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Fall 2026 Update

ODBII Codes: I finally took the advice of my lone responder and cleared the codes. Miraculously, they haven’t come back except for the P16EB code. Turns out that code is being thrown because my car no longer has the stock exhaust valve (I replaced my stock exhaust with a Remark Ti exhaust, which doesn’t make use of the exhaust valve). I’ve tried a canceller that is sold on eBay for preventing the code from being thrown, but in my experience it doesn’t work.

A lost track season: I have had conflicts for each track event I had planned to attend this year. I finally signed up for a Lime Rock Track Night in America event on October 8 w/ SCCA to avoid a complete shut out on a track day this year, otherwise my streak of hitting at least one track event a season since 2005 would have been broken.

*Fun track day fact: I haven’t flushed my brake fluid since doing so with Castrol SRF before a track day in… April 2024? I know, I’ve gotten lazy in my old age, but this Castrol SRF is brilliant. I did some quick math and if you can extend your brake flushes over twice as long as normal high-temp Motul RBF 600 or similar, then it pays for itself.

*Fun track day fact #2: despite doing at least 3 track days since I bought the CTR, at my recent NYS inspection, it was mentioned that my brake pads and rotors are doing great. I guess I should be doing more track days, given I’ve only put 5,000 miles on the car to date.

Oil spray in engine bay: my main use of the CTR this year has been for autocrossing with Mohawk-Hudson Region SCCA (affectionately known as “MoHud”). My new suspension parts – specifically the Whiteline camber ball joints and the RV6 rear swaybar – have transformed the handling of my CTR on the autocross course, making my tires (Continental ExtremeContact Force in 275/35R18) the limiting factor (the tires are described as time trial and track day tires, so they don’t warm as quick as a true autox tire). The front seems to stick a lot better, and the car seems to be a bit more neutral than it was stock.

Fast forward to the 2nd event of the season, and I’m having a good day. I start my last run of the day, and as I make my way into the opening slalom, I start to notice a mist of something appear on the windshield. I also notice an odd smell, so I immediately come off the throttle and coast, putting a pit in signal out the window to indicate I’m done, and then shortcut across the site to go through the finish and trip the lights. As I start to pull into my paddock spot, I notice I have smoke now coming out of the hood vent – not good. I quickly shut it off and pop the hood, only to be greeted with the glisten of oil coating everything in the engine bay. There’s some drips on the underside of the hood, and the smoke is coming from the turbo blanket and downpipe blanket. Because oil is everywhere, it’s difficult to figure out where the oil is originating from, but I’m assuming it’s from a feed line to/from the turbo.

Through the generosity of friends, we winch my CTR onto a buddy’s car trailer and I’m driving another friend’s 230k mi E46 BMW for the hour drive home. I text Semir @ All Tech Auto, who built the car for me, and he says have it towed to his shop so he can diagnose what’s going on. Next day I call AAA to come and take the car to All Tech Automotive, and Semir @ All Tech Automotive has done a lot of the work on my CTR, and he did the diagnosis of my oil leak. Turned out the line to my HEL oil cooler and my serpentine belt got into a turf war, and they both lost. I’m only down about 1qt of oil, so it’s not likely any engine component got damaged in the incident. *It’s taken some time & miles to cook off the oil that seeped into the turbo and downpipe blankets.

Ahh fudge….

HEL oil cooler line and serpentine belt did NOT get along.

Semir recommended finding some longer AN lines to use to give more room to pull them away from the serpentine belt and pulley. He found some and installed them, which allows the hoses to be pulled a few inches from the pulley and serpentine belt. It still looks closer than it should be, but they’re tied down so it should be fine.

All Tech wiped down as much of the oil as possible, but it got into so many nooks and crannies that it was impossible to get it all. I had some seep out onto the bottom radiator support when I got the car back. The worst of it was what got into the turbo and downpipe blankets – it smoked every time I drove the car, but that stopped after several hours of driving, and then it just got down to a burning oil smell. After a few more hours of run time, it’s now a fading smell that’s barely perceptible.

The small bright spot in all of this is the oil cooler line work lined up perfectly with the need for an oil change. We debated what oil would be best to run in the car given the competitive and speed events I run. I’ve read a lot of material on the oil war debates on the CivicXI forums, and am leaning towards moving into a 10W-30, but for this time, we went with a Liquimoly Molygen New Generation SAE 5W-20. I figure I’ll work my way up to the 10W-30 weight to see how the car reacts to the heavier oils.

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Now what? Ugh…

The Type R decided life wasn’t exciting enough, so it threw some codes at me and triggered a CEL. For a modded FL5, sure, maybe a P16EB for the Active Exhaust Valve that is no longer on the car, and maybe a P0420 for a car not using the stock turbo-back exhaust, but the B1E9A? C’mon, dammit!

Feeling good about having the FL5 about where I want it, I decided to start driving it a bit more. For a car I’ve owned since October 2023, having just crossed the 4500 mile threshold is a bit pathetic. Drive it and enjoy the thing, right? Sure, 94 octane gas is insanely priced, but still…

On a relatively nice day, I decided to take the FL5 to our local car wash. The last outing for it was a GTA rally, which took us over some back roads and even some dirt/gravel roads, so the rear bumper had some dust on it, and there were some decent mud splashes in the wheel wells, so I decided to take a run up and wash the car.

Not more than a mile from my house, the car suddenly threw a CEL on the dash, announcing that rev matching was disabled and the car would have reduced power. Sure enough, I noticed the rev matching, which I’ve grown to love, is no longer active.

Scanning the car with my Topdon scanner revealed the codes pictured above. I’d run this setup last year all season without a peep, so I was flummoxed as to what might have caused this. Got talking with a friend and remembered I’d added a TSP intake coupler at the end of last season (it really cleans up the look of the engine bay), but even with that change, I can’t imagine that would be enough to cause all these codes. The ‘Right Side BSI Radar Unit’ code is the real head scratcher – why is that squawking?

The three components involved in the safety system of the FL5. I believe the component mentioned in B1E9A is in the rear corner of the car.

Two causes came to mind, and I’m not digging either possibility. First is that perhaps a rodent has chewed some wires and is causing some false positives? I had some traps set in our nicely appointed garage, and surprisingly caught a few mice and shrews in them throughout the winter. Foot note – I learned a lot about shrews from Reddit after catching one and trying to confirm it was a vole. Found an excellent thread on Reddit that explained the differences between mice, voles, and shrews. Did you know shrews have a poisonous bite? Now you do.

The other one, that scared me at the time, and had faded after I didn’t have issues, was my use of an ozone generator from Amazon to address a swamp smell my lovely crap dealership gave me as part of the dealer prep and delivery of the car. My guess is whoever the $15/hr prep guy was used some mildewed water left over from previous cars to wipe down or otherwise clean the interior. Didn’t notice it much when I picked up the car, but over the weeks I had it it become very noticeable, and was embarrassing when folks stuck their head in the car to check out the interior. I bombed the interior of the car for 30 minutes and then dealt with a lingering and overpowering ozone smell that lasted for nearly a year. Researching after the fact on ozone gave some troubling info about the potential for high concentrations of ozone to damage electronics and plastics. I held my breath and crossed my fingers, and last year the smell had finally dissipated, so I felt I had cross that threat threshold, but this incident had me guessing again whether it might be to blame. From further reading I’ve done on the subject, I’ve read that the level of exposure my car endured to rid of the swamp smell was nowhere near the levels and length of time needed to be at risk of damage. I’m trusting my research is correct.

The Two Step Performance intake coupler (silicone hose connected to the PRL High Volume Intake) gives a much better look than leaving the OEM coupler in there and its hard plastic.

Doing some research on these codes tells me that the P0420 is typically associated with down pipes, especially un-catted ones. My downpipe is a TSP catted pipe, valued for its ability to NOT trigger a code. The P16EB code is associated with an issue with the active exhaust valve that comes on the OEM exhaust. That whole exhaust was replaced by a Remark Ti exhaust, and thus the active valve hasn’t been connected in over a year. A quick search shows that FL5 owners typically don’t get a code from having the valve disconnected. I had previously pulled the fuse to keep the valve open for a more aggressive exhaust note on the stock exhaust (hint – it barely made a difference, and thus the beautiful sounding Remark exhaust), but just in case I’ve put the fuse back in for the non-existent valve.

Searching the internet about the B1E9A code was scary, as I got ZERO hits about it other than some Honda parts schematics showing the components involved. I think only one or two links were related to the FL5 platform – most were for Honda SUVs. The CivicXI.com forums are silent on references. Crickets has me pretty nervous.

I put a post up in the forums about the issues, but have only gotten a lone response that suggested clearing the codes and see if they come back. Probably a good suggestion as it is cheap and easy. If not, I’ll likely get a shop involved to see if they can find any issues that might explain the occurrence.

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Slow start to the 2026 season

The Type R hadn’t had its APR Swan Neck wing sprout yet for the season, but it performed flawlessly without it. Pictured here in front of the Old Blenheim covered bridge, North Blenheim NY.

Well, we’re slowly shedding the cold of this past winter, but it still seems to be nearby and not wanting to let go. It’s safe to take the car cover off, as I don’t think we’ll see any more salt being put down on the roads. Hell, we just had an 85F day yesterday, but today hovered in the mid 50s before finally creeping up to a more spring-like 63F.

I took the Type R out for its first real drive of the season: a 60+ mile trek to participate in my SCCA region’s Spring “Valley Rallly” GTA rally. I don’t know if the car inspired the wife and I, or if it was more me finally listening to my wife when she wants to stop quick to pick up bonus points for items we’re looking for on the route, but we finished in… 1st place. A nice time with some good motorsports folks and friends. If you have a GTA rally in your area, I encourage you to attend it. It’s a great way to find some like-minded car folks.

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Fully modded!

Over the course of the nearly two years I’ve owned my Type R, I immediately started accumulating parts to not only enhance its performance on the track, but to give it a bit more pizazz in the style I like. Hanging out on the CivicXI.com forums and reading of others’ experiences on track, I knew that early indications were that the FL5 platform was better than the FK8 platform at heat dissipation, but there there was still a lot of room for improvement. I also knew that while some were happy that the looks of the FL5 had been taken down a notch from the ‘boy racer’ look of the FK8, I wasn’t quite ready to grow up.

The other big deficit this car had was sound… it had no indication that it was anything more than a normal Civic hatchback. I decided to address all of these perceived deficits and do what I could to bring it up to my standards.

Parts. Lots of parts. Thousands of dollars of parts. While I got out from under my BMW M2 Competition due to parts costs, the Civic Type R isn’t nearly as bad as the BMW tax, but it still sometimes shocks my pre-pandemic sensibilities.

I’ve come to rely on @TwoStepPerformance / TwoStepPerformance.com as a trusted source of the parts I’ve read about and determined I’d like to add to my vehicle. I started sifting through their site and picked up as many of these parts on my list from them as possible. I’ve found Two Step to be a great partner to deal with: good pricing, good selection of quality products, and excellent customer communication and support.

A buddy of mine found me a great deal on a used APR Swan Neck wing, and after coaxing the seller to package the wing and sell it to me, I took on that project and installed it. I knew it would look great paired with the APR front lip I was having installed, and it looks as good as I anticipated.

After getting over my fear of invalidating my car’s warranty, I finally decided it jump in and get this project moving. First up, I wanted to get the car dyno’d in stock trim to get a feel for what it was making before I threw all these parts at it. I made an appointment at Round Lake Auto to have Roz do some dyno runs of my car. Roz was very friendly, as was everyone at the shop, and had me sitting in the car to watch my car’s process of doing some dyno runs, then uploading my tune from @JesterTuned / JesterTuned.com. I’ll do a full write-up on planning for my tuning of the Type R. For a brief overview, I ordered a spare ECM, purchasing an Acura Integra Type S engine control module (ECM) because a) it’s the same the Type R’s, and b) availability is better and it’s cheaper.

The dyno measurement proved that Jester found a lot of performance that Honda left on the manufacturing floor, boosting the FL5’s performance numbers:

Mustang DynoStockJesterTunedGains
Wheel HP260 HP @ 6.7k rpm302 HP @ 5800 rpm+42 HP
Torque (ft-lb)280 ft-lb @ 3k rpm341 ft-lb @ 3.3k rpm+61 ft-lb

Next up was reaching out to All Tech Automotive and get some time scheduled for an install appointment for all of this stuff. As a testament to the Type R’s storage capacity, I got all but the intercooler into the car. It was so packed, I could not see out the rightside mirror or even the right side of the car, but it help almost all of the parts I’d bought. Semir & Jake of All Tech did a fantastic job of installing the parts, but we had to push some of the project out in order to make my Lime Rock Park track day event. Time ran out before my track day at Lime Rock Park to get my Whiteline Front Camber adjustment kit installed, so that will get done soon.

One thing that popped up immediately (other than the turbo and downpipe blankets curing and smoking lightly on the way home after everything was buttoned up and I drove it for the first time), was a well-known issue of the low-temp thermostat causing a P0128 CEL. Apparently Honda wants the engine to come up to temp quickly for several reasons, so the early opening thermostat triggers the code. The error on the dash warns that power will be reduced, and that the auto-rev match function will be disabled. I found no evidence that the car’s power had been reduced, as the car seemed plenty powerful during my on-track sessions, but indeed the rev matching function was disabled, which I missed since I’m not a great heel-toe guy. I reached out to Jester to see if anything could be done to address the code being triggered, and Jester sent me a new flash tune that would keep the code from being triggered. I ended up flashing my FL5 at the track after the 1st day of on track activities, Sure enough, the code was gone, and I regained my auto-rev matching during the following sessions of the day.

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Swapping In Acura ITS ADM on the CTR: Acronym City

“Under braking in Sport or +R modes, the car skipped over pavement
ripples until we switched the adaptive dampers to Comfort mode.”

– Car and Driver, 2023 Honda Civic Type R at Lightning Lap 2023, February 2023

Having tracked cars for nearly 20 years, I took note of this criticism by the experts at Car & Driver, and figured if there was a way to address this issue, I’d do it. Most performance enthusiasts realize that if a car’s tires aren’t maintaining contact with the road surface, traction is going to be compromised, and the fast way around a track is typically maintaining maximum traction to keep speed in every section of the track.

Fast forward to time spent on the 11th Gen Type R forums, and users started to discuss swapping in the Active Damper Module (ADM) (Acura part number 39381-31M-A03) from the plushier Acura Integra Type S (ITS), into the Honda Civic Type R (CTR), and thus taking the harsh edge off the Type R’s three modes for its adjustable damper settings (Comfort, Sport, R+). Most of the folks who were investigating this mod said they were looking to lessen the jarring ride of the CTR on the street, and not much emphasis was being put on the performance aspect.

Since the weather was really nice today, it was time to spend a little time out in the garage and start whittling down the pile of parts I have in the basement. First up: the Active Damper Module (ADM) swap.

I watched a YouTube video by another FL5 owner on what he did to swap out his OEM module with the Acura module, and it seemed pretty simple. I did notice that there were several small parts that could use some detail. The overall process is as follows:

  1. Remove the back seat pad.
  2. Remove the left side bolster air bag module & trim piece.
  3. Unplug the OEM ADM unit from the wire harness.
  4. Remove the OEM ADM unit.
  5. Install the Acura ADM.
  6. Plug the ADM harness into the ADM unit.
  7. Reinstall the left side bolster airbag & trim.
  8. Reinstall the back seat bottom cushion.

Tools needed

  • 10mm socket
  • Long (6″ or more) socket extender (needed for the seat bottom cushion removal
  • Flat blade screwdriver or similar to gently pry a trim panel cover on the air bag bolster

For the back seat bottom cushion removal, I was confused as to how to release the two catches under the front edge of the bottom cushion. After I figured it out, I ended up reattaching the catches as I had to kneel on the seat cushion to find the single 10mm bolt that holds the seat cushion in place. Hint, it’s about 2-3″ to the right of the driver side seat belt latch as you face the rear of the car. Here’s the metal bracket molded into the rear seat cushion’s back edge:

Feel around under the cushion, and you’ll find these catches. What I finally figured out was to grab the front portion of the catch, pull it horizontally towards the backs of the front seats, and the cushion will pop up. It should pop up as you’ll have to put some pressure on that cushion to fit your hands/fingers in to release the catches. I started on the passenger side and then moved over to the driver’s side.

When you reinstall the rear seat bottom cushion, you’ll need to find the hole to reinstall the 10mm bolt you removed earlier. Once you get the seat cushion in place, make sure the catches latch it into place. At that point, the metal bracket in the seat bottom should be lined up properly with the bolt hole in the trunk dividing panel. I had to feel around as it’s pretty difficult to see it. I ended up putting the bolt in the socket, held it by the socket extension, and then gingerly started the bolt in the thread. Here’s what you’re looking for:

The metal bracket in the seat cushion should line up pretty well with this bolt hole once the seat cushion is latched back into the catches on the front edge.

It took me just under 30 minutes to perform this swap, and that was with fumbling around to figure out how the bottom catches work, taking pictures, and figuring out the cushion’s bolt needed to come out before unlatching the catches. Super simple!

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The Lost Season of 2024

My excitement of having a new sports car to play with at the track hit a major snag this past season: eldercare issues. Long story short, one of my relatives ended up needing a lot of help this past year, and we ended up having this relative live with us while we scrambled to figure out a longer term solution. It took most of the summer to figure out a plan, and while that plan is mostly implemented now, it still requires some loose ends to be tied up.

2024 consisted of getting out to my MoHud Region SCCA autocrosses and a single track day back in April, but that’s it. My four autocrosses were good times to test out the handling capabilities of the Civic Type R, and my day at Lime Rock Park put a huge smile on my face. The Type R proved to be more fun than the M2 Comp had been, and the handling of the car was phenomenal.

Apex VS-5RS 18″ wheels with 275/35R18 Nitto NT-01 tires

Hope springs eternal, and I’m hoping that 2025 will bring much more opportunity to get out and have fun at the track.

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BMW M2C Parts for Sale

I am trying to clean out the basement of all the BMW parts I accumulated during my brief ownership of the F87 M2 Competition. All are for sale on Bimmerpost.com:

If interested, send me an email at EJEvo8@outlook.com. Shipping is included in all pricing; local pickup to the NY Capital District is available.

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Introducing the Honda Civic Type R: Wallet Savior? Well…

As my summer progressed, I started to face some hard truths with owning a BMW: it’s incredibly expensive to own a BMW, and an M2 Competition that needs to be prepped for a dual life on the track and the street ramps those costs up further.

The main problem with the M2 Competition was it was a dual edged sword: you get the better S55 engine as opposed to the M2’s N55 engine, but you also get massive rotors that require 19″ wheels and tires. Those 19″ wheels don’t have a lot of good choices for trackable performance rubber, and the choices that are out there run you around $1600 for a set of 4 tires.

Most owners who want to regularly track an M2 Competition look at changing two things: putting a smaller brake kit on the car, which enables you to drop down to 18″ wheels, in turn putting you in reach of a better, and cheaper, range of performance rubber, and allowing you to change the 245/265 width stock tire setup to a square setup of 265 or wider at all four corners so that you can rotate all the tires to extend the life of those tires.

My research came up with a projected cost of nearly $14,000 to get to that promised land:
Front brake kit – $5100. Rear brake kit – $5000. A set of 18″ wheels – between $1800 to $3000. Didn’t even include the cost of the first set of 18″ tires, and I was already shaking my head. Add in some issues I was experiencing with my choice of camber plates and an undiagnosed creaking in the struts/steering that had a $1000 unsuccessful attempt at fixing, I decided to stop throwing good money after bad.

Saw not one, but two Civic Type Rs come up for sale at a local Honda dealer, and decided I was going to move on from the M2 Comp. As soon as I committed to that plan in my mind, I literally felt a weight lifted from my shoulders.

The process of acquiring the Civic Type R was a money risking process in itself. It required me to grit my teeth and do some things I swore I’d never do; i.e. pay above MSRP for a vehicle, and trade a car in rather than attempt to private sale it. I decided to trade it in as the steering creak would have made selling it at a reasonable price very difficult to do. The dealer I bought the car from has Honda, Mercedes, and BMW dealerships on the same lot, so I figured they’d be able to put the stock camber plates back on the car for a low cost.

I wasn’t sure the dealership was going to charge a markup on the CTR as they never listed it on their website – they simply showed the car at the MSRP. Most marked up cars typically will have a “call for price” added to their listing or similar, so I naively hoped that there was no markup involved.

I scheduled an appointment to look at the CTR. No test driving, but they did let me sit in the car as they knew I was a serious buyer (hell, I was dangling a decent ’21 BMW M2 with a higher MSRP as a trade-in). The car felt good, and I relied on my experience of having test driven a ’19 CTR previously to assume this car would drive as nicely as that FK8 platform did. The dealership was pretty protective of the two CTRs on the showroom floor – both cars were kept locked unless someone was specifically interested in buying it. As soon as we stepped back out of the car, it apparently was locked again, as while we were negotiating terms and the salesman went to check with a manager on my offer, I tried to open the car to look at the interior further, and it was locked.

I had to pinch myself to make sure I was really there and making this deal.

This was the first car negotiation I’ve ever used the F-bomb in. When I asked about the MSRP being the purchase price, the salesman conceded that there was a markup, and I was… not impressed with that answer. They initially said they were looking for $15,000 over MSRP, and when I laughed out loud the salesman quickly conceded that they would negotiate some from that. I scoffed at paying even half that amount over MSRP, and then the salesman seemed to again quickly offer that the pricing was negotiable. I offered what I thought would get me in the ballpark – yeah, I blinked rather than try to swing for the fences and give them a lowball offer. I also really wanted to inform my wife of what I was doing – she knew I was going to discuss the car – but I wanted to let her know things were moving quick. Couldn’t reach her, so I decided to lean on “well, I tried” and moved ahead. The salesguy didn’t scoff at my counteroffer, and while I took the picture above, waited for approval of my offer. Salesman came back and offered a handshake, and that was that. I was offered the chance to drive it home that day, but decided to hold off for a few days so I could remove some go-fast parts from the M2 and extract a few bucks of my investment in the parts I had purchased it

Brake pads…
… are quite dirty…
… when you swap in the stock pads

For purchasing a high-priced car, this was one of the most informal and sloppy dealer experiences I’ve ever had. I needed to hand over some cash to seal the deal, and asked if I could put a down payment on my credit card. “Sure, but we can’t put the whole amount on there.” I knew that as it is a typical rule at any dealership. Finance manager comes over, I sign some papers, hand him my credit card to do the down payment, and wait. He comes back, hands me my card, and tells me the entire purchase price was put on my card. I was secretly thrilled as this would a) allow me to skip hitting the bank for a certified check, and b) I’d get some pretty decent rewards back on my card from a solid five figure transaction as this. However, my honest made me speak up and point out the error that was made. The finance manager thought about it quick, and then shrugged and said “That’s OK, we’ll let it stand.” Awesome. Well, there was one small win for me.

The day I showed up to pick up the car and leave my M2 Comp with them, it was all a blur. I had a list of paperwork shoved in front of me to sign, with brief one sentence explanations of each form that, on the surface, sounded reasonable. The salesman asked if I needed to be walked through any function on the car, which I really didn’t but I verified if I had questions, I could call them to ask. I then took a quick trip to see the business manager, who supposedly shares an affinity for taking cars to the track like me. We walk in and the business manager doesn’t introduce himself, but instead asks if I recognize him. I apologize, but I don’t. He then says he’s friends with the chief instructor at CT Valley Chapter BMW CCA, but that most folks recognize him by his car, gesturing to a calendar on his office wall of a generic BMW sedan that I also didn’t recognize. I offered I knew the chief instructor friend of his, but unfortunately didn’t recognize him. He seemed a bit offended or disappointed in that response, and then moved on with the paperwork. One of the oddest interactions I’ve had. When I asked, he didn’t indicate whether he recognized me or not.

Back out to the showroom floor, I was given a handshake by the sales guy, and I went out to the parking lot where my Boost Blue Pearl FL5 Civic Type R was waiting. No tour of the dealership, or showing me where the service desk or parts desk was. It was pretty lazy and disappointing as a customer, making it seem like the dealership wasn’t too concerned with the niceties that most dealerships perform for their customers. Later on, one evening I sat and read through all the paperwork I had signed at the dealership. I found two add-on items totaling $1000 of additional cost that I never would have agreed to if I had understood what it was. One was an $800 Armor All ceramic coating with a 7 year guarantee. How one would determine that your ceramic coating has failed and what specifically the guarantee covers are still cloudy to me. That item was only explained to me as I had “an $800 credit” I needed to use if I stuck with my decision that I didn’t need the car ceramic coated. We argued back and forth about what it really represented, but it was honestly explained that I was charged a non-negotiable $800 as part of the purchase. It was always explained as a credit I was owed that could be used on ceramic coating, an extended warranty, wheel & tire warranty, fabric treatment, etc – all that stuff of dubious utility and value, but had to be part of the deal. What was never mentioned during the explanation of each paper I signed was a $199 charge for an insurance policy that covers the markup value of the car if it is stolen in the first four years of my ownership. Interesting, but again, it simply adds more money to the dealership’s bottom line rather than represent any real value to the customer. Cheap, scheming, low-rent business practices in my opinion. But hey, as I was reminded several times during the sale, Honda may send me a customer satisfaction survey (never got one), and unless I can give them only 10s, to discuss it with them first. Sorry, I’m going to rate you what you should be rated, and it wouldn’t be 10s. I’m praying I do get that survey.

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Patroon/CT Valley/NY Chapter Track Day @ LRP

April 29, 2023 – It was the debut of the BMW M2 Competition era of my motorsports career on this Saturday in April. The day was raw – wet and cold. The early rain stopped when I arrived at the track, which I greatly appreciated for unloading the car from the trailer. However, shortly thereafter, the rain started up again, and my nerves about my first time on track with this car, not having had first-hand experience with a 400HP rear wheel drive vehicle, were ramped up.

The first few laps – two, to be precise – were uneventful. On lap 3 I decided to start taking my normal lines, which included diving into the entry to the Uphill off the apex, in order to get the car far to the left and cresting the hill. This move resulted in the car cresting, and then suddenly searching for a direction. I tried to counter the gyrations, but they were happening so quickly I wasn’t sure I was helping, so I just kind of held the wheel and waited it out. Fortunately the car suddenly snapped straight, I breathed a huge sigh of relief, and my track day insurance policy wasn’t going to be needed. I decided to keep the car in the middle of the Uphill after that, and there wasn’t any more drama.

The rest of the day dried out, although the temps never warmed up and the wind would come and go. I got to safely explore the limits of the car, albeit with my pretty worn out front Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires. My student for the day was rocking a 2020 M2 Competition, so it was great to be able to interchange my experiences for the day between my own car and my student’s. I learned somethings from him, too, as he walked me through the steps of reduced traction control settings that BMW offers. I was really impressed with his car’s handling, especially given that he didn’t have camber plates and thus only had -1.5 degs of camber up front. I then discovered he had upgraded his wheel and tires to a set of Apex wheels that allowed him to run 275s up front, and 295s in the rear (stock is 245 and 265, respectively).

The day was a success, friendships were renewed, a student driver improved greatly, and I’m better convinced that this car is going to be a great car to rely on for years of track fun.

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The BMW Tax

I’ve had a few months now of ownership of the BMW M2 Comp, and while I’ve found the new car very comfortable to run around with on the streets, and it’s been fun to be competitive in stock form at the autocrosses, I’ve been actually shocked by the cost of aftermarket parts for this car. Prices for parts have been twice to nearly five times as high as what I was used to paying for my Mitsubishi Evo. Camber plates? $350 versus $750. Intake? $400 versus $800. Front brake pads? $230 versus $800.

The economics of the BMW have taken a good amount of the joy of owning the M2C out of the equation for me. While I thought I was making a statement by avoiding paying an outrageous markup on a used Civic Type R, I think I’ve fallen into a similar financial pit with the cost of parts for the M2 Competition.

Doing the reliability mods first: replacing OEM plastic charge pipes and J-pipe with ARM silicone charge pipes and an ARM aluminum J-pipe. Adding in a Burger Motorsports oil catch can while I’m in the engine bay.

I’ve consulted with some friends who own and track similar M2 Competitions, and I’ve gotten some good advice on what’s needed to enhance the car’s performance at the track and to keep costs down in the process. The paths of the two friends provide the choice between two road maps: A) minimal mods to enhance performance and minimize costs, and B) significant mods to… enhance performance and minimize long-term costs at the expense of significant upfront costs.

In the minimal mod corner, I’ve gotten the suggestion of getting some camber plates to address the limits of the stock front camber adjustment range in order to even out wear on the front tires, which I’ve been told will typically get more wear on the outside edges. However, this leaves uncovered several drawbacks that track use vehicle owners will recognize, not only with tires, but some other components as well. Let’s look at the tire issues.

The stock wheel & tire setup, which isn’t “square” (i.e. the same all around), is a 245/35R19 front tire and 265/35R19 rear tire setup. The OEM wider rear tire configuration means that you can’t rotate tires front to back, which can help even out wear and prolong the life of your track tires. On top of the lack of a rotation option, the pricing and selection of performance tires in this 19″ sizing is pricey and limited. Michelin makes a great tire, but you pay for that quality and performance. The experience of owners says that there are better (and cheaper) choices in the 18″ tire sizes, but there is an issue with that: OEM brake rotors do not allow you to convert to 18″ wheels due to the stock M2 Competition rotors’ diameter being so large as to require 19″ wheels. To break out of this 19″ wheel limitation, you’ll need to jump to option B as mentioned previously.

Option B, the significant mods method, you make some significant investments in brake packages and new 18″ wheels, and then reap the rewards of cheaper options for tires, longer lifespan of those tires, and significant savings on brake pads. However, to get to these benefits, you’ll need to grit your teeth and be prepared to part ways with over $10k worth of upgrades and parts. First up, would be a brake kit to accommodate 18″ wheels. I’ve used AP Racing brake kits from Essex Parts, and they are quality kits. Brake pads are significantly cheaper for these brake kits than they are for the stock Brembo calipers the M2 Competition come with, but the prices of these kits are eye-watering compared to what I paid for the kit I put on my Evo. The Evo kit I had went for roughly $2400, while the cheapest kit I could go with for the M2C is over $4700! Where I really start to cry is that cost only covers the front brakes; to cover the rear brakes would require another kit and cost another $4400!! These rotors are slightly smaller than the OEM stock rotors, and thus fit 18″ wheels, but provide comparable braking performance so that you don’t lose anything in the conversion, other than a significant portion of your bank account.

So, you’ve gone $9200 into downsizing the brakes to fit 18″ wheels & tires, now it’s time to purchase those wheels. Wheels in the sizes needed for the M2C – say, 18×9 or 18×9.5 – typically are running at minimum $2k or more.

Another option I’ve seen some owners take is simply plus sizing the front tire widths and squaring up the setup – 265s all around. This requires some new wheels – APEX has a great guide on this setup.

I figure I’ll do a track day first before figuring out what direction I may want to go with the car. Next steps are setting up an appointment at Highline Motorsports to get the camber plates installed and do a whole vehicle fluids change (thanks Henry @ BimmerWorld for putting together a package for me). Then, I’ll be hitting a track day at Lime Rock Park with Patroon Chapter BMW CCA.

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