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Hello everyone, Jackie Ding here!
For those who don’t know us, we are PhD Racing Lab, we run a small Time Attack team based in Schaumburg IL that somehow evolved to include a service shop and online parts store over the past few years. Competition and time trial events is our bread and butter, and we have competed in series such as Gridlife, Global Time Attack, SCCA and NASA as well as others. The Supra A90/J29 has been our main focus since 2019, but that is all about to change.
Really excited to be finally joining the forum and the BMW world in general. We’ve kinda sorta had a tag-along position from building our A90 Supra, but I was always looking forward to the G-series M2 long before the official announcement. If the Supra, with off the shelf M240i parts, could feel that good already, how awesome must the real deal M2 be?
Trying to find an M2 in ZF 8HP (preferred from our experience with the J29) around Chicago proved really difficult. Luckily Taylor BMW in GA gave us a call about their HEA car, and we managed to pick it up at sticker as well. Our team manager Alex flew down and drove the car back, but my chance to have a go in it for real would have to wait until a week later.
It’s a nice street car, yada yada, you guys know all about it. Break-in service at BMW done, we then drove it down to Autobahn Country Club where we slapped some PhD Stickers over it, screwed in a pair of tow straps from our friends at IND, and hit the track.
Like I said in the video above… This thing is epic.
Stock to stock the G87 will demolish an A90, even when I’ve had 100x the seat time in the Supra than I had in the M2. The longer wheelbase, shorter overhangs, stiffer suspension, all make the car so sharp yet forgiving to drive on the limit.
The Brake By Wire had been our biggest concern, but the braking system proved to be exceptionally reliable. I would need a harness and bucket seat to really get a feel for the brake release characteristics, but so far I’m a fan.
The M Traction Control has been as great as I imagined it to be on track. I am no professional engineer, but how I understand it is that it fully disables the stability control that limits your yaw rate (tail-out antics) but only measures Front vs Rear wheel speed, and reduces engine torque demand to keep the difference in check. I don’t think I have quite found the sweet spot with M TC, but with more testing and competition lined up, I’m sure we would get close soon.
Overall, the G87 has been an absolute delight on track. Yes, weight is an issue that we will deal with. Yes, I want more tires and we definitely have suspension/aero/interior/all kinds of upgrades incoming. The end goal of the project is for our M2 to be competitive in the Gridlife Track Modern, Global Time Attack Limited class. It’ll be a fantastic challenge, but by no means an easy one.
It’s as they say. Never judge a book by its covers, and never judge a BMW M car by its looks
P.S.
If anyone here has access to an ISTA software version that works on these cars, please let me know, we need to bleed the brake fluid at some point