Stealing the Girlfriend's M2 for trackdays
Discussion
Ok, so full disclosure, it's "our" car rather than hers, but I never get to use the thing as she takes it to work all hours.
Since I sold my Exige to focus on going racing, there was only one way I was going to take advantage of trackdays starting up again post-covid.
I had been keeping a spare set of wheels with R888s fitted since before we bought it, but when Opentrack announced Trackdays were up and running again, it was a rush to get some camber plates as I knew it would likely destroy the front tyres without it.
-2.5 degrees camber, some lowering springs and some R888s and it worked very well at Snetterton, but still a lot of understeer, you can hear the outside front complaining as I try to coax the front end around Riches.
Depite the handling complications, it still managed to match what my E92 M3 did around there on Cup2s, loaded with big brakes all round and £4000 Intrax suspension.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT4RhGA2Kfc
When the opportunity to get on the Brands evening the next day came, I quickly organised some more camber (-3 this time) and booked on with a friend.
The car was incredibly good for what is basically a standard car with a bit of geometry work. This time pulling out 55s in traffic (53.7 ideal over just 3 sectors). The best I ever managed in my E92 was a 56.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yz1Wytqznc
I'm just blown away with how capable a nearly stock, bottom of the range M car is. What's more impressive is that's a stock M140i I'm following round with nothing but adative suspension on hard and camber plates. He has much better tyres, though. (New V70A vs. 6 year old used R888s on the wear markers).
It makes you wonder why you'd bother building a dedicated track car these days.
Since I sold my Exige to focus on going racing, there was only one way I was going to take advantage of trackdays starting up again post-covid.
I had been keeping a spare set of wheels with R888s fitted since before we bought it, but when Opentrack announced Trackdays were up and running again, it was a rush to get some camber plates as I knew it would likely destroy the front tyres without it.
-2.5 degrees camber, some lowering springs and some R888s and it worked very well at Snetterton, but still a lot of understeer, you can hear the outside front complaining as I try to coax the front end around Riches.
Depite the handling complications, it still managed to match what my E92 M3 did around there on Cup2s, loaded with big brakes all round and £4000 Intrax suspension.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT4RhGA2Kfc
When the opportunity to get on the Brands evening the next day came, I quickly organised some more camber (-3 this time) and booked on with a friend.
The car was incredibly good for what is basically a standard car with a bit of geometry work. This time pulling out 55s in traffic (53.7 ideal over just 3 sectors). The best I ever managed in my E92 was a 56.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yz1Wytqznc
I'm just blown away with how capable a nearly stock, bottom of the range M car is. What's more impressive is that's a stock M140i I'm following round with nothing but adative suspension on hard and camber plates. He has much better tyres, though. (New V70A vs. 6 year old used R888s on the wear markers).
It makes you wonder why you'd bother building a dedicated track car these days.
Edited by mpit on Tuesday 2nd June 10:27
Its a good point, most cars need brakes and suspension work to be halfway decent on track, but if a car has good enough parts as standard, then no need to upgrade, just change the tyres.
However, i imagine a well setup 135i will be just as fast as an m2, and would be a lot cheaper.
And, imagine how good the m2 would be with 150kgs of creature comforts removed.
However, i imagine a well setup 135i will be just as fast as an m2, and would be a lot cheaper.
And, imagine how good the m2 would be with 150kgs of creature comforts removed.
brillomaster said:
Its a good point, most cars need brakes and suspension work to be halfway decent on track, but if a car has good enough parts as standard, then no need to upgrade, just change the tyres.
However, i imagine a well setup 135i will be just as fast as an m2, and would be a lot cheaper.
And, imagine how good the m2 would be with 150kgs of creature comforts removed.
M135i not so much, the oil system needs work to cope with track stuff, but the M140i, definitely. However, i imagine a well setup 135i will be just as fast as an m2, and would be a lot cheaper.
And, imagine how good the m2 would be with 150kgs of creature comforts removed.
Like shown in my second video, in terms of raw lap times, there was nothing between the M140i and M2 and the only difference was the M140i had better tyres, in better condition.
There's probably only 0.5-1 second in it on equal tyres around Brands Indy.
But, where the M140i falls down is on the subjective stuff. It's just not quite as sharp, it rolls more, the brakes are a bit weaker etc. But if you only cared about track, the £5-10k price difference (after you've added LSD) would probably get you some coilovers and brakes to even the playing field.
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