Just dropped a deposit on some M Power - Trackday Project Car

[Scania]

I drive the Mustang more, is that because its more of an occaison or just more practical and nicer place to be, that is hard to answer.

The M3 is fun, but so is the Mustang, as a road car I prefer driving the Mustang, if I was doing track days oftens and regular then I suspect out of every 10 track days the BMW would attend 8 of them.

Too hard to judge, though the S54 is the M3 can best be described as angry and wanting to pick a fight with every other car on the road with the noise and throttle response it has, the Mustangs engine is just simply better.

They are different to drive though the principles are similar, RWD, front engine, powerful, noisy!

Sounds to me like you're at - if not far from - that Nirvana for petrol heads, a fantastic track toy with something really special for the daily hack, at times, I hate you!

Cheers for the reply.

 

[Gibbo]

I do love that car gibbo! If you had to sell it how much do you think it would fetch?

I've being offered 14k for it, if I decide to sell I shall advertise it at 18k and realistically I'd expect to get around 14-16k based on what other similar spec'd M3's have actually *SOLD* for.

 

[P.B]

They do command good money if they have been modified well

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

I've being offered 14k for it, if I decide to sell I shall advertise it at 18k and realistically I'd expect to get around 14-16k based on what other similar spec'd M3's have actually *SOLD* for.

You really do need one of those "my other car's an M3" sticker.
Looks lovely. Actually, being fair, every car you've posted a pic on this forum has looked brilliant. Have to admire your level of commitment.

 

[mrk]

For even more weight savings Gibbo, considered a Carbon Fibre steering wheel? Saw this today on another site:

 

[Gibbo]

For even more weight savings Gibbo, considered a Carbon Fibre steering wheel? Saw this today on another site:

As much as I love carbon fibre to look at, I hate it too touch, when it comes to a steering wheel it has to be leather or alcantera/suede with the latter being the better for me.

But as I posted in my Mustang thread, the M3 did great on the recent NC500 trip, nearly 1500 miles, door to door average of 28mpg and even though from behind it sounds like an angry wasp which yes the Mustang owners had great delight in taking the pee out of, they were all in agreement that from the front it sounded amazing.

 

[mrk]

Yeah saw that video I'm expecting similar sounds on the NC500 later this month as well

 

[Gibbo]

Yeah saw that video I'm expecting similar sounds on the NC500 later this month as well

Will never sound as good, carbon air box FTW, it is insane how loud it is even at the far end of the bridge when I get on it, can hear it coming before you can see it.

 

[mrk]

Indeed, but it's close enough! The Evolve carbon plenum for the eventuri is available, but it's £3000

I'll stick to just the Eventuri and get nearly that sound and save 4 figures in cost

 

[Gibbo]

Indeed, but it's close enough! The Evolve carbon plenum for the eventuri is available, but it's £3000

I'll stick to just the Eventuri and get nearly that sound and save 4 figures in cost

In my opinion the sound is quite different, different note and a lot louder. They both sound good, but a CSL equipped car sounds louder and different in a better way, they really are not that close, but they do all sound good.

The Evolve carbon is a rip off to be honest, just get the Geoff Steel box, plenty of them sold second hand for £750-£1000, the issue with these boxes is to run them you either need an Alpha-N remap which is good for power but does not drive as well as stock, or you need to do a full CSL conversion (ECU), map sensor etc. as I did and then the car drives better than stock.

 

[mrk]

Yeah that's one of the the reasons too, needing alpha n or CSL ECU conversion and all the bits that go with it (and the massive cost that doesn't seem cost effective for the type of motoring the car will be subjected to).

I like the Eventuri because it's a direct swap, retains MAF and no ECU changes are required. I've already had the remap done, which has helped the top end with the Eventuri. Seems their carbon plenum requires the alpha n as well as you lose MAF. For that kind of cost may as well just keep looking for a genuine CSL intake setup.

But £900 for the Eventuri for much better noise than stock + remap for 20HP gain and around 20Nm = Good compromise for regular road motoring I'd say.

 

[Ryan-3]

I forgot you had one of these.

God that induction noise is good. I am no american car fan, although I like your Mustang, I couldn't leave the M3 sitting and take the ford over it. That's just me personally, but I prefer the driving ability of this over the nicer, softer riding Mustang, even with its V8.

 

[Gibbo]

Yeah that's one of the the reasons too, needing alpha n or CSL ECU conversion and all the bits that go with it (and the massive cost that doesn't seem cost effective for the type of motoring the car will be subjected to).

I like the Eventuri because it's a direct swap, retains MAF and no ECU changes are required. I've already had the remap done, which has helped the top end with the Eventuri. Seems their carbon plenum requires the alpha n as well as you lose MAF. For that kind of cost may as well just keep looking for a genuine CSL intake setup.

But £900 for the Eventuri + remap for much better noise than stock + 20HP gained and around 20Nm also = Good compromise for regular road motoring I'd say.

Your setup gives you pretty much all the power gains, I saw similar with just remap and stock intake, my same day dyno gain was 31BHP, 336BHP upto 367BHP from just Evolves remap on stock intake. Of course with CSL air box, de-cats my car in the end made 392BHP.

Some people question that figure, because it does seem high but in racing buddies with the V8 M3 and Mustangs are course on private race tracks my M3 has the legs on them and really makes a stock M3 look like a 330i, so irrelevent what people make of the numbers I do not care, simple fact is in real world it absolutely flies, well you know, you've being in it.

 

[mrk]

To be fair you need a huge power difference to be shaken off by a v8 M3 regardless of tune. This is another topic though, and was discussed at length on PH recently. At stock, both cars are too close at full chat to call a decent victory.

 

[One Vision]

Nice one Gibbo this is basically what i do, use the m3 as a weekend car only and another cheap run around as the workshorse lol. Yet to go on a track though.

 

[Gibbo]

Hi there


Spending money on the M3 has being pretty much on hold since the Mustang, as it was simply not being used that often, but as the Mustang has being in for repair it would appear I've spent a small fortune on both the M3 and Mustang.

3.91 fully rebuilt diff collected today, everything inside is brand new, bearing, shims, literally everything, the only old part is the casing. 3.91 BMW motorsport ring a pinion which is REM polished. Total expense is close to £2000, hoping to get it put in the car next week, then 500 miles of bedding in and then in for an oil change and adjustment if necessary by Rich at Doritech who built this monster for me. It also changed colour to a more normal looking black.

Also am ordering a set of 4 new Michelin Pilot Sport 4 in 265/35/18 all round, so new boots and new diff with all brand new diff bushing and all new subframe poly bush inserts to go in.

That pretty much completes the M3, pretty much every suspension part, clutch, brakes, bushes, engine has all being replaced with new, yes it is super tight and feels like a brand new car to drive, but it should.

Cannot wait to get this differential run in though so I can go full throttle as these differentials are like getting a 40-50BHP power boost, will feel insane and with how light the car is and the SMG gearbox it is gonna be epic fun. Once run in gonna get an evening session at Donnington booked up.

But now I have old tyres and an old diff, time to go do some drifting and donuts.

 

[hurfdurf]

What does this new diff do that the old one doesn't? How does it improve the car?

 

[rare]

Standard E46 diff is 3.62 so 3.91 must aid acceleration. Nice bit of kit!

 

[Gibbo]

What does this new diff do that the old one doesn't? How does it improve the car?

Original ratio was 3.62 or 3.64 cannot remember exactly, plus differentials are wear and tear so with age they wear and because, loose clunky, a diff builder would tell you all about backlash, pinion angle etc. etc.

Also BMW M cars have an M-Differential which is a variable clutch pack, these wear out and degrade beyond 60,000 miles.

So I've gone to a 3.91 ratio, so before 5th was good for 186mph, it is now around 160mph, so each gear is now shorter which improves acceleration. Most popular ratio on M3 is 3.91 and 4.10, both work very well on track and road, I went with 3.91 due to the amount of time it spends on road, because of course shorter ratio's kills fuel economy.

Plus the new diff is within BMW guidelines for a brand new diff and has a new M-Differential so the diff will function like it just came out the factory.

Having had a go in 3.91 and 4.10 car, the difference is more so than the remap gave, it has a great impact on acceleration, watch this video which helps show the difference:

Kind of shows it, but its about how it feels and well it just feels a lot more ready to get up and go and when you do accelerate the acceleration feels so much stronger.

 

[Gibbo]

Hi there


I thought I would compile into one post everything I have done in short to the car since ownership. For details please read through the thread:

- Interior removed, including tar, sound proofing, air bags, infotainment etc. (Saves huge weight)
- New spark plugs at 98k
- Air conditioning system retained and fully operational
- Vanos oil filter replaced at 98k
- CSL SMG firmware upgrade
- Compression ratio check and all clear at 98k, 185-195psi across all cylinders
- KW Clubsport coilovers with top mounts
- Lightweight door cards with straps & OEM door cards (Saves 18kg)
- CSL Pollen filter housing (Saves 3kg)
- Inspection 2 service @ 98k including new Vanos bolts
- CSL Replica front bumper with genuine carbon fibre splitters (5kg saving)
- CSL custom cold air feed from bumper hole direct to air box
- Secondary air pump removed (2-3kg saving)
- Braile 3121 battery & original battery (10kg saving)
- New CPV valve at 99k (had a slight oil weep)
- New Rocker cover gasket (was not CPV but rocker cover weeping)
- Ride heights 330mm front and 325mm rear
- New SMG Relay
- Apex 18x9" ET31 lightweight CSL style wheels wrapped in 265/35/18 tyres
- Eccentric front bushes for more caster (removed for road use due to rubbing)
- CSL replica lightweight bootlid (5-10kg saving)
- CSL Mid pip and back box (5kg saving)
- CSL carbon rear diffuser
- Rear facelift LED lights
- RBF600 high performance brake fluid
- CSL Cup Alcon full brake kit, 6 piston front, 4 piston rear, J-hook two-piece brake disc
- CSL front and rear anti-roll bars powder coated green with new o.e. bushes and brackets
- Custom lightweight carpeted interior, to make it Clubsport specification, a car thats joy to drive both on track and road.
- Eibach rear 12mm spacers
- Turner motorsport lightweight under-drive pulleys
- Viscous & AC fan removed, replaced with Mishimoto electric fan (5kg weight saving)
- All new idler and tensioner pulleys fitted (had a squeak so replaced them all )
- CSL Geoff Steel Air box (3kg saving)
- Rogue Engineering RTAB Limiter kit
- Rear top mount re-inforcement plates
- New LUK clutch kit, flywheel, knuckle, fork, springs for full gearbox, clutch and SMG refresh including slave cylinder
- New brake master cylinder
- New air oil seperator
- Eibach rear adjustable lightweight camber arms
- Full coolant flush
- All bushes replaced throughout car, every bush is brand new BMW o.e. with powerflex bushing inserts on rear subframe mounting.
- Carbon kidney grills, wing vents and side runners.
- Full boot floor repair (welded), plate kit and resin injection.
- Centre section with cup holds, for some added comfort and refreshment services.
- Silenced de-cat pipes (original cats kept for MOTs)
- TTFS remap, GM map sensor and MSS54HP ECU upgrade converted to CSL specification
- Cobra bucket seats with harnesses
- All new front bushes, wishbones, track rod ends etc. again with BMW o.e.
- Upper and lower steering column replaced along with solid coupler for improved feedback.
- New driveshaft, CV joint, ggasket, bolts, centre bearing support and guilbo
- New oil level sensor and fuel filter
- Sump gasket replaced with new Calico coated rod bearings, ARP bolts September 2015 at 104k miles due to slight knocking.
- New KW front drop links.
- Purple steering rack, quicker response and feedback (original rack kept as backup)
- 3M Carbon roof wrap
- Fully rebuilt differential, every bearing, clutch pack all replaced with brand new BMW o.e. bearing along with BMW motorsport 3.91 ring & pinion.
- New differential plate with new bushes and new differential bush
- I still probably missed something haha!



I've practically refreshed the entire car, not one single bush is old in the car, they are all brand new BMW o.e. including stuff like engine mounts, gear box mounts etc. throughout the car.

Headline figures are weight around 1350kg depending on interior spec, right now I am running stock battery, stock door cards and even have a 15kg weight in the boot for road driving. Of course the custom door cards, Braile battery, removal of weight drops close to 50kg out the car.

Power wise, well dependend on which dyno on which day the lowest it has seen is around 375BHP and the highest 395BHP. Dyno's are just tools to compare modifications but in short it is stupidly strong engine pulling strong from 1500rpm with no sign of power dipping until the limiter at 8000rpm.

I do love it but at the same time am tempted to sell it if the right offer was made which would be around 20k, as such I suspect it will be kept and I hope to get an evening day booked at Donnington before end of the year as the differential is now run in, gonna drop the oil and put BMW spec oil in over the next week or so.

I shall also weigh it on the OcUK Dyno day on October 29th in its full weight trim to see what weight and power is at now car is all done.

I Shall update my original post with specification and some updated images too.