Stealing the Girlfriend's M2 for Trackdays

[mikehhhhhhh]

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.

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.

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.

 

[DRZ]

I've not got my M2 to a track yet but on the road it is quite a bit quicker point to point than my E92 M3 Comp was.

What camber plates are you using? I've heard varying reports of excessive noise from some and others failing after just 6 months and knocking like mad, which makes me want to get suspension with adjustable top mounts rather than just camber plates.

That M140i was definitely quite a bit slower than you through the tighter corners even without the traffic. I reckon if you'd have been ahead you'd have opened up a gap. Those first few laps would have had me boiling over - why can't people use their mirrors?!

 

[mikehhhhhhh]

I've not got my M2 to a track yet but on the road it is quite a bit quicker point to point than my E92 M3 Comp was.

What camber plates are you using? I've heard varying reports of excessive noise from some and others failing after just 6 months and knocking like mad, which makes me want to get suspension with adjustable top mounts rather than just camber plates.

That M140i was definitely quite a bit slower than you through the tighter corners even without the traffic. I reckon if you'd have been ahead you'd have opened up a gap. Those first few laps would have had me boiling over - why can't people use their mirrors?!

I’m using Millway street camber plates.

I haven’t noticed any extra noise but my Girlfriend did suggest the car felt a bit harder.

I think what you see there is me trying to make up time on the brakes as my rear tyres were done, combined with the normal bunching.

He had much better traction out of corners than me. On lap 5 when I do a 55, he actually did a 54.x, but I made some mistakes.

I think I could have got to low 54s with more clear running. Ideal for that session was (best of three sectors) was 53.7.

The M2 is definitely faster but the M140i is mighty impressive and very close in outright performance.

 

[Nasher]

"One careful lady owner"

 

[adam cool dude]

It makes you wonder why you'd bother building a dedicated track car these days.

A bike engined kit car will be faster at just about everything and cost 50p to service. That's the main attraction and the route I am looking at going down. I think I spent close to a grand on carbotechs and decent discs. My friend in his kit car pays a quarter that for similar stopping distances.

 

[mikehhhhhhh]

A bike engined kit car will be faster at just about everything and cost 50p to service. That's the main attraction and the route I am looking at going down. I think I spent close to a grand on carbotechs and decent discs. My friend in his kit car pays a quarter that for similar stopping distances.

What you lose in consumable costs, you easily make up for in maintenance, trailers, tow cars, time loading/unloading, getting wet etc.

A dedicated track car is a lot of fun and a rabbit hole most trackdayers go down, but all the extra hassle over something you can arrive and drive definitely becomes tiresome.

 

[adam cool dude]

What you lose in consumable costs, you easily make up for in maintenance, trailers, tow cars, time loading/unloading, getting wet etc.

A dedicated track car is a lot of fun and a rabbit hole most trackdayers go down, but all the extra hassle over something you can arrive and drive definitely becomes tiresome.

Maybe but some us have a weird fetish over all the tinkering. I enjoy that part almost as much as the track days itself.

 

[mikehhhhhhh]

Maybe but some us have a weird fetish over all the tinkering. I enjoy that part almost as much as the track days itself.

So did I, once upon a time.

Then I bought a Lotus Elise with a K20 and decided to fit a sequential gearbox. Now I hate tinkering

I'll be getting my lightweight kicks from racing a rented Elise this year, that's so much less stress. While I'm mechanically capable, I'm definitely more of a driver than a tinkerer!

 

[sovietspybob]

I swing back and forth over dedicated track day cars, i've tracked my daily and also had a 2nd car just for track and weekend blasts.

I found i was always nervous driving my daily car on track in case i either binned it or broke something which would be massively inconvenient where when it was a 2nd car i didn't worry so much as i could fix it on the driveway at my leisure.

 

[tsinc80697]

Thought I recognised the car (and name) from Facebook.

I went down the track car route as I didn't like hammering my GTR over the kerbs, learning how to drive on track and finding my own limits with it as much as I would do in something cheaper. Worked out quite well until I totalled up my newly built track car will have cost me nearly as much as the GTR did

But in all fairness, that is including 3 sets of wheels and some extra goodies I treated the car too which are totally over the top

 

[Nasher]

What you lose in consumable costs, you easily make up for in maintenance, trailers, tow cars, time loading/unloading, getting wet etc.

A dedicated track car is a lot of fun and a rabbit hole most trackdayers go down, but all the extra hassle over something you can arrive and drive definitely becomes tiresome.

But if you damage your road car, you aren't going home in it and it's probably going to be a write off

 

[mikehhhhhhh]

Thought I recognised the car (and name) from Facebook.

I went down the track car route as I didn't like hammering my GTR over the kerbs, learning how to drive on track and finding my own limits with it as much as I would do in something cheaper. Worked out quite well until I totalled up my newly built track car will have cost me nearly as much as the GTR did

But in all fairness, that is including 3 sets of wheels and some extra goodies I treated the car too which are totally over the top

If you’ve the means, then why not! Your M3 will be a lot of fun, either way.

After a couple of years dragging a car around on a trailer, I just can’t be arsed for a trackday anymore.

Especially when cars like my Elise and your M3 just end up stuck in traffic all day.

You raise a good point about learning. I definitely feel better about hammering a road car around since I’ve learnt how to drive to some degree!

But if you damage your road car, you aren't going home in it and it's probably going to be a write off

I think write offs are very rare on trackdays. Most offs seem to be very minor.

 

[sigma]

Brands looks relatively busy. It is annoying when people don't move out the way, they're effectively ruining your session/value for money.

An observation - I thought it was unwise to hit kerbs at speed on normal suspension?

 

[tsinc80697]

A bike engined kit car will be faster at just about everything and cost 50p to service. That's the main attraction and the route I am looking at going down. I think I spent close to a grand on carbotechs and decent discs. My friend in his kit car pays a quarter that for similar stopping distances.

That's what I thought. Until I had one. Engine blew, electrics were crap, was a never ending process of turning up to a track day and spending more time fixing it than driving it. I had my Westfield for 6 months, went to 3 track days but never did more than 3 laps on each of those days. Sacked it off and gone back to another M3.

 

[mikehhhhhhh]

Brands looks relatively busy. It is annoying when people don't move out the way, they're effectively ruining your session/value for money.

An observation - I thought it was unwise to hit kerbs at speed on normal suspension?

You always get one or two. I had to force my way past a 911 as well, but most people tend to jump out of your way if you catch them quickly.

I can’t see a reason to avoid small kerbing on any suspension tbh.

 

[sigma]

That's what I thought. Until I had one. Engine blew, electrics were crap, was a never ending process of turning up to a track day and spending more time fixing it than driving it. I had my Westfield for 6 months, went to 3 track days but never did more than 3 laps on each of those days. Sacked it off and gone back to another M3.

Is the Westfield the one you totaled?

 

[sigma]

You always get one or two. I had to force my way past a 911 as well, but most people tend to jump out of your way if you catch them quickly.

I can’t see a reason to avoid small kerbing on any suspension tbh.

I haven't done loads of track work but the last session I did the instructor said to avoid kerbs - I recall being two reasons, he said there's no point unless you're really pushing it (which I guess you were!) and also to save the suspension, thinking about it, this is probably also because the cars were getting hammered around Thruxton for a good few hours (VXR hosted track day) so they might be in pieces by the end

 

[mikehhhhhhh]

I haven't done loads of track work but the last session I did the instructor said to avoid kerbs - I recall being two reasons, he said there's no point unless you're really pushing it (which I guess you were!) and also to save the suspension, thinking about it, this is probably also because the cars were getting hammered around Thruxton for a good few hours (VXR hosted track day) so they might be in pieces by the end

The kerbs are a bit bigger at Thruxton as well as being lined by sausage kerbs.

I can see why they’d ask you to avoid them, especially if they were experience cars!

 

[sigma]

You always get one or two. I had to force my way past a 911 as well, but most people tend to jump out of your way if you catch them quickly.

I guess putting the indicator on rather than flashing them out of the way is the best option? You have to just hope they won't accidentally go into the back of you at the next corner!

 

[ezekial]

How does it compare in your estimation to an E92 M3 in terms of enjoyment?