New build! E90 M3

[YoungCR]

Wheels turned out excellent. I'll add one of those brushes to my list, beats scrubbing by hand.

[jc43089]

In for feedback on Griot's ceramic stuff.

[patsbimmer1]

Milestone hit!  The car crossed 90k this past weekend!  I also got my new tires installed yesterday, thanks again @SteelBluefor hooking me up with Vredestein!

First impression of the tires when I saw them was "Yup, looks like an all season."  The sidewall looks nice and the tread pattern looks good.  Lot's of locking squiggles in the tread blocks to help dry performance and reduce flex in the tread blocks.  I took them on my shakedown route and they performed better than I expected for an all season tire!  These provide more grip than anyone needs on the street.  Pushing them at pace on the road they never felt like they were going to give up grip.  Coming hot into a roundabout and the front pushed a little as I made the quick steering input from right to left but it was predictable for this car and caused no brown moments.  The rear grips just fine coming on the throttle out of corners and didn't display any unexpected oversteer.  The ride is comfortable but I wouldn't say it's any better than the Pzero's I took off which is to say both tires were competing with my exhaust for noise level so it's irrelevant.

If you are driving past this tires limit on the street then you're driving like an asshole.  I'll run them at a track/autox just to see how they handle but I have no expectation that they'll be on the same level as the Pzero or PSS.

[patsbimmer1]

New wheels, tires and suspension loading...

[YoungCR]

patsbimmer1 said:

New wheels, tires and suspension loading...

This message sponsored by Fitment Inc.

[patsbimmer1]

YoungCR said:

This message sponsored by Fitment Inc.

The job has perks!

[Rekpoint]

patsbimmer1 said:

New wheels, tires and suspension loading...

Plz no esms or rotiforms

[patsbimmer1]

Rekpoint said:

Plz no esms or rotiforms 

Both companies meet or exceed load certifications that are voluntary in the U.S. and Rotiform specifically makes a line of motorsport quality wheels.  So other than being heavy and having nthe perception of being "fake" wheels I don't see an issue with either.  It all boils down to purpose.  Street use?  Both are perfectly safe for any street loads.  Track use?  Maybe go with a lighter weight option.

[jc43089]

.... Is this dial up or what?...

[patsbimmer1]

Sorry for the delay, it's been a busy few weeks for me.  We've had a lot going on at work and at home lately!

I got my wheels hand delivered by @SteelBlue last week and promptly got them installed!  They are Artisa Elder's running 19x9.5 et35 and 19x10.5 et25 with Yokohama Advan Sport+ in 255/35r19 and 275/35r19.  The wheels are .5" wider than my stock ZCP wheels.  The offsets make them slightly more aggressive than the ZCP wheels but not as aggressive as I wanted so I'm running the same 12.5mm rear and 15mm front spacers I had on the ZCP wheels which makes it about a half inch wider than the old set up.  The picture makes it look like the rear is cambered in but it's a weird angle in the picture.

I have a set of ST XTA +3 coilovers on the way to replace the OEM 93k mile struts/shocks.  The goal isn't to lower the car more just refresh the current set up and dial in the ride and handling.

[YoungCR]

I really like these and It's pretty rare that I like newer aftermarket wheels.

[patsbimmer1]

YoungCR said:

I really like these and It's pretty rare that I like newer aftermarket wheels.

Thanks!  I was cautious about going with anything that wasn't the OEM ZCP wheel because I love that design so much.  Artisa is one of our wheel companies at work and knowing the guys who designed and engineered it made me feel good about putting them on my car.  They meet or exceed the most recent SAE J2530 standards.  Those tests are performed independently by SAE so we can't self certify.

Knowing this, when the opportunity popped up for me to have the first set made for an M car and one of the first BMW sets made at all I was thrilled!  Especially this design!  I also forgot to mention, this wheel/tire combo is about a 1lb lighter per corner for a wheel that's a .5" wider with the same size tires!

[SteelBlue]

patsbimmer1 said:

I got my wheels hand delivered last week and promptly got them installed! 

*cough*

[Rekpoint]

Crazy that I hated that design on every other car they were put on. Then you throw them on your car and they look pretty damn good. Hard to beat the ZCPs tho.

[patsbimmer1]

Rekpoint said:

Crazy that I hated that design on every other car they were put on. Then you throw them on your car and they look pretty damn good. Hard to beat the ZCPs tho.

The ZCP is an all time great but I wanted to try something new for a bit.  That and they need some refinishing so this is a good substitute for now.

[Jdesign]

patsbimmer1 said:

Sorry for the delay, it's been a busy few weeks for me.  We've had a lot going on at work and at home lately!

I got my wheels hand delivered by @SteelBlue last week and promptly got them installed!  They are Artisa Elder's running 19x9.5 et35 and 19x10.5 et25 with Yokohama Advan Sport+ in 255/35r19 and 275/35r19.  The wheels are .5" wider than my stock ZCP wheels.  The offsets make them slightly more aggressive than the ZCP wheels but not as aggressive as I wanted so I'm running the same 12.5mm rear and 15mm front spacers I had on the ZCP wheels which makes it about a half inch wider than the old set up.  The picture makes it look like the rear is cambered in but it's a weird angle in the picture.

I have a set of ST XTA +3 coilovers on the way to replace the OEM 93k mile struts/shocks.  The goal isn't to lower the car more just refresh the current set up and dial in the ride and handling.

Are they directional side to side? IE; does the spoke direction "twist" the same on the drivers side?

[patsbimmer1]

Jdesign said:

Are they directional side to side? IE; does the spoke direction "twist" the same on the drivers side?

They are!  There is a left and right wheel set.

[Jdesign]

patsbimmer1 said:

They are!  There is a left and right wheel set.

EPIC! That's a big pet peeve of mine about directional wheels. If they only go one direction, they look dumb on the "wrong side" 

Awesome man, im stoked on these for you!

[Partiallypurple]

As @Rekpointsaid, I have yet to see a car I liked these on. But they look so good on your car. I am very excited to see this in person!

[patsbimmer1]

Well the car has been out of commission for a couple weeks now.  I had just picked my son up from school and was heading to the grocery store when I was side swiped by a box truck.  I was in the left lane when he came flying past me and came from the right lane to the left and his rear bumper caught my car.  Nobody was injured but there was a bit of cosmetic damage done to the car.  The front right fender exploded, the passenger mirror was destroyed, tire popped and the wheel had a small dent.  His lane change was aggressive enough that I thought the guy hit me on purpose.  We pulled over and I asked him if he was OK and he Immediately offered to write me a check for $2000 because based on his assessment that's about how much the damage cost.  I was very calm as we waited for the police to show up.  The guy kept making small talk and telling me how perfect his driving record was and that he'd prefer to handle this outside of the insurance companies.  At some point after multiple ways of asking to exchange insurance info I straight up asked if he had insurance and I got many excuses about not being able to remember, lost his card, his wife handles it, etc.  He did give me a business card and that's when I learned he owned the box truck and a small landscaping company.

The police showed up and took statements while I waited for my wife to show up with a spare wheel and tire for me.  I was able to swap out the wheel and drive it home without issue.  I reported the incident to my insurance company and started talking to them the next day.  They made a hard push to have the car towed to one of their "authorized" repair facilities near me and I was adamant I would use my own repair facility.  First I called Merton Auto Body where a friend of mine works and they were a month out.  Next I called Radix Collision and Restoration where my wife's uncle works.  I told the guy who I was related to and he acted like he knew but said it'd be a month out.  A little bit later I get a call and hear "Hey, who are you related to here?"  I said Bob was my wife's uncle and told him I'd met him a couple times from stopping in there and a light bulb came on!  He asked if I could get it in the next day, a Friday, so they could look at it right away Monday.  I said yes and dropped it off the next day.

They looked at it last Monday, quoted and ordered parts the same day while the adjuster showed up Wednesday and green lit all the work.  Every replacement part is an OEM BMW part.  The benefit of using a high quality body shop!  They'll advocate for you and your car.  These guys are car people.  They've got a trophy case in their waiting room filled with awards from SVRA, the Brian Redman Challenge, etc.  There's vintage engines all over the place, vintage bodies on shelves and more!  My wife's uncle is doing all of the work except for the paint where they have a paint specific guy.  The good news is my car is going to come back in better condition than when it went in!  They're fixing ALL of the rock chips in the front bumper and hood for me!

The bad news.  As many of you may have guessed by now, SURPISE! The guy doesn't have insurance.  I'm on the hook for the deductible unless they can get money out of him.  They'll go after him for 3 years and after that it exceeds the statute of limitations for the incident.  I might see my $500 some day but I'm not terribly hopeful.  My insurance company broke that news to me last Monday.  She said the guy tried to blame ME!  He said a pothole caused my fender to explode and I sped up to hit him.  Thankfully I provided the number of a friendly witness that provided a statement to my insurance company that corroborated what I had said so I was found 0% at fault.

I'm hoping to have the car back this Wednesday but I know BMW was supposed to have parts there by last Thursday and on Friday I got a text with pictures of the progress and them letting me know the parts still hadn't shown up.  I'm lucky enough to have my truck so I'm not in dire need but I'd really like a few more drives in before the end of the year.