This is my last e92xM. I have had a ton of them as most of you know and have love each and everyone! This being my last and final e92M I wanted to try something different and go with the DCT. I have always had 6mt (4 of them to be exact) and thought I would see how I, a die hard 6mt guy would like the DCT. I also went ahead and went with Space Grey as the exterior color bc I couldn't pick which individual color I wanted and also I have always wanted a space grey e92M.
After a long 8 weeks of waiting my 2013 finally came in. I had been driving a std base model mini cooper for the wait that I grabbed from our Mini Cooper dealership so you can imagine I was itching to get back in a M
. I was very pleased with Space Grey as the color choice when I saw it come off the truck. Usually I just jump in the car start it up and head on my way, nothing new however this time I had the DCT tranny to play with. Keep in mind yes we sell tons of M's and I have been around tons of M's but I had actually "NEVER" driven a DCT before up to that point. Crazy I know, but like I stated I was just a 6mt guy so I didn't see the need.
DCT vs 6MT: I am not going to go to much in detail since it has been discussed 1000's of times on here already but I do want to say "MY" personal thoughts on the two coming from so many 6mt e92M3's. As I am getting use to the DCT its starting to grow on me. I like the quick shifts and the rev matched down shifts those are very nice. However at this time I can say that I am still leaning towards the 6mt as "MY" personal favorite. There are a few things that I miss about the 6mt. One being the fun of rowing through the gears and rev matching myself. I would never say I was excellent at 3 pedal driving but I feel as though I was pretty solid. The DCT however is night and day faster over the 6mt. I am always in awe on how fast the gear changes are
I can def see how it would also be a huge benefit on the track. I personally do not track any of my cars nor would I, just not something I have gotten into yet. Maybe one day. So in a nutshell it is still early for me to pick which one "I" prefer. I will have to atleast give it a few months.
Now onto the mods:
Once I had driven the car around a little and got some miles on it, I contacted
Roman@ESS and got the ball rolling on my ESS VT625 kit. Once we figured out all the specs etc.. I headed down to Anaheim to drop my car off with
.Tom@EAS. Tom took my manifold and had it all custom painted gloss black to match the vortec and also the velocity tubes. I wanted the kit to looks like it blended in with the engine bay so when you looked into the engine it was a nice clean look. I was very very happy with the outcome. The blacked out look IMO looks perfect! I also had
Tom@EAS install the kit for me. EAS installed all my mods this go around and I wanted to personally thank Tom and his crew for getting me in even though his schedule was slammed. (they had 3 ESS kits being installed the week my car was there
thats awesome)
This car has the following set up:
ESS VT2 625
ESS Tuned
Akrapovic Evolution (Thanks Jesal@IND)
HnR sport springs (Thanks Eric@Supreme)
BMW Performance Carbon Spoiler
BMW Performance side gills
BMW Performance fron gills
IND space grey reflectors (IND is the best place to get these, period)
Coming up:
Window tint. 40% all windows except windshield
aftermarket wheels
Maybe seats (50/50 on this)
Once again I wanted to thank my good friends Roman and AJ at ESS for always helping me out with everything I need. I would Highly recommend if you are interested in adding performance to your bmw shoot ESS a buzz and you will be more then satisfied.
I also want to highly recommend
Tom@EAS. EAS did a great job on my car. I was very impressed with their customer service and also how clean and professional their shop was. All the employees there seem to have a huge passion for cars especially BMW's which makes me feel good when I drop my car off there for work.
I have attached a ton of pics. My goal was to show users the various looks of Space Grey in various light levels. I also attached the Dyno's for those of you who are interested in that.
**as always mod at your own risk
cheers
jimmy