Mike Skeen - VIR e30

[porschelou]

Last weekend I hired Mike Skeen (mikeskeen.com) to coach me at a HPDE for 3 days. We were running with the SVT/Cobra club at VIR - Full Course. Mike has set records at VIR in e30's. Here is a video of him driving our 86 e30 Lemons car. After riding with him - it's pretty amazing what he could make the car do.

By Sunday I was hitting turn 10 in 5 gear flat out (just a touch on the brakes before the drop). Turn 14 after much coaching I was braking between the 1 and arrow marker ( 120MPH). What a blast. Wish I could heel/toe - Mike made it look easy..

Yes - that is a Salen Mustang that gives him the point by :)

Car had well used Falken 615k tires, PFC08 pads, IE stage III springs and Bilstein Sport shock/struts, -2 degrees all the way around for chamber.

On Saturday a New Boss 302 Laguna Seca Mustang tried to save a poor entry into turn 10 only to spin and hit the tires/wall - totaled the car. Don't think he had track insurance - that sucks..

Two older guys showed up with a new turbo Porsche and ZR-1 Vette - OMG - I checked my mirrors and had no one behind me - a few seconds later they were both on my bumper - damn fast.. and they both had paper tags on the cars...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=ABP26AHBFpA

[Nsquared97]

Very cool! Always fun to watch a talented driver on course. That high speed 5th gear section looks intense!

[cagedbunny]

Yes - that is a Salen Mustang that gives him the point by :)

Ha! What are the damn odds? Story time!

2 days ago, my buddy sells his 190e 2.3 16v to a local guy, and I help deliver it to the buyers father's house on Lake Norman. Super friendly guy, end up chatting about cars, track events, E30 M3's, etc. He had just wrapped up a Mustang event the past weekend at VIR. Mentioned this crazy E30 that was "ugly as hell", done up like the Mad Max car, but driven by a real hot-shoe. Told me how this car was all over his ass, so he gave it a point-by, and attempted to follow it through hog-pen.. only to watch it fly off into the distance for the rest of the session. He was driving his Saleen Mustang :D

Small world!

[jlevie]

Is the differential a 4.10? That is what it looks like in the video.

[porschelou]

That's crazy Cagedbunny that you ran into the Saleen driver. He could out run us on the straights but every time we hit the curves we were there. The 3rd lap at the Oak tree Mike almost touched his bumper and that's all it took. One nasty looking e30 about to touch his mustang and we got the point by. We laughed about it when the session was done. Mike is one hell of a driver. He is racing in Detroit this weekend - World Challenge event.

We have a 3.73 gear in the back. Could have used a 3.91 .

[Zasz]

^ That's badass.

[jlevie]

That's crazy Cagedbunny that you ran into the Saleen driver. He could out run us on the straights but every time we hit the curves we were there. The 3rd lap at the Oak tree Mike almost touched his bumper and that's all it took. One nasty looking e30 about to touch his mustang and we got the point by. We laughed about it when the session was done. Mike is one hell of a driver. He is racing in Detroit this weekend - World Challenge event.

We have a 3.73 gear in the back. Could have used a 3.91 .

Then is the motor an M20B27? The shift points are way early for an M20B25 with a 3.73 and the lap times I picked off the video weren't fast enough to support the early shifts just coming from speed.

Just trying to understand what I was looking at.

[markseven]

You can't r3v match but you hired Mike Skeen? Did I misread that?

[porschelou]

The motor is a b34 3.5L (87 535is engine) that we put in. The shift light comes on at 5500rpm - the hp starts to fall off after that plus we have no reason to run to redline ( 24hr long race - need to take it easy on the engine). Damn thing consumes some gas..

I hired Mike to help coach me and improve my skills. I can heel/toe but not like Mike :)

I had the money to either do Boundurant this year or hire a coach in train in our own car - picked Mike/VIR. Can't wait till Aug - 24hr at VIR..

[markseven]

The motor is a b34 3.5L (87 535is engine) that we put in. The shift light comes on at 5500rpm - the hp starts to fall off after that plus we have no reason to run to redline ( 24hr long race - need to take it easy on the engine). Damn thing consumes some gas..

I hired Mike to help coach me and improve my skills. I can heel/toe but not like Mike :)

I had the money to either do Boundurant this year or hire a coach in train in our own car - picked Mike/VIR. Can't wait till Aug - 24hr at VIR..

:up:

[jlevie]

The motor is a b34 3.5L (87 535is engine) that we put in. The shift light comes on at 5500rpm - the hp starts to fall off after that plus we have no reason to run to redline ( 24hr long race - need to take it easy on the engine). Damn thing consumes some gas..

I hired Mike to help coach me and improve my skills. I can heel/toe but not like Mike :)

That explains the shift points.

If you have a decent skill set, the best investment you can make as a racer is to have a pro coach you for a day (preferably two days). Mike is a great driver and coach and I'm sure you learned a lot.

[priapism]

Skeen is the national SE30 champ for a couple of years now and one fast fucker. Nice job picking him up.

I remember this car from when I did Lemons at CMP...loved the theme!