[bkd705]

Originally Posted by HP Autosport

Nice build!

Make sure your lap belt receptacle is routed though the opening and not on the outside of the seat. You want the lap part of the belt to be low on your waist area. By routing over the seat it will be ineffective.

Yep! I took that photo right after putting it in to show some friends, got the seatbelt all setup properly now!

Originally Posted by HotRodM4

It's the lip and big wing for me 🔥

Appreciate it man! Hopefully going to be doing a proper splitter too, might DIY it even. 👀

Originally Posted by warrenw

Congrats on getting featured!!

Thanks dude, was a surprise to me when I saw it.

[Fabb]

Originally Posted by HP Autosport

Nice build!

Make sure your lap belt receptacle is routed though the opening and not on the outside of the seat. You want the lap part of the belt to be low on your waist area. By routing over the seat it will be ineffective.

It's quite difficult to do so with stock seat receptacle. After market seat receptacle maybe

[white2abbit]

Car looks amazing! Really digging those wheels. Definitely add CTMP to your list (if you haven't made it out there already)...it's quite a bit of fun. Cheers to another BSM M2C in the GTA

[bkd705]

Originally Posted by white2abbit

Car looks amazing! Really digging those wheels. Definitely add CTMP to your list (if you haven't made it out there already)...it's quite a bit of fun. Cheers to another BSM M2C in the GTA

Thanks! Definitely biased but BSM is the best M2C color. 😅

I have been to DDT at CTMP but have yet to try GP. GP will hopefully be on the list to do this summer at some point, might sign up for one of the Trillium days.

[bkd705]

Photos!

Here are a couple photos from an E46 photo I rolled up to with some friends.

Shot by @oggismedia
Also on my Instagram

[HP Autosport]

Originally Posted by Fabb

It's quite difficult to do so with stock seat receptacle. After market seat receptacle maybe

Got to do it for safety or install a proper harness.

[Fabb]

Originally Posted by HP Autosport

Got to do it for safety or install a proper harness.

I agree. Bucket seat with 3 point itself is a safety compromise already, adding a seat slider doesn't help eithet

[bkd705]

Originally Posted by Fabb

I agree. Bucket seat with 3 point itself is a safety compromise already, adding a seat slider doesn't help eithet

Yeah, tbh the title of this thread is becoming a lie aha. This car doesn't see much daily use and I'm planning on ordering a half cage and harnesses for it, but that might be more towards end of the season.

[bkd705]

1:18.x Goal Hit (Track Day Post)

Last week or the week before I hit up TMP Cayuga on a random evening to do my first shakedown of the car there. It was a pretty rough track day as the open lapping session was JAMMED and lots of clearly new drivers on track, and the marshal was letting a lot of stuff fly that was pretty unsafe. Over the course of the day I only got about 4 or 5 clean laps in and I was only able to run to a 1:20.xx. Honestly was pretty upset at myself for this as I really thought I could do better, but forgave myself a bit given the track condition and the car setup is brand new to me.

So we went back. I joined some friends from a local E46 group and hit up a private rental session with them. This gave me a lot more track time with a basically empty track to hit hot lap after hot lap.

The session started off pretty rough, I was running a 1:20.xx again and was struggling to improve. After I got off I adjusted the rear PSI up a bit, and stiffened up the rear end of the suspension as I was getting a bit of push and wanted to get the car to rotate more. I was erring on the side of too much oversteer then I could dial back. Ended up getting a pretty awesome setup of the rip and the car was rotating really nicely. Got into the 19s the next session and was feeling a lot more confident. When I got off I decided to take a look at my friends profile in the Garmin Catalyst I just bought off him, as hes run a 1:17 on the same tires. Seeing his cornering speeds and braking zones (this thing is crazy detailed, buy one for sure if you're thinking about it) gave me even more confidence to go out and send it.

Next session I went out, ran a bit of a warm up lap then straight into a hot lap. This track has a couple straights, two longers ones on the outfield, two short ones infield. Hit traffic almost immediately on the second outfield straight, they let me by pretty quick but I thought the lap was done so I kept it going just to practice the later braking and faster cornering speeds. Caught up to an E46 near the end of the lap but he was pretty quick and kept his distance from me for the last sector of the track. Came across the line and expected nothing but ended up seeing a 1:18.84! Was super stoked (in the video you can hear I'm pretty excited). I really thought I was going home with a 19 and would have to come back again, but I hit my goal and was done. I ran a few more laps but they were all scrappy, so I called it a day and relaxed with the happiness of accomplishing my goal, so early in the season too.

Consistently I can run low 19s, and I know what I need to do to become consistent in the 18s and run lower 18s even into 17s. These numbers are actually pretty competitive for one of the local time attack orgs I plan on running, so I'm pretty excited for their August event.

Here is a link to the video of the lap. Feel free to critique!

[bkd705]

Small Photoshoot

[dcmac]

Hey man,

Great thread, thanks for posting.

I have a similarly set up OG M2 to yours and want to make several of the same mods you’ve already made, so it’s super helpful.

Firstly, I feel your pain on the Apex wheel selection. I bought the EXACT rim you did because my car is also a daily and sees winter use here in CO, so I needed something to run some 255 Blizzaks. In the end, for track duty this car really needs more rear rubber than a 9.5in rim can provide, and I have since upgraded to a set of 10.5” FL5’s bought off a mate (my 9.5 EC7s are now the dedicated very good looking winter set). Tire wise I ran 275 square for a couple seasons mostly in RE71’s and the later in Toyo RR’s and absolutely loved that setup for car feel. But again, corner exit just not as quick as it could be with more rear. The RR’s (is that what you mean by a “cheater” tire? I’ve never heard that expression) are great on this car and I recommend you give those a try when you wear out those RS4’s. They are a nice step up. I am now set to run a 275/295 RR setup on those new FL5’s and greatly looking forward to seeing how the car performs, if I ever make it out on track this season…. (Work and family taking priority these days).

Couple of questions from me… the Sparco seats.. I am looking at that exact model. They feel great in the shop but your comments on width (I am a 32 waist) and shifter worried me. How have they been?

What cage are you going to run?

Overall, nice build and good luck. Ultimately I think you and I are in similar boats… where we just need to make a decision to make these full send track builds and forget about trying to make compromises for daily driving (such as the seat, and other stuff). As soon as I get myself a cheap daily as a replacement, and some spare time, I’d love to go down the rabbit hole - as the M2 is such a fun track car and I don’t think I’ll ever sell it.

[dcmac]

One more thing on the Sparco seat, did it leave you sitting lower than stock? By how much do you think?

[bkd705]

Originally Posted by dcmac

The RR’s (is that what you mean by a “cheater” tire? I’ve never heard that expression) are great on this car and I recommend you give those a try when you wear out those RS4’s.

I think "cheater tires" usually refers to 200tw tires that don't really wear or perform like a 200tw, so they're "cheater" because they let you run in an autocross, time attack, etc class that requires 200tw but they perform much better and maybe more like a 120tw or 80tw. Examples being RE71R, A052, etc.

Originally Posted by dcmac

Couple of questions from me… the Sparco seats.. I am looking at that exact model. They feel great in the shop but your comments on width (I am a 32 waist) and shifter worried me. How have they been?

I'm also a 32 waist. Honestly they're a little bit wide once you're in the car, but I sort of like it and I haven't had issues with them holding me in. If I did it over I'd likely still pick the same seat since it leaves some comfort for the 1.5hr drive to and from the track, and I'm tall so need the higher harness cutouts.

Originally Posted by dcmac

One more thing on the Sparco seat, did it leave you sitting lower than stock? By how much do you think?

This is more on the bracket than on the seat. With the BK seat mount you can't go to the bottom holes because of the seat shape and the OEM rails, but it gets a bit lower and makes me happy enough. I may go down the route of direct to floor mount or just buy a manual slider setup in the future if I feel the need to go lower. But again at 6'1 + a helmet, I have no issues on track.

Originally Posted by dcmac

What cage are you going to run?

Honestly, very not sure on this yet. Have any suggestions? All I know is for sure not Studio RSR based on the feedback you can find on the forums lmao.

Originally Posted by dcmac

Overall, nice build and good luck. Ultimately I think you and I are in similar boats… where we just need to make a decision to make these full send track builds and forget about trying to make compromises for daily driving (such as the seat, and other stuff). As soon as I get myself a cheap daily as a replacement, and some spare time, I’d love to go down the rabbit hole - as the M2 is such a fun track car and I don’t think I’ll ever sell it.

Agreed 100%. The M2 is fantastic, and tbh my title is becoming a lie as I barely drive this thing anymore except for track or car meets and its stiff and creeky and rattly, and I keep ordering more parts that make it worse aha.

[dcmac]

Hahaha touché …. When I put in my Vorschlag camber plates it lost any sense of euro luxury it was ever trying to hold onto

Thanks for the feedback on the seat.. I’m 6’0” so again very helpful. And honestly I want to go a bit lower but not super low. I drove a mate’s CS on track last week and he had put in an OMP seat which dropped the position considerably (can’t remember the bracket used) and it definitely threw me a little at first.

The other thing I learned by driving that CS is it has got nothing on a properly modified “regular” M2 for the track. It felt like a powerful marshmallow in comparison to my car

Re cage I don’t have a lot of insight other to say a friend used an IND cage and is happy with it.

Of all your mods, I think I want the AP’s the most. Funnily enough though, as factually weak as the OG M2’s brakes are, when you are time trialing and doing 5-6 lap sessions, it’s manageable. If I were doing 20min sessions, I’d need that upgrade a lot sooner…

[bkd705]

Updates + Track day at CTMP DDT

Been a few track days and missing updates since my last post so I'll try to cover it quick.

Attended CSCS which is a local time attack series here. Qualified 9th which doesn't make finals. I was off all day and wasn't super into it. I think a mix of nerves + still learning the car. Only ran like mid 19s at TMP which is where I can run 18s and should be capable of getting into 17s.

After this I had the car corner balanced and aligned again. This made a huge difference on the car. The alignment is a bit more mild now and the corner balance helped the stability of the car a lot. Front was too low and I think hurting the damper performance.

This weekend I attended a DDT track day with some fresh Hawk DTC-60 pads front and rear. Goal was to hit 36s but again I just wasn't really into it due to some personal stuff.

Ran 37s and 38s all day but got a lot more comfortable with finding the line, focusing on min corner speed and corner exit speed, which meant earlier throttle and carrying more speed into the turns. Having the car corner balanced and the suspension dialed in helped a lot with keep the car flat and neutral to be able to carry the speed. Ultimately the Garmin showed my optimal as a high 1:36 but I wasn't able to put it all together in one lap.

[bkd705]

Photoshoot!

No new mods for now, maybe for the rest of the season unless little things pop up. Just seat time and Time Attack!

To keep the thread going, here are some shots from a recent photoshoot. Since this shoot tires have changed since I got a nail in my RS4, on CRS now. Also got a corner balance and alignment change (went a little more mellow to around -2.8 front -2.4 rear).

[bkd705]

Track Day - Shannonville Motorsports Park



Woo! More track content. I've honestly missed a few track days posts since I was a bit lazy to write them up, maybe I'll do a make up post eventually. This will mostly be a write up as I don't have good photos from this event.

This was my first time ever going to SMP. Its a long, rough track, with terrifying run offs and these massive curbs. Apparently it used to be a motorcycle track, I have no idea how. Half the harder braking zones have huge bumps from pavement changes and a lot of the corner exits have big bumps if you miss the line by even a foot or two.

First couple laps out were just sight laps essentially, I brought a friend who had been out for a few laps prior and he gave me the rough overview and made sure I went the right direction, then brought my friend who is pretty competitive in TA and has been to SMP a few times to give me some proper coaching.

At SMP it seems that line and carrying speed are the most important pieces, braking isn't too important as there are a lot of spots where you just lift, and the parts where you do brake aren't super hard in this car. This was almost an entirely new concept of driving for me since most of the other tracks I've been to have clearly defined harder braking zones where you trail to the apex then back on throttle. Took a few laps to adjust and I'm still braking in a few spots where I should just lift, and braking too much in spots where I could carry more speed.

Overall the car felt very good. I made a couple small changes to the setup I'll talk about below.

Hawk DTC-60 Pads
I grabbed these since endless pads for rear OEM size were hard to get and pricey. Honestly I can't see myself going back to Endless pads after these. These cost almost half or 2/3rds the price and they bite just as hard, even from cold, handle temps just as well and in my opinion they're a lot easier to modulate than the MS35s I was on before. Only downside to these is they dust a lot and way grimier, and they also squeal like crazy on the street.

Nankang CRS 275/35r18 Square
I got a puncture on my way home from the last track day so I ended up grabbing these and putting them on. I've heard mixed reviews on these tires but can honestly say I really liked them today. It is a new track for me so I can't compare to say "here was my previous limit, CRS +- xyz", but the way the tire drove felt really nice. It felt like it had endless grip, even when I completely threw the line out the window, the tires communicated their limit very well and still gripped up and just pushed through my mistake. All of my best laps were at the end of 20 minute sessions so about 8 laps in. Super happy with these, and for the price and availability I think I'll just be rocking these from now on.

I ended up running a 2:01.19 at the end of the day. I think this is a respectable time but by no means a fast competitive time. I think I'd have to be 1:56-1:58 in my car to be fast fast. But for my first time here I'm pretty happy and I seemed to impress a couple people who have helped me a lot and coached me so that made the day a success for me.

Below is a video of my fastest lap, so close to breaking into 2 flat or even sub 2 but I messed up a hairpin into the back straight and then got stuck behind a slower car, just bad timing.


SMP 2:01.19