[synkro]

     Featured on BIMMERPOST.com

Greetings from Portugal, I hope everyone is doing well!

I am grateful to be able to share with you the story of my 2018 M2 Competition DCT in Hockenheim Silver. I own the car since Nov 2020 having around 20k km at that time, pretty much a standard configuration - regular (blue) brakes, manual seats, black 788Ms, etc.

After owning a BMW E36 in Romania, where I was born and raised, the M2 looked like the natural next step ever since I saw it live for the first time.

I wasn't looking after the Competition version initially but after getting a great "Premium Selection" offer for this particular car, including 5 years of warranty and all the service included I couldn't stop myself to pull the trigger on it.

The car is my daily driver / family car but also my track you. Coming from the E36 that's running a track-oriented setup and had an Euro M3 engine for about 10 years I must say that I'm impressed on the M2C how much of an beast it can be on the track whilst still being able to fill up the trunk and take my folks on a vacation around the gorgeous beaches of Portugal.

For the next few years it will remain my daily driver but I guess it will slowly become a track car in time. I managed to run a few trackdays on Estoril (more about that in future posts) and my objective is to learn it as close to stock as possible, get the most out of it and then strategically upgrade it, step by step.

Looking forward to get in touch with the community on Instagram so if you're around stop by and say "Hi" - https://www.instagram.com/danisnk/
I'd love to follow and get inspired by your builds

Here are some shots made by OnePortuguesePhotographer

Thank you, I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts and I hope you'll stay around

[Foggins]

Great write up and great pics! Is the M2C pretty rare in Portugal or are there quite a few on the streets?

[synkro]

Originally Posted by Foggins

Great write up and great pics! Is the M2C pretty rare in Portugal or are there quite a few on the streets?

Actually I'm not aware of any European country where the M2/M2Cs are more popular than M3/4s, at least from what I can see

There's a huge community in here, there are like minimum 10 CSs that I know and a lot of folks taking them on the track and this comes with a lot of knowledge and healthy "competition"

I guess that the combination of narrow streets in the major cities + having Estoril and Portimao racetracks quite accessible from anywhere in the country made the people look after these cars more than other bigger alternatives.

[esoj37]

Looking good. Love Hockenheim silver.

[synkro]

So let's get down with the cool stuff now. Last year in October I took the car for the first time on track, on the amazing Estoril near Lisbon.

I was also able to get an instructor with me which was really helpful as I mainly had to shift my focus on getting used to the car whilst I was getting help with the proper lines and everything. The car still had everything stock so obviously I experienced quite some brake fade (even with proper cool down) but I really wanted to see its stock behavior.

Recorded the following video, including his queues, for anyone that's looking to learn more about the track (long video warning). Not that important given I had an instructor, but back then my best lap was 2.04

For the next trackday I replaced the brake fluid with Castrol React SRF Racing Brake Fluid and a complete set of Ferodo DS2500. I only had a few sessions as the goal was to experience if the fade is gone or at least if I managed to get more laps until the fade.

Managed to get just a few sessions as I had huge vibrations on the brakes (probably because of residuals) but I had no fade at all!

My best lap back then was 2.04:6, which I would consider my personal best of the time, as I had no instructor and was basically on my own

A few months later I came back on Estoril with everything in good shape for what was about the be the last track day for my front tires and brake pads. Altough I was quite happy with the DS2500 I finally understood why people were complaining about them. After 5 sessions they started to fall apart and filled all the slots in the rotors with residuals so eventually had to cancel my last session to make sure I'm not ripping my rotors apart.

Not sure if I can embed an Instagram post but you'll find here a pic of the rotors and pads after the 4th session (3rd picture)

That being said, I was able to achieve a best lap of 2:02.373 that makes me very happy, given the only upgrades are pads and fluid.

[synkro]

Getting ready for my first trackday on the Algarve Rollercoaster.

Got a new front set of Michelin PSS star rated and had a surprise to see that starting with a lower pressure did some significant damage to the old pair. Luckily there weren't any issues when driving but these might be the last set of PSSs if the new set will have the same issue, especially as a friend of mine running identical setup had the same 👎

I'm also gonna test for the first time the Pagid RSL29 💪 These will probably become my track only pads and they make quite some noise when daily driving.

Planning to go live on Instagram from the track on the 22nd of August - join me and say hello 🤜🤛

https://www.instagram.com/danisnk/

[IM2C]

Love the car!
You need to learn how to make better photos though. Lighting, composition, perspective etc...*




*In the event my sarcastic humor didn't work, I was kidding. Nicely done sir.