First post of 2016 lol. Since my last post of the M3 I haven’t done much to it, except for engine bearing upgrade but more on the that on a later post. I’m here to talk about my racing adventures.

I have been out enjoying my M3 in what it was built for in the first place…. to take it to the track and have fun!

I have wanted to take M3 to the limit but in a safe controlled manner and not worry about going to jail. HPDE (High Performance Driving Education) is fun and you get to race in cool tracks but its too expensive to do frequently. More like Im able to to do that once or twice a year. Autocross is cool but they don’t allow sliding and it seems to be a more serious crowd focusing on times when you are mainly in 2nd gear. Why time yourself if you are (for the most part) in 2nd gear? I would do autocross to learn car control, I don’t really care for the fastest time. BUT autocross is way cheaper than HPDE. Then there is drifting…..

Drifting is the driving technique you not suppose to do when at the track. You are purposely upsetting the car balance to make it slide around the corner. Its the slowest way around the corner but most entertaining. Drift events are usually the same price as autocross, just more fun in my opinion.

I recently found out Houston has drift events once a month for a really good price. The first event I went to was TXDF and its $55 to drift or grip (the organizers are pretty chill) at a closed facility. Its usually all day thing and the crowd is a bunch or regular car people that want to get some seat time for cheap and car tuning. For $55 I can do that once a month! Its nowhere near as fast like COTA or MSR but still $55 versus $300-$500 every month.

TXDF is held at the Houston Police Academy track. I found out about TXDF though Facebook and it was the day of the event. They have drift events once a month so you will probably be seeing more of me there. I didn’t even bring tools or spares, I just drove the M3 and paid at the entrance. The drift course is a 2nd gear course so you can focus on gas and steering input.

Then I did Lone Star Drift Round 1, and that was more of a serious event than TXDF since its an actual completion. They do offer practice session which is the same course as the participants drift in. In the past events, they had another course for beginners but this time they didn’t have that. I actually did prepare for the event this time. I brought my tools and spare tires stuffed it in the back of the trunk.

The first corner entry is 3rd gear, and I did hit 70ish mph before braking. This proved difficult for me, because it was too hard shifting into 2nd while maintaining the slide. The S65 motor is the high revving V8; therefore, I didn’t have to shift into 3rd gear. I just focus on the gas and steering inputs. Master basics first before doing advanced stuff. The M3 felt strong and I only let the M3 rest once because I had to readjust the GoPro. By the end of the day I was connecting the corners.

I do love how the BMW M3 chassis is engineered for grip or drift. Depending on the drivers actions you can do both easily. I didn’t trailer my car, I just simply showed up and it ran like a champ! Pretty thankful because I’ve seen other cars that look like they spend way more money than I did and were having issues. The M3 is truly a car to take to the track and then the same day go do your groceries.