From Frankenstein e30m3 to GTS

[hyboost]

Been running a built s54 e30m3 for the last 15 years, primarily on tracks in the SE (Sebring, Homestead, Roebling, Road Atlanta). Anything and everything was done: 367whp, dry sump, MCS, PFC, 2400lbs wet, cranking 2:18s at Sebring so turned out to be a quick little old car. But after my trailer and gear was stolen and my old man was retiring and selling his shop (my free labor track support, lol), I decided it was time to sell and move to a newer platform.

Took my lizard GT3RS to Sebring a couple times hoping it would be my next track weapon, and while it’s extremely quick out of the box, I just can’t get myself to drive it 10/10th and really push it. Fear of screwing it up always in back of my head.

So after tons and tons of research on various platform options for a dedicated track car, I’m back in a BMW. Picked up an 8k mile M4 GTS last week and already started with part orders. Have done a lot of reading in this section to learn from your experiences, hoping to apply a lot of that to make this a quick and enjoyable beast on track! So excited, car feels so planted, connected, responsive even from the few spirited runs around town.

Plans for Phase 1

• water injection, getting the damn 124015 error. Will do filter this week and hope it’s just that, but fully prepared for the larger expense.
• removing the ceramic rotors. M2C or Girodisc
• pads: thinking Ferodo DC1.11. Any other recommendations?
• Apex wheels ordered: 19x10.5 and 19x11
• Nankangs ordered but will do Hoosier as well
• Car already has camber plates so that’s done

Will do seats and move the harness off the GT3 to GTS. Would love to do Euro seats but may do Recaro PP ABE Carbon and repurpose funds to go-fast mods.

Will post updates of the build…

[RugbyBro]

Nice! Check out the track section too, lots of resources on there. SYT_Shadow runs 2 GTS and there’s a few other guys who exclusively run GTSs as track cars. Also Bimmerworld’s GTMore car has a lot of dedicated track development and parts.

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by hyboost

Plans for Phase 1

• water injection, getting the damn 124015 error. Will do filter this week and hope it’s just that, but fully prepared for the larger expense.
• removing the ceramic rotors. M2C or Girodisc
• pads: thinking Ferodo DC1.11. Any other recommendations?
• Apex wheels ordered: 19x10.5 and 19x11
• Nankangs ordered but will do Hoosier as well
• Car already has camber plates so that’s done

Welcome to the F8X world!

I ran into multiple issues with water in the GTSs, finally we change the stone every track weekend and now it works perfectly. Of course we only use distilled water.
Note that one car has the upgraded/updated water block but the other still has the factory original

The Girodiscs are much, much better than the M2C rotors. Been there done that, although not on my GTS. Unrelated to the reco, I have my Giros for sale (along with pads optional) as both GTSs have moved to the nickel plated Alcons.
These can be found right here: https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1988307

For pads, you are better off with the Girodisc GP40/20 combo. It's the best feeling pad we found on the CCB calipers.

The stock suspension is very capable. You probably will want to increase front and rear spring rates by ~100, but leaving them as is works great. The manual recommended track settings work extremely well for tracks like WGI and VIR, and also for smaller tracks

One more thing: you probably want to get the front thrust monoballs. They don't have a negative effect on nvh and slightly improve braking and steering. We've used the Bimmerworld ones since 2016 and they're great.
https://www.bimmerworld.com/Suspensi...Bearing_2.html

I hope this is helpful, cheers

[jfritz27]

Welcome! -- over your stable

Listen to SYT_Shadow!

My only input would be to avoid the DS1.11 pad. At brake-heavy tracks you'll burn through a set of those in 1-2 days, they wear like butter (at least with stock-level "cooling", or lack thereof). For standard F8x blue calipers many of us are fans of PFC11

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by jfritz27

Welcome! -- over your stable

Listen to SYT_Shadow!

My only input would be to avoid the DS1.11 pad. At brake-heavy tracks you'll burn through a set of those in 1-2 days, they wear like butter (at least with stock-level "cooling", or lack thereof). For standard F8x blue calipers many of us are fans of PFC11

I wish they had PFC in the ccb calipers fitment! Now that would be something!

[hyboost]

SYT_Shadow, thank you for all the helpful info. Will definitely look into the Girodisc setup for rotors and pads. Good call on the front thrust monoballs. Will order them as well.

jfritz27, I exclusively ran PFC pads with our PFC bbk on e30 for many years and would love to stick with them but doesn’t appear to be available for our calipers. Had good success with Ferodo DS3.12 on GT3 but also not available for GTS.

Any other brake pad options? I only see Carbotech and Pagid on bimmerworld site for our ccb caliper application. Have zero experience with either…

Thanks guys!

[NickyC]

Great cars!

[jfritz27]

Oof, that's right, being a non-CCB guy I forget that the options aren't the same

[RugbyBro]

Originally Posted by hyboost

SYT_Shadow, thank you for all the helpful info. Will definitely look into the Girodisc setup for rotors and pads. Good call on the front thrust monoballs. Will order them as well.

jfritz27, I exclusively ran PFC pads with our PFC bbk on e30 for many years and would love to stick with them but doesn’t appear to be available for our calipers. Had good success with Ferodo DS3.12 on GT3 but also not available for GTS.

Any other brake pad options? I only see Carbotech and Pagid on bimmerworld site for our ccb caliper application. Have zero experience with either…

Thanks guys!

A bunch of really fast guys I know have been running Cobalt brakes and seem to like them a lot. I have not run these so not speaking from experience.

https://cobaltbrakes.com/shop/oe/bmw/f87-m2-competition

[HELROTM3]

What APEX wheels did you purchase @hyboost

[hyboost]

Originally Posted by HELROTM3

What APEX wheels did you purchase @hyboost

I jumped on their Group Buy for the Forged VS-5RS wheel. I went back and forth between squared or staggered but decided on the 10.5/11” staggered setup. I wasn’t happy with the square option of 19x10 since I wanted to run 295s and that is too stretched on 10” wheel for my liking. The 19x10.5 et25 offset seems to be too much for rear, so was limited there.

[HELROTM3]

Originally Posted by hyboost

I jumped on their Group Buy for the Forged VS-5RS wheel. I went back and forth between squared or staggered but decided on the 10.5/11” staggered setup. I wasn’t happy with the square option of 19x10 since I wanted to run 295s and that is too stretched on 10” wheel for my liking. The 19x10.5 et25 offset seems to be too much for rear, so was limited there.

Thank you. I recently acquired a GTS. I'm trying to decide the best wheel options, but don't plan to swap out the OE brakes or suspension. The Apex options look good, but I've never bought Apex wheels. Only BBS.

[hyboost]

Originally Posted by HELROTM3

Thank you. I recently acquired a GTS. I'm trying to decide the best wheel options, but don't plan to swap out the OE brakes or suspension. The Apex options look good, but I've never bought Apex wheels. Only BBS.

I’ve had BBS wheels on my Porsches for years and also ran Apex on our track cars for a long time. Apex, especially the forged line, are great wheels at a very good price point. Easily accessible, pretty good size/offset options, great overall wheel. Good luck with the new car…

[SYT_Shadow]

You can easily fit Apex 19" 10.5 square ET45 onto a GTS. Or a Bimmerworld TA5R 10.5 square ET36 that requires smaller spacers.

Although I've had a nice set of BBS FI as street wheels, I would never use them for the track. Abrasive brake pad materials, melting wheel weight glue, etc etc all conspire to destroy your wheels. Better to destroy a set of cheap wheels than nice expensive ones!

[hyboost]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

You can easily fit Apex 19" 10.5 square ET45 onto a GTS. Or a Bimmerworld TA5R 10.5 square ET36 that requires smaller spacers.

Yeah that was honestly a consideration and may end up there with the next set. Was ideally trying to avoid the ~20-25mm spacer up front on the et45 wheel. But I always ran square on prior BMW’s and will likely come back to it.

I checked the knuckles by the way. No cracks, so will machine down the notch as you guys did.

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by hyboost

Yeah that was honestly a consideration and may end up there with the next set. Was ideally trying to avoid the ~20-25mm spacer up front on the et45 wheel. But I always ran square on prior BMW’s and will likely come back to it.

I checked the knuckles by the way. No cracks, so will machine down the notch as you guys did.

awesome, let me know if you need more pics/video of the process

[FrankMstein]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

I wish they had PFC in the ccb calipers fitment! Now that would be something!

They are working on it.

[D_SheerDrivingPleasure]

Originally Posted by hyboost

Took my lizard GT3RS to Sebring a couple times hoping it would be my next track weapon, and while it’s extremely quick out of the box, I just can’t get myself to drive it 10/10th and really push it. Fear of screwing it up always in back of my head.

Willkommen. Curious about your issue with the GT3RS. Was your inability to drive 10/10s because of the financial consequences of wrecking it or the car's handling at the limit?

[hyboost]

Originally Posted by D_SheerDrivingPleasure

Willkommen. Curious about your issue with the GT3RS. Was your inability to drive 10/10s because of the financial consequences of wrecking it or the car's handling at the limit?

GT3RS was spectacular!!! Handles better than anything I’ve ever experienced out of the box. My hesitation was always because of its rarity and value…to screw that up would suck. And shit happens on track, not always your fault.

[hyboost]

Great progress today, spent all day at the shop, prepping for the first track outing at Sebring. Machined down the knuckles (thanks for the info SYT_Shadow), installed Gyrodiscs, pads, did fluids and got the wheels/tires fitted. 19x10.5 et25 with 275 Nankang fits like a glove with no spacers needed. Went with 19x11 and 305s in the rear.

Thanks for the advice everyone. Will report back on how the car feels out there…

[Track/S]

Originally Posted by hyboost

Great progress today, spent all day at the shop, prepping for the first track outing at Sebring. Machined down the knuckles (thanks for the info SYT_Shadow), installed Gyrodiscs, pads, did fluids and got the wheels/tires fitted. 19x10.5 et25 with 275 Nankang fits like a glove with no spacers needed. Went with 19x11 and 305s in the rear.

Thanks for the advice everyone. Will report back on how the car feels out there…

May I know what info SYT_Shadow has given you about the knuckles?

[hyboost]

Originally Posted by Track/S

May I know what info SYT_Shadow has given you about the knuckles?

Just the cracked knuckle post and pics of which part to trim. Your photos were guidance for us as well. Thank you, we did just as you guys did.