The Best Track Day Performance Upgrade

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Spending $1000 on your car can be fun when it means adding some power or improving the handling. When you are considering spending that on safety equipment it just isn’t very exciting. After fighting G forces at Roebling Road Raceway in a couple of the high speed corners I decided it was time for a harness system and HANS device.

Schroth Quick Fit Pro Harness

After doing a ton of research and reading on the forums I settled on the Schroth Quick Fit Pro harness system. Schroth doesn’t make the harnesses for the M2 but the system for E90 BMWs fits the car without any serious modifications. Since I use the M2 as a daily driver, the big benefit of the Quick Fit Pro system is that it is easy to take in and out of the car. All that remain in the car are a couple of anchor points.

Installing the anchors in the back seat is super simple. Just pop the rear seat bench out, unbolt the existing seatbelt anchor point, add the harness anchor, bolt both back into the car, feed the harness anchors up from behind the bench and snap it back into place.

The anchors for the front seat require a bit of modification to the car. There are plastic covers that snap over the OEM seatbelt anchors. I managed to break the posts that snap these into place on both sides of the car when I pried them off. It doesn’t really matter as they won’t snap back in once the harness anchor points are installed. I also had to grind down one edge of the cover so the anchor could come out under the cover. I wrapped a rubber band around lip of the cover to help it grip the carpet so the cover would stay in place since the posts no longer reach the holes to snap back into place. So far the covers have stayed in place, even at the track.

Schroth Super Sport HANS Device

Since I was using the Schroth harness system I went with a Schroth Super Sport HANS device. It works nicely with the harness straps and was priced competitively. It also came with the mounting brackets for my helmet so no nickel and dime fees for all the parts you need to make this work.

Not knowing much about this, I quickly figured out that the degree associated with HANS devices has to do with the seating position in your car. 20 degrees is what people need for an upright seating position like a street car. I also learned that the size has to do with your neck size. Think dress shirt sizing and that will help you pick the right size for you.

What Makes A Harness & HANS The Best Performance Upgrade?

As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, at Roebling Road Raceway I was fighting the G-Forces on the car to hold my self in place. With the harness and the HANS device I am now anchored to the car. I don’t have to hang on the wheel for dear life and can concentrate on driving. I also have a better feel of what is going on with the car, allowing me to make minor adjustments and improving lap times.

In my journey so far, this is the best money I have spent on any type of parts for my car.

Square Wheel Setup For The Track

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I got what I consider high praise from my instructor during my first track weekend. He said,

I could already drive my M2 better than the OEM tires and brakes could handle.

He recommended I upgrade my tires and brake pads before my next HPDE event in June. I jumped on some of the forums to research wheels and tires. I started to seriously consider several of the APEX wheels that are made to fit the BMW M2. Most of the 18″ APEX wheels where on backorder and I wasn’t confident they would arrive in time for me to get tires fitted on the wheels before June.

As I dug deeper, I found the Bimmerworld TA5R wheels that got great reviews, were flow formed so they are strong and light weight and would fit my M2 without spacers. My salesperson, John Webb, was a big help in making sure I got what I needed for a square setup while maximizing the tire contact surface.

I settled in on a set of TA5R 18″x9.5″ wheels in black. John recommended a set of wheel studs to make swapping my wheels at the track easier and faster. He also recommended a 255/35/18 tire to make sure the wheels and tires would fit in my wheel wells without rolling the fenders.

Why Go Square?

I won’t pretend to know enough about driving dynamics to explain how having tires that are the same width will impact the performance of the car. From what I have read in the forms this will balance out the grip as the staggered setup tends to break loose in the front when pushing hard. The big appeal to me in having all 4 wheels and tires being the same was to improve tire wear and ultimately keep my costs down. By going down from 19″ wheels to 18″ wheels I can open up the selection of tires that will fit inside my wheel wells and using the same width on all 4 corners means I can rotate the tires to get the maximum life out of each set.

Now on to find a set of tires for my new wheels…

Testing Track Data And Video

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As I get ready for my first weekend at the track, I have been testing options for capturing performance data and driving video. The simplest way to start was to use what came with my car, the Mlaptimer app. It is built into the iDrive system in my M2 and works with my iPhone. When it came out it was great, but it hasn’t been updated in some time and doesn’t support newer GoPro cameras. In addition the data file is .Mpower and you have to convert if you want to use it in any other app. All of this is very cumbersome.

After reading several BimmerPost forum threads about different apps, I decided to give Track Addict a try. There is a free version, so very little risk in giving it a shot. It is made by HP Tuners and works with Race Render, the software I am using to add data overlays to my driving videos. Here is a video shot from my iPhone mounted to my windshield that is straight from Track Addict:

Next I took the Track Addict video and added a second camera angle from a GoPro mounted inside my car. This gives me a chance to see how I am steering and shifting the car while driving. The GoPro also has GPS data that can be imported into Race Render. The challenge becomes syncing both videos and I found muting one of the videos made the sound quality better.

For my last test, I used my GoPro camera footage and BimmerLink to capture car data through an OBDII reader. Unfortunately, BimmerLink won’t log the data in the background so I couldn’t also use Track Addict for this test. As you will see in the video that BimmerLink doesn’t log the data fast enough so the overlays show data that jumps up and down. While I would love to use something I already own, this isn’t it!

So for my first track weekend I decided to upgrade to Track Addict Pro ($8.99) and I ordered a VeePeak OBDII adapter that cycles faster than the one I already own. I am not ready to spend the money for a dedicated track data recorder, so for less than $50, I am hopefully that I can produce some decent videos with data of my first track weekend.