Yesterday was awesome, as I was three sessions of Track Night In America at Lime Rock Park. If you don't know about Lime Rock and you are at all interested in racing, you should really learn. A couple of reasons Lime Rock is great - You don't have to like racing to enjoy being there. It's actually a park. There aren't any grandstands. Instead, you find a nice grassy spot, preferably under a tree if it's sunny, and just enjoy being outside in a park. Next, the track is only 1.5 miles, so you can walk all the way around it, and not be pooped. Try that at the Nurburgring! After this, and if you are into racing, there are great vantage points for viewing basically everywhere. Last but not least, the food is awesome, and your wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, kid wouldn't be grossed out by the restrooms, so it's a great time for everyone. Hooray Lime Rock.
OK so on to the track day - The old 330Ci didn't miss a beat. I was able to load all my stuff, including tools, chairs, whatever I needed, into the car after folding down the seats, and bombing out there, which is about 150 miles. Racing car for the day, running the A/C, good times. The weather was perfect; dry air, about 75, track not too hot, looking good. The car was totally reliable, fast, tires and brakes felt great, and driving the track was a complete thrill. Lime Rock is challenging in many ways, but one of the most interesting take-aways was the amount of speed you're able to carry there. I guess I didn't realize that there aren't any 2nd gear turns, and at one point I tried just leaving the car in 4th gear, and this wasn't at all an issue, as I was able to carry a lot of momentum.
The braking you do have to do is heavy at the end of the front straight (as to be expected), and medium at the entry to The Esses, and the entry to the short straight. I have really figured out how to trail brake the car as necessary, and also steer a bit more with the throttle - Even with my relatively tame modifications the E46 chassis is really great, and the brakes are even better. Several cars boiled their fluid / had diminished braking, and the 330 never felt odd or missed a beat. The tires held their own as well, providing great feedback and little understeer. I never felt out of balance or control.
The track is amazing. It looks simple to drive but it's not - I'm a broken record here for sure. Getting a line through Big Bend and The Esses is really tricky but by the end of the event I felt pretty good, and am closer to having the racing line figured out. The back uphill is pretty interesting as the car would do a tail way each time going up, as you are still coming out of the right-hander at the bottom of the straight, but I found that to be great fun. The downhill is totally weird and feels unsafe at the outset, and the barrier on the left has some tell-tales for those that didn't work that one out quite right, but I found no issue coming out of that and carrying good speed onto the straight. I looked more at my tach than speedo, and almost 6K RPM at the end of the straight before braking hard and setting up for the right at Big Bend.
I had a great night, and I recommend to anyone interested to check out LRP and Track Night in America if possible.