Thanks to Chong for setting this up! And thanks to Nuke too. We went and helped out at the BMW event at DCTC today. I took some photos of the cars going by. Despite the cold and rainy weather, I had a great time. I think everyone else did too! In the afternoon we went out in the rain and drifted around (well, Chong did, the rest of us tried). Unfortunately I didn't get any drifting photos (thanks to a poorly placed minivan!). This is all I ended up with of my car, then I hopped in and drove The 11-11-11 Crew:
Foo, it's not how great she looks is how well she can work it. Why don't you share one of your favorite moments at the event with us and leave the minor boring details out lol. I had a few but I'll share two. First was watching you remove the spacers off your car on an incline hill while on the phone. Second when we were testing out the car after lunch chasing down a BMW Z thru the city blocks section going sideways leaving less then a car length between us causing him major distractions. I wish we had caught that on video, tough ftw!
There was more than a few moment event I enjoyed. Drifting corners to chasing to going off road (x). Overall I think everyone had a great time....mostly Chalsey, had too much fun in the cars..Couldnt happen if it wasn't for you musashi
Well I can certainly help provide the opportunities, I'm just glad you guys were brave and willing to take it. Thanks again for everything guys.
Here are my thoughts from the event: I came in not really knowing what to expect. I was a bit apprehensive to say the least. I am not a big fan of other people driving my car, but a few minutes with Chong driving put my mind at ease, and also showed me a lot of new things. He is a very capable driver and I enjoyed seeing him in action. Within the first two minutes he pushed my car more than I have pushed it in the 1.5 years of owning it. I took it to BIR last year and got up to some high speeds, but I really never found or pushed the car's limits. Really seeing what it could do (even with him driving at far less than all out) was quite an eye opener. Getting up to the limits of traction with fairly wide and sticky tires is a bit nerve wracking, so it was great to see him do it first. One of the very first thing I noticed was the minimal use of braking. I think the first lap or two he probably didn't touch the brakes at all. This was quite the contrast to when I took the car to the track last summer and came off the first session with my brakes smoking. I was battling with fade all day. He was able to get around the track very quickly with minimal brake use. The next thing I saw was his use of mid corner braking (trail braking?) to get the car to rotate. From my non-expert point of view my car's handling is somewhat neutral, but certainly leaning towards understeer at the limits. When I have tried to find the limits in the past, it always seems to push through corners. Getting the rear to come around is something I've never had much luck doing (other than power oversteer in the snow or something like that). After seeing him use this technique I began trying it, and by the end of the day I was having a good bit of luck with it. Overall, just getting to experience a better driver was very enlightening. I felt like I learned a lot in just a very short time. I definitely need/want to get to the track more so I can continue to improve. I hope to come back as a student of Chong's eventually, so he can give me feedback on my driving. This event I got to see what he was doing and try to learn on my own, but I'm sure with him in the passenger seat he could tell me even more things that I don't know or notice. The event itself was very well run. It looked like everyone was having a great time. I helped pick up cones through the slalom, but eventually switched to mostly taking photos. I hope this was OK. It seemed like there was enough people on cone duty, so I figured the drivers might like photos. I would definitely consider attending one of these as a student. This course is perfect for learning the technical aspects of driving. It's not as fast as BIR, but probably better for a learning experience, IMO.
Here are some more shots. The rest can be found here: www.benjohnsonphotography.com/Cars/20120421-BMW-Club-at-DCTC/22562993_tzcqNX#!i
ah man... looks like a blast! Can't wait until I have the reserve funds to fix whatever I'll most likely break so I can hit one of these up.
Maybe a more positive outlook.... asking if anyone broke anything. I know that my car was fine after BIR. I believe everyone that was at DCTC this weekend was also fine. Maybe you'll also be fine?!?!
It was so bad it was sick....and we have proof. Go look for tossed lunch on the side of the track. Hehe
Now you saw why I bought an Evo, right? It's so you can keep up when I'm driving your clients Subaru's. Lmao The Subies are definitely more fun to drive fun in the wet or low traction surfaces.
he use to be my commander he has like 30yrs of service now need to patch it good, might hit more cones at BIR
Have you been to BIR before? You usually don't have to worry about cones. Unless BMW club does something different...
