BMW M140i - Track Setup and Cost

[Scribble BM]

Hi all,

I’m planning on embarking on the highly addictive and unfortunately, potentially expensive hobby of doing track days in the M140 in the new year. First track being Anglesey in Feb!

For background I plan on just using the car as stock to begin with then adding brakes, tyres, etc as they wear out or when I feel the need and cost of upgrading is worth it. But the car must be suitable for everyday use as well but willing to have a spare set of wheels.

To help myself and others who are interested in taking their M140 on a track day, I will be updating this post with cost of upgrades and necessity!


BRAKES -
Standard rears ok for track days but the fronts will wear very quickly and may only last one track day, let alone overheat frequently! Therefore, the first mod is brakes and pads!

BRAKE PADS:
Pagid RS29 - £250
Ferodo DS2500 Front Pads- £190 https://www.mlperformance.co.uk/collections/bmw-pe...
Stoptech Front Pads - £193 https://www.mlperformance.co.uk/collections/bmw-pe...
EBC Orange Stuff Front Pads - £222.12 https://www.mlperformance.co.uk/collections/bmw-pe...

BRAKE FLUID:
DOT 5.1 brake fluid - £20 per Litre
https://www.mlperformance.co.uk/collections/bmw-pe...

TYRES

Michelin Pilot SuperSports are ok for a track day however they melt at 60 degrees and therefore limit the amount of laps you can do per session. No matter what tyres the outer edge wears due to cornering forces on the tyre and therefore you may want M4 control arms or camber adjustment if you get serious about track days.


SQUARE TYRE AND WHEEL SETUP (This is apparently best and allows for swapping wheels front to back to save on cost)
Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2 - 18x8”45 5x120 £680
4xYokohama AD08R 225/40 R18 - £500 / £125 per tyre (Demon Tweeks)
4xNankang NS2R 225/40/R18 - £320 / £80 per tyre (Demon Tweeks)

SUSPENSION -
Not required to enjoy most track days but if you get serious it is probably best to get a fully adjustable set up for track work.

SUSPENSION:
BILSTEIN B16 or KW v2 - circa £1500




Open to all suggestions!

Edited by Scribble BM on Wednesday 12th December 20:19

Edited by Scribble BM on Sunday 13th January 10:53

Edited by Scribble BM on Sunday 13th January 10:53

[Scribble BM]

Thanks, I understand your concerns but I am not planning on going all out track car. That would just be the dream!

At the minute I am just looking to do 3 or 4 track days a year for a bit of fun. I already do one big road trip to the alps/ Scotland/ etc so I imagine the brakes would a great help there as well.

All I was wondering for now is will the car be ok for a fun a track day as stock. Or do even the brake pads and fluids need upgrading to do even that?

[Scribble BM]

Thanks Mrc986.

If he was at Outlon for BMWCarclub I met him and he kindly took me out in his AC Schnitzer M135i!

He is running Ferodo DS2500 I think and said they were fine for 20minute stints combined with Yokohama tyres which he has had for over 10k miles 😳.

I am hoping for to attend the BMWCC day arbor anglesey yes

[Scribble BM]

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

I have spoken to someone who runs DS2500 at Oulton in an M135i and he seemed to be able to do great stints and didn’t have fade. I also think they are a little cheaper than Pagid RS29. So for now it is looking like just new pads and fluid for February!

I will probably stick to my standard PSS tyres for now as it will probably be cold and maybe damp in February at Anglesey anyway.

Then when I invavitably get the bug I’ll get some new 18x8 rims and either Nankang NS2r or AD08R tyres for the summer 😊.

I’ll probably be getting track day insurance through Morris for circa £140 for the day.

I will let you know how I get on and hopefully see some people at Anglesey February 23rd.

[Scribble BM]

Cheers for the advice. I may leave the brakes but I imagine I may need new ones after the track day anyway...

This will be my second track day, the first was in a track prepped mk1 mx5 that my friend races.

The day at Anglesey that I am attending is a BMW Car Club one and I will have tuition for the whole morning. I just hope it’s not too wet!

The car is on finance so I am not making any permanent mods and will be taking out track day insurance

[Scribble BM]

Is anyone able to give an idea of how much brake pad wear I can expect at Anglesey?

[Scribble BM]

Thanks for all the feedback so far.

From what I’ve read I think I’ll be going with the Ferrodo brake fluid ( I believe I’ll need 1.5L to bleed the brakes?) and DS2500 front pads from ML Performance.

I’ll be bleeding the brakes fully and just putting the pads in for the track day and then taking the back out to save them for future days. Hopefully the change in pad compound doesn’t have too much of a detrimental effect on the disc.

If anyone has anything they want me find out from tracking an M140 let me know! (Pad wear, tyre wear, etc)

[Scribble BM]

Ok so following further discussion I have got Comma 5.1 fluid to fully bleed the brakes as it’s so cheap to do and will definitely make a difference.

I know this is going to be pretty hard on pads, so I’m probably going to get some M4 Pads from Stuart Murray.

Question is.... my current pads (stock) have circa 8mm left. If I swap these out, can I take out the part worn wear sensor as well? Then put the m4 pads in for the track day and leave them until they wear out before putting the stock pads and part worn wear sensor back in.

[Scribble BM]

MrC986 said:

My friend has a tuned M135i ACS1 (previously mentioned). When I last visited he was keen to point out his new front brake discs he's fitting.... they are apparently M2 discs & I think he's sticking with Ferodo DS2500 pads again. He'll hopefully be at Anglesey with the BMWCC with me & I'm pretty sure he's fitting some Michelin PS tyres as an all rounder having run Yoko ADO8rs before.

Haha nice, it will be good to see the ACS1 again and meet yourself. What car will you be there in?

I’m getting the brakes bled on Tuesday ready for the day but keeping everything else stock for now in the end. I will see what ends up needing upgrading and sort it for the following track day 😊.

I can’t wait for this one though!

[Scribble BM]

MrC986 said:

Scribble BM said:

Haha nice, it will be good to see the ACS1 again and meet yourself. What car will you be there in?

I’m getting the brakes bled on Tuesday ready for the day but keeping everything else stock for now in the end. I will see what ends up needing upgrading and sort it for the following track day ??.

I can’t wait for this one though!

Yep, it's come around fast I'll be there with a friend in our grey Compact & should be sharing garage space with a fully track prepped Mini & hopefully the ACS1. Our Compact has had coilovers fitted over the winter & is just waiting for my bucket seats to be installed so we'll be understanding how much better it handles. Come & say "hi".

Nice one! Looking forward to it.

See you there.

Stuart

[Scribble BM]

So I finally went on my first track day in the M140i at Anglesey this weekend! What a car!!!

Following all comments I kept the car completely stock except for upgrading to Comma 5.1 brake fluid.

The car was absolutely fine doing 4/5 hot laps in a row, before coming into cool for 15/20 mins or doing 1/2 cool down laps before getting one more hot lap in.

However , interestingly both myself and a friend who races mx5 race cars were driving the car and seemed to over heat different things. I was finding the brake pedal going long, whilst he was finding the tyres going off. Showing that it is driving style that affects what over heats.

I was doing a 1min 50sec lap on the GP circuit, which was 4 seconds slower than him, but he does race after all...

Interestingly, another mx5 driver who is of similar pace was lapping 2 seconds slower in an M2! Which has not sold an M2 to me!!! I thought it would be much faster. My friend also did some laps in the M2 and reckoned it was harder to drive fast, due to it being more spikey on corner exit.

In terms of wear, we did somewhere between 50-60 laps with the last 20 done in damp conditions and the car did not wear anywhere nearly as bad as expected!

At the start of the day I had 6mm on the rears and 5mm on the front, by the end of the day I had pretty much the same except for left front, very outer shoulder wear. The brake pads look fine, the brake pedal feels fine and no coolant or oil was needed during the day.

So if you are looking at doing a one off track day, don’t think you need to go all out and invest a load of money in the car as it is highly capable in stock form. Just get track day insurance, allow for two tanks of fuel and dint stay out for too long!

[Scribble BM]

Cheers Steve! Thanks for running a great day and I’m glad you enjoyed the car!

We didn’t do live timing on the day but we did run a data logger to review at the end of the day.

I am in green and my friend Ste who races MX5 is red. I was 4 seconds a lap slower with the main culprit being that he was braver up through church and into rocket which cost me 1.8 seconds. I then carried slightly more speed into other corners but Ste had a higher slightly higher minimum speed.

But really I am pretty happy for my first track day. If I was just a little braver I would’ve only been two seconds off which isn’t too bad I don’t think...

Edited by Scribble BM on Tuesday 26th February 14:58

[Scribble BM]

No overheating issues. Your brakes and tyres will overheat way before your engine or gearbox

The main wear is just on the outer edge of the front left tyre.

[Scribble BM]

dave_rallye said:

You've probably long since sold the car and moved on now, but just in case, did you continue to track the m140i? I'm considering one for a road car with the occasional track day (don't have time for a dedicated track car at the moment) but mostly concerned about the oil starvation issues seen on the N55 and chances of blowing it up rather than outright performance.

Thanks!

Hi pal,

The N55 in the M135i had oil starvation but I believe this isn’t an issue with the B58 in the m140i unless this has changed since I owned mine.