I got to the site nice and early so I would have time to change the rims and walk the course a couple of times. I could not believe my eyes when I pulled up to the site. It was a very imitating course to say the least. On either end of the course, there are jersey barriers to keep out of control cars off the public roads. On the edge of the runway, there were tall weeds, dirt, and there were trees no farther than three feet from the edge of the runway. And the course went right to the edge of the runway, so if you lost control you could easily find yourself at a body shop having repairs done.

After gazing in awe and thinking to myself, don’t wreck the daily driver, I took a deep breath and went about changing the rims. I also took the spare tire out to try to compensate for the almost full tank of gas I had. Once I got the rim swap over with, I think I will get tired of that fast, I walked the course with someone who had run this course a few times in the past. The course looked like it was going to be a fast course, except for one extremely tight slalom.

After walking the course, a couple of times we had the drivers meeting. They told us about a Cobra kit car that went careening into a tree near the sweeping corner at the end of the course. Great, that’s not what I needed to hear. One run consists of two laps around the course, which is nice because when you see yourself make a mistake the first lap you can try to correct yourself on the second. The QSCC also holds a practice run in the morning so everybody is familiar with the course at speed.

I asked one of the guys who had some experience on the course to come with me on my practice run. He said he would and jumped right in, commenting on how he wanted to see how my Saturn compared to his BMW. Well after hearing that I wanted to try to impress him, but at the same time didn’t want to wreck the car. So, I took it fairly easy on the practice run. The tail seemed to like to come around a bit on some of the turns, but nothing too drastic. I did notice that you are heading at some of the jersey barriers at more than 60mph!!! Not too safe if you ask me. We stayed on course, but hit one cone in the tight slalom. My passenger seemed to be impressed with the ride, he especially liked the sound of the intake!!! Later in the day he also mentioned how he couldn’t believe that a front wheel drive car could stick it’s tail out like that. All in all, it was a good run.

After working the first heat, it was my turn to run. My first lap of my first run I tagged a cone, the same one, I believe, that I hit in my practice run. Other than that, that lap was uneventful. Then about halfway through the second lap, on a hard right hander coming into the tight slalom, the tail came around. I countered to try to catch it, but it just wasn’t going to happen. The car ended up facing the direction it was coming from, and back of the car just barely went off the end of the runway into the weeds. Luckily, there were no trees around!!! Wow, the car just spun, and I have a full tank of gas. I guess those new tires don’t give as much warning as to when they are going to loose traction like the old ones did!!! I ended that run with a 129-second run, not too bad with a spin. After my run I quickly lowered the pressure in my rear tires, raised the pressure in the front, and put my spare back in. Hopefully the tail will stay planted on the next run.

On my next run, the tail seemed to be much more stable than the previous run. It would oversteer slightly in hard cornering, but it was just enough to make it fast and not out of control. It’s like they say in the movie Day’s of Thunder, "loose is fast, and on the edge you’re out of control". The tail would stick nicely, however in long sweeping corners. I also found myself needing to put it into third coming up to the sweeping corner at the end. This means I was toping 70mph, and heading right at some jersey barriers while doing it, not my idea of safe, but fun as hell at the same time!!! This time I ran a 106-second lap, only about five seconds slower than some M3 times!!! These SP 8000’s do seem to hang on much better than the Comp T/A’s that I was using before. The true test will be next weekend at the next BMW event, where I will be able to make a direct comparison.

Then it happened. While I was working, this red Mustang Cobra lost it. The driver of the car was, from what I gathered, an extremely experienced driver, and has been doing this for years. I doubted when I saw it happen that it was driver error. He was coming into the sweeping corner at the end of the course, where I was hitting 70 in a Saturn so you can imagine how fast he was going, and he lost it. He ended up going head on through the jersey barriers, pushing it almost halfway across the street. The car came to a rest just on the other side of the street in some grass. What happened was this, as he started braking for the corner, the caliper on the front drivers side snapped, causing him to loose all of his brake fluid, and in turn all of his brakes. The car went sideways, facing where all of the people were standing. Thank god, he knew what he was doing, and he managed to get it to point the other way, and crashed through the barriers instead. He speculated that he went through the barrier toping 60mph. The driver walked away unharmed, except for a damaged ego, and a totaled car. That says a lot for the safety of a Mustang.

Unfortunately, this was the end of the day for the rest of us, so I was only able to get in two real runs and a practice run. Now you may ask, will I ever go back? The answer is yes. I liked the course, it’s challenging and fast. Once you get over the fear of what’s on the sides of you, it’s all right. As long as you don’t try to push the car beyond its limits, you will be fine.

Results:

Not available at this time.

Related Links:

QSCC Homepage

Boston Chapter BMWCCA Homepage

Killer Bees Racing Team Homepage