BMW E92 M3 Track/Race car Journey Article 1

Hello everyone, i have viewed quite a few threads on here and thought i would test the water to see if there are any car, track or race enthusiasts or just regular people that may be interested in my Journey

I will start from the beginning and keep posting articles until we are right upto date with what is going on with the car and what i plan on achieving in it in the future... i do blow on a bit and things may get a little technical but if you have any questions i will do my best to answer and explain them.

So I obtained my Bmw E92 M3 in October 2014, It was from a BMW forecourt and from inspection it didn't look like it had ever seen a race track... this was soon to change!

So the ethos as with any track (soon to be)race-car, if budget permits, is to uprate the brakes, suspension, tyres and get a good seat and harness - so this is exactly what i did...

The front brakes were changed for the AP Racing CP5555M1050BG.G8 kit (6-pot callipers and 368mm x 36mm discs instead of the larger 378s, to allow fitment of 18" wheels) with the CP6602-1001BK.G8 rear kit (4-pot calipers and 352mm x 26mm discs). Ioriginally asked for the standard Ferodo DS2500 pads (which are not suitable for track use) to be swapped out for the brilliant Pagid RS29s, but sadly there were none in stock in the UK at the time, so went with Ferodo 1.11 endurance pad and was assured they would be up to the job and as they were an endurance pad so would even last a bit longer than other pads... Naturally, being a genuine AP kit, it went on seamlessly and I couldn't wait to try them out...!

Before I could test these big stoppers and knowing how good they are i knew that i would need some decent suspension, KW Suspension an aftermarket company in Germany had developed a setof 3 way adjustable Shock absorbers for this cars Big brother the GTS at the Nurburgring

So that was the suspension and brakes sorted - next the wheels and tyres. Well the design of the car allows it to run stupidly large tires all round and after a bit of reading and research, it was only ever going to go one way and a set of Gloss Black Apex Racing 10x18 ET25 were ordered for a square setup. With these on their way from America the only tyres I could guarantee for the job was a set of Michelin Pilot Sport Cups - not Cup+ I might add and certainly not the new then Cup2s, just the regular Cup 1s. Out of interest,if you want to know the Cup 2s offer grip levels only marginally better than the Supersports and the Cup+ are like a regular Cups, but have a couple of extra water lines.
So four 285/30/18 Cups were ordered, along with a set of 10mm spacers for the front to stop the wheels rubbing the KWs up the wrong way and a 5mm spacer on the rear

Only thing missing now was the Recaro SPG XL seats... Recaro had a back order and then they shut for Christmas and then racing season started ect ect, so it took over 5 months to get two red seats as anything other than black was a special order, as apparently not many people want red seats - who would of thought...

the rear interior trim was also removed to save 130kg total with the new seats, AP racing brakes on, KWs suspension on and 285 Cups with lightweight Apex Arc-8s - time to get on track!

the eagle eyes among you may see some of the track photos were without the seats as i just couldn't wait to drive the car! the seats were a massive enhancement in car feel and support once fitted.

As for the rest of the modifications the car was absolutely transformed and was faultless in its cornering ability and stopping power.

I hope you have enjoyed my first submission, in the next upload i will be talking about more modifications on the car, its journey to a full blown race car and its first trip to the "Green Hell" Nurburgring

Ben...