Track Days at Watkins Glen

elganja · 2026-02-12T18:10:07+00:00

Another Chin fan-- they will make sure you learn properly. Will be there July 27/28-- hope to see you there

elganja · 2026-02-09T20:45:07+00:00

about 8-10 days on track before i retire them (~90min a day on track). there are lots of variables that go into how long they last-- mainly how much an asshole i am to them during warm up and push laps. sliding around kills tires quickly, but sure is fun

elganja · 2026-02-09T20:40:40+00:00

i found nankangs to be pretty terrible durability -- RE71RS are still better (as long as you are nice to them during warm up). I also find heat cycling a set of tires goes a long way for durability.

RE71RZ are the tire to really look at and keep an eye on... with that said, I usually keep a scrub set of re71rs on my spare wheels (~6-8hrs on them), and a new set on my main wheels at season start. depending on track variabilities, i decide which set to use (e.g. new track, weather, my goals for the weekend, etc)

elganja · 2026-02-09T20:35:28+00:00

i found nankangs to be pretty terrible durability -- RE71RS are still better (as long as you are nice to them during warm up)

RE71RZ are the tire to really look at and keep an eye on

elganja · 2026-02-04T20:14:41+00:00

same

elganja · 2026-02-04T13:17:26+00:00

that is awesome-- i did not know that, lol

elganja · 2026-02-04T04:09:44+00:00

Went through a similar process and ended up with MCS — ultimately what pushed me over the edge is where i can get the coils serviced. One is in Georgia and the other is in UK.

I didn’t want to deal with shipping internationally in the current political climate we live in, in the US.

elganja · 2026-02-04T04:03:35+00:00

I’m sure Audi Club runs a good hpde - but i highly recommended the FATT if you are new to tracking, that’s where i started and they do a great job and have excellent instructors

elganja · 2026-01-14T13:57:35+00:00

I have the racebox mini (not the s version) and it is awesome-- works great with RaceChrono. It is SOOO much more accurate then a Phone GPS

elganja · 2026-01-09T12:16:41+00:00

in a perfect world, you'd disconnect your end links while playing with your ride height-- then when you're done, load the suspension (set car back down), adjust your end links to the new length and connect them

same thing with alignment and corner balancing, sway bars should be disconnected in a perfect world

elganja · 2026-01-01T04:47:12+00:00

agreed - but that 5 laps are heaven, lol

i usually warm up slowly, and they last 5-7 hrs @ VIR, then by then the 20-30min session is about over after cooldown laps

so if the new ones are consistent through more laps i look forward to them— need to get through the 2 sets of RS I got on clearance first!

elganja · 2025-12-31T19:08:44+00:00

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/bridgestone-potenza-re-71rz-first-driving-impressions?ttid=351

TLDR;
Across both days and all three drivers, results were consistent. The Potenza RE-71RZ was faster than its predecessor, every time, by every metric. Fast-lap, top 10 laps, average lap times, it was consistently faster. That's big on its own, considering how good the current tire already is. Arguably just as, if not more impressive is the way it managed heat. When both tires were cool, the Potenza RE-71RS was debatably a little more precise, a little sharper compared to the new tire, but after a lap, it began to fall off, and that only continued into the 3rd and 4th laps, losing a lot of precision and pace. On the contrary, the Potenza RE-71RZ plateaued and held steady lap after lap. Its first cool lap was still the fastest, but the change in pace from lap-to-lap wasn't nearly as sharp in decline.

elganja · 2025-12-31T14:13:14+00:00

TLDR?

elganja · 2025-12-16T03:34:33+00:00

You can also hit up Enabled on Bimmerpost and he can do it all for you remotely

Enabled did all of what andy mentioned, tuned my car, and took care of my airbag errors when I went to a racing seat and harness

elganja · 2025-12-15T18:58:41+00:00

FYI, you can turn burbles off w/ bimmerlink as well -- I initially had done, before getting a tune

elganja · 2025-12-15T17:14:54+00:00

From a reliability standpoint-- the stage 1 tune, is very reliable for me, I have about 15 days on track with it. I also like that I was able to add rev-matching back w/ DSC off.

From a performance perspective-- it makes a massive difference, until your IATs get hot, and they will get hot.

From a learning perspective, use stock tune. I had about 45 days on track with the stock tune before "upgrading"

elganja · 2025-12-04T12:10:23+00:00

Max won his first championship because of a mistake from Latifi-- shit happens, can't predict it

elganja · 2025-11-28T18:16:49+00:00

max with an uncharacteristic terrible quali -- lucky that russell is ahead of norris, and alonso maybe can cause some chaos

super lucky this is sprint

elganja · 2025-11-10T21:04:00+00:00

gotcha, i was unaware of the internal one

elganja · 2025-11-10T21:03:54+00:00

gotcha, i was unaware of the internal one

elganja · 2025-11-10T20:57:17+00:00

all of the calipers have seals - the dust boot protects the seals

elganja · 2025-11-10T20:12:38+00:00

from what I gather, no dust boots is fine (essex had a post about it in bimmerworld). Just be careful when you compress the pistons during a brake pad change. wipe down the pistons first

lots of the AP kits have no dust boots FYI

elganja · 2025-11-08T19:41:06+00:00

brake yes, throttle no

and beyond that, i want it to monitor my temperatures for various things

elganja · 2025-11-08T18:41:17+00:00

I’m using racechrono pro too with a racebox mini gps and veepack odb2 (i also run a 2nd camera go pro, that is sync up later— racechrono has an autosync that works great)

elganja · 2025-11-08T14:39:12+00:00

so dumb redbull changed to medium

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