My BMW E34 Project: At the racetrack (Part 1)...

It was another new experience for Sergio and me yesterday.

After 17 years as a venue for local motorsports, the Subic International Raceway is closing down for redevelopment. Sadly, its not to improve the facilities but instead to turn the site into a commercial retail facility. In other words...another shopping mall. As a token of appreciation to the most avid supporters of the SIR, the various local car clubs have been invited to use the track for a whole weekend free of charge!
Called "The Last Lap", a lineup of touring car races, slaloms, and car club track days spanning 36 continuous hours was made. This includes a Saturday night show/party while the cars are still zooming around for the evening events.

As a member of good standing with the BMW Car Club of the Philippines, I was given the chance to be a part of the delegation. There were six of us who were willing (or crazy enough) to risk life, limb, and most importantly, car to represent BMWCCP. In order to reach Subic by mid-morning, we agreed to meet up in Greenhills by 6:00 which meant a 4am wakeup for me. Now, those who know me well can easily attest to the fact that I am not a morning person and even less so of a dawn one. However, I was very excited at the prospect of driving around in circles that I did not sleep much, if at all. I was even energetic enough to do a once-over wiping before we went our merry way.

Technically, Winny would have been better suited for any track event. Although both my bimmers have the same 2.5 liter engine size, the 3-Series is lighter (resulting in a better power-to-weight ratio), smaller and therefore more nimble than a 5er. I thought long and hard about which car to bring but eventually I concluded that driving a big, heavy sedan around the racetrack was too good a challenge to pass up. An even more important consideration was that it would be a good test of Sergio's condition after all the work I have done. If he decides to conk out somewhere, sometime during the day, not only would it be disappointing but then I would have a very big problem of what to do to get both of us home. Somehow, even this line of thought just seemed to make Sergio the more interesting proposition. By the way, it had already crossed my mind to do this blog posting afterwards and writing about the same car offered better continuity, in my opinion.

I was meeting most of the other five guys for the first time and I also had no idea of what cars they were bringing. I expected them to have track prepared cars built for speed. True enough, once we were complete, the team was composed of a Z4 convertible, 3 mean-looking 3ers whose backgrounds I had read about in the BMWCCP website, and another 5er aside from mine. I do have to point out that while the other 5er was a big and heavy sedan like mine, it was a 540i meaning to say that under the hood was a monster 4.4 liter V8 32 valve engine. In my mind, I was hoping no one remembers how far I will be left behind.

After an uneventful 3-hour (including a breakfast stop) drive to Subic, I was heartened by my first glimpse into the racetrack. We had to wait for a while before we could gain entry into the paddock as a vintage car race was going on. Vintage is actually a misnomer as most of them will easily run away from all but the fastest of today's typical modern street cars.

Thanking my sponsors: AHVA, BFHA, Orchard GCC, and E-Pass

About to enter SIR

Finally, Sergio and I were allowed to enter hallowed ground and be in the company of much more illustrious brethren. The sight of such magnificent hardware makes you forget that it is the Philippines. Its not that the place is a destination worth going out of your way for because its actually quite rundown, but more out of the fact that the collective worth of the cars parked inside would in all likelihood exceed the annual income of a small city. And it goes without saying that the cost of fuel and maintenance is not an issue with this group.