Matt’s Road & Track Coupe

[Matt Scarbro]

Great updates Matt, thanks for sharing and look forward to the future vids.

Sorry to hear about Luther, plenty of us will get it mate, they become far more than pets.

Thanks Laurence, it's surprised me how many (chaps especially) have been in touch to say they were really broken by their pets' passing and offered their condolences. They really do enrich our lives and bring so much love to a home.

[Matt Scarbro]

Morning Matt.
Loving the videos and content and the work you are doing on the Zed. I have a Phoenix Yellow coupe that I’m fixing up, yours looks much nicer though.
Where did you get the stud and nut conversion from?
Any close up pictures of how it looks close up with the wheels on?
Thanks, Mark.

Very nice indeed, I really quite like the idea of Phoenix yellow on them, I have a soft spot for some bolder colours on some cars, I thinn this is one of them!

The stud conversion was from Bimecc, I used them on my m140i on road and track without issue so just went for the same again. No close up pics to hand, essentially as the wheels are a mess, but I'll take a couple for you and post them.

[enuff_zed]

Ah. That's where my springs went.

[1536Z4]

having lost my cat Luther unexpectedly,

You`re not alone as you can see in this post viewtopic.php?t=146486

[Matt Scarbro]

having lost my cat Luther unexpectedly,

You`re not alone as you can see in this post viewtopic.php?t=146486

The same day too, how sad.

[Matt Scarbro]

Lots going on on the car front here, I decided to get properly stuck in with sorting my cars out and helping my brother with his to keep myself occupied.

If folk are interested in thenon-Z4 goings on I will happily share a little about those too..

We've been readying Dan's (brother) K20 Honda swapped mk3 MR2 for the track again after a bit of a rebuild, recently bought a black donor car for all the panels as they're bolt on like the Z4, so that's no longer silver. Track evening booked for Cadwell on the 29th... can't wait!

I have a mk2 Honda CR-X that I have owned for some time and have finally decided it's time to let go, so have been recommissioning that and it went through the MOT yesterday. Ultimately I've got a double garage, will be adding a scissor lift before long and have three cars I'd like to be garaged, so the lovely little Honda is the one taking the bullet.

The BBR mk3 MX5 has been more tinkering between jobs; I have some bucket seats I've been figuring out how to mount to get me as low as possible (long torso so I sit high) and we have 212bhp with the bonnet open, but significantly less with it closed, so I've been playing with a half width radiator from a Civic and myriad ducts etc to see what can be done there. More importantly it needs some metal where there are currently holes in the sills and a new clutch, but will be going to a mate with a garage for those in early June. It's huge fun to drive, so look forward to getting out in it again.

>>>>Z4 things!! I've been pondering, planning and purchasing, a good deal of which I think I've already documented in here, but further updates will arrive quickly...

In the meantime, we have a video update at last, documenting the important Quaife LSD upgrade, I'll add it as a standalone topic in here as it might be handy for people searching for diff information, but for completeness here it is too:

https://youtu.be/B1O25E-W8Wg?si=sbH036k5aTm4go85

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[Bodyboarder]

Lovely build and updates … really enjoyed watching your vids . Easy to watch , a good pace and cars intelligent modified .

Made me want a lad and lower final drive in mine now

[Matt Scarbro]

Lovely build and updates … really enjoyed watching your vids . Easy to watch , a good pace and cars intelligent modified .

Made me want a lad and lower final drive in mine now

Thanks for the kind words... and apologies for the potential wallet impact...

[Matt Scarbro]

A couple more updates that have nudged the car really nicely in the right direction...

Firstly a set of fixed camber plates from Ian Fleming at Carbotech Europe, he's looked after me for a number of years with pads and makes these for other BMWs, happily he had a template that he could use for E85/86 at much more sensible money than the likes of Dinan.

These are 'stage 1', so increase negative camber by 0.7*, a modest change, that should see me at c. -2* at the front, but without any added NVH, which is important to me. They're also thin, so I didn't have to tweak the ride height much.
Ian can also make them to add 1.7* of negative camber, described as 'stage 2'.

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To install, you knock the oem studs out of the oem top mount and then use the supplied hardware to bolt the camber plates to the oem top mounts, you then secure the complete struts at the top on the car with the camber plate studs, this moves everything in at the top to gain the negative camber:

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Another benefit of the plates, especially when combined with a strut brace as I have done, is that it strengthens the top mount and body mounting point, preventing any mushrooming.
I think I'll get the brace coated or painted a darker colour as for me it's a bit bright in an otherwise standard bay:

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The second improvement was by way of the important black rubbery bits that touch the road...

I bought the car on Uniroyal Rainsport tyres in 225 front 255 rear flavour, a decent mid-range tyre, with obvious wet weather excellence, however they don't steer particularly well and lack the premium feel of the highest quality tyres. I was tempted to go ultimate road performance with something like a ContiSport 7, but I really appreciate a decent ride, so opted for the slightly more comfort orientated Michelin Pilot Sport 5.

I'm very much of the mind that there's nowhere near enough poke from the N52 for 255s, especially on the road where I'm not driving at the limits of grip, so opted to change to a 225 square setup... for comparison, I used 255s on my m140i, which had almost double the power...

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I also swapped to a set of 4 series 441m wheels, a design I really like, though could see it splitting opinion... I felt a spoke design going to the outer part of the wheel and making it look bigger would enhance the looks and the more modern design, along with my dateless plate, take the age off the car (for what it matters....).

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I already had a pair of these wheels left from a previous project, and bought a further 3 for £80, making it a very cheap exercise, but one I quite like the outcome of.

Together the new tyres and negative camber have really improved the front end, with the steering feeling much faster, more direct and precise. The tyres have added a slither more harshness from some types of bump and rounded off others, tyre noise is unchanged.
The car feels more lithe and sporty now, I'm really enjoying driving it!

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[Joycey]

Enjoying this read. Coupe is a brilliant platform for fast A road / track toy. Been doing just that with mine, just got back from the Ring testing all my latest changes.

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[1536Z4]

I think I'll get the brace coated or painted a darker colour as for me it's a bit bright

I agree I got mine powdercoated black . Great to see all the updates you have made

[LawrenceW]

Enjoying the updates Matt, keep 'em coming....

[Matt Scarbro]

Enjoying this read. Coupe is a brilliant platform for fast A road / track toy. Been doing just that with mine, just got back from the Ring testing all my latest changes.

racetracker_27658874_444909.jpg

Glad to hear your experiences are positive, I was stalking your posts just the other day as I noted the use of your car, do you have a project thread of sorts anywhere.. .I didn't find anything?

[Matt Scarbro]

I think I'll get the brace coated or painted a darker colour as for me it's a bit bright

I agree I got mine powdercoated black . Great to see all the updates you have made

Just dropped back into your thread for a peep, agreed it looks far more at home! Tasteful..
Mustn't spent too long in your thread though... too many ideas...

[Joycey]

Enjoying this read. Coupe is a brilliant platform for fast A road / track toy. Been doing just that with mine, just got back from the Ring testing all my latest changes.

racetracker_27658874_444909.jpg

Glad to hear your experiences are positive, I was stalking your posts just the other day as I noted the use of your car, do you have a project thread of sorts anywhere.. .I didn't find anything?

Yeah I do have a build thread, just on another forum.

https://www.zroadster.org/threads/z4-co ... nal.11167/