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[justpete]

Flat white ARC-8 18x8.5 wheels, Rogue Engineering PRO studs installed with Flexbar Rocksett, and Toyo 245/40ZR18 R1R tires, square. Fenders were slightly rolled just to be sure.

[330xtrai]

could be the exposure/lighting but they seem too bright maybe a better picture will help. also maybe some spacers are needed too

[justpete]

Yeah, they're bright as-is. Deliberate for track only wheels so anything going wrong with the brakes or bearings is immediately obvious, one of the reasons there aren't any center caps. We're avoiding spacers since there are style 216 wheels for the street and these ARC-8s get swapped in at the track. Makes things a bit easier I think. These rims and 245 tires will clear the HVT suspension and the fenders under all conditions, not sure what spacers would help with. Looked at 9" ARC-8s with 255 tires and the clearance wasn't really there in all cases, fwiw.

[Meeni]

Spacers would be cosmetic only, totally counter productive at the track with the extra sprung weight.

Flat white will be a nightmare to clean.

[Nitrous Garage]

Looks great!!

[justpete]

Originally Posted by Meeni

Flat white will be a nightmare to clean.

Oh yeah. Just gonna brush brake dust off 'em, maybe hose 'em down every once in a while. Would suck running them on the street that's for sure.

[cdgatti]

Did you think about the 17's for the track? Lighter and a little more meat for the tire.

[justpete]

Originally Posted by cdgatti

Did you think about the 17's for the track? Lighter and a little more meat for the tire.

Yes, definitely. Didn't look like they'd clear bigger brake calipers and rotors though. The 18" wheel will definitely clear the 135i setup as will the style 216 street wheels. They should also clear a Stoptech front brake setup.

You're right though that the 17" wheels would've been a better choice for lower unsprung weight. Might still be a good choice if clearance can be verified, didn't have time to do that this time.

[Ubersmooth]

Nice look. Tracking the 328i? Thought I was the only one although I only have 1 track event under my belt with the E90 she's seen a lot of autocross duty. All on the stock 16's!

[justpete]

Originally Posted by Ubersmooth

Nice look. Tracking the 328i? Thought I was the only one although I only have 1 track event under my belt with the E90 she's seen a lot of autocross duty. All on the stock 16's!

Cool! I'm always the only 328 at the track, at least there's another one that's seen a track somewhere... Gonna be a lot more fun with all the mods made, starting next week. Well, except for the ATI balancer, still working on getting the dimensions for a custom part.

Changed out the stock 17" wheels to the 216s before tracking it the first time, wanted to change tires to Pirelli P-Zero RFTs and they weren't available in 17", IIRC. What tires are you running on those 16" wheels?

[Ubersmooth]

Yeah I want to really get a feel for what I want to improve on the car before i start dropping serious money on mods. I'm running a square set of 205/55 continental extremecontact DW. Not the best set up for tracking, but I'm getting some arc-8's as soon as I can decide whether I should go squared 17x9 or run a staggered 18x8.5/9.5 set up. The 18's would look amazing but the 17's are obviously lighter. Still thinking about tires, a friend is trying to convince me to run r-comps and keep my 16's for the winter. That might be TOO crazy as i DD my car, it sees autocross/tracktime a dozen times a year only.

[justpete]

Originally Posted by Ubersmooth

Yeah I want to really get a feel for what I want to improve on the car before i start dropping serious money on mods. I'm running a square set of 205/55 continental extremecontact DW. Not the best set up for tracking, but I'm getting some arc-8's as soon as I can decide whether I should go squared 17x9 or run a staggered 18x8.5/9.5 set up. The 18's would look amazing but the 17's are obviously lighter. Still thinking about tires, a friend is trying to convince me to run r-comps and keep my 16's for the winter. That might be TOO crazy as i DD my car, it sees autocross/tracktime a dozen times a year only.

Good plan. For me the std sport suspension was OK but I didn't think it'd be worth tracking it so had the Performance suspension installed and it made a big difference, to me anyway. A staggered setup is a bit more difficult to track for the understeer it adds, which is why I'm going square for the track now that I can better tell what's going on.

The latest round of mods started out as just M3 control arms and a dual disc racing clutch. And went downhill from there in a big hurry. Last trackday my instructor suggested a racing shell seat and Schroth so corner times could be quicker. Tire change is to help with this and braking. Currently at the limit with the Pirellis at 1.2g lateral and 0.9g braking. That's at end of life though. Just replaced them at ~15K miles.

This is my DD, too. Solid engine mounts and all.

Went with Toyo R1R tires instead of R-Comps as they're not allowed in novice and intermediate class HPDEs around here. They want us to learn how to drive the car and not the tires I guess. The R1Rs were the closest to R-Comps I could find and still have a tread rating over 120. Planning on going to R888 tires and then on to Hoosier R6 R-Comps as skill improves.

The square 205/55 Conti setup doesn't sound like a totally bad choice for tracking. Dunno about Autocross though, never tried it.

[Ubersmooth]

Nice mods you got. I think I'm leaning more towards the 17x9 square set up. The money I save with that will allow me to get a BBK. I should be able to fit a 355 mm BBK. I'm thinking about Eibach sportlines with some Bilsteins. I still want it to be a somewhat comfortable ride. Are you gonna upgrade your seats? I'm thinking about buying some black M3 seats and installing them.

Besides that I'm thinking of some lightweight parts. I'm looking at getting a Carbon fibre trunk and painting it, getting a lighter exhaust, etc. I'm definitely not gonna be stripping the interior because it IS still my DD haha.

[justpete]

Originally Posted by Ubersmooth

Nice mods you got. I think I'm leaning more towards the 17x9 square set up. The money I save with that will allow me to get a BBK. I should be able to fit a 355 mm BBK. I'm thinking about Eibach sportlines with some Bilsteins. I still want it to be a somewhat comfortable ride. Are you gonna upgrade your seats? I'm thinking about buying some black M3 seats and installing them.

Besides that I'm thinking of some lightweight parts. I'm looking at getting a Carbon fibre trunk and painting it, getting a lighter exhaust, etc. I'm definitely not gonna be stripping the interior because it IS still my DD haha.

Well, we'll see how nice the mods really are. That clutch is gonna take some relearning. And a lot of stalling.

You'll want to be sure the 9" wheels and the tires for them will clear the arches and suspension. The 18x9 wheels and tires wouldn't, fwiw.

Will probably never add a BBK, really isn't justifiable on a 328i running on a technical track, imho. Moved up to the 135i brakes to get bigger pads for more heat soak, torque is the same so braking force is still limited by the tires, even with the Carbotech pads.

The shop runs HVT on their racecars and I got a decent deal on a new set, installed. Custom made (took six weeks) but designed and built exactly for the car. It'll get a race setup with corrected ride height, adjustable sway bar end links (TMS and AKG), etc. and corner balanced and ride height equalized. Spring rates selected based on corner weight and cg height. Keeping ZSP front ARB but adding Group N bushings. Rear ARB is stock 13mm and will stay that way. They'll be track tuning the suspension after getting it to neutral handling first. No way I could figure out all the details to get it right like they can so I bailed on off the shelf choices.

The driver seat is getting replaced with an OMP HTE-R on OMP aluminum side brackets attached to the OMP slider mounted on a Planted Technology seat base. The pyro tensioner from the stock seat bolts onto the seat base so the Schroth Quick Fit Pro will work as intended with the SRS. May have to add the OMP shoulder belt height adjusters, not sure yet. Passenger seat stays stock for now but it'll get a Schroth harness as well. Still wondering where they're going to put the fire system pull though.

There's a sticky on the m3post board about weight savings per dollar spent. The trunk doesn't save much and costs a small fortune so I haven't considered it or the hood. The sunroof delete helps the most for the least coin (lowers the cg at the same time), replacing the power seats with racing shells helps a lot, too. Both are weight reductions at the center of gravity so it doesn't strongly affect corner balance of the stock car. A lighter exhaust doesn't help all that much although the BMW Performance exhaust cut a little bit of weight.

Unsprung weight is probably more important at first though, I think. Well, assuming the suspension can tune the damping on the unsprung and sprung weight separately, thus the 3-way suspension choice. The 216 street wheels and 225/40R18 P-Zeros RFTs dropped about five pounds from each front wheel. The ARC-8 and R1R combination will drop another five pounds from each including five pounds from each rear wheel. Moving to Hoosier R6 tires will drop another five pounds or so off each wheel, too. Moving to the 135i caliper and rotor probably eliminates any more weight savings though.

Will miss the heated seat and steering wheel (BMW Performance wheel going in as well - the one TMS calls Rennsport) but the ability to stay in better control more than offsets the loss. I keep telling myself...

[ashmostro]

The 17s clear my stop tech Bbk as they were designed specifically to do so... Fwiw. And those are larger than the BMW 135 bbk...

[justpete]

Originally Posted by ashmostro

The 17s clear my stop tech Bbk as they were designed specifically to do so... Fwiw. And those are larger than the BMW 135 bbk...

Thanks! That's good news. Will have to look into ARC-8s in 17" now.

[justpete]

Well, that didn't work out really well. The 245/40ZR18 is just a wee bit too tall. Fine for the track but rubs a little bit on the plastic edge of the bumper up front over bumps on the street. Figures. So changing to 255/35ZR18 R1Rs.

Anybody looking for a set of 245/40ZR18 R1Rs in the Dallas area, lemme know.