[TulaneAg]

I've previously tracked my Porsche 996 and now my 981 Boxster S. I've turned the Boxster into a razor-sharp track weapon over the past 2 years with suspension mods, headers, tune, etc. My wife came into my office in June and said she wanted her fun car back...so I returned it to stock over the course of the summer.

I tracked the M4 once in the spring at COTA and put down significantly better lap times than my Boxster but it felt fat and rolly polly through the S's...the only reason it was faster was because of the hp and top-end speed on the 3 long straights. That experience sent me looking for a 996 Turbo or a 997.2 C2S manual but couldn't find what I wanted in my price range.

So I sat down yesterday and ordered some track goodies for the M4 to try and sharpen it up a bit. This is my way of committing myself to learning the car and giving it every opportunity to excel on the track for at least a year. This is what I bought:

1. KW P&P DDC Coilovers - My gut tells me I'm going to end up with a more track oriented JRZ in the future but I wanted to give these a shot as I'd like to keep the EDC controls active and useful.
2. TC Kline Racing Camber Plates - My indy shop guy recommended these over the Ground Control units so I went with his recommendation. Plus they're a few bucks cheaper...
3. Titan7 T-S5 18" forged wheelset - I went with a staggered setup. I bought into the Titan7 guys' story I've read posted a few times. For ~18lbs a piece forged wheels at $2,100 total I figured they're worth a shot.
4. Hankook R-S4 tires - These are some seriously meaty tires. The section widths on their 265/275's match or exceed almost everyone else's 275/285 setups so we'll see what happens for ~$950 for the whole set. Plus I like the durability of these tires as compared to an RE-71R. I like to slide and throttle steer my cars around the track so I didn't want some big 295/315 R7 setup that wouldn't let me do that. I can always upsize a touch and/or move to a stickier compound if I find these don't offer enough grip.

I had already done Castrol SRF fluid and Power Stop Track Day pads for the COTA weekend in the spring...so the minimum brake upgrades are already taken care of... I'll keep an eye out for incremental upgrades to better track pads vs. Girodiscs vs. the need for full BBK's. I'm also planning to do some coding to grab some of the GTS and ZRP settings...coming from the naturally aspirated Boxster, the turbo lag on this car just kills me so I've got to find the right combination of throttle response and RPM/shift points to minimize the feeling of that lag.

Kudos to Tire Rack and Bimmerworld. I ordered everything at lunch yesterday and the tires and wheels were already delivered today.

If you guys are interested, I'll come back to this thread and share my thoughts as I make each of the upgrades and after each of my AX and DE sessions throughout the fall and spring. First up is an 8/25 AutoX w/ PCA for a shakedown cruise and then a COTA weekend with CHIN over Labor Day. Let me know if you have any questions.