It has been 3 months to this day since I last posted an update of any kind. Here's what has been happening:
End of May, I flew out from Ontario to BC, pulled the car out of storage and drove the stiff son-bitch 3800kms to my new home (for a few years) in Smiths Falls, Ontario, in just under 3 days. The car did well, but I made a couple of key mistakes.
1) I forgot to lower the tire pressure from storage, and burned off 2x PS4S's in the rear, about 4.5k kms into the trip. Thank GOODNESS I was only 4 hours from home, and was able to bring spare wheels to get the car home, what an event that was. KUDOS to Michelin, they make a strong tire, zero damage from debris on the car, casing kept in tact 100%.
2) Didn't have a spare in the car (I risked it because the PS4S's were literally brand new one month prior). Didn't have anything, really, learned a lot on this trip to say the least.
3) And my last mistake, was NOT bringing my F&$#%@G camera charging cable! So didn't get much of any fun footage I had tried to capture along the way (sorry dudes)
Back in Ontario, now, and I am now surrounded by the East Coast track scene, and couldn't be happier in that regard
Mosport is 2 hours away, Calabogie is an hour away, Shannonville is 1.5 hours away, Tremblant is 3 hours away, life is good
I have had some back and forward ideas about my final wheel/brake setup as it's been a bit of a struggle to sort out my wants/needs and have it applied to the car/parts that I ended up with. It was either A) buy the 355mm rotors (complete w/ hats), new brackets and hardware for an all in cost of about $3k CDN. Or B) re-ring the 380mm brakes as they're worn anyhow, and then swap from the ARC8 to the EC7 which is specifically designed to clear the 380 rotors, for an all-in cost of about $2500. It wasn't the money, it's what made sense long term. My rep at Brembo suggested, "if you are happy with the stopping power of the 380/355 setup you have, then you may want to keep it that way, and as long as the wheels are adequate. You'll never have this issue again, after you sort this out". He suggested the 355's would be a noticeable "downgrade" in terms of initial stopping power at high speed, about a 5-10% difference, according to him.
The wheel setup...
Always intended to run square, but am intrigued to step up form my prior 18x9 et42 to 18x9.5 et43 square. So what I did, is ordered a staggered setup to do the test fitting and necessary body mods over next cold season, to prep the car better for the 9.5" wheel up front. I don't mind running the car staggered, for this year, it's how I'll run the car on the street afterward. Running the 9" wheel up front on the staggered "DD" setup, allows me to run an effective alignment to reach ideal wear-in on the tires. The 9.5" wheel will require -3* min, and will probably be dialed in closer to -3.5* on track days anyways, so by doing things this way, I can drive to the track with the 9" wheel up front, then simply adjust the top hats, throw the bigger wheels on, and off to the "races". Here's the setup, for now:
Front - Apex EC-7 18x9 ET42 w/ Bridgestone RE-71R in 255/35 +10mm spacer (future, 18x9.5 et43 265/35)
Rear - Apex EC-7 18x9.5 ET43 w/ Bridgestone RE-71R in 265/35 no spacer
Hardware - Apex M14x1.25x75mm stud kit
Tires were all mounted up this afternoon and ready to be installed. Need to get home eat/change and I'll be back to raise the suspension and test fit tonight, prior to my final alignment tomorrow. If all is good, and fitment and ride height are on point, I will schedule my corner balance job for the first weekend in August when I'm next available. That will be the finishing bit to this build, for this year.
Next is more power, may ditch the JB4/Meth and just go BM3 St.2 OTS and get a custom dyno tune next year. Car pulls great as is, but now I have too much grip, I feel like I'm max'ing out a Miata all over again lol
PFA, more to come as I install everything and set it up:
Relaxing at the old homestead, bye bye OE 19's!!
New gear
255/35R18 RE71r on the 18x9 et42 wheel
265/35R18 RE71r on the 18x9.5 et43 wheel
I also have some cosmetic stuff in the works to complete the look I'm after.
- Will be debadging the rear "m235i" logo
- Will be removing the factory installed "MP side decals"
- Installing the "Rhys Herd" diffuser, went with the "OE Matte" look for the entire piece. My OEM MP unit was painted, so there should be a nice clean contrast out back, once installed (ETA 2 weeks or so).
Threw on an iND painted door lock cover, and yellow start/stop (becuz "racekar yellow" brakes lol). It's actually nice having a colour inside the cabin. The all black/grey carbon gets a bit bland over time, this is nice on the eyes. The key cover is greasy, my bad..
A timeless BMW front end *heart*
More updates to follow, pretty excited where the car is at. I had some seat time in an M2C on track a few weeks ago at MFest, and let me just say, that it was a bit underwhelming coming from my car. Wouldn't trade up to it, personally. IMO, it's not that much further ahead than the standard N55 M2, except for the top end engine power, and stopping power, which was pretty damn good on factory pads if I must say. If something ever happened where I had to replace this car, it'd be a base stripper M2 N55 6MT and it'd get the same things I did to this car (CS 3-way, BBK's, Bushings, Rcomps). You'd have a monster for less than an MSRP M2c. The detuned S55 worked well, but didn't have much emotion, to me, I don't know... didn't feel *right*. Maybe it was the paddle shifters, or because we're spoiled with the intoxicating sounds of the N55, who knows!! LOL