Arbee
Honorary ///Member
So its been just over 2 years owning the M3 and while my build is not for track at all, i thought i would give it a go seeing that the Yas Marina Circuit is on my doorstep. I mean, which car person would pass by an opportunity to drive their own car on a F1 circuit. Especially being an M3 which i feel shines out on the track.
Well, roll on to the 26th of March 2021, 8am and i found myself registered as a track participant for the Novice, North Circuit session. To participate in the full GP circuit, I needed to have one Novice session completed, so this paves the roads to the full circuit hopefully once the weather cools down later this year.
Now, everyone is going to ask "Air suspension on track, how did it perform?" so i will start of there by saying, in my opinion it is beneficial and the car with the air suspension performed very well. The Airlift Management was busy through each of the almost 40 laps i did on the day and i could literally hear the air pressures adjusting while on bends and straights. Which i found to keep the car balanced, now im no professional so dont quote me, but i think that the body roll, handling and overall rigidity of the car, mostly from being a convertible was maintained to the best as possible. I went for a few laps in other cars without air and found much more lean and screech which my car was pretty stable.
As i said, almost 40 laps with the car and i keep saying that this has been the most fun i had in the car. Up until about 11am, where i started to hear a knock - of course the worst (Rod Bearings) ran through my mind but it turned out to be a failure on an engine mount which left the right side 'bouncy' so i called it a day and babied the car back home. With that now replaced, im planning to book the next full GP circuit, i probably wont do as many as 40 laps as the full circuit is twice as long as the North Circuit, but definitely going to give it a go soon.
Anyways, some pics and a video taken of my warm up session, i stupidly didn't hit the record button on the full taps lap!
Well, roll on to the 26th of March 2021, 8am and i found myself registered as a track participant for the Novice, North Circuit session. To participate in the full GP circuit, I needed to have one Novice session completed, so this paves the roads to the full circuit hopefully once the weather cools down later this year.
Now, everyone is going to ask "Air suspension on track, how did it perform?" so i will start of there by saying, in my opinion it is beneficial and the car with the air suspension performed very well. The Airlift Management was busy through each of the almost 40 laps i did on the day and i could literally hear the air pressures adjusting while on bends and straights. Which i found to keep the car balanced, now im no professional so dont quote me, but i think that the body roll, handling and overall rigidity of the car, mostly from being a convertible was maintained to the best as possible. I went for a few laps in other cars without air and found much more lean and screech which my car was pretty stable.
As i said, almost 40 laps with the car and i keep saying that this has been the most fun i had in the car. Up until about 11am, where i started to hear a knock - of course the worst (Rod Bearings) ran through my mind but it turned out to be a failure on an engine mount which left the right side 'bouncy' so i called it a day and babied the car back home. With that now replaced, im planning to book the next full GP circuit, i probably wont do as many as 40 laps as the full circuit is twice as long as the North Circuit, but definitely going to give it a go soon.
Anyways, some pics and a video taken of my warm up session, i stupidly didn't hit the record button on the full taps lap!
. How did she cope with the heat on the track?
