Slippery Slope - LSB street to track car

[Apex_80]

I purchased this car in late 2015 - bone stock and a little bit unloved. All the plastic was fading and all the exposed rubber was cracking, but in the end it was still a LSB with a 6 speed and it only had 64k miles on the clock.

First pictures after my first wash.


First big trip after some basic mods, exhaust, H&R coilovers, black wheels (because rite of passage)


I honestly didn't do much to the car for a couple years as I finished up school. As a matter of fact it sat for most of that time. I did get a nice set of Volks and take it to its first track day. Still stock weight and on Michelin MPSS so it really ate up the tires, regardless I had a blast.



This was mid 2017, there was more to come...

[Apex_80]

So things started to get serious with this car, I still need to do all the big 3 so I have a great local shop EuroMpire do the RACP reinforcement.


I did the Turner solid subframe bushings and syncro design works RTAB. I love both of these options and recommend them to anyone.


At this time it wasn't long after that bad wreck happened where the RTAB pocket failed on an e46 M3 at VIR so I had them stitch weld the RTAB pocket.



A shot of the Reddish plates

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All my photos from my build are kind of all over the place so I'm not sure I can keep it all exactly in order - so here is a post dedicated to the different brake packages I've had on the car.

First was a set the Brembo GT kit 355 front and 345 rear.



I really loved those Brembos, they did a good job on track but more so they were just an amazing brake package for street/track use as they were so street friendly. I still consider one day going back to these despite their short comings in pad selection and ease of pad changes compared to my current setup.

Next up was a set of PFC ZR31 Front and ZR34 rear. They ended up being a labor of love as the coatings on piston was deteriorating badly so I had to order all new pistons and basically rebuild the entire caliper with all new parts. Nevertheless they came out looking great and were highly effective on track.



I had a huge spare inventory of this set but the lack of pad selection was aggravating me so I was poking around for other options. At this time Stoptech was coming out with their C43 CBK so I reached out as I had heard they were giving discounts to certain people who could give feedback on the kit and with my professional driving background they agreed to add me to that group.





I LOVE this kit. Its definitely more competition oriented so I wouldn't recommend for a street car but man is it fantastic on track. They're smaller so they have less rotating weight but I haven't experienced fade even pushing hard in a 30 minute session. I'll be sticking with these for quite some time. Pad selection is fantastic and pad changes are a breeze.

[Apex_80]

Apex did a group buy with JRZ - ended up getting the RS2 non - remote option. Best suspension I've felt on the car and definitely on par with MCS stuff.



Also finally succumb to the CSL peer - pressure and picked up a carbon concepts CSL style airbox. Probably my favorite things I've done to this car, the sound is just so intoxicating.

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Because I was getting more serious about tracking the car on a regular basis I decided to step up the safety quite a bit. I was doing a carbon roof install so while the roof was off I had my local fabricator build a welded in half cage. Ties down to the rear shock towers and then also ties into the rear subframe mounts. Some pictures of the cage build and then subsequent painting in LSB.

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Paired with the cage was carbon roof install...

[Nihilation]

I LOVE this kit. Its definitely more competition oriented so I wouldn't recommend for a street car but man is it fantastic on track. They're smaller so they have less rotating weight but I haven't experienced fade even pushing hard in a 30 minute session. I'll be sticking with these for quite some time. Pad selection is fantastic and pad changes are a breeze.

Stoptech offers a street version of this kit. I just ordered for $1970 shipped but it's backordered and I won't expect it till Dec 2020.

[Inizes]

Kind of crazy how far your car has come since the last time you saw it. Thanks for the inspiration since without seeing and being around yours, I probably wouldn’t have mine. Happy to follow your build again. Maybe next year we can get together and do a little BMW weekend somewhere.

[Apex_80]

Stoptech offers a street version of this kit. I just ordered for $1970 shipped but it's backordered and I won't expect it till Dec 2020.

I saw you post about that in the C43 thread. I'm glad they're doing that and I'll be curious to see exactly what they've changed. I'm guessing the addition of dust boots and rotor hardware that includes a sprung washer.

[Apex_80]

Kind of crazy how far your car has come since the last time you saw it. Thanks for the inspiration since without seeing and being around yours, I probably wouldn’t have mine. Happy to follow your build again. Maybe next year we can get together and do a little BMW weekend somewhere.

Thanks man, yours is coming together so nicely.

[Apex_80]

Some pictures from a long the way.

[Nick_P]

Awesome build! I am running JRZ RS2 as well, very satisfied with the suspension...curious what spring rates you're running with it?

[Loopyspec]

Car looks great! Any footage of you out on track?

[Apex_80]

Car looks great! Any footage of you out on track?

Thanks!! I have some on my YT channel Scott Heckert Racing, here is one from Road Atlanta this year- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzPkmSe45us

[Apex_80]

Some bumps along the way, in particular last year. Back to back track weekends I had my harmonic dampener split in two, and then my friction discs in my clutch separate. First we have the dampener - almost no sign this happened, incredibly slight rattle at idle that you could only hear out of the car. Luckily a buddy heard it as I parked in the paddock. Took a little bit of digging before we found it. We ended up calling about ten different local BMW places before we found a replacement, swapped it that night and kept digging the next day.



Then there was the clutch - failed on the second lap of the first session next track day