2011 Rocky Mountain BMW CCA Spring Driving School at HPR

The BMW CCA Rocky Mountain Region had its Spring Driving School at High Plains Raceway (HPR) last weekend. I had driven the M Coupe at HPR once before in March at an open lapping day. My goals for the school were to take advantage of as much instruction possible to learn the track better and improve my driving. As always there was a variety of vehicles on hand that were as impressive in the paddocks as they were on the track.

3.0CSL

E90 M3's

Performance Wheel w/ Digital Tach

Forgeline Goodness

Nissan GTR

V10 Audi R8

2002 Race Car

Lotus Exige

German Touring Class 911

E30's

M Roadster

And Of Course the M Coupe!

Or Should I Say Coupes

Jonny V in the Esses

On the Back Straight

HPR is a 2.5 mile track in the plains of eastern Colorado. It has a little bit of everything; elevation change, decreasing radius turns, esses, high speed straights, etc. Jonny V brought his M Coupe for the first time on the track. I was in the A Group for the first time, which was a little intimidating. The privileges of open passing and being allowed to take passengers for the later sessions were worth it. Both the classroom and in-car instruction were geared beyond basic track driving to improving speed, driving racing lines, and even interpreting telemetry. It was an excellent stepping stone to the next step be it instructing, spec racing, or time trials. I feel like I learned more in this school than in previous ones.

HPR

With Elevation

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On the Front Straight

Justin was my instructor for the whole day. He has years of track experience in various cars including an E46 M3. His current ride is a 2011 Nissan GTR. The first two sessions were spend scraping rust off and developing my line. The last two were spent building speed. It became obvious early that I would need to turn off my stability control (DSC). The M Coupe is an odd bird. It's a combination of an excess of power, short wheel base, super rigid chassis, and trailing arm rear suspension. The combination of those make it challenging, but rewarding to drive at the limit. In the past I have used the DSC as a tool to stay smooth, but it really was hindering my exits on some turns. I'm comfortable driving with it off, but have scared myself a few times. Trailing arm suspensions are sensitive to smooth throttle application and lift which prevent unwanted rotation (or spinning). You can see an example of this in Josh's E30. Josh is a dam good driver. The M Coupe had a 145hp advantage over his E30, but we were dead even for most of the session. His rear end broke just a little exiting Turn 5 and broke in the opposite direction. He did the right thing by going off straight leaving his car unscathed.

Josh's Off in Turn 5

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Justin's instruction was a great balance of input and critiquing me after the fact. As we hurled down the track our conversation was as relaxed as if we were sipping lattes at Starbucks. Areas we focused on were:

• Moving my apex earlier and driving more of a racing line through the tighter turns.
• Adjusting my entry and track out to suit the line I was driving.
• Inducing some slip angle / rotation to exit with more speed.
• Not stabbing the throttle and lifting gently to prevent lift-over steer (spinning).

In the instructor session I rode in his GTR, which blew my mind. I won't even try to describe how amazing it was. It accelerated so hard it hurt! I also rode in an instructor's M Roadster. He showed me some specific things suited to the unique M Coupe platform. Jonny V. rode along with me on my third session and I got a little practice at instruction. It was very similar to flight instruction.

My Lap Description

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The BMW CCA school is one of the best in the area and my experience echo's that. The club works hard to put on a safe and productive school. This includes a bunch of volunteer corner workers who maintain a constant watch on the track. Thanks to everyone for their hard work. I can't wait until fall!

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