It’s that time of year in Texas where the weather is perfect with sunny skies and highs averaging in the 60’s and 70’s.

A nice Sunday evening drive led me to this spot downtown to grab a few pics during the golden hour.

Another scheduled track day coming up meant it was time to pull the Vader out and put the bucket in, this time with a friends Recaro SPG. Every time I switch from Vaders to a bucket I’m reminded how much I hate the stock seats. I think it’s time to finally bite the bullet and buy the Pole Positions I’ve been eyeing for a while now.

During the annual oil change and track prep I found this lovely surprise on the passenger front. I knew they were getting low on the inside edges, but not this bad.

I quickly hopped on Tire Rack to order a set of Direzza ZIII’s, but they showed only one in stock in Louisiana and no ETA on the rest. A couple of phone calls later, I found a second tire in Colorado and both on the way for delivery before the weekend track day.

Track day prep always includes a fresh wash. LTW splitter is pulled out to full on scrape mode.

I had some numbers sitting in the garage for two years or so and decided it was time to throw them away. Rather than throw them straight in the bin, I decided I’d run them for the track day and then throw them away.

Do those numbers look familiar?

Anxiety relieved, the two tires showed up the day before the track day. Freshies up front, old RE71R’s out back.

Filling up at the station next to the track, a wild 996 GT2 appears!

Conditions were awesome the day of. Got to the track around 9:00 AM and it was overcast and in the low 50’s. As the day progressed and the sun came out the temperature came up to about the mid 60’s.

With new tires up front and three year old RE71’s out back, I was having some heavy braking/heavy weight transfer oversteer but nothing that was beyond manageable. I just started braking a little bit earlier and trailing off more as I would enter the hairpins. By the third session of dialing in tire pressures and suspension settings the car was feeling really good.

My personal best last time for this track was a 1:47.6 (running the opposite direction) so when the lap timer indicated a 1:47.3 in lap one I was pretty stoked. By lap four (of the session above) when I had a clear track ahead of me and in the zone, I managed a 1:46.05. When it first popped up I thought that the timer must have glitched. A few laps later I clocked another 1:46.6 so I knew all the changes were working and it must have been accurate!

When I started coming to this track a few years ago I was really excited to be in the upper 1:40’s which is a respectable time for a car of this power to weight ratio. Every time I come back I shave a little bit more, thinking “This has got to be the ceiling for this car.” I would have never thought a full interior E36 M3 with only an intake and an exhaust would be knocking on the door of a 1:45. All things said and done, I’m beyond pleased with the car in it’s current format. I still have the Porsche MAF, 24# injectors, and BBTB that I can add to get some more power and a rear seat delete that will help bump me into the 1:45’s, but until then!