[Anonymoose]

Warning to anyone following this build. It will cause you to spend money. Ask me how I know.

[OG Shark]

The revalved Nitrons are on and they are so much better on the street. Very happy with the street manners - the ride is good, soaks up the bumps well but definitely not floaty. The handling is much improved over stock even with the adjustment favoring the softer range. Overall very happy with the setup on the street at this point - but going to keep putting some miles & street testing in to see if there is anymore improvement to be had. The next step is going to be seeing how it handles the track this weekend. Really excited to finally get out there and beat on the suspension

Also mounted up my other set of track wheels. Running Hoosier A7 in 275/35/18 front & 295/30/18 rear this weekend. Pushing the limit a bit since these run wide but the fit is spot on. Will adjust the ride height a bit at the track since the rears are a bit smaller diameter than the yokos I have been running on the street.

[OG Shark]

Center caps on, cleaned her up a bit...

Awesome weekend at the track - recap and pics soon!

[Wolfman’s Brother]

Legend

[OG Shark]

Awesome weekend at Eagles Canyon in Decatur, TX. Definitely worth the trip - the track is excellent. Finally got to test out the revalved Nitrons (thanks FedEx for the awesome 12 day shipping all the way from Dallas to San Antonio!). Very happy with the changes. Very responsive with a bit of oversteer (my preference) but still very stable. Definitely manageable - not snappy in any way. Ended up placing 3rd in TT3 both days which I'm thrilled about for a full street car with only brakes & dampers! We are going to try one more small tweak to the dampers over the next couple of weeks and then should be settled on our setup. After that power!

One thing of note - the stock seats have absolutely got to go. We should have our first production half cage back from powder coating next week - absolutely a priority getting that in along with some decent seats and harnesses. Eagles Canyon really hammered this home - just way too unstable in the seat on track. Plus the angle of the headrest is awful with a helmet on. Priority one getting this in before we head out to the track again.

[WOT Bimmer]

Originally Posted by OG Shark

Awesome weekend at Eagles Canyon in Decatur, TX. Definitely worth the trip - the track is excellent. Finally got to test out the revalved Nitrons (thanks FedEx for the awesome 12 day shipping all the way from Dallas to San Antonio!). Very happy with the changes. Very responsive with a bit of oversteer (my preference) but still very stable. Definitely manageable - not snappy in any way. Ended up placing 3rd in TT3 both days which I'm thrilled about for a full street car with only brakes & dampers! We are going to try one more small tweak to the dampers over the next couple of weeks and then should be settled on our setup. After that power!

One thing of note - the stock seats have absolutely got to go. We should have our first production half cage back from powder coating next week - absolutely a priority getting that in along with some decent seats and harnesses. Eagles Canyon really hammered this home - just way too unstable in the seat on track. Plus the angle of the headrest is awful with a helmet on. Priority one getting this in before we head out to the track again.

That red hot rotor pic is amazing!

[Anonymoose]

Originally Posted by OG Shark

Awesome weekend at Eagles Canyon in Decatur, TX. Definitely worth the trip - the track is excellent. Finally got to test out the revalved Nitrons (thanks FedEx for the awesome 12 day shipping all the way from Dallas to San Antonio!). Very happy with the changes. Very responsive with a bit of oversteer (my preference) but still very stable. Definitely manageable - not snappy in any way. Ended up placing 3rd in TT3 both days which I'm thrilled about for a full street car with only brakes & dampers! We are going to try one more small tweak to the dampers over the next couple of weeks and then should be settled on our setup. After that power!

One thing of note - the stock seats have absolutely got to go. We should have our first production half cage back from powder coating next week - absolutely a priority getting that in along with some decent seats and harnesses. Eagles Canyon really hammered this home - just way too unstable in the seat on track. Plus the angle of the headrest is awful with a helmet on. Priority one getting this in before we head out to the track again.

100% hear you on the stock seats having to go. It pushes your head too far forward with the angle of it. I also hate they made the newer ones with a non adjustable headrest.

[Wolfman’s Brother]

Again, Legend. Thanks for the content and pushing the platform in this space domestically. Pics are incredible.

What cars were you competing against?

[OG Shark]

Originally Posted by Anonymoose

100% hear you on the stock seats having to go. It pushes your head too far forward with the angle of it. I also hate they made the newer ones with a non adjustable headrest.

Definitely been a concern from the get go which is the main reason we started development of our own half cage. This track however really hammered it home. Very twisty, lots of quick back & forth. Lots of fun but really threw me around in the seat. Should hopefully have the cage back before our next track outing.

Originally Posted by Wolfman’s Brother

Again, Legend. Thanks for the content and pushing the platform in this space domestically. Pics are incredible.

What cars were you competing against?

Really appreciate it. The other cars in my class were all full on track dedicated cars. Cages, aero, all that fun stuff. NASA does a pretty good job of trying to equal out the fields with modifiers to establish your weight:hp but you just are at way too much of a disadvantage rolling in with a street car like this. Still was pretty fun though and think the car performed exceptionally well. And I actually would have also placed P3 in TT2 and TTU as well - and they had more cars running in each group . P1 & P2 in my class were definitely a step up from me though - both very quick. P1 was a well driven E92 M3 my first love on the track. We actually just tore down my current E92 M3 race for paint this week. The interior is a hot mess that really needs some attention.

[F30_320D_UK]

Awesome thread and great pics. That last pic, mean fat tires looks the business from the back

[OG Shark]

Been a little slow going with 223 lately. Covid has slowed us down a bit and also started the complete renovation of the shop. Had to clear out just about everything from the shop area for a bit which wasn't a whole lot of fun... But very much going to be worth it when the new insulation is in and we have HVAC! Redoing the whole office area too which will be awesome - not being ashamed to bring in customers will be nice



Took the car over to my buddy's shop (M-Technik here in San Antonio) so can keep moving forward on it. Prepping for the Bend Calibration tune - installing their flex fuel kit, injectors, & plugs. Also installed the Wagner intercooler and iPE valved exhaust. New set of track wheels also showed up this week. Looking for our first half cage to come back from powdercoat as well next week so it and the seats can go in. Hopefully next week I can actually get a pic with everything on and sound clips of the exhaust...

[Anonymoose]

Let me know what you think of the ipe exhaust when it's on.

[OG Shark]

Originally Posted by Anonymoose

Let me know what you think of the ipe exhaust when it's on.

I wasn’t there for the install but everyone that heard it said it sounded good for an S55...

Heading over there Monday with the camera & mic

[slicer]

So much good stuff going on here! I enjoy seeing the updates.

[Wolfman’s Brother]

Oh shit! Upgrades on upgrades on upgrades

[OG Shark]

Still waiting to get back into my shop waiting for the new insulation to get finished up. We were able to get the prep work done for the upcoming tune - flex fuel kit, injectors, & plugs are in & the car is ready to go. The iPE exhaust is on - and it sounds awesome. Not just awesome for an S55 but the car actually sounds good now! A little too much burble for my liking on sport plus with the stock tune so will have Bend Calibration clean it up a bit. But in person it sounds fantastic. Going to get some good video showing the different modes, start up, idle, all that good stuff - but for now here's a bit of a tease:

Next update will be post tune & another visit to the dyno...

[FaRKle!]

Are you going to turn off burbles, or reduce the duration from the ~4sec of stock? You can toggle them on/off pretty easily with tool32.

[OG Shark]

Originally Posted by FaRKle!

Are you going to turn off burbles, or reduce the duration from the ~4sec of stock? You can toggle them on/off pretty easily with tool32.

Turning them off - never been much of a fan

[OG Shark]

SUPER LAP BATTLE AT COTA & PROGRESS UPDATE!!!!

We have been working hard the last few weeks getting the car ready for the Super Lap Battle at COTA this past weekend. We were providing support for another forum member running in the Unlimited class and decided to run the M2C since we were there & it would be a great time for a progress check. The build of the car would have placed it in the Enthusiast class but they have a rule against shop owners and shop owner's cars running in that class. So the minimum class we could run in was the Street class... which the rules play it pretty fast & loose on what is a "street" car. These are highly modified, lightweight, full aero monsters capable of some incredibly fast laps. Since the goal of our build is a very fast daily driver with all the oem creature comforts I knew going in we were not going to be competing for a podium. Our goal for the weekend was to see how far we could push towards our 223 goal on this our first outing back at COTA and to overall just have a fun weekend.

The changes to the car since the last time we had it at the track:

ENGINE - Installed Bend Calibration's flex fuel kit, Wagner intercooler & charge pipes, EU5 injectors, & new plugs. Absolutely thrilled with where this has put the car. The guys at Bend Calibration have been excellent to work with. I went with them based on their history with track cars - first & foremost for the track maps they prioritize safe power. We are using Ecutek and have been been very happy with that as well - very user friendly on our end. With the new injectors we can also run up to full E85 - and on the street maps wow does it make a difference - the car has absolutely woken up. While the track maps have torque targets they too have made a big difference on the track. I will be taking the car back to the dyno very soon and will get into this area a bit more. Also the custom throttle mapping that Bend does in S+ is worth the price alone!

SUSPENSION - Still on our custom tuned single adjustable Nitron R1 setup. We have been going back & forth with Inertia Laboratory still getting these dialed in further. No other suspension adjustments have been done for this stage of the build.

INTERIOR - Our half cage is finally done & in the car!!! Extremely thrilled with how it turned out (more on this in a separate post). Installed a pair of Cobra Nogaro seats w/BK mounts & Safecraft 6pt harnesses to compliment the half cage. My concern with the Nogaros seems to have had some merit - they are a bit too narrow in the shoulder for me. On the track though I was very happy with how secure I was. They certainly are not full containment worthy but they are a huge step up from oem. I need to get more street time with them though - I feel like where they end in my shoulders is likely going to be too uncomfortable for me. This is definitely going to be a personal thing though so I wouldn't discount anyone else having a better fit than I do. I love the BK mounts with the oem sliders - very slick setup and even though they put the seat a bit high I still had plenty of room with my helmet on.

AERO - We are still chugging along in our aero development. Was hoping to have it ready for this past weekend but unfortunately didn't make it. As a result we basically had no aero out there - nothing on front and only an M235iR wing in the rear to help settle it a bit. Should be soon though for a proper setup!


WEEKEND RECAP - Absolutely thrilled with how the car ran this weekend. I was cautiously optimistic that we would already be approaching our 2:23 goal at COTA - but wasn't sure if we could get there without aero. As it turns out we are already absolutely within reach of that goal! Per class rules we have to run Yokohama A052 tires - good for a street tire but still a street tire nonetheless. On the A052's I was able to get a best lap of 2:25.42. While this had no shot at competing in our class it still put us 8th out of 21. While I'm not a moral victory kind of person I do recognize that realistically we couldn't have asked for much better in the Street class. For comparison purposes - in the class that the car actually specs into (Enthusiast) we actually would have won the class by 4 seconds...

Knowing that I was within a 1.5 secs of getting into my 2:23 goal we decided to go for it the last session on Sunday. We pulled the transponder and threw on a set of Yokohama hard compound slicks (didn't want to have a faster time count with out of class tires). The air temp was pushing 80* at this point so not quite optimum but still felt like 2:23 was attainable at that point. Get up to the grid and they tell us only one hot lap... argh! The pace they run their out laps is not real conducive to firing up a set of hards & didn't really know how much further I could push the braking points - figured it would take a couple of hot laps to get a good run at it. Well with only that one hot lap I only managed a 2:24.7 - didn't really feel like the grip was there until about half way through that lap. Confident that 2:23.xx was there that session but it didn't happen - so now I have some unfinished business there.

Overall the car was awesome. The suspension for just being a single adjustable setup is on point - the car is much improved over stock. The power increase was great as was being secure in the seat finally. Very happy with where the car is at for this part of the build and 2:23 is definitely attainable!

]

[Commanderwiggin]

Mods this is front page worthy...congrats on a great build!

[GFEA]

Lovely! Been looking for this build since seeing the COTA results happy i found it. Building for the GTA finals at Buttonwillow myself.

[OG Shark]

Originally Posted by Commanderwiggin

Mods this is front page worthy...congrats on a great build!

Thanks!!! This is only the first phase though... getting a few more goodies lined up to go on the car right after I officially hit the 223 goal. Think we are going to see how far we can push it on the track and still be a street car.

Originally Posted by GFEA

Lovely! Been looking for this build since seeing the COTA results happy i found it. Building for the GTA finals at Buttonwillow myself.

Awesome! Dedicated track build or dual duty?