Just your everyday track day

[Croc]

Maserati 250F

 

 

 

Alfa TZ Monza

 

 

 

[Croc]

[Croc]

[FE07]

Your car looks nice with the others Mike. Sure like the 250F!!

 

Nice grouping.

 

Jim

[panamericano]

Looks like you should have been at the Monterey Historics.

[xcarguy]

Mike, sure wish I could have come out to NJMP last week when I was in Teterboro, but was good getting together and catching up. The BMW looks fabulous. Maybe next time.:seeya:

[11Budlite]

Wow, very nice. All three cars!

[SENC]

spectacular!

[SCse7en]

Very nice! How does the TZ run compared to your BMW on the track?

[Croc]

The TZ and Maserati are part of a very special collection kept in the NE. The quality is spectacular. Some background to it is here:

 

https://sportscardigest.com/lawrence-auriana-car-collection-photo-gallery/

 

They have brought out quite a few cars to test over the years. Another memorable day was when they brought out the 1965 Ferrari 1512 F1 car driven by John Surtees. 1.5L V12. That won its event at Goodwood a few years back.

 

The Maserati 250F was the 1957 Monaco GP winner in the hands of Fangio.

 

 

TZ vs BMW? Interesting comparison.

 

The TZ was 1963 to 1967. The BMW CSL was 1973-4 area but its racing career was much longer as it evolved into wilder and crazier iterations. The Group 5 cars could produce something like 900hp in qualifying. This was also the era of shifting from cross ply tires to radials and with it a massive increase in mechanical grip which changed the style of driving. So the performance curve went very steep in just the 10 years from 1963 to 1973. Race cars made huge jumps in speed.

 

I would also note that the Alfa has 6 inch wide tires. My BMW has 11 inch wide on the front and 12 inch on the rear. They are different class competitors so a 1.6L twin cam really does not compete with a 3.5L straight six, even with mine just being the 2 valve head. Its 160hp vs 350hp. If I could afford let alone actually find the 4 valve head ($150k for the 4 valve head alone - excluding the rest of the engine) then it would be 160hp vs 400hp. Its 1370lbs (dry tanks no driver) vs 2600lbs in the Bimmer.

 

The style of driving in the early to mid-60s on cross plys was to rotate the car in turns by sliding as those tires do not give you a lot of front end mechanical grip. I have followed that Alfa on track before and it is a joy to see it just drift around corners. The driver for the collection, Joe Colasacco is exceptional. He is a first class driver and just a wonderful guy. He races the cars at Goodwood, Monterey Historics and some of you will have seen him at the Lime Rock Historics. He does not pussyfoot around - he goes out there and wrings a car's neck. Somehow he can overcome that he is driving multi million dollar vehicles that his boss owns. First time I put the BMW on track (before I did engine change and set the car suspension right), the Alfa was out there and it just ran rings around me. On Thursday, I dropped 10 seconds a lap from my previous time at NJMP for the BMW and I ran rings around the Alfa, as you would expect it to be. There is easily at least another 5+ seconds a lap left in the BMW.

 

The BMW has huge mechanical grip. I could not unstick the rears. They would give a small amount of rotation in turns with a hefty mash of the throttle but it was minimal. Front will understeer in the Jersey Devil section but they all do that and I was unable to use throttle to rotate there as I was having fuel pick up problems in that corner. The BMW chassis is just superb, once you turn in and take a set on the suspension, the car will just carve through the corner.

 

I got some video time in the BMW which I will edit and post here this weekend. The sound of the engine was just amazing at full pelt. It did not sound like a straight six - reminded me more of an old Cosworth DFV V8.

Edited August 29, 2020 by Croc

[Croc]

BMW CSL test day video

 

Usual excuses:

- wrong brake pads - I use lots of engine braking and 3 gear changes in turn 1

- fuel pick up issues in long right handers

- driver still learning the car and gearbox (I see lots of looks down - "what gear am I in?")

- 4 year old tires

 

Still went pretty well.

 

If your broadband connection can handle it then it is in high def for full screen

 

 

[Kitcat]

For an antique, it more than holds its own. I didn't see you giving any point byes, but you got plenty, from new, more technically advanced, Porsches and 'Vettes, to name a few. Great engine sound too!

[JohnCh]

Car sounds great and looked very stable. Did it live up to expectations?

 

-John

[Croc]

Engine was epic. Drove exceptionally well. The fix list is not surprising and to be expected.

 

Very easy car to drive. Huge mechanical grip. Pushes slightly into understeer on the limit but I had old tires. Rear end is just planted. Its like a seven on track, use the mechanical grip to keep up momentum as it is not a huge hp car. Engine is quite torquey and you can easily feel it flatten out at the top of the torque curve. Never really been able to sense the engine quite that way before in a car. Even though tach was broken, you could feel it reach redline as there is valve flutter at 8500rpm so I calibrated my ears to a certain engine pitch which was 8000rpm. There is at least 10 more seconds a lap in this car. New tires, 1 deg less neg camber, brakes that stop you and no fuel pick up issues will cure my issues with pushing much harder.

[xcarguy]

Glad to see the BMW doing track duty. Sounds spectacular!