[Vic]

Heiko, Congratulations on your purchase, I hope you have a lot of fun with it on the "Ring".

Did you know that you shouldn't turn the front wheels to the left or to the right, when the hood is cracked open? The tires will hit the hood corners, and break them. The only time that it is ok to turn the wheels is when the hood is all the way up, or all the way down, but not in-between!

There is a breather vent, at the forward end of each valve cover. It routes into the incoming air box. During heavy braking, some oil may slosh forward, into the intake plenum, and this will make very embarrassing big blue clouds of smoke. People will think your engine blew up! What you need to do, is to take the hoses from each valve cover, and route them to a small oil catch tank, that you can possibly mount to the aluminum cross brace, just in front of the engine. ITs a good idea to also vent the power steering resevoir into this tank as well, to avoid getting p.s. fluid on the exhaust headers.

There is also one more hose, right under the throttle body, that can allow oil to enter the intake plenum. I'm not sure what racers do with this one, but Dave Cawthorne on this site has a fix for it. He sells under the name "Dave's Big Brakes"

Make sure you flush out the old brake fluid, and go with DOT 4 fluid, like Motul 600, or equivalent. You probably know a lot of this kind of stuff already, from your BMW experience at the Ring. (Damm, I envy you!!!!) heh heh!

Here is a few more things to do to prep a GTS for the track-
*brake ducts for cooling air
*high temperature brake pads
*wrap ball joints with foil or something, so the hot rotors don't melt the grease out
*add "trap doors" to the oil pan, to help oil pick-up in high G turns
*add modified windage tray to the oil pan area, to help the oil return faster to the pan
*add an Accusump, maybe the three quart variety, to provide oil pressure, in case the pan is dry
*If you can't spring for the tripple-adjustable Penske shocks, the stock shock can be revalved for improved track performance. (a "dirty, cheating bastard" trick)
*change power steering fluuid to Red Line brand, much higher boiling point, and less foaming
*add 5 or 6 point harness
*roll bar
*big brakes, from Dave, or Stop Tech, etc

If you don't get a track alignment, the car tends to understeer. There are "sport shims" where the top, front, control arm bolts to the chassis. Removing these shims will give signifigant negative camber to the front wheels, balancing out the understeer, (as well as rendering more toe-out, so you gotta hold the wheel steady). I never tried this myself, but just had a mild track alignment done instead. The advantage of taking the sport shims out is, that you can put them back for the street, and that way you won't be wearing out your tires prematurely. If you go with racing tires, then you will probably have a second set of rims. The list goes on and on!

Sorry if you knew this stuff already,I included as much as I could, and assumed nothing. Hope I didn't tell you anything wrong.

Please let us know about your experiences on the North Loop! We live vicariously through your exploits! Stay safe out there.