My F10 M5 Round Spa & Jules Tacheny!!

[W8PMC]

So the time came for my annual pilgrimage to the Continent for some track day action (& mucho giggles, beer, great company & good food). This year we decided on a 3rd consecutive track day after the Spa Francorchamps back to back so visited a circuit we'd never driven before, more on that later.

Now my M5 has had a few play days on track this year, including Donington, Snetterton & Anglesey as well as Nordschleife & Spa last year, so i've been looking at ways to just sharpen things up a little for this years Spa trip & invested in some Pagid RS29's, H&R Springs as well as seeking out some more track focussed rubber, however the latter wasn't possible so i went on brand new MPSS which are the tyre the car was supplied with from the factory.

Last year's Spa trip we were blessed with perfect weather, high teens & low 20's with virtually unbroken sunshine, this year we had sleet, snow, rain & temps that never got above 5 degrees & were often hovering around 0, so a very different event. Thursday was day 1 at Spa & being brutally honest wasn't great fun as the weather was terrible, however as is the way i took advantage of the slower conditions & used an Instructor to iron out a few issues & improve some of my lines. Last year my best lap was timed at 3:05 so i was very keen to try to break the 3min mark with the upgrades to the car, Thursday was not the day to try this so i didn't bother timing & only filmed a couple of laps.

So as the curtains were flung back in the Radisson Blu on the Friday morning, it was with delight that i could see a tiny bit of blue sky & the ground looked damp rather than white so things were looking up. Off to the track & the conditions hadn't worsened so it was now clear the track was drying out & although still only 4 degrees, i was confident that with no further rain/sleet forecast the track could be totally dry or at least a significant dry line after lunch so the mornings laps were used to bring up the pace & look at where i could shave this 5secs off my lap times?

Not a lover of stories so to sum up my outlook was good & the afternoon dried, however i could only better last years times by 4secs as my best was 3:01 & a top speed down Kemmel of 160mph. Even on the hot laps, i did encounter traffic so am confident even with the setup i was running & with a little more time/less traffic i could have shaved a further second or 2 off my laps, but i decided that to push harder in less than perfect conditions was ill advised so i decided to take a little more instruction to check i'd paid attention the day before & give myself a springboard for my next visit.

Below should be a YouTube video clip of my quicker laps from the Friday. The 3rd lap in the video is the 3:01 lap with the next lap being a virtually identical time (consistent), after those 2 i was encountering more traffic so the times start to tumble a little, however sometimes it's fun duelling with other cars (especially my old R35 GT-R) on track as it is nailing a good lap time. Also below should be a few photos.

Hoping to get more track days in next year & looking to find a compromise rear tyre size i can get Cup Sport 2's in as they by all accounts appear to be the perfect tyre for my track day fun so can't wait tot try them out.

https://youtu.be/os7LfEWz4_w

[HoHoHo]

Brilliant and a great video

Couple of quick questions.....

Have you done anything to ther brakes or fluid?

What tyre pressures are you running and how do they change during a run?

Thanks and keep up the good work for those of us too frightened (read busy/skint) to track their own F10's!

[likesachange]

Great vid Paul

Car looked nice and smooth, maybe a little bit of under steer in some fast corners?? Nice progressive throttle must have been needed to avoid the tail whipping out or did you leave TC on??

Shame about weather.

Pleased with the upgrades then?

Thanks for sharing

[S800VXR]

nice shots OP. What track day insurance do you use as want to take my M around next year but need to make sure it covered in case someone else screws up and hits me.

[sumo69]

Looking good Paul - 700bhp M5's look like they go well!!

So what setting did you have the ESP on?? I don't believe that was fully off judging by the fact that there was not a hint of wheelspin!!

BTW using the video timer on You Tube, it looked like 3.02/3.03 was the fastest - though that's hardly shabby.

David

[W8PMC]

HoHoHo said:

Brilliant and a great video

Couple of quick questions.....

Have you done anything to ther brakes or fluid?

What tyre pressures are you running and how do they change during a run?

Thanks and keep up the good work for those of us too frightened (read busy/skint) to track their own F10's!

Thanks.

The pads were changed to Pagid RS29's prior to the trip & they're considerably better than the OEM brakes with next to no fade but they do warm up quickly. I may change the fluid for the next trip but not sure that would make much of a difference.

Tyre pressures were a real PITA as the MPSS warm up considerably on track & at 2.2bar cold they'd reach as high as 2.7/8 on track so i had to monitor them & adjust. As someone above mentioned, when they warm up & the pressures are too high the shoulders roll & understeer increases. I played with the pressures on the Friday & was going out cold around 1.8bar with them rising to 2.1/2 when warm & that kept the understeer at bay for some fast fun, however it took a while given the ambient temps to get the tyres up to temp so meant a few slower laps to attempt 1 or 2 quick ones, so was a little counter productive.

The wear rate however is much improved over last year as i didn't really mess with the pressures & just went for it so a valuable lesson learnt & i'm hoping to go on Cup Sport 2's next year.

[W8PMC]

likesachange said:

Great vid Paul

Car looked nice and smooth, maybe a little bit of under steer in some fast corners?? Nice progressive throttle must have been needed to avoid the tail whipping out or did you leave TC on??

Shame about weather.

Pleased with the upgrades then?

Thanks for sharing

Thanks.

As above, the tyre pressures were a real issue & when too high the understeer was very apparent & this along with oversteer (sometimes at the same time) was a little un-nerving but controllable. Managed to dial most of this out when i found a correct pressure to run with but this meant a very low initial pressure so took a while to warm them up which meant a few careful laps to get the temps up. Tyre wear this year was much better than last year as i killed the shoulder on the nearside front last year on day 1 & had to swap the fronts over.

Never altered the TC & ran with full on for all 3 days. Was too scared given the ambient temps & track moisture to switch to MDM. Next year if better conditions i'll try running with MDM & that should drop a couple of seconds i reckon.

Edited by W8PMC on Friday 23 October 10:26

[W8PMC]

S800VXR said:

nice shots OP. What track day insurance do you use as want to take my M around next year but need to make sure it covered in case someone else screws up and hits me.

I didn't take out track insurance on the M5 for a few reasons. Firstly on the M5 although the premium isn't a game changer, the excess is so to make it worthwhile i'd basically need to write the car off. I'm very careful which track days i choose & most i'm on track with are people i either know vaguely or well so very rare any lunatics are encountered & i'm very aware of traffic so let any i do encounter go by. Also on such large tracks like Spa their's plenty of room to play under safer conditions than say Castle Combe or the like. Accidents do however happen so i'm not stupid enough to ever think it 'couldn't' happen to me.

[W8PMC]

sumo69 said:

Looking good Paul - 700bhp M5's look like they go well!!

So what setting did you have the ESP on?? I don't believe that was fully off judging by the fact that there was not a hint of wheelspin!!

BTW using the video timer on You Tube, it looked like 3.02/3.03 was the fastest - though that's hardly shabby.

David

Thanks David.

I had TC fully on for all 3 days as was too scared given the ambient temps & track conditions to do anything other than fully on. Traction was very good & although the TC light was flashing for fun, it didn't appear to inhibit my progress in more than a couple places per lap.

Was running the M Lap Timer in the car for timing so the lap times are accurate as the track is identified, the start finish line logged & lap times measured every time you cross the line. Being honest my best lap was a 3:01.6 so was closer to :02 than :01 but had 2 back to back laps (on the video) that were within a few hundredths of a second of each other.

[S800VXR]

W8PMC said:

S800VXR said:

nice shots OP. What track day insurance do you use as want to take my M around next year but need to make sure it covered in case someone else screws up and hits me.

I didn't take out track insurance on the M5 for a few reasons. Firstly on the M5 although the premium isn't a game changer, the excess is so to make it worthwhile i'd basically need to write the car off. I'm very careful which track days i choose & most i'm on track with are people i either know vaguely or well so very rare any lunatics are encountered & i'm very aware of traffic so let any i do encounter go by. Also on such large tracks like Spa their's plenty of room to play under safer conditions than say Castle Combe or the like. Accidents do however happen so i'm not stupid enough to ever think it 'couldn't' happen to me.

Cheers, will probably do the same as I've lost interest in the Nring now as too many idiots usually.

[W8PMC]

S800VXR said:

Cheers, will probably do the same as I've lost interest in the Nring now as too many idiots usually.

Same here. The buzz & excitement for me have long gone as TF days are too busy, bordering on being dangerous & it's impossible to get insurance for a TF day. I'd probably do Scuderia Hanseat again & may well do a DN event at some point, but Spa is by far the better track & we attend with what are now friends so it's a fantastic atmosphere.

[Jonny TVR]

W8PMC said:

Same here. The buzz & excitement for me have long gone as TF days are too busy, bordering on being dangerous & it's impossible to get insurance for a TF day. I'd probably do Scuderia Hanseat again & may well do a DN event at some point, but Spa is by far the better track & we attend with what are now friends so it's a fantastic atmosphere.

Thanks for posting W8 .. very impressed and makes me want to try

[W8PMC]

Jonny TVR said:

Thanks for posting W8 .. very impressed and makes me want to try

It is somewhat surprising just how capable the F10 M5 is on track. The OEM pads if doing a few track days really do need upgrading to RS29's or the like, but apart form that the car will happily play with more accomplished track toys if you're on a suitable track. Short, tight twisty tracks are not really the M5's domain, but Spa is about as perfect a place to stretch the M5's legs you'll find.