From lightweight Japanese roadster to complicated BMW M car, what could go wrong? F87 BMW M2 content

I have been talking about replacing my AP2 Honda S2000 for about a year now (probably longer if I'm being honest). This led to a plethora of test drives, tons of inner debate and a near constant search to try and find a machine that could match the smiles-per-hour of my torqueless little roadster. I started a thread (or 2?) about all my countless test drives, looking for such a machine: 

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/selling-my-ap2-s2000-to-buy-a-gr-corolla-have-i-lost-my-mind/259221/page1/

I never grew to loathe anything about my S2000- quite the opposite, I still enjoyed it up until the day I sold it and would highly recommend the S2000 to anyone that was interested. The problem is that I just hardly drove it anymore. I wanted to replace it with something fun that I thought I would actually drive more often. Tough to find a car that will put a smile on your face like a roadster with a bit more comfort and practicality so that you actually want to drive it regularly. Trust me, I tried. 

After lots of searching and long test drives, I think I actually managed to find the car I was looking for: my new-to-me F87 2018 BMW M2 with a 6-speed manual! 

I won't recount how the M2 drives, as I've already written a full review (or 2?) about it, over here: 

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/random-car-reviews-tales-from-a-nut-with-too-much-time-on-his-hands/262322/page3/

What I will say is that this car is hilarious to drive! Absolute hooligan car! 

I don't know what the future might hold, or what I might get the urge to do to this car, but as of the day I brought her home, this is how she looked in stock form: 

Beautiful car! The M2 is one of the few cars available I've considered trading my 2021 mustang gt in for. I haven't fallen in love with my mustang since I bought it. Finding a well powered, rwd, manual transmission, car big enough for two car seats in the back is easier said then done. I have always enjoyed your threads and look forward to following this one.

So, the M2 that I purchased was actually the 3rd F22/F87 that I've driven in the past year. I note that because I have a reoccurring issue with my right knee- there are some cars that agitate it, causing soreness/discomfort for hours (sometimes days) afterwards. The first 2 F22/F87 cars I drove (for fairly long test drives) never caused me any pain/discomfort. The 3rd one (that I bought) however, caused me some discomfort. Now, to be clear, on the test drive, I think I rushed myself without adjusting the seat properly as it looked like there was a gentleman that was waiting for me to get into the M2/leave before he got into this car, so I think I just drove off too quickly rather than taking my time to find a seating position that my knee would feel comfortable in. 

I should note that I also own an E82 2008 BMW 128i 6MT. The frames of the seats in the 128i appear to be pretty much identical to my M2's seats. The stitching is different, but after pulling out the measuring tape, I'm pretty sure they're built on the same seat frame. Why do I mention that? Because I found a pretty much perfect seating position in the E82 that I've been driving for almost 1.5 years now, that doesn't bother my knee in the least. 

Solution: pull the E82 into the garage, bust out the tape measure, the angle gauge and get the M2's seating position to feel like the E82's: 




I measured the length of the seat bottom- result: identical. 

I used my angle gauge to measure the angle of the throttle pedal on both cars. Both cars have hinged/floor mounted throttle pedals. Angle measurement? Identical. 

I measured the distance from the throttle pedal to the front of the seat in the E82 and adjusted the M2 to match it (it took me a while to find the correct distance in the E82, so I figured I would just copy the position in the F87). 

The front of the seat in the E82 is a couple mm lower than the front of the M2's seat, but I also just recently lowered the E82's seat a couple mm (in my E82 build thread) in order to give it more headroom for a helmet. It never caused me any pain before I lowered it, so I'm not convinced it's an issue. 

Now, the one area I know to be problematic from adjusting seats in the past is seat rake. Too much rake and my knee will start to feel from pain/discomfort within blocks. This was something I didn't adjust when I first drove the M2, as I wasn't rotating the seat control correctly to lower only the front of the seat, decreasing the rake. When I discovered this, I might have actually solved the issue without any other drastic measures needing to be taken. However, I haven't driven the car enough to know for sure, so I figured I would break out the angle gauge... 

First I measured the angle/rake in the E82: 



Then I measured the angle/rake in the F87: 




Aha! This is with both seats in their lowest position, with their seat bottoms as flat as they will go. I took multiple measurements at various points and the F87 seemed to have an extra degree of angle to it at pretty much anywhere I was measuring from. 

This is an easy fix that took maybe ~5 minutes. I literally just loosened the front seat mount bolts, removed the rear seat mount bolts, added a couple of M10 washers/shims underneath the rear of seat mount/rail and bolted the seat back down. Viola! The seat angle/rake is now pretty much identical between the 2 cars! I didn't bother taking photos, but it was super easy to accomplish and this wasn't the first time I've done something like this to get rid of knee pain (I added a LOT of shims in order to get rid of knee pain in my old Focus RS!). 

Finally, the M2 came with a set of hard plastic floor mats. I loathe hard plastic floor mats. Don't get me wrong, they do a great job of protecting your carpet and are easy to clean, but the hard, slippery surface has added to some of my knee strain in the past. So, they had to go. 

I found a set of OEM M2 floor mats, with the OEM blue stitching (to match the rest of the interior) on eBay and ordered them right after I bought the car. Someone took pretty good care of these floor mats: 




As a bonus, the seller of the OEM floor mats also threw in a set of OEM BMW M Performance all-season (ish?) floor mats in the event the car sees more inclement weather: 




Has my knee discomfort problem been resolved? I believe so, but I suppose I'll need to give it some more time, just to make sure. Honestly, I probably didn't need to do all this, but I've dealt with this enough in the past that I don't mind putting in the extra time and effort to alleviate this knee pain, so I can get back to the business of just enjoying the car. If it's not resolved (I'm pretty sure it is!), I'm prepared to go to great lengths to solve it (Recaros and floor mounts, what?), if needed and will update the thread. 

In reply to Mattk :

Thank you! 
 

If you don't mind me asking, do you have anything done to your S550? I've driven a few of them over the years and the only one that I found fairly fun was a track pack car (or whatever they call it) with 3.73's. I wrote a very brief review about it a while back:

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/random-car-reviews-tales-from-a-nut-with-too-much-time-on-his-hands/262322/page1/
 

If I'm being honest, the Mustang that I enjoyed driving the most over the years was the S197 5.0 6MT with the track pack/3.73's. The S550 is a much nicer car, but I thought the S197 was a bit more of a hooligan.