The Clubsport Garage team headed to Donington Park last month as we continued the development of our BMW F87 M2 Competition. The event, hosted by Dan Dobson & Ventrax Motorsport, proved to be a great opportunity to do just that, as well as putting faces to names and meeting new customers alike.
After the usual agenda of attending the safety briefing and heading out for sighting laps, we prepared for the start of the morning session.
Chasing the Ultimate Clubsport Configuration
The aim for the day was to focus on the car's set-up and overall drivability to chase the ultimate Clubsport configuration. Our three drivers; Lewis, Jon & Jack gave plenty of seat time across differing driving styles to really understand the behaviour of the car and dial in the set-up.
We had just the single addition to the car this time around, trialling a new brake pad compound from PBS. Which we found performed well, handling the heavy braking zones lap after lap.
It was our first full day with the KMP Clubsport Steering Wheel, with both Jon and Lewis wielding it for the first time entirely - very quickly finding it gave a more precise feel. This was thanks to the smaller diameter and a more 'confirmed' feel on the magnetic paddles with each shift, as well as the ergonomics from the alcantara contact surface.
We've been fighting a niggle under braking ever since our last visit to Brands Hatch in July. This affected pedal feel, giving a real lack of confidence when slowing the car down. An ABS bleed was performed whilst installing the PBS pads and a few laps confirmed it cured the snag, giving more inspiration under braking. We noticed that braking temps were getting a little hot as the day went on. So a job for winter will be to explore additional cooling options, possibly swapping out the stock callipers for an AP Big Brake Kit and custom Girodisc Brake Discs - more to follow on this soon!
This is our third track day on the Nankang CRS tyres now and we're still very happy with their performance, offering brilliant grip and a predictable feel under load. However, never wanting to stand still, we're eager to benchmark them against the Yokohama A052 or Dunlop Direzza next to see how they stand up. To date, we've tested the Yokohama AD09 and Nankang AR1's on this car, both are good tyres but we've found Nankang CRS to be optimal, so far.
A 'loose' rear end on our last outing led to plenty of tweaking to the Nitron R3 Coilovers throughout the day. And while we ended the day in a better place than where it started, we know theres still room for improvement so we'll continue to alter the geometry and damper settings as well as adding a rear wing and front splitter to improve aerodynamics moving in to 2025.
We'd like to give another nod to the Garmin Catalyst, which worked faultlessly throughout the day. This proved to be a useful tool for observing lap times, which helped us tenfold with monitoring the above adjustments made on the car in-between stints.
A Day Behind The Camera
For me personally, it was a day behind the camera shooting for both this blog and socials, further developing a self-taught hobby. Donington Park was a new circuit to shoot for me so plenty of mileage was racked up finding the best spots - a full lap takes a lot longer on foot! My favourite, but definitely the most precarious location was on the inside of Coppice, where I had to stand on tip-toes with the camera up in the air to clear a wall right above the tunnel running underneath the track!
Heres a shot from that corner... I'm surprised any of them came out in focus!
Concluding The Day
It was a fantastic and successful day all round, with plenty learnt about the car to optimise over the winter to get that little bit closer to perfection. It was also brilliant for the team to chat with so many enthusiasts during the day, as well as seeing some seriously impressive builds in the pitlane too.
That's it for on-track action for us this year now, with the car going in to hibernation until the new year, but there's still plenty going on in the background as we also help our valued customers chase the ultimate Clubsport configuration.
The full high-res on-track Donington Park gallery from the day can be found here, (we have to lower the quality on the blog)!
