Rocky Mountain Region BMW CCA School at HPR - Pic Heavy

[Bishop]

High Plains Raceway, the newest track in CO hosted the first Rocky Mountain Region BMW driving school of the season. I attended, as did Iamcreepingdeath, Hansel, and I believe Frankene30 were present from this forum.

Sam (Iamcreepingdeath) posted his pic heres:

http://picasaweb.google.com/iamthenomad/BMWCCASpring2009DrivingSchool#

Hansel snapped a few and posted em in the "LAST CALL: BMW school" thread in the Mountain section, and here are some of mine. I deleted a bunch of em, but these were some of the ones I liked....

The Blue e36 w/ the SCR stickers belongs to a friend, I got two rides and it blew my mind.
Please excuse the dirty lens too...

































The red e46 M3 belongs to the president of our chapter. I got a ride in his car day 2. He didn't adjust his coils for track day 2, or put on his race rubber. He said he finished his R comps off day 1, so it was fun just to go for a ride, a damn quick ride on Continental street tires and no camber...





Here's a shot of Sam's car, unfortunately my battery died shortly after, so I don't have any more pics of his car, only a few of mine, none of Hansel's and none of Franken's e36...










^^^ 1 of 2 M535s that were present, 1 w/ Euro bumpers, VERY VERY clean, w/ m30. This one in the pic had an s38
Here's a small view of the paddock (track is built, but paddock and various other parts are still under construction)



Was a great weekend... I'll add a few pics later today to show my "fix."
Rad hose moved forward into the fan during second session, day 1... Managed to fix and do 2 more sessions that day, and 4 on Sunday, then drive home... Also cooked the brakes 3rd session day 2, good times :)

[hyperE30]

Very nice looks like ton of fun.. damn work... I remember that yellow e30 m3 was for sale

[Bishop]

Yeah it was tons of fun for the most part... I was stressed the whole time, and my driving most definitely suffered.. Though I was told by my instructors, as well as other drivers in my run group and other instructors in my run group I need to get out of C and be in B (hey, I just accepted where they put me... :) )

My car trying to kill itself fay 1 had me stressed the rest of the weekend, and I finally just stopped worrying about it and focused on hauling ass during session 3, day 2... Was my cleanest, fastest session, which in turn cooked the brakes lol (I now believe people when they say HP+ are only for beginners on track...)

[FredK]

Wow, there looks like there's plenty of runoff room everywhere!

Sweet pics, especially of the E30s! :D

[Bishop]

Yeah, one of the greatest things about HPR is since it's in the middle of NOWHERE, they were able to give you PLENTY of room for this instances of "OH SHIT, OH SHIT, OH SHIT, OH SHIT....."
It's a really fun course to drive too, tons of elevation changes and blind corners.

There were 3 more e30m3s on day 1, but they weren't in the best condition and my camera had died... There were more present than I figured, including a Spec e30 which was in my run group. We had fun on track chasing each other, and I came to find out at the end of day 2 the car belongs to a father / son, whose daughter / sister graduated in my class lol

[Atreus]

i need to get my car up to snuff and go out there with you guys...

[325ix]

Nice, I like the yellow e30 m3 and the m5's. Very cool track too. I wanna take my ix out there and see how it does...

[Bishop]

The only thing I can suggest is bring brake pads that can handle your driving level... If you've NEVER been on track before, stock pads may be ok for you... If you've gone once or twice, HP+ might be ok for you... If you've been like 5+ times and you kinda know the car's capabilities and are capable of identifying and executing a fast line, bring something else.... I'm in this realm now and absolutely molested my HP+ in like 5 laps during a session....

[Bimmerman325i]

Funny seeing that yellow E30 M3...I tried to buy that last year. It's got Moton Triples, and is an ex BimmerHaus STX racer.

Looks like fun, wish I could have gone!

[E-Thirty]

Looks like it was a lot of fun. Your car looks great on the track.

[Bishop]

Thanks, it was a fantastic time... It's a little annoying afterward to come home and start diagnosing what needs to be replaced or fixed though

[E-Thirty]

Haha like what? And out of curiosity, what tires were you running?

[Bishop]

Well, the car tried committing suicide after second session, day 1. So, I'm pretty sure it needs new motor and trans mounts, and a new hose to replace the one that's barely alive (duct tape and zip ties are my new favorite things ever)... Perhaps I'll get some pics of the "fix" and post later. But it's gonna be a good time to also replace the PS line that's been seeping and possibly going to fail, as well as track down and eliminate an oil leak that's gotten MUCH worse since the track day. The calipers need to be rebuilt for sure, I knew they did before I went racing, but now it's for sure they need to be rebuilt. I can also install my SS lines at the time, and one of the bleeder valves needs to be replaced. I know there's more but I can't think, it's nothing SUPER big, just lotsa little things.

Oh, and tires were 235/40 Dunlop star specs, mounted on the ARC group buy wheels

[iamsam]

dang nice pics Ben! your camera kicks my camera's ass!

[Bishop]

Thanks. I need to take my lens in, it's dirty but it's inside the lens. Or maybe I'll do some sleuthing and see if it's easy to do it myself... Then they'll be a lot more clear. But it was a good time, and you got some good shots too!