Roebling Road Bound

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One of the benefits of using the M2 as a daily driving track car is the amount of stuff you can load into for a weekend trip. This weekend I headed from Atlanta to Savannah to participate in the Peachtree Chapter of the BMW CCA’s driving school at Roebling Road Raceway. This was the first track weekend that was far enough from home to warrant driving on my OEM wheels/tires and switching to my track wheels/tires after arrival.

I managed to get my 18” wheels with track tires to stack in my backseat for the trip down to Savannah

This did require a bit of a change in my normal seat position and since I will be doing this often, I set the 2nd memory function to tire carrying mode. In addition to the tires, all my tools and racing gear fit “nicely” (read those as air quotes) in the trunk. My cooler and my luggage road shotgun in the front seat.

I had one person at the track who saw my OEM wheels stacked up beside my car in the paddock ask, “did you bring those with you in your car?” And another person suggested that I needed a small two wheel trailer for all this stuff.

I have some personal pride in being able to maintain my car in 1/2 of my small two car garage and get to the track without the need for a trailer. The later then requires a vehicle to pull the trailer and I am happy with my current situation.

When I make it to the club racing level, then it will be time for the truck and trailer, until then I  will stick with the status quo.

Suches Loop In Time Warp

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The North Georgia Mountains are just a short drive from my house and provide some great driving roads. It has been a few years since I had a manual transmission car so I have been using the mountain runs to get comfortable with running through the gears while staying focused on keeping the car on track through the twisties.

The Suches Loop is often referred to as Georgia’s Tail of the Dragon.

Dahlonega is 45 minutes north of my home in Roswell, GA so if I get a break from meetings on a sunny afternoon I will make a run up to the mountains for some spirited driving. The mountain roads are full on the weekends, so if your schedule permits, I suggest going on a weekday. Getting stuck behind slow moving traffic turns a fun drive into a boring one pretty quickly. Fortunately the views are great and when traffic slows you down you can take in the mountain vistas.

On my first run of the Suches loop, I also tested out my GoPro in Time Warp mode. You can watch my entire 1 hour drive in 4 minutes. Be warned, with all the turns the sped up video can make you feel a little car sick, almost like you are driving the actual road.

Another reason to head out on a weekday is there are typically less fastest driver awards being handed out by the local police or Georgia Highway patrol. The local municipalities are certainly wise to the fact that gear heads love to drive their cars or motorcycles on these roads. With the number of turns and short distance between turns you really have to work hard to go faster than the speed limit but don’t say you weren’t warned!

Where's Bernie?

Is The M2 My Mid Life Crisis?

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This February I turned 45 which is by my account the middle of my life expectancy. My main reason for buying a BMW M2 was as an upgrade to my M235i for use at the track. I have always loved cars and “racing” cars has been a life long dream. So now that I have started down this path, I am wondering if this is nothing more than my mid life crisis.

2017 M2 Delivery

I have to give a big shout out to my wife who is typically supportive of all my crazy ideas. About the only thing she doesn’t “allow” me to do is have a motorcycle. That is a small price to pay to keep my wife happy. I am surprised she still “let” me keep pursing track days after we went helmet shopping. You should have seen the look on her face when the salesperson encouraged me to get a full face helmet so my jaw doesn’t get broken when I wreck my car!

My wife made me a birthday card this year with a picture from the day we picked up my 2017 BMW M2 with the caption,

“May This Be Your Best Year Yet.”

What you may not notice is that Bernie Sanders is sitting in his now famous inauguration day outfit watching us pick up the car. My wife has a great sense of humor and loves life as much as I do. Mid-life crisis or not, I can’t thank her enough!

Tracking any car is an expensive and time consuming hobby so the main point here is your family has to be supportive. I have only been to one BMW CCA event so far and that was just a Cars & Coffee a few minutes from my house. I have spent countless hours working on my car and I have spent a good bit of money on new tools to maintain the car as well.

If you are like me and your love of cars is inspiring you to move from dreaming to doing, make sure you budget some extra funds for the gear you need to keep you car track ready. I would also pre-negotiate for how much time you will spend away from home and family to hit the track. Both time and money add up quickly…