In the spirit of Mazdeuce's great thread on his One Lap adventure last year (https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/mazdeuce-does-one-lap/97935/page1/), here is my own thread detailing a first time One Lap event, when we are just looking to have a good time and see what this is all about. We will do our best to keep this updated leading up to the event, and then as the event takes place. We decided to run it this year as the event was going to be around the northeast and had transits all of 600 miles or less, and the timing and budget allowed it if we did not do any west coast lemons races as we have done the last few years.
Our car for this was bought mostly for this event, but also to fill a gap in our fleet for a big, comfy, long distance cruising car that is still fun to drive. It was a 2 owner northwest car with a big stack of maintenance records, 94k miles, and in great shape. 2007 Mercedes CLS63 AMG.
With 507 hp, 15.2" brakes with 6 piston calipers, heated and cooled multi way adjustable seats, and adjustable AMG tuned suspension, this should be both a nice place to spend many hours and miles, and also pretty fun on track.
I'll be driving with my girlfriend and race team mate Chrissy. We are splitting the two daily time trial segments with each of us driving each track every day. We have done many long trips before including 20+ lemons events, several BABE rallies (how we met), and get along great on trips, and even on TSD rallies.
Here's where we are in the prep now. I wanted a spare set of wheels and tires to run the event on, and the car came with 2 extra wheels, so I searched eBay and car-part.com for another pair. These wheels are really hard to find, and the car needs 19" wheels to clear the ridiculous brakes. The car takes 19x8.5" front and 19x9.5 or 19x10" rear stock, and I had one 8.5 and one 9.5. I got another 9.5 in good shape from eBay and found a junkyard in NY with what was advertised as a pair of 8.5" in rough cosmetic condition for $430 shipped for the pair, a real bargain when sets of these typically go for $2500-$3000. When these arrived, they were not 8.5s, but were 10s! With some test fitting, it does seem that the car can run 19x9.5 in front and 19x10 in the rear.
At this point, I had already ordered 2 sets of tires from Tire Rack in the stock size of 255/35/19 front and 285/30/19 rear. The stickiest tires (RE71, rivals, etc) are not available in these sizes, and running Pilot Supersports I would have had to step down in width, and they were really really expensive. In the end, I ended up with the Continental DW, a tire I have had great experience with on my Z4M, and as we are not pushing for a win, giving up a little bit in the tires to have something that will be decent in long term use, the right size, and 30% cheaper than the Michelins seemed like the right choice. Even better, these are the same size as I run on the BMW.
So after a very expensive call to Tire Rack, these showed up, one set for testing (that will later move to the BMW, and then a set to mount right before we leave so we have a fresh set for the event:
and I got a set of TPMS for it, giving VDO Redi-Sensors a try, they seem like they will be easy to program to the car and they were very reasonably priced, under $40 each.
I dropped one set of tires and all 4 wheels off at a good local shop. The next day I had a call from them, one of the wheels had a bend (one that came with the car) and one had a small crack in the inner lip (one of the 19x10s from the junkyard). The shop sent out the bent wheel to a local rim place to straighten it ($100), and is going to TIG weld up the other ($100). Now, I pick these up tomorrow and will fit them this weekend, along with a brake fluid flush to Motul 600.
Other stuff to do:
-making a mount for the fire extinguisher I stole from the Lemons car
-Installing the Schroth Rallye 3 belts so we can use the DefNder in the car on track
-change the spark plugs (nothing about that in the service records)
-maybe install brake ducts
I've also gotten a good Ram mount for the phone to record video on track and run Waze on the transits, gotten a new aluminum jack and stands, a small 8x8 pop up tent, and a few other things.
The weekend of the 15-17 I'll be at Summit Point for the NASA spring rumble, taking the instructor clinic on Friday and instructing the rest of the weekend, mostly to shake down the car and to run Summit main course that I have never run (only shenandoah) Chrissy is coming down Sunday to run in HPDE2 and get a feel for the track too.
So, that's where we are now. Updates to follow as things progress!