79 replies to this topic

[bunsenburner]

I had some great fun on trackdays but naturally I now want to turn up the heat a little.

 

I'm planning on entering the BMW Compact Cup Championship this year and thought I'd share my progress for those that are interested.

 

It's a one make series based on the 1.9L E36 model http://www.bmwracedays.co.uk/

 

A few mods are permitted but it is predominantly a standard car with a minimum weight.  Each weekend there's practice, qualifying and 2 races.

 

The provisional calendar looks like this:

 

1 Donington GP March 29th / 30th 2 Brands Hatch Indy April 26th / 27th 3 Snetterton 300 May 25th / 26th 4 Castle Combe June 14th 5 Rockingham July 5th / 6th 6 Anglesey July 26th / 27th 7 Silverstone Int August 23rd / 24th 8 Cadwell Park September 6th / 7th 9 Donington National October 4th / 5th

 

 

I've opted to get some race support as there's no way I could cope with doing everything in my first season, and the last thing I'd want is to be excluded or miles off the pace because I'd forgotten something.  This way during the race weekend I can just concentrate on the driving bit.

 

Progress in has been pretty rapid as the last couple of months has seen no end of purchases - most notably the car itself and a trailer.

 

 

 

 

[JG]

 

Is the compact the preferred e36 for racing? I always hated driving them compared to the coupe.

[bunsenburner]

It's mandatory because its the Compact Cup. I'm not sure how the organisers decided on that model, but presumably they didn't want to tread too heavily on the toes of the PBMW championship who use the slightly older coupe.

[bunsenburner]

I had my first outing at Anglesey last month which went well, although I'm still struggling with how to effectively use the brake bias.

 

It's a bit of a trek from London but the towing was incident free, the car was reliable, the track itself is fantastic and the weather held out too.

 

The rain did arrive for part of the afternoon which made for a slippery circuit, but that provided the chance to have a bit of a play.

 

 

The only downside is that it now looks like Anglesey has been dropped from the calendar in favour of Rockingham.

 

On the bright side my ARDS test at Brands and medical are complete and next up is a Walshy day next week.

 

I've bought a new better fitting seat and temporarily moved the old seat as a pax seat for the driver training day.  I'm still not 100% happy with the driving position as now that my arms and legs feel about right it's a bit of a squeeze to get out of the car especially with the head restraints on the seat. And I've not even got the Hans device yet!  I guess it just takes a bit of getting used to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RobNA]

Looks good. Keep us updated with your progress

[GeorgeBC]

Good luck! Would love to do something like this one day if funds allow. Guess you will be racing Partridge now then? Would you mind posting the cost of the season up? Entry fees, car and then as you need parts, tyres, testing etc we can see the cost of the season. I understand if you want to keep it private.

[Kieran McC]

a mate of mine Mark Tsang has raced in this series for the last couple of years

[Boombang]

Good luck! Would love to do something like this one day if funds allow. Guess you will be racing Partridge now then? Would you mind posting the cost of the season up? Entry fees, car and then as you need parts, tyres, testing etc we can see the cost of the season. I understand if you want to keep it private.

 

It's not for the Compact Cup but I do have my Spreadsheet from pricing up doing half a season in the TARC French Car Series, easy for you to re-use if you wanted to price a season up.

 

Send me your email and I'll send it over.

[GeorgeBC]

Cheers georgebc@hotmail.co.uk

[bunsenburner]

My cost estimates based on a 7 round Compact Cup...... Club Membership £20 Series Membership £195 Race Entries £325 x7 £2275 Friday test track fee £300 *x7 £2100 Transportation fuel £75 x7 £525 Brake pads £225 x2 £450 Tyres £350 *x3 £1,050 Friday Fuel £45 x7 £325 Race day Fuel £45 x7 £325 B&B £50 x7 £350 TOTAL £7,665 if you do all the spannering yourself. *Tyres and test days can vary to suit your budget. Plus any repairs or modifications I have also opted for... New seat £500 Driver training £225 Winter trackdays x3 £900 Race support and car setup each weekend £££! But before all that you have the one off costs: Buy/develop an eligible car ARDS/MSA fees Complete FIA racewear Trailer But most of all you'll need an understanding partner!

[Boombang]

Sounds like you going in with your eyes wide open and being very realistic.  Good luck!

[bunsenburner]

a mate of mine Mark Tsang has raced in this series for the last couple of years

I spoke with Andrew Tsang a few times as I bought 2 pairs of seat mounts from him. Presumably his brother?

[Kieran McC]

 

a mate of mine Mark Tsang has raced in this series for the last couple of years

I spoke with Andrew Tsang a few times as I bought 2 pairs of seat mounts from him. Presumably his brother?

 

It is ,I think just Andrew is racing this year ,Mark is house renovating, They are both instructors for the Ferrari owners club

Edited by kieranmcc, 03 January 2014 - 02:45 PM.

[Duncan_F]

Good luck, you'll have loads of fun doing this.

[AliM]

Trailer envy!!  Good luck with it all, keep us posted

[darronwall]

My cost estimates based on a 7 round Compact Cup...... Club Membership £20 Series Membership £195 Race Entries £325 x7 £2275 Friday test track fee £300 *x7 £2100 Transportation fuel £75 x7 £525 Brake pads £225 x2 £450 Tyres £350 *x3 £1,050 Friday Fuel £45 x7 £325 Race day Fuel £45 x7 £325 B&B £50 x7 £350 TOTAL £7,665 if you do all the spannering yourself. *Tyres and test days can vary to suit your budget. Plus any repairs or modifications I have also opted for... New seat £500 Driver training £225 Winter trackdays x3 £900 Race support and car setup each weekend £££! But before all that you have the one off costs: Buy/develop an eligible car ARDS/MSA fees Complete FIA racewear Trailer But most of all you'll need an understanding partner!

you have forgotten the beer!

[bunsenburner]

you have forgotten the beer!

That's the "Friday Fuel"!

[Duncan_F]

I read somewhere today that the bloke that won the £107m on the euromillions on Friday raced in this last year.

 

You better hope he isn't doing it again this year, I think he'll have a slightly bigger budget this time round.

[bunsenburner]

He says he'll be pursuing the BTCC - good on him.

[bunsenburner]

A bit of an update on progress so far....

 

I'm now quite comfortable in the car and getting in and out is no problem now that I've got the hang of it.

 

I had a test day with the Hans device for the first time and to be honest I was expecting a lot worse.  The newer tethers do allow a half decent look left and right, although needless to say vision is not as good as without it.

 

Malcolm at MSAR recommended getting in the car each time without the helmet on and then clipping the helmet to the Hans once all the belts are done up and seated correctly, which is a good method.  Getting in the car with everything on makes getting strapped in pretty difficult as all you can see is straight forward and you have to feel around from memory.  If a strap is twisted or something it can take a while to sort it all out.

 

 

 

 

I've done a bit of winter testing on a few trackdays at Brands and Donington for me to get used to the car and also playing around with the set up.  I'm starting to understand how best to pick out a decent line in the wet and I've got a wet setup that I'm pretty happy with.  I've still not managed to drive in a dry session but hopefully that should be easier to pick up than driving in slippery conditions.

 

I had some tuition from Ben Elliott which was great especially as we used an intercom which mean't I could actually hear what he was saying!  On the odd occasion when I've taken the 20 min instruction on a trackday I can hardly hear what they're saying.

 

I also squeezed in a Walshy day with the car which helped enormously.

 

I had some exhaust issues, so I replaced the rear section with the requisite part provided for free by Klarius (one of the Championship sponsors) 

It was pretty straight forward and solved the rattling issues.

 

 

 

 

The close quarters driving at the last test day at Donington cost me a broken headlight and cracked windscreen.  The new windscreen was fitted last weekend and ebay has provided the answer to the headlight which will go in this weekend.

 

 

 

 

The new championship stickers arrived in the post so the old ones came off and the new ones went on

 

 

 

All stickered up she's ready for the first race! - (apart from the headlight lens).

 

 

I have a race technology data logger and display on order, so once that's fitted I'll be able to get some technical feedback pretty soon which will hopefully point out where I'm losing all that time.

 

The season opener is 1 week on Sunday, but since I've never raced before I'm going to enter the Roadsports endurance race on the Saturday before just to get the feel for a proper competition - so a pretty busy first weekend.

 

The Sunday raceday will consist of a practice, qualifying and then the two races which will be televised.

 

If anyone's interested to see what a mess I make of it you can watch Partridge and me on Motors TV online or on Sky.

 

http://www.motorstv.com/?country=uk