This was the second time I took my Mini to the track. If you have never done a high speed touring day at a track you own it to yourself to at least try it!



Edited - Thanks mmatarella for help with the youtube link.

 

 

Embed just the video identifier part of the string, in your case the gpL13266CbM in between the Youtube tags, leave out everyhting from the equal sign left...

 

Man I sure do love some James Brown. Great tunes for that lap.

 

Nice video, thanks for taking us on a ride around the track.

 

Wow, you have some skilz my friend, thanks for sharing

 

The BMWCCA is sponsoring a HPDE at Hallett the weekend of Aug. 22-24. Nice video.

 

Thanks everyone.
A really cool web sight I found found for improving your driving skills is http://www.turnfast.com/ They have some great tutorials
SuperGreg, I have heard that the BMW DE is really good. I will not be able to make the weekend of the 23, but I will be at Hallett on 8/30/08.

 

As big of a fan of James Brown as I am, I would much rather have been able to listen to your engine revs and tire sounds as you ran your laps, FWIW.

What was your best time?

Did you improve as your day went along?

What camera do you use, your images are pretty good.

I've noticed YouTube doesn't compress the video nearly as bad as Google does, but the length of the video is limited to 10 min. I've posted my entire sessions at Heartland Park (15 min +) on Google, but the quality is terrible when you view it..........

 

should have pointed the camcorder a bit lower at the speedo so we can see what speed.

 

I too wish that I had the speedo in better view. Next time I will! I put the video camera on so that I could self critique.
I rented a transponder and my times definitely improved as the day went on. My last session of the day my lap times were all around 1:38 per lap while earlier in the day they where around 1:42. After reviewing the videos I have seen where I think I could possibly shave a couple more seconds!
Usually they go the other way around the track (counterclock-wise).
I borrowed a friends Sony mini-dv camera. He said he paid about $300 for it a couple of years ago.
I processed the video using the MS Windows Movie Maker that comes free with MS XP and Vista.

 

Nice! Thanks for sharing the cool video.

CROC 411

 

. . . are you also the owner of that Cobra in your sig?

 

yes

 

A-HA! Bet that MINI's a lot easier to drive "fast" than that gray Beast!

 

Roger that bluzeke but I love them both! The hardest thing about driving the Cobra is to drive it maturely. I am often not sucessful at doing so. There are lots of long double black marks on the roads as testimony where I have given in to temptation.

 

What mods (I assume you've modded some) have you done?

 

So far my Mini is factory stock. Next time out though I will be running a set of 215/40ZR Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 tires on 17x7 Kosei K1 Rims. The stock Run Flats took a beating.. I'll save the Z1's just for track days.
What mods have have you all done?

 

I haven't done any yet, I'm a week 37 build!

I was just wondering, because it looks like you put a 'vette and a new Mustang of some sort away pretty nicely during your lap. Granted, I don't know if they were pushing their cars at all, just neat to see you lap them.

 

The Mustang was a Shelby GT500 (500+HP). Momentum coming out of a turn makes all the difference. Taking the line correctly I was hitting almost 60MPH coming out of the turn where I passed the Shelby but he was probably only going 40. Also, on most High Speed Touring events you are only allowed to pass on the straight-a-ways and if another car is clearly faster you are supposed to let them by.
Good luck on your week 37 wait! I know it is a tuff thing to do!
After you get the break-in period out of the way, do you plan to go to a track?
Where I went they require that you attend a Drivers Education class your first time on the track and it cost and extra $30. WELL worth it! The $30 also lets you take an instructor out with you when you drive. It will improve your learning curve sharply. It amazed me how some people would not ask for an instructor to ride with. I let one of the instructors drive my car a few laps of a session. That really gave me an understanding of what the car car do and where to apply power.
Mini's really are performance cars. When it comes to the twisties they can run with almost any production car. A lot of people mistakenly ask me if I bought my Mini for its fuel economy. The truth is that I bought it for its performance, The fuel economy was just gravy.