Bought an old BMW M3, filled with regret...

T0pPredator said:
They look great together. But which one sounds the best? :)
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Naturally I would say the E46 M3 sounds better out of the two, but I do genuinely think the unique race-car like sound is the more ear pleasing, especially from inside the cabin! We will have to see at the RR soon which sounds best when not inside the cabin ;)
 
I've heard ones that do sound a lot like bees but mine doesn't sound like those! It's pretty meaty/throaty. You shall see :cool:

Edit*
Maybe from the outside though? :o
 
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Videos only really tell half the story, I'm sure they all sound much better in person but the stock is just the sweetest sound IMO. All those millions of £ spent in R&D to get the E46 M3 to sound the way it does and people go and cut up or replace the exhaust! Bonkers I tell you.

I am contemplating that carbon airbox though!

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Maybe not, the Evolve carbon box was £500 something on pre-order last I saw, now it's way more, way way more :(
 
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T0pPredator said:
They look great together. But which one sounds the best? :)
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It was a maybe tweak anyway but the price jacking up is the nail in the coffin tbh so I will just keep as is. The rag top makes the sound enter the cabin much more than the coupe anyway so it sounds really sweet.

Going by the PH discussion on getting a CSL sound from a non CSL (link) - Seems the only proper way is to get a CSL :p - Everything else will be simply throwing money at a non CSL for no reason and then the faff of putting it back to stock if you get rid of the car and selling them on etc.
 
That is only a (large) portion of the sound. The rest comes from the exhaust, lack of sound deadening under the floor panels (for inside the cabin sounds) and the ECU map which changes throttle calibration, raises the redline a bit and some other stuff.
 
panthro said:
If you went for a drive in a CSL, and then straight after in a "normal" M3 with a CSL air box you would really struggle to tell any difference except for the lack of sound deadening. The GSR air box with a couple of mods sounds almost as good.
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Of course but would you not agree that it's literally throwing money to improve an already good sound? And then there's the case of potential resale value (I know I've said I have little desire to sell this car down the line but I'd like to keep things minimal in terms of under bonnet mods if I can). All the thousands spent and it won't put a dent into the sale price years down the line to someone looking for a close to mint motor, so you'd want to ideally fit back the stock components and sell the CSL components, unless the buyer you sell the car to is specifically after the whole setup fitted anyway.

I'm all for making things nicer but £1000+ for just sound and whatever the small HP bump might be doesn't seem a wise move to me. £500 for the Evolve pre-order deal was brilliant, I had it in mind to do that, just never thought they'd jack it up to over £1000 in the end :/

I'd rather put that money aside and spend it in years to come on a full respray once scratches and stone chips accumulate and get annoying!

I think with the convertible I've gotten the good side of both worlds. I've got the brunt of the sound in the cabin by nature of the car anyway, and on the road it sounds great too. Granted it's not CSL great but it definitely stands out and to my ears is the most pleasing and "analogue" sounding vs other generations/other cars, if that makes sense.
 
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Oh there's no disagreement there, I was just on about dumping 4 figure cash for just making the sound go from really nice to really really nice :p
 
nemtizz said:
E92 wins hands down. Love the sound of the SuperSprint set up in this video:

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Sorry but that don't impress me much! I will pretty much never look twice in admiration at road cars that are modded to sound like that.

Don't you think that E92 in that video sounds way too chavvy, especially at the start? That "rasp" is way too fart can like and had I not seen what car was making the noise I'd dismiss it as a chav car with fart can exhaust. In fact I was behind a CTR this evening with exactly that and it made a similar fart can rasp noise! IMO the E46 M3 rasp is the most pleasing/mechanical rasp I have heard and I thought that the very first time I ever heard one and now think it even more that I actually own one!

Stock exhaust = best exhaust on any of these proper M (N/A) cars :cool:
 
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:confused: Which one of my videos? I was referring to the video of the modded M3 nemtizz posted. I've only ever posted my one in this thread and that has the stock exhaust and IMO that sounds better/less chavvy than the one posted above :p

Back me up peeps... (low rollers)
 
The one with the ACS/SuperSprint/Stock exhausts revving one by one? The stock one is the best sounding one yeah but in turn it also sounds better than the aftermarket E92 one above. Tbh I'm really not a fan of muffled exhaust notes like the above. I like it race car like and the rasp to not be muffled. Feels and sounds more raw, to me at least anyway.
 
I will not ever change my mind on this dude^ That aftermarket exhaust sounds quite naff on that E92 M3, the rasp is muffled and reminds me of cheap big exit exhausts people stick on to get a louder note. The stock E92 exhaust sounds great and IMO it should be left that way, just like the E46 M3 one.
 
pepsilol said:
I really want to know what it's like going from a 318 to an M3. It's must be such an insane upgrade.
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The only tangible difference is the engine, everything else feels similar, some improvements here and there aside (braking performance etc). It's not like the N42 in the 318 is dog slow either, it too is a free revving engine albeit with a 2000rpm lower red line. On a Sport trim model it handled great and felt very sporting, especially north of 4000rpm.

I've driven and been driven in faster cars than both of course, but have never been dissatisfied to get back into the E46 afterwards.

Edit, let's look at it this way. I had some very set expectations for the E46 M3 should I ever own one, and they hadn't changed since day 1. All of them were pretty much met and I can't think of another car I'd want to own as a genuine upgrade. Okay the dream may be to own a GranTurismo Sport with the MC Shift box but those things are £60k+ so that's not going to happen any time soon, if ever :p
 
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