Testing... 1-2-3 Before 3-2-1 Launch!

Action Photo by Susan Dobson

DaveM3Fan's One Lap of America M3 took to the tracks at Summit Point Motorsports Park on the weekend of April 16-18 2011 for our first driver's school of the season. This made for a great chance to do some shakedown runs with the new tires and brakes (as well as the stickers)! 

It was "stress testing" when compared to the daily on-track format that we have on One Lap. At each venue on OLoA, we have only two relatively brief sessions where we get one warm-up lap, THREE hot laps and one cool down lap. 

At the driving school on the other hand, each run group gets four 20-minute run sessions daily. Over the space of 3 days, that amounts to quite a bit of track time if you drive all of each session. At the Jefferson Circuit for instance on Saturday/Sunday we could have driven as many as 76 (roughly 1 minute) laps per day! 

The car is really a STOCK 2011 Competition Package (ZCP) Sedan. To prepare, we maxed-out the factory limit of front negative camber, to a spec of -1.7 degrees. On the weekend we ran the NEW Michelin Pilot Super Sports in sizes 10mm larger than the factory tires: 255/35/19 up front and 275/35/19s on the OEM ZCP Wheels, which measure 19"x9" and 19"x10" respectively.

Nicole Osborne of Otto's Mini posing with the car in front of the Otto's trailer.
WHY? Because she looks one heck of a lot better than I do!

Quick impressions:
On Saturday we had LOTS OF RAIN. In the WET with these tires at full tread depth I drove two complete sessions with the "M Dynamic Mode" traction control still turned on. I figured there was no point in wrecking the car on day one if my brain wasn't "turned on" yet for the season.

It was a dark and stormy afternoon on Saturday!

With these tires, we were really cooking in the wet. They are better than any high performance tires I have ever driven in the wet. In the third session, I finally stopped "cheating" and turned all of the nannies OFF. The tires are brilliant. I'm sort of praying for rain on One Lap, except I don't want all of our belongings to get wet. This is a quandary.

Jefferson Circuit: Clockwise on Sunny Sunday!

Day two was sunny and dry!

I was able to push the tires hard for most of a 20 minute dry session and they did not get overheated or "greasy". They were very consistent. However, the Jefferson Circuit is a tight 1.12 mile course. A 3700 pound car with 414 horsepower does not fare nearly as as well as smaller, lighter and more nimble cars, such as those found in the instructor run group.

The Summit Point main circuit is also pretty tough on tires.

Being lazy and not getting adjustable camber plates for additional negative camber is a drawback here. My front tires' outer shoulders definitely took a beating. That said, Michelin has an impressive product here. Bravo!

ALERT: My Mom Lee Flogaus stole this Ferrari 458 and has not been seen since the weekend! If you have ANY INFORMATION about her whereabouts, please contact all the proper authorities IMMEDIATELY, if not sooner!