Road Atlanta Dec. '08

Ok, I guess it's time for an update. Most of you have probably heard by now, but in case you haven't... Road Atlanta didn't go quite so well this time around.

I guess the trouble started the Tuesday before I went to the track. A friend of mine has a trailer that I'd been planning for months to borrow to haul the car to the track. When I first asked him in approximately August and each time I reminded him that I needed it there were no problems. But, Tuesday came around and I called to let him know that I was coming to pick it up and surprise, something came up and he needed it that weekend. Not a big problem. I called U-Haul and everything was on track again.

The next issue was my planned departure time on Friday. I had put in plenty of hours and was hoping to get out of the office around 9. 8:45 rolled around and surprise, a meeting pops up for 10 that I HAVE to attend. Not a big problem. I finally got out of the office around 12:30, pick up the trailer, pack what feels like the entire garage and hit the road about 3:30. Back on track.

All's well until about 10 miles west of the Alabama/Georgia state line on I20. I'm cruising right along trying to make up a little bit of time. Then a black Maxima passed me while pointing backward and waving franticly. I took a quick look in the rear view mirror and surprise, flat tire on the trailer. I made a few calls to U-Haul and after about 2 and a half hours sitting on the side of the interstate, in which time it got very cold and very dark outside, a guy showed up and got everything straightened out. At this point I'd given up on arriving in Atlanta at any sort of decent hour. At least I was again headed toward the track.

It does get much better here... for a little bit.

Saturday morning was pretty chilly at the track before sunrise, but it actually warmed up nicely and ended up as a beautiful day. Michael and I had several alternating sessions on track and in the classroom. He had an instructor and my dad rode along with me since he made it to the event and is allowed to ride because he's a NASA instructor in the NorCal region. The track time on Saturday was GREAT. I learned a lot and really felt comfortable managing traffic. My speeds also came up a bit. The car ran fantastic, the brakes were amazing and the tires were doing really well for being DOT street tires. Michael said the first session was a bit nerve racking, but it all came together for him in the second and third session. We covered up the car, grabbed some mexican food and hit the sack early. GREAT DAY!




Sunday morning was also a bit on the cold side, but we had a little later start so it wasn't quite as bad. I uncovered the car and warmed it up while Michael had a classroom session. Then I hit the track for my first session of the day. Everything was running great, just as it had on Saturday. There wasn't much traffic, the track was great and I was really pushing the pace. The car also felt better being a couple hundred pounds lighter load since I was passenger free. I managed to get about 15 of my 20 minute session and surprise again, it all came apart. I'll spare you all the gritty details, but the big picture is the back end tried to lead the front and I ended up in the tire wall. This time I was done.

It was all driver error. I knew Road Atlanta wasn't the place to be driving that hard since there are a lot of walls, but it really was going well. Lesson learned.

It's really not all that bad. Slightly tweaked front subframe, snapped tie rod, broken radiator, scuffed up left wheels and a bit of wrinkled sheet metal. With a little straightening out it'll be back. It will never again be the amazingly good condition, little old lady driven gem that it was, but it will now begin a new life. I'm no longer worried about messing it up so it can now become a full-time track car. The interior will be gutted, a full cage will be installed and it will now complete its transformation to become a Spec E30.

It will actually work out pretty well. This car will now be shared 3 ways between my dad, my brother and me. In return for the 2/3 share that I’m giving up I’ll get a fairly good condition stock 1990 325i from my dad and Michael will be straightening out this one, welding in a cage and doing a ton of work to make the changes that have to be done. Wish us luck as Michael and I drive a 19 year old car with 270,000 miles on it from California back home.

(These aren't the wheels that will stay and I'll change the springs to lower it and remove the 4x4 look ASAP.)

When I began considering this whole track thing I was shopping for a 1999 BMW M3. After a bunch of reading I heard several times that you shouldn’t track a car that you can’t afford to wad up and walk away from. That, and the discovery of Spec E30, led me to the MUCH cheaper ’87. I wasn’t planning to crash it, but if I ever did there wouldn’t be any real problems. Unfortunately, (or fortunately) it all fell out that way. I wrecked it, but it will be reborn better than it was and I’ll end up with a replacement street worthy toy car. Life is Good.