our BIR tech inspection evening before the event. All drivers must have their car teched in advance to the event and bring a completed tech form with them. Motorwerks BMW will also provide track-side support at the event; THANK YOU!

Our last school at BIR in May was a big success from an organization standpoint, in large part because of several volunteer helpers during the weekend. The BIR event organizers are looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help at our weekend in October. Duties would include helping out at the registration table on Friday night/Saturday morning, helping run the car control clinic exercises on the track in the morning, etc. Volunteers can receive instructor rides on the track, free admittance to the Saturday night dinner, and our sincere thanks! Please contact [email protected] with interest in helping out. This club is based on volunteers, and we could not pull off quality events without them!

And finally, please be sure to read the BIR Welcome Packet in advance to the event:

http://northstarbmw.org/drivingschools.aspx?ns=Forms

Thanks for your time and hope to see you in October on the new short track!


Eric Christenson
Driving Events Coordinator
[email protected]

 

Well I think its time once again to call out the amazing 1fastbadger out for duty for another round of BIR action. Spidy is on my short list too, but he never answers my pm's. So basically fall will soon be upon us and the MN cold will be hovering over our shoulders. brrr! So I doubt we'll see any new faces our these events, but I hope to see at least a few familiar ones.

I got some work ahead of me here after this weekends event I'll know more about what else to invest my time in on the car's setup.

 

It's the Wild season opener that night and they'll be raising the banner. I don't know if I can miss that... even for the short course. I'll have to try and find another car club hitting it up at a later date or wait til next spring. Priorities, right?

 

Even for those who are not planning on driving with us this Oct, feel free to stopby and catch a glimps of some really nice cars for the event. It's FREE!


2008 Fall Performance Driving School @ BIR TECH INSPECTION

Location: Motorwerks BMW
1300 American Blvd West
Bloomington, MN 55420
888-769-3858

Time: 6:00PM - 8:30PM

Bring the car that you will be driving at the Oct 10, 11 and 12 Brainerd International Raceway Performance Driving School to Motorwerks BMW between 6:00 and 8:30PM for a complementary inspection. An inspection by a pre-approved technician or shop is required to participate in the Performance Driving School event.

 

I was blown away by just how fancy and advance Motorwerks BMW really was. Lots of shop space, clean stalls and nice people. I think they told me something like at least 40. All the tech's tool box were the same and the drive thru section where you pull in and hand off your keys is four cars wide. Well I was the only true Rice Burner so its obvious they weren't going to take any pictures of my car and post it on a BMW website. LOL Anyway I had agreat time hanging out with a bunch of Bimmer guys, I couldn't stick around too long had to rush to a meeting, after dealing with rush hour coming from Plymouth and trying to avoid the car from overheating, so I ended up taking the small roads to keep the air flowing.







Alot of this going around.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/northstarbmw/sets/72157607245770728/

 

Wow! A real 2002 Bimmer in the last photo?!

 

There's usually a 2002 or two at most of the Northstar events.

I wish I had garage space to restore mine. :/

 

Shoot! I was going to go, but not having a car really makes it tough. My buddy with the red M Coupe was up there and I was going to make an appearance and be pit crew for the weekend...but had some things come up that I had to take care of. On that note, I did actually get a chance to drive the M Coupe at MAM a few weeks ago at the findtheline event, and I have to say, what an experience! Compared to any other car I've driven on the track, this one was the one to beat. Granted it isn't my car and I was asked to keep it at 1:55 or above for a lap, I still pushed it hard enough to get an idea as to it's capabilities. So I consistently ran 1:53's, it still had a ton more potential and was so well balanced. I was surprised, first off, that he let me drive it. Maybe he felt bad that I was without a car Or it was his way of thanking me for helping in the marathon that was the drive down to make it in time for the event and then leaving from the track and getting home at midnight...I'm guessing that One-Lap would be about the same idea...except that's for multiple days

Anyway, sorry I missed the event. I wanted to come up and try to sell some tires and wheels, but just couldn't get away.

Mike

 

Well don't feel bad, that makes two of us. I had to miss this event as well due to car issues. I have tires, but need new wheels. Give us more details, what did you notice about the car that made you think there is more potential. It just be the way its being driven, and than again a well engineered machine will make things look easy. Well hopefully the next time we meet it will be RWD amono to RWD amono.

This was weekend's event probably had one of the best weather conditions in October I've seen for many years, mid to high 70's. Well the car is getting tuned this Thursday and the coilovers are going to get upgraded and a new set of 17's are in order for next season. A friend just contributed a set of 17 R compound recently that will help get her up to speed quickly.

So what else are you doing to your M3 lately?

 

2008 BIR event photos. It looked like a wet weekend!

http://flickr.com/groups/2008-ns-bir-fall/


Hey its my old doctor!









That's right Billy, you tell'm!

 

Event: 2009 Winter Driving School
Event Type: Winter Driving DescriptionDriving school for adult drivers.
Location: Dakota County Technical College

Starts: 8:00AM
Ends: 4:30PM

Read more here about our schools.

Important Information: If you are registering a teenager under 18, this driving school is ONLY available to teenagers that have successfully completed a Street Survival driving school as of the time of the event.StatusOpen Begin Date31-JAN-2009 End Date31-JAN-2009Event Cost$100.00

More Details: Last day to register: Mon Jan 26, 2009 (or event solds out)

Membership Required?: Yes