Thurs: Trackday @ Snetterton
4:30am I was on the road to pick up my mate, then we headed up M6 and by accident went past Corley Services where
@PITA was waiting, but we called him and he caught up and we convoyed there, very little if any traffic and we were so early we stopped for a Maccy's brekkie (seeing a few track specd E46 and E92 M3s sitting there having a Maccys too lol).
Then we were at the track seeing loads of Clios (shock horror haha).
Got about taking all the stuff out the car into the garages, lowering tyre pressures (I went for 24 cold to start), wheel nuts torqued up and off we went out for sighting laps, I was slow as it's been a long time since I been out on track, never done Snetterton and the E36 is so new to me I was holding up
@RSRowe so sorry for that haha.
Back in the pits waiting for the ones who are eager to get out go, then I went out on track. I found the track really tricky to start with, I felt so slow. I got temp into the tyres and brakes, they both felt fantastic, but I just couldn't get my swing on the track, when I nail a corner on 1 lap, the next lap I would fluff it up.
I did 2 stints and came back in as 4th popped out braking hard, I was really pissed off but I got car in the air to investigate (thanks to
@burrellbloke and
@EthanMenace lending me their jack and axle stands).
Indeed the same god damn bolt had undone! So I stole a 13mm spanner from
@R27WTF and I was literally hanging off the fucker (well as much as I could without burning my hands more than I had lol).
Then I went out for another stint, it was spot on, getting quicker and finding a better groove, but then the stint after that it did the goddamn same thing.
I tried asking but no one near us had any stronger loctite, but then
@tombate911 had some when I went to toilets (his garage was further up).
So again jacked up, touching molten lava bolts, I put some Loctite 270 on.
Went out for another stint and it was fine, so I thought it was cured, it was now Lunch (my tuition session was 2pm straight after lunch).
Lunch was crap onsite, I'm a veggie so I asked what is veggie "we have a jacket potato"...ermm no, so went Starbucks just outside of the track.
Come back and went met the instructor for tuition, he complemented the car, saying he loves E36 and loves the mods i've done.
He straight away told me to be more trusting in my cars ability, first Corner I went from going in 3rd in my first few laps, to 4th, he was like "you will be doing it in 5th" and I did, seriously he was correct, the grip it had was great.
Another thing he kept warning me, I was too eager to turn in too early and too aggressively at times, so gave me so many pointers for the hairpin which made a massive difference.
Then came the corner before the bridge (I am shit with corner names lol), I kept messing it up, but again it was down to turning in too early, meant car position was still turning left when I had to brake to then go right causing rotation, made a massive difference. Then the 2nd to last corner (the longgggg right) he said the car has so much grip I can use way more throttle and no brakes than I was, then light brakes to slightly rotate the last bit right before the left turn before the straight.
He said I really listened and took on what he said, which was good to hear, but right at the end of the session the stupid gearbox was doing the same thing.
Tom mentioned he had some M8 nylocs, so I went and found him and he did indeed. I was going to replace the serrated nut on there, but as there was enough thread I thought let's double nut it and it was fine through all the sessions!!! YAYYYY!
So my mate felt a bit sick from passengering, so I went out for a couple of stints alone to put into practice what I was taught, a few trial and errors and my god I was sooo much quicker, so much more confidence in the car.
I let a Caterham go past and he did like a Team America secret signal (gif below) I wondered was he angry at me, but just carried on, he then came up to my car asking who owns it, I said me, he said something was sparking under your car, I was like oh fucking no!
Luckily it was the plastic shroud / ducting to tunnel air into the radiator had snapped off at passenger side and was held still on drivers so dragged round a few laps, I undone drivers side and threw that to the side.
Then my mate wanted to come back out and he was like "you're so much quicker, so much smoother" the first and last corner he loved how much speed I was carrying compared to before.
That was that, end of day more or less, so started packing up, waiting for tyres to cool down so I could put tyre pressures back to road spec.
Said my fair wells to everyone and off we drove back to Brum.
After all the shit and stress before going, I am so glad the car was sorted (as I was at a point even if it was ready, that I wanted to sell my place lol).
The car was so spot on (apart from the stupid gearbox mounts), tyres (Federal 595 RS-RR) were shockingly great, the RS29 pads were phenomenal as usual, the engine was solid, temps never crept up or anything, it used no oil, the only thing I did notice was the gearbox output seal is weeping, so I will get that ordered and swapped over (I vaguely remember doing it on my old one and it was relatively easy, so will double check).
Lovely to meet everyone and have a blast on track, if anyone has any cool vids or photos of the car please share them.
