New build! E90 M3
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sounds like shit because no xpipe. I'm gonna buy you an xpipe as a house-warming gift so it no longer sounds like shit.
Hahahahaha! Anyone else and I'd tell'em they're fucking stupid for having that opinion.
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First track day with the M3 tomorrow at BHF! I'll have a video up hopefully some time tomorrow of the event. In the meantime I have some spark plugs that i'll be throwing in tonight and I bought the Ziza master LED set for $30 from ECS so i'll be installing those at some point here.
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I've always wanted to drive a car with flappy paddles on track. Theres something to be said about the satisfaction of a well executed heel-toe downshift in a manual car but I will never practice that enough to get it down perfectly and would gladly allow a car to do that for me so I could focus more on braking and lines.
I hope the DCT paddles are setup better than the 335i ZF paddles. I personally would rather have right-hand upshift, lefthand downshift than the thumb downshift fingers upshift.
Are they the same?
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I've always wanted to drive a car with flappy paddles on track. Theres something to be said about the satisfaction of a well executed heel-toe downshift in a manual car but I will never practice that enough to get it down perfectly and would gladly allow a car to do that for me so I could focus more on braking and lines.
I hope the DCT paddles are setup better than the 335i ZF paddles. I personally would rather have right-hand upshift, lefthand downshift than the thumb downshift fingers upshift.
Are they the same?
Driving the 6spd was satisfying but I'm excited to give this a try! I'll never say i'm an amazing heel/toe driver but I think I was efficient to the point where I didn't really think about it anymore unless I fucked one up. The paddles are L/- and R/+ so they are different. After driving the f10 550i for 9 days and attempting to use those paddles the DCT paddles feel fantastic lol.
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My biggest issue with the heel-toe at BFR is that I had to get on the brake harder and deeper than on a city street (in before someone pretends they dont hoon on the streets) and my car being an automatic originally, the pedal clevis was adjusted a little differently and the pedals didnt match up well when on the brakes that hard. I have since adjusted this for mitchell to benefit from.
SO GLAD the left and right paddles are like that! I drive the FIL's 335i infrequent enough to where I forget the paddle function, screw it up, and its better for me to leave them alone.
Hope its a great day man, we know video doesnt do a car justice but it will be fun to watch and listen to
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I had my first track day in the car today at Blackhawk Farms Raceway and ran in the intermediate group. This is my 4th track day in 3 years and it's amazing how quickly you get to know people by attending these things semi regularly. It's great being able to run with some of the same people year after year and developing a trust on the track.
Ok now that that's out of the way, the car. She ran beautifully! Stock brakes, stock suspension and pss tires. The car was perfect. It did what it was supposed to with no surprises. I took it slow for the day to feel the car out. The NA power took some getting used to. Even though the s65 is a supposed torqueless turd I had a low end power that i didnt expect and it was consistent through the power band. Power came on easy and steady. No surging or lag to deal with. It was great. Right off the bat I was running similar times I ran in my 335i but I was way more consistent. My fastest in the 335i was 1:29 and in the M3 I managed a 1:32. I'm pretty happy with that considering it was my first time out with it and i wasn't pushing very hard. The DCT was awesome! It did get a little laggy on up shifts when it got hot but downshifts were excellent. Being able to focus on braking zones was a really nice change. I could put my energy into hitting better lines instead of worrying about my feet.
Of course every driver walks away from an event saying "if I just had this item it'd be that much better!". For me I'd like to get the Schroth quick fit harness and a slightly better pad with more bite. These worked and I NEVER had any fade but I'd like the pedal a little more effective sooner. The car does have a little wiggle under heavy braking which led to some butt puckering moments but I'm not sure how to fix that yet. The easy answer is coilovers but I'm happy with the ride quality so we'll see if I "fix" that.
Now for the video! My go pro only recorded the last 10:25 of each session unbeknownst to me but this was the last and my fastest session.
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This is really a non update update. For Christmas I got 2 more 10k lumen 4' workshop lights to bring my total to 4 in my 2nd garage. I'm slowly but surely getting my garage put together. I also have a hose reel I need to get hung. I thought I'd share a before and after photo of the lighting for any of you thinking about LED. I got these from Farm and Fleet on sale for about $55 ea which was cheaper than anything comparable I could find online. The difference is (excuse the pun) night and day in visibility! Going from two halogen bulbs to 4 10k lumen led strips is amazing! I plan on painting next summer to brighten it up even further and getting a shed for some of the lawn mower and toys to help with organization. For now this is a suitable cave for the M3.
non led garage by patrick hamilton, on Flickr
led garage by patrick hamilton, on Flickr -
With the baby coming this month and due this week I've been busy at work trying to get things wrapped up before I go on leave along with trying to get projects done around the house and get a few of my own customers cars done at home so I haven't had much time to really do anything with this other than stare at it and more recently, drive it. I got it out of storage on March 17th and since then I've put on 300ish miles hitting back roads to run errands.
I have a few boxes of parts either at my house or on order that need to get installed that includes:
- Rod Bearings/Motor Mounts
- H&R Sport Springs
- Spacers (15mm front/12.5mm rear)
- Pad Wear Sensor
I still want to order a front lip for the car and get the GTS DCT tune done this summer. With the baby coming and the maintenance i'm doing this summer I don't know that I'll be able to get any track time but I plan on driving the hell out of this thing! And if anyone was wondering, it will hold two car seats. My seat didn't need to move forward and the passenger seat was left where my wife keeps it.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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