[ndyvidual]

Originally Posted by Jamongkad

Wow! If you don't mind me asking what are the specs (offset/width) of your square SM-10's?

Sure: 19x9.5" ET28 Anthracite APEX SM-10's.

[ndyvidual]

An overall good day at Palmer on March 14th. I heat cycled the new track set and ran my street set for the remainder of the day. Despite losing pressure in the front right tire, it held pressure to get me home. I find that I like the staggered setup this year.

While waiting for the new tire to get mounted, I cleaned the wheel wells so I can inspect for any damage. I found that my axle boot clamp disengaged (hub side, shaft diameter)! Luckily, no grease on the axle, so I took some measurements and put in an order to my favorite fastener supplier. So I can pinch a new one back on on Tuesday. 7mm wide, 41mm ID is what you need.

No other damage or findings. It's good to find these types of things before my long distance track days since I'll have limited capability compared to being in my garage.

Next stop? May: Canadian Tire Motorsport and then continuing on to Mid-Ohio.

[ndyvidual]

This is the price you pay for getting nice wheels. Race pad dust latches onto them! I don't like wheel cleaners as they are too strong for wheel finishes and there is no magic spray that makes this a spray and rinse situation. So track rubber remover + clay + arm muscle gets 80% of it off. Those tight corners are annoying, haha...

[gphung]

Originally Posted by ndyvidual

This is the price you pay for getting nice wheels. Race pad dust latches onto them! I don't like wheel cleaners as they are too strong for wheel finishes and there is no magic spray that makes this a spray and rinse situation. So track rubber remover + clay + arm muscle gets 80% of it off. Those tight corners are annoying, haha...

Have fun at CTMP! I love it there.

Have you considered ceramic coating your wheels? It definitely allows for spraying off 90% of the dirt.

[ndyvidual]

Originally Posted by gphung

Have fun at CTMP! I love it there.

Have you considered ceramic coating your wheels? It definitely allows for spraying off 90% of the dirt.

Yeah, good point. Once I get all of this pad dust off, I'll try it out...at the very least in the crevices at the base of the spokes.

[ndyvidual]

Rusted screws that bleed down your license plate and onto the bumper cover annoy me. So I spent some time sourcing new screws that fit the plate mount on my M2:

316 Stainless Steel Flanged Button Head Screw
M5 x 0.80 mm Thread, 8mm Long

Will check over the next few Winters to see how they hold up, but I'm optimistic.

Now my license plate looks worse by comparison

[ndyvidual]

All ready for CTMP-DDT and Mid-Ohio....long road trip ahead. I'll leave early in the morning.

[Kevin_The_Clean1]

Originally Posted by ndyvidual

All ready for CTMP-DDT and Mid-Ohio....long road trip ahead. I'll leave early in the morning.

That's a cool little trailer. Where did you get it... ?

[ndyvidual]

Originally Posted by Kevin_The_Clean1

That's a cool little trailer. Where did you get it... ?

https://leroyengineering.com/pages/tire-trailers

[Kevin_The_Clean1]

Originally Posted by ndyvidual

https://leroyengineering.com/pages/tire-trailers

That's incredible what companies can charge for products now a days. I could buy a used motorcycle for that figure. It's a nice unit though.

[ndyvidual]

I needed a longer hose and a more efficient way to tidy up after washing cars. So I installed a reel and 75 foot line to my existing sprayer and pressure unit. High Quality fittings and reel. I'm glad I didn't get the 100 foot hose as I'd need to reel it up PERFECTLY to fit the reel, haha.

[ndyvidual]

Quick update: Canadian Tire Motorsport - Driver Development Track was really fun. It's like an autocross, but at track speeds. Really glad I stopped there. The car didn't miss a beat.

There's some speed that I left out on the track, but first my first time there in the Advanced run group, I did really well to keep pace and kept putting down consistent laps that keep dropping time. Again, consistency while experimenting with various lines (and doing without physical tension) is my goal each event. It's useful when running hard while in heavy traffic to maintain the lap's relevance.

Observations:
Some rubbing on these Nankang AR-1's on the rear bumper cover mounting tab (rear of the tire). The NS-2R's of the same rear size did not rub. I noted it and kept going with the event with no issue. In addition, my 295 Michelin 4S's do not rub. May need to raise the rear by about 5-10mm.

Grip Assessment:
No change in my suspension settings from Watkins Glen. Body roll was communicative. Entry, mid corner and exit felt good. I could get on throttle early on several corners after apex. This photo looks good to me overall. Too bad I didn't get the three wheel corning that you seem from so many E36 M3's that are running flat out in corners, but I'll work up to that, haha....

Issues:

Fuel starvation that triggers drivetrain malfunction. Added fuel, cleared codes and the car was happy. Remember to fuel up often.

[Chris N]

Awesome pic! Could always photo shop a BMW roundel over the Chevy billboard.

[ndyvidual]

Originally Posted by Chris N

Awesome pic! Could always photo shop a BMW roundel over the Chevy billboard.

Hahaha! I could have, but I'm a car guy at heart so I respect any marquee. And after failing to chase down Vette's for years on the track (and every new generation getting faster with more corning capability), Chevy can still engineer a great car when they're allowed to.

[ndyvidual]

Mid-Ohio was great. The host organization, the paddock neighbors, the track itself, the Lexington area... I really enjoyed it all. More on details from the event in a later post.

For those who want to see what you can do with the VBOX package identify room for improvement, I'm sharing a video that shows how I use my tool for data-driven self coaching.

Typically, when at a new track, I'll use it to show more paddock neighbors [who likely have been going to a given track for years] what I'm doing and get very quick feedback instead of my "describing" my line and inputs. I usually can identify areas to work on in less than 10min of analysis.

https://youtu.be/LMcyJq8TxYk

[ndyvidual]

I finally found a robust stud solution to make wheels changes easier and to provide more consistent clamping forces. MSI M14 studs + Core 4's floating lug nuts. I installed them today with no issues:

1. Clean hub and stud threads with brake cleaner.
2. Apply red thread lock to studs.
3. Install and hand tighten.
4. Immediately install wheel and torque to spec (125lbs-ft).
5. Let sit for thread lock to cure.

I'm just over 50kmi now and have new front hubs; rear's are original. Based on my tire compound and the life I'm getting out of the front bearings, I'll replace both and front and rear hub/bearings at 100kmi and then migrate to press-in studs at that point.

[ndyvidual]

An unexpected failure indeed! The mid-pipe clamp bolt corroded, the clamps collapsed and the bottom clamp departed! Sending the bottom section into traffic behind me (sorry NH drivers!) and the top half rattled on the pipe for the next week before I could get under there to figure out the noise source during start-up.

A rubber mallet tap found it quickly. Placed an order, installed it while coating threads with Wurth CU 800 copper paste and that was it.

P/N 18307850436 (top)
P/N 18307850435 (bottom)
P/N 18307620549 (copper nut)

[ndyvidual]

If you're like me and use the large T-45 bolts to remove your calipers from the caliper bracket and not the correct bolts which attach the caliper bracket to the hub assembly, you're in luck to right your wrongs

The bolts are readily available from your favorite Porsche supplier. See my sketch for the part numbers you'll need. Porsche recommends 85N-m (65ft-lb).

But for me, I take my calipers off often as I run through a set of rotors bi-annually at a minimum. I don't want to keep stretching bolts within the soft aluminum assembly. Nor did I want to keep having to place frequent orders to FCP for replacement bolts. To avoid this, I carried over an upgrade that I had already done on my Porsche and I've been very happy with: adding caliper studs.

Since the 981 and the M2C use the same bolts (despite different sized calipers), I ordered the same studs for this project: BCSK-72 (rear) and BCSK-85 (front) from Tarett Engineering.

I used a high quality M12 1.5 chip-clearing-for-through-hole tap and compressed air, Loctite 243 thread lock, the supplied double-nuts and a torque wrench. I've included some pics throughout the install for reference: I started with the rear.

Now I remove the calipers from the studs only with a known torque value and no worry about weakened threads in the future. Not a glamorous upgrade, but it adds safety and efficiency, so it's worthwhile for me.

[ndyvidual]

I started a separate thread to cover my audio project in progress this Winter for anyone who's interested in it. It'll be fully plug and play.

https://www.diymobileaudio.com/threa...tition.464228/

[inTgr8r]

Nice job on the caliper studs !!

I did the same on my Porsche as well, but never thought about using the Tarret studs on the M2C.

[ndyvidual]

Long component life is important to me. Having to pay a premium for a shorter lifespan is something I prefer to avoid with all of my cars. So I don't use too many aftermarket parts unless the operating cost is well understood. A place where this has been most challenging has been front end links.

With my previous M3 and current M2C, I went through several brand/designs and none of them would last for more than 12 months before clunking. Only OE links would last and be quiet.

The failure point would always be the upper spherical bearing itself which would produce play (even reproduceable by hand) and would get magnified with the car's mass pushing and pulling.

In my final search for a front link that I could corner balance with, I installed SPL's product. Looks like a black version of Turner's. They have a much larger ball which is promising and they've spaced out the stud head from the shock mount so that a normal wrench can be used which is a big plus.

So I installed one on the driver's side. On the passenger side, I still have the OE link (which is still quiet). This way, if the current SPL link fails, I can then install the second one to get double the life, haha.