First Track day ever for the M and myself... Prep? Do's, and dont's??!!

[firechicken99]

[QUOTE=oldBMWguy;12050976]

Originally Posted by firechicken99

gopro. This weekend I made a $8 headrest mount, works great!

Tell us more about that headrest mount please !!

Ill try and snap a quick pic if possible but it is SUPER easy.

WARNING: Its 11pm and I am packing for a business trip so this was typed up quickly and may not be perfectly clear etc. feel free to PM me if you have questions.......

Go to your local home depot/lowes at find the plumbing section/the following:

1. They have pre-cut 2 or 3 foot lengths of PVC. I believe I used 3/4 inch.
2. 1 PVC T shaped joint. (for mounting gopro sticky mount to)
3. 2 U shaped bolts in your choice of size. (you need something long enough to have the U around your headrest bar, go through the PVC, and out the other side.
4. Bag of wing nuts in same size as U bolt

1. Measure the distance from the middle of one headrest bar to the middle of the other. This is where you want the U bolts to be centered.
2. Put the pvc against the headrest and figure out where you want it so that your camera is centered between the seats and/or in the location of your choice.
3. mark where the headrest bars are in relation to the pvc when you have it centered.
4. Measure the width of your U bolts, and use the marks above as center, and place a mark on each side of this where you want a hole for the U bolt to go through.
5. Drill a hole on each side and make sure you can fit your U bolt cleanly through.
6. I then added more holes on each side to make the unit adjustable.
7. Put your gopro mount on the T joint and place T joint on end of PVC pipe (this allows you to easily mount your gopro to the pipe and adjust your vertical axis if necessary)

Enjoy your new mount!

BTW I decided to class it up with a few coats of plastidip to make everything nice and black! I also taped off and plasti-dipped the u bolts so that they werent metal on metal on the headrest.

Quick cell pix... Is it primitive? yes. Is it simple? yes. Does it work? Heck yeah!!!

[firechicken99]

Originally Posted by Em/1

Looked great to me--hit all the apices pretty nicely, but could not hear gear changed well--was it all in 3rd and 4th?

Mostly, yes. You can hear it if you turn the volume ALL the way up. I didnt have my heel toe down before I got there and didnt want to practice on track. Wanted to run good times so my downshifting sucked. I would tap the brakes a little early, downshift, then do my serious braking. I have been working on it since and just need to get rev matching down (what sucks is i am very good at this on street but adding in the braking with the middle of my foot and gas with my toe its something im still working on).

[oldBMWguy]

[QUOTE=firechicken99;12051181][QUOTE=oldBMWguy;12050976]

Ill try and snap a quick pic if possible but it is SUPER easy.

WARNING: Its 11pm and I am packing for a business trip so this was typed up quickly and may not be perfectly clear etc. feel free to PM me if you have questions.......

Thanks for the info re the video mount--- I may try it !

[int2str]

Very nice job for your first track day!
You used pretty much all of the track as you should, which is something most people do not right of the bat. So well done.

Originally Posted by firechicken99

Wanted to run good times

That's not a good objective for your first few track days.
Focus on getting comfortable on the track, hitting apexes repeatedly and staying smooth with your inputs. Forget the clock. Fast times come from smooth, repeatable driving.

I would tap the brakes a little early, downshift, then do my serious braking.

I'd either stay in gear or press the clutch while threshold braking. Then do your down shift right before you turn in. I wouldn't let the shift interfere with the braking.

adding in the braking with the middle of my foot and gas with my toe

Most people don't do it this way (that I know of).

You can either:
1. Press the brake pedal with your left half of the foot and then roll the right half of your foot onto the the throttle
(Ayrton Senna did it this way ->

)

2. Or, press the brake pedal with your toes and then just "bang" the throttle by turning your foot 45 degrees and hitting the throttle with the heal of your foot.
Example:

In either case, the toes (or half of them), stay on the brake.

[firechicken99]

Originally Posted by int2str

Very nice job for your first track day!
You used pretty much all of the track as you should, which is something most people do not right of the bat. So well done.

That was one of my main goal so thanks!

Originally Posted by int2str

That's not a good objective.... Focus on getting comfortable on the track, hitting apexes repeatedly and staying smooth with your inputs. Forget the clock. Fast times come from smooth, repeatable driving.

What I should have said (also because no timing was allowed) was that my desire to get around the track fast, was fueled with and understanding that in order to do so I would need to achieve those goals. My biggest goal was to consistenly hit the right lines and smooth my throttle/steering inputs, and get away from the snap back and forth autox habits. I agree!

Originally Posted by int2str

I'd either stay in gear or press the clutch while threshold braking. Then do your down shift right before you turn in. I wouldn't let the shift interfere with the braking.

I started off attempting this, my issue was that I kept waiting too long to brake (trying to get the most out of the available braking area) and wouldnt leave myself time to initiate the shift before turning. This was why my instructor suggested tapping the brake slightly earlier to get RPMS down, down shifting, then braking and keeping the gear through turn. It definitely is not the fastest way to do things and is something I need to work on.

Originally Posted by int2str

Most people don't do it this way (that I know of).
You can either:
1. Press the brake pedal with your left half of the foot and then roll the right half of your foot onto the the throttle
(Ayrton Senna did it this way ->

2. Or, press the brake pedal with your toes and then just "bang" the throttle by turning your foot 45 degrees and hitting the throttle with the heal of your foot.

In either case, the toes (or half of them), stay on the brake.

1. I tried working on this and my biggest struggle was maintaining proper brake pressure and finding the right throttle input to rev match at the same time. Its easy to bang on it and kick revs to 6k, harder to match the revs appropriately while keeping the right pressure on the brake, I had a hard time with this.

2. My issue with doing this in the BMW is that because the gas pedal is attached to the car by its heel, and not its toe, I find it hard to get proper throttle input from my heel.

The way I had noted it was just an idea that i thought could work because I regularly brake with the pad of my foot (just behind the toes) rather than with my toes and by doing this it seemed easier to brake the way I want and tap the revs up. Plus because you are hitting the top of the pedal its easy to get sufficient yet precise throttle. I completely agree this is not how the pros/rest of the world doe it but idk....

Thank you again for all of the great input and I am definitely going to put some thought into your suggestions and give them a try!

Also please dont take any of my responses as complete disagreement with you, I am just stating where my original thoughts were at and what I am trying to work through. I would love to be able to heel-toe like those guys! This is only the start of things for me!

[CarJunkie]

Its hard to explain, because a lot of it is done by feel, but when you get the hang of it, you won't be paying attention to the actual RPM's anymore.

I move the shifter very gently while tapping the throttle under braking, and when the revs match, the tranny will easily drop into the next gear. If that doesn't happen, you didn't give it enough throttle. If you use a gentle input on the shifter, it will tell you when the revs have matched and you can release the clutch simultaneously as you get off the throttle. That pretty much takes care of all the timing.

If you are too aggressive with the throttle, you'll feel the clutch engage with a slap in your back, and you should back off the next time.

From my experience, it is HARDER to do this smoothly on the street in normal everyday driving than it is on the track. You can and should practice it until you perfect it on the street, and it will then feel like cake at the track.

[firechicken99]

Originally Posted by CarJunkie

Its hard to explain, because a lot of it is done by feel, but when you get the hang of it, you won't be paying attention to the actual RPM's anymore.

I move the shifter very gently while tapping the throttle under braking, and when the revs match, the tranny will easily drop into the next gear. If that doesn't happen, you didn't give it enough throttle. If you use a gentle input on the shifter, it will tell you when the revs have matched and you can release the clutch simultaneously as you get off the throttle. That pretty much takes care of all the timing.

If you are too aggressive with the throttle, you'll feel the clutch engage with a slap in your back, and you should back off the next time.

From my experience, it is HARDER to do this smoothly on the street in normal everyday driving than it is on the track. You can and should practice it until you perfect it on the street, and it will then feel like cake at the track.

It was funny to get to your last paragraph because the whole time up to there I was thinking the first thing I would reply is "the most frustrating thing about this was that I have such an EASY time with this on the street, and its effortless, but cant translate that to the track WHILE braking hard"....

And then I get to the end and you feel the opposite about it haha. In all seriousness, I have a very easy time doing this on the road and I dont even look at the dash anymore, its all sound and feel. I guess the primary difference on the road is that I am not trying to slam/threshold brake at the same time as im blipping the throttle. Need to work on my foot multi-tasking!

I totally understand the concept. I guess I just need to find a quiet open road and try this at real rpm's/speeds/braking

[firechicken99]

Originally Posted by int2str

You can either:
1. Press the brake pedal with your left half of the foot and then roll the right half of your foot onto the the throttle
(Ayrton Senna did it this way ->

2. Or, press the brake pedal with your toes and then just "bang" the throttle by turning your foot 45 degrees and hitting the throttle with the heal of your foot.

In either case, the toes (or half of them), stay on the brake.

I finally got back to the hotel from work and had a chance to pull the vids up with a good connection. I would say what I was thinking of is closest to Ayrton's. To me the pedal setup of the BMW makes the second method harder IMHO.

I am going to chock my issues up to lack of experience and practice. At least theres only one way to go from there!

[CarJunkie]

Originally Posted by firechicken99

I finally got back to the hotel from work and had a chance to pull the vids up with a good connection. I would say what I was thinking of is closest to Ayrton's. To me the pedal setup of the BMW makes the second method harder IMHO.

I am going to chock my issues up to lack of experience and practice. At least theres only one way to go from there!

I agree. Arron Senna's method is the way I have learned it and works well in the 1M. The other method really begs for a throttle that is attached from the top. Using the heel on the brake would be very hard to modulate.

[toni8284]

Joseph,

I did heel and toe with my 1M on the track that day. the 1M is a lot better/easier than my 135 because the M button makes it so simple.

I think you should try it and it will improve your time and smoothness.

I usually bump it up 2K rpm, if I bump it too high sometime, I just need to wait for it to drop to the right rpm and release the clutch.

Also bump it higher rather than lower than the right rpm for the previous gear. I found it will help me to get it perfectly most of the time.

This is my opinion.

I am thinking should I upload my video to youtube... but the file is like 20-30 mins long each session.

[firechicken99]

toni I used windows movie maker to cut out my 3 minute clip

[toni8284]

Here's mine.

How can I get 1920x1080 out of movie maker?

[M3 Adjuster]

Originally Posted by CarJunkie

Its hard to explain, because a lot of it is done by feel, but when you get the hang of it, you won't be paying attention to the actual RPM's anymore.

I move the shifter very gently while tapping the throttle under braking, and when the revs match, the tranny will easily drop into the next gear. If that doesn't happen, you didn't give it enough throttle. If you use a gentle input on the shifter, it will tell you when the revs have matched and you can release the clutch simultaneously as you get off the throttle. That pretty much takes care of all the timing.

If you are too aggressive with the throttle, you'll feel the clutch engage with a slap in your back, and you should back off the next time.

From my experience, it is HARDER to do this smoothly on the street in normal everyday driving than it is on the track. You can and should practice it until you perfect it on the street, and it will then feel like cake at the track.

While I agree that heel/toe should be perfected on the street... I think there is definitely some adaptation needed... on the street.. you have all the time/space in the world... on the track... many times you have corners that come up close to each other.. ( The Ayrton video has some examples of this.. ) or.. at the least.. your speeds are going to be much higher than on the street, and therefore the amount of time braking is going to be much longer when braking at the end of a long straight for example.

I use the same method as Aytron btw.

[Blue55]

I learned heel and toe many years ago and use it all the time on the street. I've never had much trouble doing it on the track until I got my 1M. Most cars do not have a gas pedal hinged at the bottom and it makes it hard to perform the 45 degree technique. I was instinctively using the 45 degree technique and I found I was not able to blip the throttle sufficiently. This sometimes led to an upset in the balance of the car. NOT GOOD!

I think I'll try rolling my foot tomorrow and see how that works. Will take a bit of work to retrain my brain!

[firechicken99]

Originally Posted by Blue55

I think I'll try rolling my foot tomorrow and see how that works. Will take a bit of work to retrain my brain!

I agree, its all in the head!