[David@ActiveAutowerke]

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We had the M2 at Sebring for the second time yesterday and it was an interesting day to say the least.

See our first track day writeup at: http://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho....php?t=1261307


The car setup was as follows:

Nitto NT05 275/35/18
BC Forged RZ38 18x10 square
BC Racing BR Type coilovers with camber plates
Motorsport Hardware 14x1.25 -> 14x1.5 conversion stud kit (highly recommended if you use an impact to remove and install wheels like I do)
Motorsport Hardware 12mm Traklite front spacers
Active Autowerke FMIC
Active Autowerke true 3.5" Downpipe
Active Autowerke complete 3.5" Exhaust system
Active Autowerke flash tune (15psi)
IND cosmetics
AWRON Vent Gauge
BMW Performance Rear Spoiler

The car was corner balanced and aligned by Apex Alignment two days before the event.

The Drive:

With the new suspension, alignment and wheel/tire setup I knew the car would be different, but I was honestly a bit skeptical because in stock form the car was so good! On the 2.5 hour drive up to the track I noticed that the steering sensitivity had increased quite a bit. The car reacted so quickly to steering input as if it was toe'd out (we set it at 0 toe). While this was a large improvement over stock I was now almost worried that the car was going to be too loose.

On track I quickly forgot my worries and after a few warm up laps I began to get comfortable. The turn-in was so amazingly sharp but not uncontrollable at all. I had read reviews about the M2 including one from Bill Auberlen and I remember him saying that instead of understeering, the car would just hold it's line and accelerate through the turn when you applied mid-corner throttle. I never experienced that with the stock M2 (probably because I tend to overdrive cars) but after a few laps with this new setup I realized that this was exactly what Bill was talking about. At the point where the throttle would usually just initiate a slide with the stock car, I found that now it would just make me go faster. When I did manage to get the back end out, it was always more of a throttle steer than a drift and the car would continue to accelerate through the slide instead of just roasting the tires without gaining speed.

The car was fast. During the morning sessions when temps were coolest we managed to trap 136.7mph on the back straight compared to the 129mph that the stock car did. Back in May going through Bishop's Bend wide open from Tower Turn was a little hairy, but doable. With the extra grip and power we were still able to hold it wide open out of Tower and around Bishop's and with the increased exit speed out of Tower we were now exiting Bishop's at 116mph compared to 111mph in the stock car. Unfortunately as the day went on the track got so hot that our speeds ended up being slower than the stock car at multiple points on the track, but the morning session was proof that the car really had improved.

Overall the car was better in every way. An already amazing car was now even easier to drive and even more importantly even more fun to drive. I do believe that a slightly stiffer spring rate all around would help take advantage of the NT05 tires that we were running, although it would be at the price of some street comfort. We do plan on running a set of the new BC DR dampers with stiffer swift springs the next time around.


Results:

The track was extremely hot. Track temps were 110*+ it was taking it's toll on the car. Fluid temps rose and the with the new sticky tires the brakes were working much harder to slow the car down.

Unfortunately the day didn't get any cooler and the best time we could put down was a 2:30.3. We dropped 1.9 seconds from our baseline back in early May when track temps were about 20 degrees cooler. At Sebring 1.9 seconds is about 375 feet (about 25 car lengths) going down the front straight which is a significant improvement, although I'm positive that with better conditions the car is capable of a mid 20 lap time. Looking back I should've suckered it up and pushed for a solid hot lap during the morning session yesterday while temps were somewhat normal.

I will say that I'm disappointed in the car's temperatures after only a few hot laps. I saw maximum temperatures of:

Oil: 259*
Water: 229*
EGT: 1762*

For the next track day we plan on changing oil to a thicker Mobil 1 Racing oil (we are currently running OEM BMW 5w-30). We will also be adding our methanol injection system as well as potentially a larger oil cooler.

Keep in mind that the conditions yesterday were extreme, and I admittedly was not being easy on the car at all. However, with 93 octane fuel and only 15psi we were seeing temps that I didn't feel comfortable running with. Thankfully the AWRON vent gauge we installed provided all of this numerical data because with the OEM cluster as my only source of information I probably would have kept driving

**We have a video of the track day in the works which will be posted once it's been edited.