[230iZTR]

Hello, I'm Mike, proud owner of a daily driven, weekend track warrior '18 230i. I ordered the car via an allocation from friend-of-the-forum Steve Thomas BMW in Camarillo, CA after a very disappointing failed attempt at ordering through my local dealer in Reno. My goal was to get all of the go-fast bits and none of the luxury fluff for an affordable, ultimate driving machine. I bought it with zero hassle over the phone and by mail correspondence, at right around invoice.

Options:
240-bhp 2.0T, RWD
Alpine White Paint
Black Sensatec Sport Seats w/red stitching
ZF8 Automatic with paddles
ZTR Track Handling Package

• mSport brakes
• Style 384 staggered wheels
• Michelin Pilot Supersport tires
• Electronic m-Adaptive dampers
• Variable steering rack
• Black chrome exhaust tips
• 155mph Vmax limiter

M-Performance Grills (Removed)
M-Performance Aluminum Pedals
M-Performance Carbon Spoiler



The fine folks at Steve Thomas BMW sent me off with directions to Mulholland Dr, Tujunga Canyon, and the Angeles Crest Highway so the first 100-ish miles of break-in occurred on glorious roads that allowed for an organic mix of speeds and throttle input patterns. From there I hit Vegas, some wide open roads in the Nevada desert, and finished with Occidental Grade and Geiger Grade through Virginia City, NV on my way back to Reno.

The following year I started autocrossing the car in completely stock form for my rookie season (won the Novice class) and graduated to proper competition in the Street Touring classes and started going to Thunderhill in Willows, CA with the SCCA Reno chapter.

Suspension mods:
Vorshlag camber plates (-2.5-deg)
Swift Spec-R springs, 250#F, 600#R (F30 spec)
Dinan Shockware (less rebound, more compression damping)
M-Performance shorty bumpstops
m235i 15mm rear sway bar
Powerflex rear sway bar bushings
SPL F/R adjustable sway bar end links

Brakes:
ATE200 brake fluid
EBC Yellow brake pads
Paragon Brakes two-piece floating rotors (340x30F/345x24R)
Paragon Brakes titanium pad shims

Wheels and Tires:
APEX M14x1.25 Stud conversion (black)
Studio ESR titanium locking tuner nuts (black)

Track:
APEX Forged ARC8-R, 17x9et42, anthracite (first set in circulation, woo!)
Falken RT660, 255/40/17
Competition Motorsports 10mm spacer (front)

Street:
SSR Reiner Type-6, 18x9et45, gunmetal w/ chrome lip
Yokohama APEX V601, 255/35/18
APEX 12mm spacer (Front)

Winter:
BMW Style 384, staggered 'ZTR' wheels
Michelin x-Ice Xi3 tires, 225/40/18

Chassis:
IPOS Motorsports LSD retrofit kit

• 230i/m240i hybrid aluminum driveshaft
• m240i rear axles
• m-Performance/Drexler 2.81 LSD

Turner Derlin rear subframe and diff bushings

Engine:
AFE Pro-S "Dry" intake filter
AFE intake scoops
FTP metal charge pipe and intake pipe
Bootmod3 off-the-shelf "Stage 1" flash tune (dyno'd at 255-whp, 265 lbs-ft in Reno's thin air)

Exterior:
AutoID M2CS style mirrors
Ebay Carbon Front Lip
Invictus Aero custom chassis-mounted alumalite splitter
KG Splitters 4-piece gloss carbon skirt and spat kit
RW Carbon F82 M4 GTS Wing
RW Carbon Dual Slat Carbon/Black Grills
American Panda Blackout Exterior Badges
3M "light smoke" headlight and tailight tint
3M gloss black chrome delete
Reno Roundel window vinyl
3M 80% "Clear" tint on full greenhouse
3M 20% "Limo" tint sun banner
Dr. Pigment Porsche Signal Orange Spray Wrap

Interior:
M2 Competition dry carbon dash trim
M-Performance dry carbon console, door, and shifter trim
Bimmmer Masterpiece dry carbon vent trim and door pulls
Tsurikawa handle (passenger side)

Electronics:
Blackvue 900 Series camera (Hard wired)
LithiaMax Restart10 LiFePO4 battery (17 lbs!)











Why not an m240i? Put simply, its overkill. I drove both and the performance difference between the 2.0T and 3.0T was just not worth the price premium to me. RWD turbocharged 4-cylinder sport compacts like the 240SX were the epitome of the early 2000's tuner culture when I first became enamored with the genre from reading Sport Compact Car Magazine in my teenage years, and the 228/230i is the only modern heir that fits the formula.

Future plans:
M-performance steering wheel
Racing seats
Rear seat delete
Half cage
Titanium exhaust
Carbon hood
Motorsport derived coilovers

[230iZTR]

Parked with a GT3RS Weissach today at Cars and Coffee Tahoe. And I thought my wing was ridiculous?!? Not compared to that.

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by 230iZTR

Parked with a GT3RS Weissach today at Cars and Coffee Tahoe. And I thought my wing was ridiculous?!? Not compared to that.

Are you thinking it produces too much downforce for the rest of the Porsche-engineered aero package and makes the car aerodynamically unbalanced?

[230iZTR]

Originally Posted by dradernh

Are you thinking it produces too much downforce for the rest of the Porsche-engineered aero package and makes the car aerodynamically unbalanced?

Im sure its perfectly balanced by Porsche. I'm moreso referring to its literal size.

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by 230iZTR

Im sure its perfectly balanced by Porsche. I'm moreso referring to its literal size.

Yeah, it's a race car you can drive on the street. I've been in one on a high-speed track; they go around corners pretty darn well, in no small part due to the size of the wing necessary to balance the front downforce.

Seems like overkill for C&C – but since I can't afford one, what do I know!

[230iZTR]

Got a couple really great photos over the weekend.

NorCal EuroFest at the USS Hornet. Best BMW-focused show I've been to:



Coming back after some heavy rains I got the 2er at the end of a double rainbow:

[AmuroRay]

How did yo fit 18X9 and 255's in the front.

[Cos270]

Do you have any videos of you driving on track?

[230iZTR]

Originally Posted by AmuroRay

How did yo fit 18X9 and 255's in the front.

The front fender inner lip is rolled, the camber plates help to stuff the wheels in there, and the fender bolts (top of the fender with the hood lifted) are let out a quarter of a turn on both sides. It was a ton of measuring on my cold garage floor for a whole winter.

In retrosprect, im not sure all that work for an extra 10mm of width over the tried and true 245/40/17 and 17x8.5et40 fitment makes that much difference, but I'm a big believer in doing it all the way if you're going to do it. I'm glad I got to contribute to the community as a trailblazer for stuffing big tires onto these cars.

[230iZTR]

Originally Posted by Cos270

Do you have any videos of you driving on track?

My first outing after buying the GoPro I forgot to put the memory card in it. I'll get footage next time.

[morphomeman]

I am always suspicious of those who lust after big tires. I am no Freudian, but . . .

[230iZTR]

Originally Posted by morphomeman

I am always suspicious of those who lust after big tires. I am no Freudian, but . . .

The tires are very functional. Its the wing and orange wrap that are the completely unnecessary, self-indulgent flex.

[f22b58]

I like those SSR Reiner Type-6 wheels. 9" wheels seems to be the sweet spot for getting the most rubber under our fenders. Apex recommends 18x9 et42 with an 8mm spacer up front for an optimal square setup. Your et45 took some fender rolling. Are those wheels available in an et43 with a little more concave?

[230iZTR]

Originally Posted by f22b58

I like those SSR Reiner Type-6 wheels. 9" wheels seems to be the sweet spot for getting the most rubber under our fenders. Apex recommends 18x9 et42 with an 8mm spacer up front for an optimal square setup. Your et45 took some fender rolling. Are those wheels available in an et43 with a little more concave?

I assume SSR can make them in whatever spec you want. Theyre welded two piece forged, so by changing where the weld is you can get whatever offset you want. I bought these from K8M235I on here after searching for a set for a few years. SSR's dont pop up in 5x120 all that frequently, especially at a decent price, so I jumped on it when I had the chance.

[230iZTR]

Just finished a total overhaul of the brakes.

Paragon Performance 2-piece floating rotors with hard anodized centers
- Front: 340x30mm slotted
- Rear: 345x24mm slotted
- Titanium pad shims, front and rear
EBC "Yellow" pads, front and rear
Ate200 high temp brake fluid





Initial impressions: They look damn good and are a direct fit for OE replacement. Chunky construction, big grooves, and beautiful finishing. They were pricier than going with an OE rotor at around $900/axle, but replacement rotor rings can be ordered in the future around the same price as an OE Brembo job at $550/axle. They had a special going at the time that included free titanium pad shims to minimize heat transfer, and I needed new rotors anyway so I jumped on it. Paragon is very well known in the Type-R and C6/C7 tracking communities, so I figured I'd give them a try on their new BMW offerings. These allegedly save around 3.5 lbs per rotor and fit under my 17" track wheels. Sweet.

Headaches: They were loud as all hell during break in, but I think thats mostly the pad choice. EBC Yellows are notoriously squeaky at first. Thats the compromise you have to deal with when you put trackday parts on a streetcar. After breaking in the rotors immediately per Paragon's instructions and bedding the pads after ~150 casual duty miles per EBC's instructions they quieted down and only give me an occasional squeak when cold.

Additional headache: the forged aluminum center hats are ever so slightly thinner than the cast centers that came with the OE brakes. My track fitment *was* pretty much millimeter perfect prior to the swap, and the new centers threw my fitment off just enough to get contact with the strut while backing at anything other than perfectly straight on the steering wheel. Swapping from a 5mm Apex spacer to a 10mm CMS spacer gained just enough inner clearance to solve it.

After solving all that they've been amazing. I had an autocross weekend and they performed admirably - the pads have great initial bite and modulate well, the brakes never faded (nor did I expect them to on a short autoX course), and there was no rubbing I could detect. Im really looking forward to trying them at Thunderhill - especially the East course - where brake fade was very pronounced at the end of a 20 minute session.

[erdnahp]

230iZTR

Hey man, found your car from the Apex Wheel thread. I'm considering a similar setup to your square ARC8s in 17x9 et42 with 255/40/17 RE71Rs but on stock suspension.

In your experience, do you think the additional camber and fender roll are necessary or would it be OK on stock suspension?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by 230iZTR

The front fender inner lip is rolled, the camber plates help to stuff the wheels in there, and the fender bolts (top of the fender with the hood lifted) are let out a quarter of a turn on both sides. It was a ton of measuring on my cold garage floor for a whole winter.

In retrosprect, im not sure all that work for an extra 10mm of width over the tried and true 245/40/17 and 17x8.5et40 fitment makes that much difference, but I'm a big believer in doing it all the way if you're going to do it. I'm glad I got to contribute to the community as a trailblazer for stuffing big tires onto these cars.

[Kernel Kurtz]

Originally Posted by erdnaph

230iZTR

Hey man, found your car from the Apex Wheel thread. I'm considering a similar setup to your square ARC8s in 17x9 et42 with 255/40/17 RE71Rs but on stock suspension.

In your experience, do you think the additional camber and fender roll are necessary or would it be OK on stock suspension?

Thanks!

Not directed at me, but FYI Apex has a fitment guide online.

https://support.apexraceparts.com/hc...-Fitment-Guide

The short answer to your question though is no. Square 255s on 9 inch wheels will absolutely not fit on a stock car. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

[erdnahp]

Originally Posted by Kernel Kurtz

Not directed at me, but FYI Apex has a fitment guide online.

https://support.apexraceparts.com/hc...-Fitment-Guide

The short answer to your question though is no. Square 255s on 9 inch wheels will absolutely not fit on a stock car. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Thanks. Had a feeling that would be the case but wanted to check just in case.

[230iZTR]

Originally Posted by erdnahp

Thanks. Had a feeling that would be the case but wanted to check just in case.

Yeah, you need just a touch of camber to tuck them in. Ive seen people "make it work" but the poke was bad and I assume it rubbed badly on bumps. A 245/40/17 tire on a 17x8.5et40 wheel is almost the same contact patch with none of the hassle.

Just make sure it'll clear the 345mm rear brakes. The forged -R variants are a very tight fit, and I imagine the flow-formed versions would be slightly tighter with material thickness.

[230iZTR]

Someone asked about hownthe wing is mounted, so I'm adding some photos. I used the brackets that came with the kit for the purpose of spreading the load over a larger area on the inner skin of the trunk. They do stick down a bit, just enough to push the trunk felt slightly out of place.

[F87source]

Great build!

[F87source]

Originally Posted by 230iZTR

Someone asked about hownthe wing is mounted, so I'm adding some photos. I used the brackets that came with the kit for the purpose of spreading the load over a larger area on the inner skin of the trunk. They do stick down a bit, just enough to push the trunk felt slightly out of place.

Does the horizontal metal bracket that is currently bolted ontop of everything else touch the inner trunk skin? And is that piece bolted to anything else?