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David@ActiveAutowerke · 05-12-2016, 02:41 PM

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Last month we had the chance to take our M2 out to Sebring International Raceway to see what the car could actually do. With the vast amount of positive reviews that have been coming in about how the car drives, the bar was set pretty high.

Setup

The only variable we changed for the weekend was tire pressure. We wanted to keep the pressures around 35-37psi hot, which required a cold temperature of ~25psi. When we first went out with 30psi cold, we ended up with pressures over 45psi after a few hot laps.

Background

I'm not a professional driver, but this was a closed course. I've been "high performance" driving for ten years and have been instructing with NASA's Florida Region for the past three. I have a couple years of wheel to wheel racing experience and am also an avid motorcycle rider/racer. I've driven dozens of cars around Sebring including a few F8X M4's and I was even lucky enough to drive my student's M235i on the same day that we were there testing the M2.

Driving Emotions

After my second hot lap in the M2 I was literally laughing out loud in my helmet. I could not believe how good the car was in bone stock trim. My prior experience with stock BMWs on track tells me that they all need a little more front camber and a little more toe out for them to be any fun; not the case with the M2!

If I had to label the car with three words, they would be "point and shoot". Turn in was pretty good (especially for the stock alignment and weeny 245 PSSs up front) and even if you were coming in a little hot with the front wheels starting to rudder themselves around, the situation was fixed easily by laying in to the throttle a bit more. Instead of snap-oversteering like the F8X M4 and F10 M5, the M2 handled the under to over transition extremely gracefully. The M2 is by far the most flickable stock BMW I've driven. Hit the brakes, flick it in, power out! Almost as easy to do as it is to say!

The stock brakes are the weakest point of the package. After four (7) lap sessions the front pads were nearly to the backing plate. I refer to session length by lap count because I simply couldn't make it through a full 25 minute session without fading the brakes. After about 6-7 hot laps they become overheated and started significantly fading.

Notes

If you shift below 6000rpm, you will have lag when applying throttle in the next gear. But, if you let it sing to above 6000rpm and then shift, it explodes in to the gear with no noticeable turbo lag. That said, turbo lag is a real thing. At some points I found myself missing the cable actuated throttle on my e36 or the snappy response of the individual throttle body'd S54 or S65. If you want to apply throttle mid turn, you have to do it a little in advance. This isn't a deal killer but it's something noteworthy.

The car is sometimes too smart. If your tire pressure is too low (my starting point of 25psi) the car won't let you turn DSC off because it thinks you're losing air pressure. This leads to my next comment.

DSC is a joke. If you leave the traction on, even in the first stage where the DSC light is on in the cluster the car is boring. It smoothly glides through the turns with no chance of under or oversteer regardless of your throttle input. It's like racing go karts on the kiddie track at Disney. This is great for new drivers looking to learn the line, but you'll never learn any car control with the DSC system in the M2. Fortunately the car is fairly easy to handle.

Huge thanks goes out to our friends Cody and Garrett from BC Racing NA. They came out for the day and captured a bunch of footage for us. We'll be back at Sebring next month with an updated car in hopes of shaving a bit of time.

If anyone has any questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer. I'm not the best writer/reviewer but I can definitely comment on any specific questions or concerns! I will update the thread with more still shots as they become available.

EDIT: In the very last clip you can hear the exhaust note exiting turn 7... it sounds so good for a stock car.

05-12-2016, 02:41 PM	#1
David@ActiveAutowerke BimmerPost Supporting Vendor 813 Rep 526 Posts Drives: M2 Join Date: Jan 2016 Location: Miami, FL iTrader: (0)	Active Autowerke \| M2 Track Day Results and Review Featured on BIMMERPOST.com Last month we had the chance to take our M2 out to Sebring International Raceway to see what the car could actually do. With the vast amount of positive reviews that have been coming in about how the car drives, the bar was set pretty high. Setup The only variable we changed for the weekend was tire pressure. We wanted to keep the pressures around 35-37psi hot, which required a cold temperature of ~25psi. When we first went out with 30psi cold, we ended up with pressures over 45psi after a few hot laps. Background I'm not a professional driver, but this was a closed course. I've been "high performance" driving for ten years and have been instructing with NASA's Florida Region for the past three. I have a couple years of wheel to wheel racing experience and am also an avid motorcycle rider/racer. I've driven dozens of cars around Sebring including a few F8X M4's and I was even lucky enough to drive my student's M235i on the same day that we were there testing the M2. Driving Emotions After my second hot lap in the M2 I was literally laughing out loud in my helmet. I could not believe how good the car was in bone stock trim. My prior experience with stock BMWs on track tells me that they all need a little more front camber and a little more toe out for them to be any fun; not the case with the M2! If I had to label the car with three words, they would be "point and shoot". Turn in was pretty good (especially for the stock alignment and weeny 245 PSSs up front) and even if you were coming in a little hot with the front wheels starting to rudder themselves around, the situation was fixed easily by laying in to the throttle a bit more. Instead of snap-oversteering like the F8X M4 and F10 M5, the M2 handled the under to over transition extremely gracefully. The M2 is by far the most flickable stock BMW I've driven. Hit the brakes, flick it in, power out! Almost as easy to do as it is to say! The stock brakes are the weakest point of the package. After four (7) lap sessions the front pads were nearly to the backing plate. I refer to session length by lap count because I simply couldn't make it through a full 25 minute session without fading the brakes. After about 6-7 hot laps they become overheated and started significantly fading. Notes If you shift below 6000rpm, you will have lag when applying throttle in the next gear. But, if you let it sing to above 6000rpm and then shift, it explodes in to the gear with no noticeable turbo lag. That said, turbo lag is a real thing. At some points I found myself missing the cable actuated throttle on my e36 or the snappy response of the individual throttle body'd S54 or S65. If you want to apply throttle mid turn, you have to do it a little in advance. This isn't a deal killer but it's something noteworthy. The car is sometimes too smart. If your tire pressure is too low (my starting point of 25psi) the car won't let you turn DSC off because it thinks you're losing air pressure. This leads to my next comment. DSC is a joke. If you leave the traction on, even in the first stage where the DSC light is on in the cluster the car is boring. It smoothly glides through the turns with no chance of under or oversteer regardless of your throttle input. It's like racing go karts on the kiddie track at Disney. This is great for new drivers looking to learn the line, but you'll never learn any car control with the DSC system in the M2. Fortunately the car is fairly easy to handle. Huge thanks goes out to our friends Cody and Garrett from BC Racing NA. They came out for the day and captured a bunch of footage for us. We'll be back at Sebring next month with an updated car in hopes of shaving a bit of time. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer. I'm not the best writer/reviewer but I can definitely comment on any specific questions or concerns! I will update the thread with more still shots as they become available. EDIT: In the very last clip you can hear the exhaust note exiting turn 7... it sounds so good for a stock car. Last edited by David@ActiveAutowerke; 05-12-2016 at 02:52 PM..
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