N55 135i Sandown Track Day Impressions

[stylish.]

Short and sweet write-up. Let me paint the picture first...

Car: BMW 135i N55 Manual

Milage: 35,000 KM

Weather: 24 Degrees Celcius, Mostly Sunny

Track Conditions: Dry

Track Experience: First track day!

Max Oil Temp: 129 Degrees Celcius

Max Speed: 215 KM/H

Mods: Quaife LSD, Dunlop Star Specs Z1 225/255 on stock wheels

Nannies: TIM YOYO!

Best Lap Time: 1:30.4



Power: It's 'adequate' to say the least. Got up to 215km/h on the back straight and 210km/h on the first straight. The car never felt nervous or scary. I remember having a few encounters with 2 diffrent Lexus ISF's. By the end of the straight, it pulled about 2 car lengths from me, but the 135i easily out manueveurs it through braking and corners. One of the ISF owners mentioned that he had trouble keeping track of which gear he was in, as it had 8 lol. The slower corners (2,3,4,9,11) I was able to take in 2nd gear.

Handling: Very neutral but the car tends to lean towards understeer at the limit. This is probably due to the softish nature of the M-Sport suspension (as most of you have mentioned). However, you can take advantage of this as it makes the car more 'predictable', thus inspiring confidence at the limit. I felt that I could easily modulate the brakes mid corner to help the car turn in sharper or reduce understeer upon corner entry. Despite that, I can see why people have the need to upgrade to KW coilovers or a 1M. But for me, it's a daily driver, so the softness of the stock suspension does have its advantages.

Brakes: Experienced some brake fade after 6-7 laps in session 4 (4 sessions in total). Only performed cooldown laps before exiting the circuit, but otherwise I didn't feel the need to have a cooldown lap mid-session. Although I was keen on seeing when limp mode would kick in reference to the oil temp.

2 1Addict members (Tim and Ken) also participated.

A big thankyou to Driver Dynamics for their smooth management of this event =)

[timbo_3101]

Glad to hear you enjoyed it Carl and congratulations on the impressive times

Hmmm given that you have directly entered the modified category, perhaps you can throw in the N55 tune (and leave the Springvale Road locals alone).

[stylish.]

Tim, taking the white car next time we track, yeah?

I think the only downside was that Honda Integra type R (roadblock) cruising at 50 just after the blind turn after the long straight... Did Ken sustain a bit of damage? :/

['fatboy']

Originally Posted by stylish.

Tim, taking the white car next time we track, yeah?

I think the only downside was that Honda Integra type R (roadblock) cruising at 50 just after the blind turn after the long straight... Did Ken sustain a bit of damage? :/

Just a few more white hairs....

good day out tho, thanks guys.