Matt’s (non-Clio but still really good!) Car Fun

[Matt Scarbro]

So the Clio has now gone after a thoroughly enjoyable if slightly financially painful ownership!

I haven’t posted too much recently so a bit of a recap of what we’re lucky enough to own (in most cases) at the moment and what’s going on with them.

In order of longest-owned...

The MX2000, HKS supercharged Honda powered MX5. Has fallen out of favour of late for a few reasons, primarily needing some new supercharger oil and being a little disgusted by how much it costs!!
Secondarily it would REALLY benefit from power steering as it’s become rather physical on track!!



Showing just how much I’ve changed cars recently, the CR-X is the second longest owned! We had these in early adulthood and for sentiments sake I simply love it!
Needs some TLC and sorting dynamically, unlikely to see the track but you never know...



M4 Comp Pack - Coming towards the end of its lease (end Sep) is the best car I’ve ever ‘owned’, just a phenomenal example of where all the technological progress gets you, what a car! I only wish we could afford one outright and afford to track it!!



Next is a project that I may have missed on here, our ITB’d budget trackday car.
My brother was going through a rough patch earlier in the year so we got a project going and spent lots of time together building a really good track car. Now it’s time for loads of trackdays!!...



And lastly our most recent purchase, and replacing the Clio as a road and track car, the m140i.
Can’t afford to track an M4... let’s buy the closest thing we can afford and see what we can make of it!



As ever, updates and videos to follow!

 

[Matt Scarbro]

Cadwell this evening in the red one, brilliant fun in the wet/damp/drying! We’ve built a terrific car there!

 

[Matt Scarbro]

Hardly the start to m140 ownership I hoped for, but a few days after picking up the car I hit a deer.

Bad luck and a bitter pill to swallow but it could have been sooo much worse. I got away with very minor damage and was able to effect a repair the following day to get the car safely useable again.



So the damage is front bumper, lower grille and trim, a few ducts and mouldings, the auxiliary radiator, frame and arch liner. Benefit of my brother working at BMW is that the parts won’t be quite as much as they could have been but it’s certainly going to be a pretty penny. Could have very easily damaged the headlight and wing and been triple the bill though!

In this case I’m choosing to put my hand in my pocket as the insurance premium albeit including trackdays was rather expensive and I don’t want to risk a claim preventing me from being able to track it next year.

So, I’ve got some repairing to do! As I said I’ve made a temporary repair that is working perfectly so there’s no huge rush beyond my wanting it to look nice again!

 

[Beany]

Ouch... sorry to hear ownership hasn’t been plain sailing so far.. hopefully all the bad luck for the car is out of the way and now you can enjoy it

 

[Matt Scarbro]

So, about the Deer Slayer...

I’m sure most of you know what the junior-m models are about but for those that don’t a brief introduction.



In a nutshell it’s the classic big engine in a little car, but being 2018, little cars aren’t that little anymore and they certainly aren’t that light!!

On the positive side though, it does have one of the finest drivetrains available today. The gearbox is likely more familiar, because of the volume of cars that use them, but you really can see why. The first time I drove a ZF 8 speed, I was a convert, having turned my nose up at all autos before then, it just works so bloody well!

The B58 engine isn’t yet so widely praised, being a fairly new unit, but I’m sure it will become a bit of a hero given time! As standard the m140 is quoted as making a generous 340bhp from the 3 litre 6 pot, certainly what most would consider enough, without stepping on the toes of the M2!



Being the conservative souls they are though, this tends to be a bit more once you get them on a dyno. Another m140i owner had his dynoed at 362bhp at the excellent and certainly not optimistic EFI in Runcorn.

So with a ball-park 360bhp and 8 ratios in the shuffle box, there’s certainly enough poke to shove what is likely 1500kg down the road at a fair lick! Of course the fact that it transmits this power through the rear wheels is the reason that the other marques offerings didn’t get a look in from me!

Sadly, but understandably so, given the need to differentiate the full M cars, the m140 doesn’t have the all important LSD. BMW even go so far as to ‘weld’ the crown wheel to the diff to prevent a simple (and cost effective) swap. There is an ‘electronic diff’, only activated once in full DSC-off mode, which I haven’t yet tried, but I don’t hold any great hopes!

Inside it’s your typical entry-level BMW, rep-mobile fayre, tarted up with some nicer bits. That said, to me it’s a lovely place to be and made all the more so by some nice options on what’s a fairly well specced car.



One option that this car does without, is the well-praised adaptive suspension. I’m sure some of you will read between the lines and anticipate why that might be the case, but the passive M-Sport suspension isn’t a highlight!

Apologies if that was a bit sales brochurey, hard to give information about a car you’re enthused about without though! Some more specific stuff about my car and first impressions next time.

 

[Dumdum]

Put the engine in an e30 and I’d be happy, but not for me sorry, v.nice car I’m sure but way, way too heavy nowadays!

 

[Matt Scarbro]

Put the engine in an e30 and I’d be happy, but not for me sorry, v.nice car I’m sure but way, way too heavy nowadays!

That would be something wouldn’t it!
I’ll take it in a mk4 MX5 if we can choose!!

Yeah there is no disguising weight, but it’s also very much a part of new cars. The new Megane RS is a very similar weight at 1465kg for example, and the M4 1645kg!

I’m soft and like the creature comforts too much to trade it all for something older and lighter. The Alpine is very nice, albeit playing in the same price range as the M4!

Fortunately for me the little ITB’d MX5 takes care of the lightweight, pure driving thrills!

 

[Dumdum]

My mates got an alpine coming next week I will be having a trip out in it!

 

[Matt Scarbro]

My mates got an alpine coming next week I will be having a trip out in it!

Ooooh awesome!!

Would love a go in one!

 

[Alex Ford]

Didn't realise you had sold the Clio Matt! Very wise choice on the m140i, my old man old picked one up at the beginning of the year as an FK2 replacement- been in at a few times and you've spoken the truth, an immense engine and a fantastic gearbox both completely understressed,smooth and still has unbelievable power! It's a shame about the LSD's but I don't think you'd notice it too much on the road but if you're tracking it I can only imagine it's the best option that can be fitted!

As for a B58 engine in a MK4 MX5... By my rough measurement the other day, it would fit, with some mods to the MX-5 engine bay. Glad I'm not the only one who's had that thought

 

[Matt Scarbro]

Right, so about the car I bought, it does have some nice options, but you don’t care about that! The extras you might be interested in are of the aftermarket variety...

One of the things I’d been looking into before buying one was exhaust options to make a bit more noise. You see the m140 is quieter than the m135 because of ever tightening regulations and so for a powerful six pot is lacking a bit in the sound stakes.

An M Performance exhaust would be a fairly nice upgrade, but doesn’t make a huge difference and you lose the valve for different driving modes. It’s also pretty pricey for what it is.

Then there’s the popular Remus cat back which is a lovely bit of kit, but it’s also rather expensive. So I’d been looking at a simple aftermarket mid-pipe without any boxes, mated to the standard back box for flappy goodness. Should this still not be enough I could add a catless downpipe for some extra noise and a healthy performance increase.

Anyhow, I digress, the chassis of these cars is in much greater need of improvement than the engine, so such frivolities need not be a priority!

But then I found a car advertised with the OEM options I wanted, along with both a decat and mid-pipe, so I bought it!

The downpipe is a gorgeous Evolution Racewerks item, measuring 4.5” as it leaves the turbo!



With one of these alone, the aforementioned m140 tested at EFI made 380bhp and 425lbft on an otherwise standard car!

From there there’s a simple, but effective and nice quality BCS mid-pipe, again adding volume whilst reducing restriction.



What’s left is a rather rorty little car!! In Eco-Pro or Comfort driving modes the back box valve closes and so it’s absolutely lovely for cruising around or munching motorway miles. Pop it in Sport, open that valve and it’s fairly characterful!!! Lots of exhaust noise, lots of whooshy turbo sounds and lots of crackles! Downshift when on it are a particular highlight!!

 

[Matt Scarbro]

To top things off the car I bought has a Burger Motorsport JB4 installed, which is a 2018 iteration of a tuning box. I think it’s fair to say these devices have come some way in recent years and the JB4 is a hugely popular and well regarded product in BMW circles.

This means that via either indicator stalk buttons or the app on my phone I have numerous maps to choose from!

Map 0 is as standard, ball-park 380bhp and 425lbft with the exhaust mods.

Map 1 - up to +3psi at peak boost
Map 2 - up to +4psi
Map 3 - up to +6psi
Map 5 - up to +6psi but with constant autotuning for octane, IAT etc.

At EFI the other m140 made 430bhp and 508lbft in what I think was the old Map 2 (so now closer to Map3).



I’m yet to try Map 3 as in all honesty I didn’t know they had been re-numbered in a firmware update, but Map 5 is bloody potent!!!

The app also provides logging function and some really useful gauges with warning levels - ideal for keeping an eye on things at the track!
(It’s not really that cold here, it’s just not connected!)

 

[Matt Scarbro]

So that’s what I bought, I’ll be recording a vid with full first impressions but the headlines are:

It’s fast
The chassis isn’t up to it
The brakes aren’t up to it
Folks who increase the power before looking at the chassis are mental!

The previous owner got a puncture whilst the car was advertised so fitted a low tread but matching tyre on one of the tears to sell it. This meant It had one rear tyre at 6mm and one at 2-3mm, really not ideal on such a powerful rwd car!!



I put this right in the first few days of ownership and it has really improved the car’s ability to put the power down without shimmying!

To improve the brakes I’ve bought M3/4 pads as they use the same calipers, along with some braided lines and good track fluid.



There’s still plenty of life in the current pads and there are a couple of bigger pieces to the jigsaw before I book a trackday in it, so I might wait a little while before getting these fitted.

 

[Matt Scarbro]

We were back at Cadwell I’m Thursday in the budget MX5, having been disappointed with the pace a couple of weeks ago, I nailed a lap and time I’m really quite proud of...

 

[Big Ben]

Brilliant lap. Car looked to handle brilliantly!

 

[Matt Scarbro]

Brilliant lap. Car looked to handle brilliantly!

Cheers Ben, it’s a dream on a tight circuit like Cadwell

 

[Matt Scarbro]

Couple of bits today...

An expensive box of bits from BM for the deer slayer.


There’s a bumper too but that’s going straight to the body shop to be painted. Not a cheap venture this deer hunting!

More excitingly, Dan (brother) and I have formed a plan to go racing. Not an immediate thing as we need to stagger the costs of buying all the personal safety gear and prepping the MX5. So we’re planning safety gear over winter, a couple of rounds of Time Attack next year, just to dip our toes in competitive stuff, plenty more track days throughout the winter and next year and then 750MC Roadsports the following year. Should be a sensible timeline to get everything ready including ourselves!

First part of the jigsaw (somewhat premature but it popped up at the right price), is a full cage...

 

[Micah]

Great little progress thread, always fun getting new bits. The M sounds like an absolute monster!

 

[Matt Scarbro]

Couple of big deliveries today, never guess what’s in this big, expensive looking box...


(It’s a new bumper to replace the broken one!)

More excitingly (and I am really excited about them), my coilovers have arrived, can’t wait to get them fitted!



Externally they’re very similar to the selection of coilovers that likely come from the same factory. I’m hoping what’s inside differentiates them somewhat!! [emoji51]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[suj]

I'm interested to read your review on the GT1s Matt, they've been designed with Black Art Design, a few mates ran and rated the MeisterR Zeta-CRD on their track MK1 and MK2 MX5s, so the GT1s should be amazing.