slinger - sound like good choices. I would go for the 328i. The BMW sedans have always been nice as a road car. You could always try a GTR if you really want 4 wheel drive. Hope you find something that you like.

 

Wife just wont go for another Mini or the Mclaren.

Bmw 328i just feels confident on the road with good feel.

 

Lastest update, porsche stands by the diagnosis so it is the yaw sensor failure that caused the loss of brakes.

Went to an independent Porsche only shop with PIWIS diagnosis and he actually concurred with the dealers findings.

All points to a faulty yaw sensor.

Does this mean i can get porsche to pay for my accident damage from hitting a pole? Afterall their failsafes did not work?

 

Slinger - can't hurt to try. But I find it scary that companies like Porsche are making cars that have brake parts that can fail leaving someone with having no brakes... That would be bad on a highway at 60mph in an area like DC or LA.

I would also report this to the National Highway Safety Administration. They go by the number of complaints they get to force a car manufacture to do something about their product.

 

"Won't go for another MINI or a McLaren"!! What a difference!

 

I have a sheet of paper from the dealer saying loss of brakes is fixed by the yaw sensor replacement. It is the repair bill.

I have reported this already. Long process.

I would have to small claims porsche not the dealer so this is not so easy.

 

It must be car brands starting with the letter M. I guess mercedes may be a problem too.

 

Thompson Track Day Report - Weather was perfect, sunny, 70's. THe track has some tricky corners espicailly trun 4 which is a 180 degree hairpin, very difficult to get breaking point correct, seems the slower you go the better. Transition on th the oval not as dramatic as I thought althought it does push you to the inside of the ovasl, track out. Transition from the oval to the road course, great corner, brake early then on the power through then brake fro the right hander. the last corner has a crest on exit which causes wheel spin, had to short shift in fourth prior to cresting to minimize spin. THe front strech has a kink which is taken flat out before breaking hard for turn one which you enter late, drift out then hard on the gas through two and down the short chute through three then back to figure out four, never took the same line.
Since I was new to the track was in the green run group, the mini out perfromed all the other car expect for a S2000, he was faster on straight but could keep up in corners.

Glad i did the track but Lime Rock is a much better track, Thompson with has more corners which keeps you busy and is fun.

Sorry no video.

 

Which tires do you use for track days?

 

What group do you run in?

 

Running in intermediate, but with the added horsepower from tune and BBK, tires could not keep up. Need to upgrade to better grade.

 

What are your average lap times at LRP?

 

Never did times at LRP, but noe I have upgraded the car with brakes and tune and have much more power. What do you use fro data acquisition?

 

I used an older MaxQdata unit....

 

I use Nitto NT01s at the track and have been happy with their performance and longevity, FWIW. Whatever tires you choose, the LF will take a real beating at Lime Rock! ZRE, will you be at Lime Rock on October 8th?

 

Hey everybody….guess who is back driving a dedicated racing MINI? Ian Prout, owner of SCDA! He'll be racing this Saturday around 10AM if anybody wants to cheer him on despite the short notice. His car is absolutely slammed, and it is a Justa in BRG, totally stripped out of course...

 

The seat is so low that Ian — who is well over 6 feet tall — peeks out over the top of the door. He only got it two days ago and is qualifying tomorrow and racing on Saturday. When he took it out for the first time he said it was all over the place. A team from an outfit named Indian Summer Racing was there and one of their guys completely reconfigured and realigned the front suspension including drilling new holes for the camber plates — all in a few hours, in the paddock! Then Ian took it out in my group and afterward said it was "getting there". He came up behind me, I waved him by, and he took off like a bat out of hell. At one point he ran over a curb and I swear the right rear wheel flew 18 inches off the ground. The car weighs nothing! Completely stripped. Every ounce. The rear hatch can't weigh more than two pounds. I didn't get a chance to ask about engine mods because he was deep into trying to get the car ready for the weekend. It runs in the SCCA HP class so I imagine we could look up the spec for that class.

The rest of the day was good. Yesterday, the weather forecast was for rain all day but we didn't get a drop. The rain stayed south. Unfortunately, on my first two runs there were black flags that cut the sessions in half. FOUR black flags today altogether! A lot of twisted metal.

 

That first picture is hilarious! Ian looks like a 7 year old boy sitting in his Dad's car for the first time! Knowing Ian, he may set a course record his first time out in this car Saturday! I wish him luck, and no twisted metal!

Glad the rain held off for you, but sorry to hear about all the black flags. Was the track slick, or was it driver error?

 

The track was fine. Two of the incidents were driver error, one was mechanical failure and the fourth happened as I was leaving so I'm not sure what happened.

 

Was that ians dd that he converted to a track car?

Vv is right he looks like some kid who had a free reign in the candy store.

 

Anyone seen my friend porsche bob at the track lately. He drives a fully track prep white 2008 porsche 997 gt3.

 

Is he fortyish? A four-year-old daughter? There was someone there with a MINI yesterday whose face was very familiar. Unfortunately, I forget his name. Anyhow, he said he tracked a Porsche for years and just got the MINI. It was a 2005 and he had the engine rebuilt by Jan Bruegerrmann out in CA, then did the rest of the work on it himself. It was street legal, but barely. Is it possible that was him?

 

That is not him. He is 55 or so and is an instructor. He runs about 40-50 days a year. He only does maintenance work on his porsche, a 997 GT3, white. He would not track a Mini.

His kids must be at least mid 25 to 30 by now.

 

I haven't seen Porsche Bob recently, but I haven't done that many track days this year.

Ian won his class today! I don't think the car was his former daily driver; I think he just acquired it not too long ago, but I'll find out when I am at the track October 8th. I'll rag on him since he didn't set a new track record today...

 

Thanks, just wanted to figure out what happened to him. Really nice guy and fast driver. He was doing about 170 on the wgi back straight.