[ThreeStripes]

Great stuff. Thanks for sharing.

[M1500Z]

Last year ended on a nice little high of track fun. After ECR, I had worn in my RE-71RS a decent little bit and was able to sneak into Edge Addict's last event of the year at COTA. Their December event is always a lot of fun and this one did not disappoint with near-perfect weather.

Edge Addicts | Circuit of the Americas
First off, this is usually the most packed event of the year for Edge and they did something a little different by reducing the number of entries. This left me with a little bit of a scramble to sneak in as most everything was full, but they made it happen. Not only that, but a couple good friends were able to do the same for the second day—more on this in a bit.

Saturday started out a bit damp, but the track was decently quick. This was my first time back at COTA after adjusting both sway bars to the stiffer setting and the car was feeling pretty good. I had also decided to move back to my out-of-the-box damper settings which I think was generally a good thing. Couldn't put down a lap faster than 2:30.259 but I knew the second day was likely to be a little quicker. The day was just a nice, fun day at the track overall.

Sunday would have 2 of my good friends, people I've known for nearly 20 years, join me in their E46s. Both of them are capable drivers and the two cars are in well prepped but in different ways. One is a street/track car with no aero and a relatively soft spring package, the other is still largely full interior but with a splitter, wing, MCS 2WR, on Hankook slicks. Between the three of us, there's a spread of lap times and we all kind of make them in slightly different ways. It didn't really matter though because we just went out and had a ton of fun in the fastest run group.

We had a few sessions of playing around and while we weren't trying to be 10/10ths, during the 3rd session of the day I found some clean track and clicked off a 2:28.922* which is a new PR for me. The * is because my Solo 2 DL has been acting up but the video appears to back up the data although it too has an oddity of hitting 2:28.999 before flashing the faster .922. Either way it's a PR and I'll take it. The other downside is, to my knowledge and wonky data for the weekend, I never got back to that pace. I finished the day off by giving a ride along to someone who thoroughly enjoyed it (one of my favorite things to do), and then something that I've always been a little timid to do at COTA.

First, a tangent—Edge Addicts has four run groups, well there's essentially a 5th club-only group so we'll ignore it, and these four groups are the typical novice, intermediate, advanced, and very advanced. But because COTA is a big track, they also kind of break them down by lap time as well. While not required, they want you to be consistently at 2:30/lap or faster to be in very advanced, and so when your fastest time is is right around there, it's not easy to "dial it back." Thankfully for the last session of the day, I was feeling pretty good and the track was clearing out so I was able to dial back the speed a little bit and do a session with TC/ASC fully disabled. I went out back of the group behind my buddy in his street/track E46 and followed him for a couple laps before leading a few laps and then taking off. The laps were so uneventful, I almost wanted to ham-fist the car a little—this car is just such a joy to drive and it was easy to click off a nice group of faster and faster 2:30's before the checker came out to end the day.



For me, these are the weekends that are imprinted into my memory. Good weather, good fun, and good friends and I hope there's more in 2024.




Harris Hill Road
To end out the year I joined a friend at HHR for a day. This is a track that you might say I have a bit of history with. It's a pretty good layout although it's not my favorite and it doesn't give you much of a rest. It's worst quality though is that it is bumpy thanks to the soil beneath it. I feel it's a track that rewards bravery and the people who are fast here are usually fast elsewhere. I'd love to say that's me, I tend to think logically and with my wallet in mind first so this track gets under my skin a bit. But I kind of sucked it up and went out TC off from the get go.

I wanted to work on two things and not shoot for lap times.

1. Lighter, not later braking
2. Rolling more speed through corners

Like they say, concentrate on being smooth and what your doing and the lap times will come. I took time off the my previous PR and ultimately clicked off a 1:23.652, nearly 2.4 seconds off my previous best.

Looking at the data between the previous PR and the new one, you can see lighter braking peaks in most places and rolling more speed into the corner. This faster lap time happened even with a much slower speed through the dog leg (right at the end of sector 2) where I went off before—still hate that turn and it feels like it's just hammering the suspension.


Coming up...
While going over the car before the new year, I discovered that I must've caught a bit of bad luck because a front strut was leaking from the top seal. After chatting with Barry at 3DM and sending him some photos he said it was likely due to something getting past the scraper seal—uncommon at the relatively low hours of use, but isn't unheard of. Off the front struts came and they've been shipped out for a rebuild and I decided to take the plunge into shock pots because... because I'm weird I guess. I find the data interesting and hope that it can help me learn more about damper performance and adjustments.

Also it's a new season for NASA and I'll be heading off to Round 2 at MSR Cresson next month in hopes of furthering my education in TT. I will admit that after seeing Zebulon now has an F8X front splitter, I've been thinking about going to the dark side of aerodynamic aids. The reality is as long as the car is driven to and from events, it's unlikely to see such a large and aggressive splitter. Plus my aesthetic tastes make it even harder to swallow. Shower thought: maybe one day I'll give up on the M2 and pick up an E30 M3 to race in historic stuff. Anyway, if anyone in an F8X is running this splitter, I'd love to know more about its mounting and performance.

[ThreeStripes]

Great read to get fired up for upcoming track time with.

[OG Shark]

Awesome end of the year!!!!

Harris Hill is no joke - when you say bumpy people do not understand what you really mean is that this track looks like somebody did that place in with about 1000 runs of carpet bombing. Typically all I will take out there now are the track dedicated M3s (although did take a C8 out not long ago) - just too rough and too much risk of damage for the nicer (and heavier cars). It’s a shame too because I actually really enjoy the layout (particularly CW - not near as much CCW). But it’s just so rough again that you have to limit your speed for both comfort and to not completely kill the car. And the lines are just all over the place now with a lot of compromise to avoid particularly nasty areas. 23.xxx is a very very respectable time for the state of that track and not to mention your 2nd time there! My last time out have some video where you can see my head just brutally pinballing between the halos it’s actually kind of comical.

Also you’re in luck - I have the Zebulon splitter and wing on the way hopefully be here in a couple of weeks. Going to be running it at super lap battle so welcome to come and check it out when we are there. Think it should be fairly easy on & off. Maybe worthy of being transported on a roof rack to the track… Also going with his wing and using the CS Racing trunk for the mount.

[M1500Z]

Originally Posted by OG Shark

Awesome end of the year!!!!

Harris Hill is no joke - when you say bumpy people do not understand what you really mean is that this track looks like somebody did that place in with about 1000 runs of carpet bombing. Typically all I will take out there now are the track dedicated M3s (although did take a C8 out not long ago) - just too rough and too much risk of damage for the nicer (and heavier cars). It’s a shame too because I actually really enjoy the layout (particularly CW - not near as much CCW). But it’s just so rough again that you have to limit your speed for both comfort and to not completely kill the car. And the lines are just all over the place now with a lot of compromise to avoid particularly nasty areas. 23.xxx is a very very respectable time for the state of that track and not to mention your 2nd time there! My last time out have some video where you can see my head just brutally pinballing between the halos it’s actually kind of comical.

Also you’re in luck - I have the Zebulon splitter and wing on the way hopefully be here in a couple of weeks. Going to be running it at super lap battle so welcome to come and check it out when we are there. Think it should be fairly easy on & off. Maybe worthy of being transported on a roof rack to the track… Also going with his wing and using the CS Racing trunk for the mount.

Really excited to see more about that splitter and wing. Because of my, umm tastes and needs, I was thinking of a reduced 4" splitter with tunnels and no end plates and the smaller 260 wing under mounted using their hinge-mount setup which sounds pretty cool. That's a second half of the season thing for me though.

Regarding Harris Hill—yeah, it sucks and it's a real shame too.

[M1500Z]

After months of half-ass searching I managed to find a 2 series trunk that met my criteria:

• Painted Alpine White
• Came with factory lip attached
• Complete with wiring and hinges
• Only had minor wear/a ding or two

I found the trunk off of car-part.com at a local-ish salvage yard about an hour and a half south of me and called them up to confirm it was available and clean. I put a deposit down during the week and drove down on Saturday to pick it up and meet a friend for a Tex-Mex lunch. I got home and did a quick wipe down and found a few minor scratches and a couple small dings which are visible but hard to see in white and from most angles.

Sunday evening I tossed the trunk lid and the CS Racing wing I've had sitting in a box forever into my car and drove over to another friend's place to do the install. The installation is actually pretty easy—it went so quick I didn't take many photos but I'll try to explain how to knock it out quick.

As others have detailed, the wing uprights have threaded posts that drop down below the outer trunk skin to sandwich the inner trunk sheet metal between upright and trunk hinge. To do this you have to cut a hole in the outer skin and then remove the factory threaded trunk inserts. Seems pretty nerve-wracking, but a few simple tools make this ridiculously easy.

Tools needed

• Transfer punch set
• Drill bits
• 1 1/2" sheet metal hole saw
• Unibit
• De-burring tool
• Touch-up paint or sealant

First, using the factory trunk bolt holes as a guide, use the tightest fitting transfer punch to punch the outer skin for the pilot holes. Then, use the corresponding drill bit to drill the pilot holes, again using the trunk bolt holes as guides.

The posts on the wing uprights are about 1" diameter but they have a fillet or shoulder at the top so a 1 1/2" hole saw will give you a little wiggle room. A new tool is preferred (with drilling/cutting lube) so the holes are cut quickly without getting too hot or walking. This went relatively quickly because the outer skin isn't very thick.

Once you've got all the holes cut in the outer skin, you've got to remove the threaded inserts welded to the inside of the trunk. Now this is where the Unibit I listed above is a life-saver. Again drilling from the back of the trunk (like you're threading in a bolt) the Unibit will make rapid work of knocking those inserts out without the holes being so big the uprights posts slide through—you want the posts to have trunk material to grab onto. The Unibit was also used to knock down the little bit of material left over on the inside of the trunk.





After getting all the holes drilled and the inserts removed, we went to test fit the wing and my buddy (who largely did a lot this work and is an extremely skilled mechanic/fabricator) was struggling to thread one of the posts in. Well, it turns out BMW, or whomever makes these for BMW, decided to keep us on our toes by not threading one of the posts :/. Had to add in some extra time for cutting threads.



Once the problematic insert was tapped, the wing fit pretty well. There were some gaps that the gaskets would take up, but nothing too extreme—I guess it fits about as well as you might expect for affordable race car parts made of plastic. The hole edges were de-burred and painted and once everything dried we put it all together. I also managed to hit it with some cutting compound and polish so it's pretty clean.



An expected problem with an unexpected twist
This whole time I wanted this to be 100% plug and play with my stock trunk and I knew there may be a difference in wiring. It seems BMW decided to change some of the camera wiring between the 2015 manufacturing date of this 228i and my 2021 M2C. Problem is thus far I can't figure out what part number for the harness on my car or how I am going to make this work. I'd rather not swap the wiring from one trunk to the other if I can avoid it.

Cross-referencing part numbers for my 2021 harness and rear camera harness on google images shows something that looks more akin to the 228i harness. I don't have ISTA either so at the moment this is a bit of a head scratcher. I may just swap trunks and not have a camera for the time being but I can't be sure that's all that will be wrong.

[ThreeStripes]

Can’t nuthin be simple

Throw us an update once you get on track with the wing.

[M1500Z]

March 2024 update

For the NASA round at MSR Cresson, I'd initially planned to forgo the wing so I could make a comparison at the of the year but last minute said, "what the hell." I managed to swap trunk lids without an assistant which was a bit daunting. Plugging in the trunk, the electronics just worked sans the rear camera which I'm currently still missing out on. Dead weight.

I've seen the wing on a number of CSRs and generally liked it but wasn't sure how I'd feel about it on my car. Needless to say, I'm feeling the wing. I have it set at max angle of attack—next time I'm at COTA, I may play with it to see how it effects top speed, but generally I think the car is likely powerful enough [even at stock power] as to not feel much drag effect from such a small wing. In case anyone is curious, the CSR wing is a 200mm chord, 1220mm width, 10mm wicker.

I looked over the car on the quick jacks during the week and then the Friday morning before the event, drove down to the SPL HQ to load up the cars and make our way up to Cresson.



We get to the hotel and are chatting about the usual BS of schedules and weather and checklists when it hits me—over winter, I had taken my AiM Solo2 DL out of the car and shipped it for a technical issue. I had stupidly forgotten to put it back in the car . This also means my SmartyCam is useless. To say I was pissed is an understatement—I rely on my my data and video for all kinds of things and here I am at a new track (I'd never driven it in the dry), on tires with 35 heat cycles on them, and nothing. Of course this also means I'd have nothing to send my coach after the weekend and is compounded by the fact that this will impact me the next time I visit. I managed to flip my mindset and think about it as an opportunity focus on using my senses to improve. Thankfully, I'd also watched some great videos online from Mike Skeen testing a Mercedes GT3 car and Cameron Lawrence doing a walkthrough of the 1.7 counter-clockwise layout we'd be driving. Remember kids, it pays to do your homework.

Saturday morning first session, I just got to work on learning the track. In my head I was thinking I just need to start clicking off laps and get down below a 1:26—a pretty low bar but at least it's something. Come in, go through tech and get weighed and then wait for timing to be posted—1:24 and some change. Ok, so I'm not as slow as I thought I'd be and I'm faster than my low bar even on these old tires—good to know. The car is feeling pretty planted—it could be the wing or could be the fact the car is usually front-limited. Cresson has a super-fun corner called Big Bend that you just try to roll more and more speed into and the car was totally confidence inspiring mid-corner and exit—I have no idea how fast I went through it but I looked forward to it every lap. As Saturday continued on, weather warming up, heat cycles counting, I kept chipping away time until I'd ended the day with a 1:20.8.



Sunday is where having data would've helped. To take all of the learnings from the day before and start to figure out where I could eke out more time would've been really nice. Even looking for lap over lap inconsistency to see the sectors where I was struggling would've been a great help. I went slower session 1 and then took a tenth off in session 2 to run a 1:20.7—the rest of the day would be slower and I think I ended the day around 45 heat cycles on the tires. It showed too—coming out the triple-left section on the back half the track at what would maybe be 75-80mph, I either dropped a tire in the dirt or the back let loose and had a pretty big slide that I managed to save but only after going across the width of the track. Wish I had video (– – ).





One of the things that's not lost on me is how I flipped my mindset from frustration to fun—it's a reminder to me of why I do this and why I started TT in the first place. To be a better driver. I had some musings about this in the setup thread. As it is right now, the car is quite quick and a pleasure to drive but it's uncompetitive in my region for its class. I'm happy if I manage to be faster than the TT5 winner (that class is insanely competitive) and until I take full advantage of the rules like adding proper aero and maximizing mechanical grip with a stickier tire (requires detuning the car), it's likely to continue to be uncompetitive. But again, I am enjoying myself and the car looks fantastic to me (very important). My number one agenda item will always be to continue to work on myself. But I'll follow this closely by some potential tweaks to the setup via alignment and possibly a small spring change in an effort to find a little more neutrality. I've also gotten a lightweight battery in an effort to offset the wing weight and not run the car nearly empty to meet minimum weight.

Oh and last but not least, I got some participation trophies from the weekend ! When there's only 3 cars in your class and you don't get DQ'd, you podium !



Big thanks to my friends at SPL and the folks at NASA Texas for another great event!

[ThreeStripes]

Great stuff. Great read.

[M1500Z]

April 2024 update

NASA TX | Round 3 Eagles Canyon Raceway

Between the last NASA TX round at MSR Cresson and the ECR round, I followed through with a few changes I’d wanted to make to the car. First… make sure my Solo2 was put back in the car and put on some fresh RE-71RS lol. That out of the way there were a few real adjustments.

The first adjustment was to swap the stock battery for an Antigravity 40AH lightweight battery. Antigravity lists the H7-40-RS at 14.75 lbs and I didn’t bother to weigh it. I do recall thinking it was heavier than expected when I picked the box up—I wasn’t sure how much weight I’d save from replacing the stock one. Well, come to find out, I’d have to stand in the trunk to lift the stock battery out because it’s capital-h Heavy. This would prove to be the outcome I wanted of being able to run more fuel to meet minimum weight—more on this later.



The second thing I did was tweak my alignment a smidge. Despite using a square 275/25-18 tire, I don’t really rotate due to a non-square wheel. Typically my front tires wear more on the outside shoulder, but nothing that I would consider extreme. At a hot-pressure target of 35 psi, I would wear right to the triangle indicator if not the tiniest bit of the tip. The rears wear pretty nicely but maybe just a tiny bit more on the outside shoulders. These tires had a life with about...

• 2 wet days / 8 "heat cycles" at MSR Cresson
• 2 days / 8 heat cycles at ECR
• 2 days / 10 heat cycles at COTA
• 1 day / 5 heat cycles at Harris Hill
• 2 days / 8 heat cycles at MSR Cresson
• about 700 miles of street use

Total of 9 days / 39 heat cycles




I had been running -3.2 front and -2.3º rear camber for a long time, but I wanted to increase that a slight bit and see how that would effect tire wear. I adjusted to -3.4º front and -2.4º rear and made sure that caster is at 8º. Total toe is still 0 front and .20º rear.



Driver preperation
Preparing for a weekend is a thing unto itself for me. It can a bit stressful—of course I want the car to perform without 0 issues, but the goal is always to 100% focus on driving. Going through the car and checking suspension, wear items, fluids, etc helps me put my mind at ease for the mechanicals. Then there’s another process I go through for driver prep which looks something like this currently:

• If Blayze has a track-walkthrough and I’ve never been to the track, I’ll watch that first
• Watch some known quality onboards on YT
• If I have one, review a previous lap analysis from my Blayze coach, Colin
• Check in with Colin to and pick his brain on how to work through the weekend
• Generate some updated track notes and things to work on and get a sanity check

This takes some time but after that I feel like I’m ready to go.

At the track
I’d looked at the entry list prior to the weekend and realized this was a small entry list with only one other car in TT3 (the current track record holder) so guaranteed 2nd place both days lol. The goal was to continue knocking off time from the last ECR outing in December which was a 2:08 flat. Because I was on new, RE-71RS, I expected Sunday to be the fast day—I always find these tires to be better with a little wear on them.

Saturday morning met expectations with a lack of confidence in the front end. The tires needed to be worn in a bit and the track felt pretty green resulting in quite a bit of push. This was most noticeable when I pinched entry into the tight turn 8 and, fighting to get the car turned, plowed into the grass to do a little groundskeeping. Still managed to be about .5s quicker with a 2:07.44. By the time I came in, tires were too cool to get an accurate pressure/temp reading and because I’d gone out on basically a full tank of fuel, I wasn’t near min weight, but the battery was working .

Because the car was seemingly pushing coming off the brakes, I added 2 clicks of rebound in the front which seemed to resolve that issue. This allowed me to work on what I was trying to do which is the braking and entry phase of the corner—trailing the brakes off, allowing the car to rotate and rolling as much speed as I could through mid-corner. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful with a fastest lap of 2:06.29 and also answered a couple very important questions:

• The battery allowed me to run more fuel—now instead of trying to be near empty, I need to be a little above half a tank to meet my minimum weight of 3600 (car+driver)
• The additional camber looked pretty good and possibly even spot on with tire temps at 35psi hot having a nice gradient from hot on the inside to cool on the outside

So things are looking ok, but that time isn’t so great. Ended the day with hopes that a full evening of cooling would help my tires on Sunday. One of the great parts about NASA weekends is the communal aspect—the TX region has a banquet every Saturday evening with food and beer and it’s a really nice change from a DE where people just take off to their hotels at the end of the day. I was staying at the track with some friends in one of the suites offered at ECR which has some pretty rad furniture and was easy to get some good sleep and be ready for Sunday.





Sunday morning got up and ready, LFG. Set pressures to 27.5psi cold, fill up with fuel and get ready for session 1. Car feels much better than yesterday up front and after the first lap of getting up to speed, I see the class leader seemingly hanging back so I begin to chase him. Again, rolling speed through the corner, letting the car rotate and then committing to the throttle on the way out—simple stuff but sometimes you need that carrot to chase. Doing this had an immediate effect, running a 2:05.34. Next session, go out and continue that progress… 2:05.67, 2:04.84, and finally, 2:04.33. This would be my fastest time of the day and 3.8s off the last time I was here.

Looking at data
I haven’t sat down and really dug into the data, but one of the more interesting things I like to look at is how much more time I spent basically coasting (some of this is from being on the brakes of course), but by rolling speed through the corner and being patient on throttle, it’s allowed me to increase the amount of time at full throttle and reduced the amount of maintenance throttle. The histogram displays this as a migration toward the outside bars—little difficult to tell because the scales on the y axis don’t match. Even though the time at 0% throttle has increased, more time at full throttle generally means lower lap times and it's always nice to see.



Additionally, the last session of the day, I’d rattle off a sequence of laps that, although each was imperfect, showed that a 2:03.xx should be just around the corner—next time.



That’s a wrap on ECR
The weekend was overall a lot of fun at a track I really enjoy. I’ve got some positives to take to the next visit, some things to work on, and feel I have some decent data that the changes I made to the car may be a step in the right direction. The only negative is Sunday morning when filling up with fuel, I saw a pretty gnarly dent and gashes on the roof of the car. I’m not sure how this happened, but I’ve now got some things to figure out on how I’d like to tackle this. It’s a huge bummer on what was altogether a really nice weekend.

[ThreeStripes]

Reading these gets me so hyped to grid up. Thanks for sharing.

[OG Shark]

Awesome write up again! And great pace and progress at ECR!!! How close are you to being optimized in the HP:LB factor for TT3?

What the heck happened to the roof??? That happen overnight at the track? I guess now you have a reason to swap to a CF one if you want (would look awesome on white). Freaking ridiculous if no one ever steps up to claim responsibility for that.

[M1500Z]

Originally Posted by ThreeStripes

Reading these gets me so hyped to grid up. Thanks for sharing.

Of course

Originally Posted by OG Shark

Awesome write up again! And great pace and progress at ECR!!! How close are you to being optimized in the HP:LB factor for TT3?

What the heck happened to the roof??? That happen overnight at the track? I guess now you have a reason to swap to a CF one if you want (would look awesome on white). Freaking ridiculous if no one ever steps up to claim responsibility for that.

Thanks dude! I hear ya on the roof—it's possible it happened in the trailer, but me not noticing that until Sunday seems unlikely. That photo was taken Sunday morning and has what looks like fresh paint pieces on the roof—it's a mystery I will likely never solve . Going with a carbon roof is definitely a possibility but brings up a whole host of other thoughts, biggest being... full cage?

I am very closely optimized for power to weight but it's the other stuff that I'm not taking advantage of. For tire size, I have to select Not Applicable because my rear 275/35 RE-71RS on a 10.5" barely, I mean barely, doesn't fit the 282mm template. And then there's the aero mod factor where I couldn't claim BTM because it's an M2 and even if they allowed that, I had the little CS lip (I've since added the wing of course).

I'm taking hits and not maximizing them, all while being the heaviest car in the field on what's likely the smallest tire. That tire has to be a street tire too unless I detune. There are, in theory, 2 changes available that would probably yield big results and not change a single thing on my form.

1. Run a 295 or even 305 tire
2. Big aero

I say in theory because a 295 or 305 tire would require a lot and ideally needs an 11" wheel. I test fit a 10.5 with a 275/35 when I had -3.2º and it looked like I could make it work but the margins were tight and I'd still need more camber. I don't want to run a non-optimized 295/30 or 35 setup because I feel that an optimized 275/35 setup is likely just as quick (if not quicker) and a little more affordable in the tires.

The big aero move is one that may happen in the distant future. Right now I'm on low/almost no aero so I imagine there is a lot to gain there. No vented fenders, no hood vents so the car is likely creating some lift up front. I just recently realized that the NASA TT3/ST3 rules allow for a front splitter to protrude forward up to 12" from the leading edge of bodywork which is insane to me. I thought it was only 6" but that's only in the horizontal plane. I don't know how much time a big jump in downforce would yield.

The car is pretty neutral, but I'd say it's more front-limited. I need to work out ways to get more grip on the front-end rather than reduce rear-end grip. At the moment I'm thinking I'd like to make a nice, but small splitter with some tunnels if I can fit them, but that's a project that would likely take me a good chunk of time and if it happened this year, that would be a big win. And of course, there's the continued driver mod. One of the things that's a bit tough is knowing I'm improving, but because the cars in class aren't easily comparable, I don't know if I'm driving close to the ability of those around me. I'm definitely some distance off from the class leader for sure.

The last thing I'm curious about at the moment is moving to a mechanical diff—I'd love to drive a car with one to see how that feels over the e-diff and if it's really an improvement. This is more of a curiosity than something I want to do at the moment though.

[OG Shark]

Originally Posted by M1500Z

Of course



Thanks dude! I hear ya on the roof—it's possible it happened in the trailer, but me not noticing that until Sunday seems unlikely. That photo was taken Sunday morning and has what looks like fresh paint pieces on the roof—it's a mystery I will likely never solve . Going with a carbon roof is definitely a possibility but brings up a whole host of other thoughts, biggest being... full cage?

I am very closely optimized for power to weight but it's the other stuff that I'm not taking advantage of. For tire size, I have to select Not Applicable because my rear 275/35 RE-71RS on a 10.5" barely, I mean barely, doesn't fit the 282mm template. And then there's the aero mod factor where I couldn't claim BTM because it's an M2 and even if they allowed that, I had the little CS lip (I've since added the wing of course).

I'm taking hits and not maximizing them, all while being the heaviest car in the field on what's likely the smallest tire. That tire has to be a street tire too unless I detune. There are, in theory, 2 changes available that would probably yield big results and not change a single thing on my form.

1. Run a 295 or even 305 tire
2. Big aero

I say in theory because a 295 or 305 tire would require a lot and ideally needs an 11" wheel. I test fit a 10.5 with a 275/35 when I had -3.2º and it looked like I could make it work but the margins were tight and I'd still need more camber. I don't want to run a non-optimized 295/30 or 35 setup because I feel that an optimized 275/35 setup is likely just as quick (if not quicker) and a little more affordable in the tires.

The big aero move is one that may happen in the distant future. Right now I'm on low/almost no aero so I imagine there is a lot to gain there. No vented fenders, no hood vents so the car is likely creating some lift up front. I just recently realized that the NASA TT3/ST3 rules allow for a front splitter to protrude forward up to 12" from the leading edge of bodywork which is insane to me. I thought it was only 6" but that's only in the horizontal plane. I don't know how much time a big jump in downforce would yield.

The car is pretty neutral, but I'd say it's more front-limited. I need to work out ways to get more grip on the front-end rather than reduce rear-end grip. At the moment I'm thinking I'd like to make a nice, but small splitter with some tunnels if I can fit them, but that's a project that would likely take me a good chunk of time and if it happened this year, that would be a big win. And of course, there's the continued driver mod. One of the things that's a bit tough is knowing I'm improving, but because the cars in class aren't easily comparable, I don't know if I'm driving close to the ability of those around me. I'm definitely some distance off from the class leader for sure.

The last thing I'm curious about at the moment is moving to a mechanical diff—I'd love to drive a car with one to see how that feels over the e-diff and if it's really an improvement. This is more of a curiosity than something I want to do at the moment though.

I like your thinking with the full cage! We have Anonymoose ’s car inbound next week to start on the cage immediately and follow with a full build. Since you are towing that would absolutely transform the car and bump the safety factor. The roof thing is nuts - I don’t see any way you wouldn’t notice that happening if you were even remotely near the car much less in a trailer. Really is a shame.

The weight and lack of aero is for sure the killer. You can’t compete with the built cars like you are saying and even if you are leaving some time on the track it still wouldn’t be near enough to close the gap. Plus those top cars in TT3 in particular here are dialed in very well with excellent drivers. Tough ask for an M2 that is more street than track to keep up with them. And yes the front spoiler rule is nuts. With the F87 being a bit loosey goosey by nature it makes even more of a difference running an effective aero kit. And absolutely agree bringing the good end down to match the bad end is not the best way to go. But there are options like you know as you progress in the build.

Have a Drexler in the black M2 - welcome to go for a ride when we have the fuel startvation sorted (which ought to be this week).

[Anonymoose]

Only regret I have with my car is not sending it to OG Shark sooner.

BTW you will never regret a full cage. Especially in those moments when you would need it.

[M1500Z]

Originally Posted by OG Shark

I like your thinking with the full cage! We have Anonymoose ’s car inbound next week to start on the cage immediately and follow with a full build. Since you are towing that would absolutely transform the car and bump the safety factor. The roof thing is nuts - I don’t see any way you wouldn’t notice that happening if you were even remotely near the car much less in a trailer. Really is a shame.

The weight and lack of aero is for sure the killer. You can’t compete with the built cars like you are saying and even if you are leaving some time on the track it still wouldn’t be near enough to close the gap. Plus those top cars in TT3 in particular here are dialed in very well with excellent drivers. Tough ask for an M2 that is more street than track to keep up with them. And yes the front spoiler rule is nuts. With the F87 being a bit loosey goosey by nature it makes even more of a difference running an effective aero kit. And absolutely agree bringing the good end down to match the bad end is not the best way to go. But there are options like you know as you progress in the build.

Have a Drexler in the black M2 - welcome to go for a ride when we have the fuel startvation sorted (which ought to be this week).

The reality of a full cage is low just because I currently don't have a tow method of my own, and the car is still relatively clean. I'm revealing my own neurosis here... but the other question if I were to do that, becomes would it be better to return the car back to stock and sell it for a used M2 CS Racing or something that would be a better wheel to wheel car?

Would definitely like to take you up on that diff—I'll be at COTA with edge next month if you'll be attending.

[OG Shark]

Originally Posted by M1500Z

The reality of a full cage is low just because I currently don't have a tow method of my own, and the car is still relatively clean. I'm revealing my own neurosis here... but the other question if I were to do that, becomes would it be better to return the car back to stock and sell it for a used M2 CS Racing or something that would be a better wheel to wheel car?

Would definitely like to take you up on that diff—I'll be at COTA with edge next month if you'll be attending.

Ah ok when you mentioned trailer took that as you were towing full time to the track. Definitely not very friendly going to a full cage and still streeting the car. Has been done but yeah not much my thing either. Arguments to be had for either build or buy factory. A factory built car certainly has its draw but my preference is in a build. When done right the performance can be extremely high along with the reliability. Wheel to wheel included. And you have more freedom to build exactly to your style too. But there are some wonderful factory cars out there obviously too so really a tough call. With Anonymoose ’s M2 we are building towards a full race spec likely using NASA as the rule book. Also going to do some fun things with it though like widebody to run a fat square setup and also custom aero setup with the actual car data run through cfd. For us though this is a big part of the enjoyment of tracking and really no right or wrong answer whichever way you go.

Not going to be at the EA one but I think we are going to run the Schnellfest Saturday to test the fueling. That and then of course the Mpact event.

[Anonymoose]

I think what you will find with a m2 cup car is they will be beat to crap. Most have had some type of contact and ran extremely hard. I know the local WRL shop had contact on pretty much every part of the car and no panels were original.