New build! E90 M3

[patsbimmer1]

My daughter was born on April 1st so my time has been finite lately.  I was able to sneak away tonight after everyone went to sleep and install my H&R sport springs and ECS spacers.  The specs are 255/35r19 with 15mm spacer up front and 275/35r19 with 13mm spacers on the rear.  I was a little concerned it would be too aggressive but I love it!  The springs ride slightly stiffer than stock but I honestly don't think someone would notice who doesn't drive it every day.  

To be honest I didn't expect to like this setup as much as I do.  I thought I was compromising until I buy coilovers at some point but I am so in love with this set up!

[patsbimmer1]

After driving it for a bit now I am still in love!  The stance is mean, handling is perfect and the ride quality is excellent.  After settling for a couple days the drop turned out to be about 1.125" up front and 1" in the rear.  I got her all cleaned up and put a few miles on today but didn't get any decent pictures in the sunlight.

[YoungCR]

Looks perfect!

[SteelBlue]

I would venture to say that the stance is perfect. Even fender to wheel gap back and front. Enough room for some movement.

Probably still able to clear most road imperfections.

[patsbimmer1]

SteelBlue said:

I would venture to say that the stance is perfect. Even fender to wheel gap back and front. Enough room for some movement.

Probably still able to clear most road imperfections.

Perfect is a good word.  It's exactly the height I would set it to if it was on coilovers.  It scraped on the passenger rear about 3 times the first day and hasn't scraped since on the same roads and over larger bumps.  The ride is perfect and the stance just melts my heart to look at.

[patsbimmer1]

I stopped and grabbed a couple photos in Nagawauke park on my way home from cars, coffee and cereal.  It's so great to get to drive around with the windows open!

[patsbimmer1]

The Michelin PSS that came on the car had seen better days and even though I had aout 4/32 of useable tread left I went ahead and ordered a new set of Pirelli P Zero's.  I haven't tried any of Pirelli's performance tires but at the behest of a good buddy who happens to be a Regional Sales Manager for Pirelli I gave them a shot.  We have the Scorpion Verde Plus on my wifes XC90 and she has loved them so I wasn't too hesitant to make the change but still nervous moving away from Michelin.  I kept the same upsize that I had before with a 275/35r19 rear and 255/35/r19 front.

After having them on for a couple hundred miles I love them!  They are way quieter than my PSS were and seem to grip very well.  Now, I haven't tracked them so I can't give a serious review on their handling characteristics yet but their street manner is very well balanced and confidence inspiring.  I screwed around with a little editing as well.  These pictures were taken about 12 hours and 50 miles apart.

[B C]

According to my calculations 50 miles in 12 hours works out to 4.16667 MPH. I think you need a faster car.

Where is that first picture?

[patsbimmer1]

B C said:

According to my calculations 50 miles in 12 hours works out to 4.16667 MPH. I think you need a faster car.

Where is that first picture?

Based on my ride in Jordan's car more speed is exactly what I don't need!  The first picture was just outside of Whitewater on territorial road.

[patsbimmer1]

I've had a chance to put a few miles on the new Pirelli P Zero's and thanks to the weather I've had a chance to test them in the rain.  So far they're great!  They're quiet enough, handling is predictable when pushed in corners or roundabouts and wet grip doesn't leave me white knuckled.  Overall I'm happy with them and think they're a sufficient replacement for the Michelin PSS especially when I paid less than $1000 for the whole package installed.  

I also changed the oil this weekend at 76k miles with Liquimoly 10w60 and a Mann filter.  The cutaway in the belly pan for draining the oil is a huge time saver.  It takes me longer to fill it with 9qts of oil, start it, wait for it to warm up and measure the oil level than it does to jack it up/drain it/replace filter.  I'd kill for an oil dipstick but $1500 just isn't reasonable for me at this time.

Next up I want to track down all of the parts needed for the trunk storage net since these cars didn't come with the hooks, net, etc.  There's also a passenger side trans tunnel storage net I may get as well just to add a little more usable interior storage.  My current set up for grocery's is to store them behind the seats to prevent them from moving around and if I have a large load it goes in the trunk with a hope and a prayer.

Also, 6 bags of mulch is the cars space limit.

[B C]

Always feels good to see a performance car doing mundane daily activities even when it doesn't have to.

[KaiserRolls]

B C said:

Always feels good to see a performance car doing mundane daily activities even when it doesn't have to.

Gotta flex on the p00rs

[GunMetalGrey]

She's looking great! 
I'm glad to see people trying something other than the PSS!

[patsbimmer1]

GunMetalGrey said:

She's looking great! 
I'm glad to see people trying something other than the PSS!

Thanks Ben!  I'd consider myself an above average tire consumer based on my experience in the industry and more so with tires specifically.  After reading reviews and doing my own research I felt very comfortable stepping away from Michelin.  It's not like I was stepping into a tier 3 Primewell or something similar.  Pirelli is still a top tier tire manufacture and I wanted to see what they had to offer.  So far so good!  Now my buddy keeps bugging me to get them on track and give him feedback compared to the Michelin's.  I'm pushing for Pirelli to pay for my track day, we'll see how far that gets me lol.

[GunMetalGrey]

patsbimmer1 said:

I'm pushing for Pirelli to pay for my track day

That would be quite lovely! 
I do look forward to your thoughts on them in more aggressive driving.

[patsbimmer1]

After staring at my rod bearings in my garage for the past 6 months or so I dropped the car off on Monday at EFab Motorsports in Lake Zurich to have my RB's done.  Eric was great!  Very knowledgeable with some cool projects going on.  I had the BE bearings installed with the ARP bolts which are both an upgrade from stock.  Eric was very complimentary of the car after working on it and couldn't say enough nice things about how well maintained it appears to be.  The stock bearings had over 77k on them and a little bit of wear but according to him they didn't look to be failing anytime soon.  Regardless, I'm very happy to have had them replaced for peace of mind.

Up next I want to get the GTS DCT tune.  Other than that adding some bolt ons is tempting but I'm so happy and comfortable with the current power level I don't feel like I need more and I'm the kind of person who's more happy driving it than tinkering with it.

[patsbimmer1]

So I splurged a bit this week and bought new center caps!  I thought they were a bit expensive so I ran the part number and found that they were FLOATING CENTER CAPS!  All I could think about was Jermain Dupri on Cribs pointing out the center caps on his Rolls Royce or Bentley and I had to buy them. They were about $20 more than a set of normal OEM center caps so it made the best financial sense to do this.  That and I'm a child and this makes me giggle.  I'll always be a ricer at heart...

[KaiserRolls]

The Germans sure do have a way with letters

[SteelBlue]

KaiserRolls said:

The Germans sure do have a way with letters 

Hasgedfodorlf ehausragsed

[Jdesign]