Jake's Epic BMW 135i Build Thread! (5+ Years of Ownership)

suspenceful

REKIII said:

I wont take my car anywhere else.

My experience isn't anything that would keep me from going back. Nice group of guys that seem to know what they're talking about. I've heard horror stories about them, but most of the time it doesn't have any substance or proof. Just "I heard from my brother's aunt's uncle that his friend's car blew up at Beyond Redline".

i_love_cars

suspenceful said:

I'm with you on this one. I had an absolute blast at NFZ and my car took down some 600+ whp cars. It runs good and feels like a beast. I'm confident that it'll stand up against a lot of cars on the street around here.

I want that 500+ dyno sheet so I can show it to a group of guys that thought my car would never make good power. I also wouldn't mind rubbing it in the face of a few of my Mustang friends.

wtf? who said your car would never make good power? LOL. i mean, N54 is easily among the best turbo power platforms ever in the history of cars.

suspenceful

i_love_cars said:

wtf? who said your car would never make good power? LOL. i mean, N54 is easily among the best turbo power platforms ever in the history of cars.

OBVIOUSLY! I mean my opinion isn't biased or anything...

REKIII

suspenceful said:

My experience isn't anything that would keep me from going back. Nice group of guys that seem to know what they're talking about. I've heard horror stories about them, but most of the time it doesn't have any substance or proof. Just "I heard from my brother's aunt's uncle that his friend's car blew up at Beyond Redline".

I'm good friends with the owner (he was best man in my wedding actually). Like anywhere else, it's tough to get good help that do their best all the time. I've never met or heard of a better tuner than the owner, he is flown around the country to tune set-ups that no one else could tune.

Hearing both sides of the horror stories (there are some) never leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth, only that it's sad that people who like to complain are always the loudest.

suspenceful

REKIII said:

people who like to complain are always the loudest

That's how it always goes though... in any industry. As long as the company tries to make it right in the end, that's what matters.

I'd imagine it sucks for them because tuning is a finicky situation. If a car has a crappy setup and their work or tune ends up being the last straw to break the camels back, they're in trouble even though they might not be to blame. That's definitely a business I would never feel comfortable starting. Not being able to have every clients car run perfectly, ugh. I feel bad enough working on other people's cars sometimes because I don't want to be liable for something breaking.

REKIII

Because the owner is so good at tuning, the tuning itself is usually never the problem, it's always the car. He said the ones that show up on a trailer the the absolute worst, the car NEVER needs 'just a tune' like the car owner claims, then BR is the bad guy because they have to do more work on the car.

You had a simple Dyno run, so if you weren't happy with the guys who ran your car, that's on them, not you. I know if the tires spin, the run is aborted as it's not accurate for a multitude of reasons.

The worst is when a car blows on the dyno. It's nearly impossible to tune a car so bad it will blow on the dyno, it's always been a problem in the hardware, but it never fails when the car blows it's guts out it's always BRs fault as far as the car owner is concerned.

It is a crappy business, think about all the douche bags we see at car shows/events, those are the same guys on tight budgets and scream and yell at the shops, and nothing is ever their fault.

patsbimmer1

And god forbid they put a conservative tune on the car to be safe and the customer doesn't get the glory numbers that somebody else has! Then the tuner is an idiot and does't know what they're doing.

REKIII

patsbimmer1 said:

And god forbid they put a conservative tune on the car to be safe and the customer doesn't get the glory numbers that somebody else has! Then the tuner is an idiot and does't know what they're doing.

What BR usually does, is tune it to the glory numbers, show the customer, then back it off a bit so the car won't blow up on a freeway run. It's really a no win though, if they don't show the glory number, the car owner says they suck at tuning. If they show it then back it off, the car owner says BR won't give them what they pay for. If they leave it at glory setting, the car blows up and the car owner says BR sucks at tuning.

Like Mr. Ful says, I wouldn't want to be in that business.

i_love_cars

Seen it. Agree on so many levels, to the millionth degree.

When I was having my engine built for my Acura by King Motorsports, I spent many hours there with their machinist and the service manager. I was one of the few people they would let come back and be part of the discussions with Webcams when we were working on a cam profile, and in general just got to be around because I was 1 of 1000 Honda owners coming through there who wasn't a complete douche.

I have been privy to so many phone conversations over just a 3 month period of being at the shop 3-4 times a week, and it's literally all just dumbass kids wanting 600 hp turbo builds for $2000 , or janky shitty ragged out Civics going on the dyno and poor Tim has to try and tune them and they gain 3 hp and kids get mad about it.

On top of that, you have people who bring their cars in for builds and everything gets done and tuned, full motor, everything, and then they don't pay. Of course King keeps the car, but that car isn't worth anywhere near how much labor has been put in at $75/hr to build it, that now isn't being paid for.

It's a shitty business to be in through and through when it comes to dealing with people. I can't agree more that the broader car community is just entirely full of shitfucks, and it is made worse by the fact that we live in a time when technology masks a lot of knowledge about stuff. So few people know anything about cars anymore, and even fewer admit what they don't know. Now take that attitude and bring your car to a shop and spout off to the people owning the shop like you know something because you found it on a forum somewhere so it must be true, and you have the average defacto engagement of someone owning a performance shop. Doesn't it sound like fun?

Fuckin shitfucks.

B C

Pushed "like" so hard it cracked the screen on my phone

suspenceful

Someone snapped this of me as I was rolling through the pits. Videos to come tonight. Wish my GoPro wouldn't have died before a lot of the good races

SteelBlue

suspenceful said:

Someone snapped this of me as I was rolling through the pits. Videos to come tonight. Wish my GoPro wouldn't have died before a lot of the good races

That high long res pic

Waiting on 1320 promo video appearance still.

suspenceful

As you all know, I was at the NoFlyZone Midwest event this past weekend. Got almost 25 passes in. The first day was rained out, but we got a few solo runs. Going 146mph in the rain is... interesting.The second day was awesome and I was able to clock a 156.79 MPH run.

Here is a compilation video of some cars I was able to run.

It was a blast. I beat the crap out of the car without a hiccup and then drove 5 hours back home. Here is a compilation video of some cars I was able to run.

suspenceful

Found this video as well.

bk335

Bunch of nice kills there, looks like you took down some big power cars.

suspenceful

suspenceful said:

As you all know, I was at the NoFlyZone Midwest event this past weekend. Got almost 25 passes in. The first day was rained out, but we got a few solo runs. Going 146mph in the rain is... interesting.The second day was awesome and I was able to clock a 156.79 MPH run.

Here is a compilation video of some cars I was able to run.

It was a blast. I beat the crap out of the car without a hiccup and then drove 5 hours back home.

suspenceful said:

Found this video as well.

Quoting these to bring them over to the new page. Yup.

suspenceful

For your enjoyment:

suspenceful

Went to the dragstrip yesterday and finally broke an axle. I've dragged the car many times, but it finally gave up after a 4K RPM clutch dump with 2-step.

My options are upgraded MFactory axles for $800/pair, new OEM replacement for $500, or a used axle for $250. Might just go the used route...

In other news, I bought some wheels for my daily. OZ Ultraleggas, 18x8" with 235/40/18s on them. Through a 5mm spacer behind all four and I'm happy with the way it looks!

Stormtrooper by Jacob Spence, on Flickr

Posted by Jacob Spence, on Flickr

...and one of the 135i before breaking the axle.

Northland by Jacob Spence, on Flickr