[Hawkdog]

Hey everyone, just did my first-ever track day with Rocky Mountain BMWCCA yesterday at High Plains Raceway in CO. This wasn’t just my first track day in my G82x, but my first track day ever. I’ve done AutoX on and off for the last 20 years so I have some HP driving experience, but zero actual track time.

First off, I can’t say enough about how well the event was put together and run. An absolute first class event in every aspect. Spent about 4 hours in classroom and had four 25-minute track sessions. Felt like the perfect amount of track time for a day…I definitely wouldn’t want any more than that at this point. I had an absolutely incredible instructor…it really felt like he was constantly giving me the perfect advice at the perfect time throughout the day. My wife also attended and loved it! We both drove the G82 back to back…she was going at a much slower pace than I was and she drove after me, so I think that gave the car some good semi-cooldown laps after my sessions. She’s already wanting to sign up for the next one and also start autocrossing.

So, here’s my takeaways:

- Car setup: I changed the brake fluid to Castrol SRF (see my “brake bleed shit show” thread in the maintenance forum), but other than that the car is bone stock. Tires were a nearly new set of stock P-zeros.

- I removed the front brake vent grates and had no brake fade issues all day, even running with full TCS on and on a hilly track. Rear pads still have about 2/3 life left afterwards. I know some folks are seeing rear pads getting fried on the track, but I didn’t.

- Tires - good grip, not thrilled about the wear. I dropped cold pressure to 27 before my runs and they were getting up to about 38 hot. Was seeing temps in the 170 neighborhood on the tire sensors toward the end of my sessions, but never felt like there was an appreciable loss of grip at any point. Just went out to the garage and looked at the tires - definitely showing an over inflation wear pattern on them, and the drivers front tire is nearly shot, much more worn than the passenger front, which makes sense for a clockwise track. Guessing I probably should have let more air out of them and kept them around 32-33 psi hot to keep wear a little more even.

- Gas pig. By my 3rd session, once I was getting faster, I was using 1/2 a tank in 25 min. Track gas @ $6.75/gallon was a little painful. I was consistently hitting 145-150 mph on the back straight, so I guess that’ll do it.

- Setup was initially Engine Sport+, Chassis Sport+, Steering Sport, Brake Comfort, 4WD. Only thing I changed all day was switching Engine to Sport at my instructor’s recommendation, and he was dead right. WOT is the same on both modes, Sport+ is just more touchy, which is exactly the opposite of what you want when you are trying to have smooth inputs.

- This car is f$&@ing incredible. My instructor has a race-prepped E92 M3 and he kept commenting on what an incredible machine the G82x is. I ran in the C group out of (A/B/C/D). On my 1st session I got passed a few times, but on my 2nd-4th sessions, I was doing all the passing (wave bys only). It was just so easy for me to get a feel for the car and start going faster and faster. TCS saved me a couple times, but I never felt out of control or panicked. Just kept building more and more confidence throughout the day. My instructor said I can definitely run with B and possibly even A at my next HPDE. We agreed B would be best so I can learn the car in MDM/4WD Sport. I rode with my instructor in his car and it was very humbling…I have a TON still to learn. And damn, that E92 V8 sounded good too.

I’ll post some pics and videos later, but wanted to get this out while it was still fresh in my mind. Bottom line, this was an incredible experience for my wife and I and I’d say is a must-do for any G8X owner.

[forza1976]

HPR is damn fun.

[jmg]

Sounds like a lot of fun, and your sentiments mirror mine! What a great car! But damn, it LOVES to eat front tires even with a camber kit. I'm not that great a driver, so I'm probably just asking too much of the tires than I should be. Gas is just guzzled up like it was nothing. I usually have to gas up at lunch.

Did you record any laptimes? If so please visit the Official G8X Road Course Lap Times thread and share!

[BMWRacer523]

Congrats on making the leap! BMWCCA runs great HPDE events and has great instructors.

[beachBmmr]

Welcome to the addiction.
Hope you have a good tire/brake/gas supply....