Bernooo's E92 M3 Clubsport Build

[berns]

Dropped the car off at Kings Autobody to repair the front bumper and add some additional hardware to the BimmerWorld lip for a tighter fit. I also brought them the carbon-kevlar trunk for repair & paint, which I pre-drilled for the BimmerWorld wing. Finally, had them swap the trunk hardware over, mount it all up and make the car pretty again.



Been a crazy few weeks with work and a move -- we finally moved into our house and out of our 1-bedroom apartment that we called home for the last 6 years. Have to say, it was a tough process, but seeing my 1.5 y/o daughter run around the house, have her own room to play in and just our overall happiness level on the up, made it all worth it. The icing on the cake was finally seeing the car in a garage of my own after waiting for what feels like an eternity to have my own space. Lots to do, but very, very stoked.



I thought I might hate this giant wing but man... I'm into it! Quite a bit less subtle than the GT4 wing but fits the cars personality and body lines well. The white TE's have to go on. No idea how to go about setting its height or AOA, so I'll do some reading. Got some time though, because I'll probably take the next few months off and I'm still waiting to send the 1WNR's out to MCS for an upgrade, as well as place an order for a different spring combo to account for the aero. The 600/900 setup that's been on the car since day one has been absolutely perfect, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little scared to upset what's been a really dialed and fun recipe. Time will tell. Till then, here's some photos.

[Biginboca]

The white TE’s look so good on that car, can’t wait to see them on there again. Congratulations on the house!

[okusa]

Congrats on the move and enjoy every minute with the little one. The days go slowly but the years fly by.

[roastbeef]

congrats again on the house. that garage is pretty sweet. finish up the walls with some bmw themed paint and put a lift right in the middle!

that aero package is sweet

[berns]

My GoPro failed me at the last CVR CCW day with Socal Drivers Club, but Jackie Ding (fairlyyyyy well known record-setting, event-winning time attack driver) was there and had been dying to drive my car for a while... so I gave him a go. Was really cool to see how much he loved the car, considering his reputation / skill level. We ran within .05 of each other, both at a 1:56.1.

Here's the vid:

[Donut Lord]

I love that steering wheel

[M43S7RO]

Been following Jackie's videos for a little while and pleasantly surprised to see a forum member featured in one of his videos!! Sweet car!

[nicksm3]

Love you're car man and well done on the build! Jackie needs to learn to be smoother, i cringe everytime i watch him wheeling.

[StripclubDJ]

Originally Posted by nicksm3

Love you're car man and well done on the build! Jackie needs to learn to be smoother, i cringe everytime i watch him wheeling.

Exactly .

[tsk94]

His driving style is very YT viewership appropriate lol.
A smooth driving style wouldn't bring the same entertainment factor He's still fast, regardless..

[berns]

Originally Posted by nicksm3

Love you're car man and well done on the build! Jackie needs to learn to be smoother, i cringe everytime i watch him wheeling.

Everyone has different driving styles. Jackie drives at and past the limit often and that looks chaotic. My fastest laps always have a little craziness. I'm with you, to an extent, but you have to wonder if he'd set the times he does being smoother and calmer. This is where TA differs from Endurance.

Originally Posted by StripclubDJ

Exactly .

Tend to your wife and baby, get off the internet!

Originally Posted by tsk94

His driving style is very YT viewership appropriate lol.
A smooth driving style wouldn't bring the same entertainment factor He's still fast, regardless..

Ha, agree.

[slcook54]

I mean, he also has the low boost setting at ~550rwhp, that's going to be way more of a handful than any e9x.

[tsk94]

Originally Posted by slcook54

I mean, he also has the low boost setting at ~550rwhp, that's going to be way more of a handful than any e9x.

He was the same in an~230whp NA S2000 that has ZERO torque. So I don't think it's the car haha

[tsk94]

On topic though.. berns this thing is progressing along so nicely.
New wing looks good.. do you notice any significant difference on track? I never tracked mine with a GTS wing so I can only compare to no wing vs. BW wing.

Makes me want another E9X very badly..

[berns]

Originally Posted by tsk94

On topic though.. berns this thing is progressing along so nicely.
New wing looks good.. do you notice any significant difference on track? I never tracked mine with a GTS wing so I can only compare to no wing vs. BW wing.

Makes me want another E9X very badly..

Haven't been on track with it yet! Taking the Summer off to work on the house, stay out of the heat, pick up a replacement for my wife's TSX (it arrives this weekend. F31 M-Sport!), and, waiting on MCS to give me the green light to send my dampers in for an upgrade. At that time I'll order new springs from Eibach with their advice, to account for the aero. Likely end up at 700/1000 but we'll see.

I am super curious to see how the car feels with the big wing. Truthfully, it was incredible with the GT4 wing and had tons of balance, huge straight line speed and kept its sometimes overly-playful quality that I love so much. It wasn't the easiest to find consistency, but that's more a street tire thing than anything else. I'm nervous to kill my speed since the car is relatively low-power to be running the times it was running. Also really don't want to add anything additional up front because I'm out of driveway clearance and couldn't sacrifice another 1/8" even..

[tsk94]

Originally Posted by berns

Haven't been on track with it yet! Taking the Summer off to work on the house, stay out of the heat, pick up a replacement for my wife's TSX (it arrives this weekend. F31 M-Sport!), and, waiting on MCS to give me the green light to send my dampers in for an upgrade. At that time I'll order new springs from Eibach with their advice, to account for the aero. Likely end up at 700/1000 but we'll see.

I am super curious to see how the car feels with the big wing. Truthfully, it was incredible with the GT4 wing and had tons of balance, huge straight line speed and kept its sometimes overly-playful quality that I love so much. It wasn't the easiest to find consistency, but that's more a street tire thing than anything else. I'm nervous to kill my speed since the car is relatively low-power to be running the times it was running. Also really don't want to add anything additional up front because I'm out of driveway clearance and couldn't sacrifice another 1/8" even..

Curious to hear your thoughts when do you get it on track. That wing is quite efficient, so just run a conservative AOA and the drag will be minimal

[berns]

Quick break from M3 things. Decided to sell my wife's trusty TSX and pick up this sweet dad wagon.
2014 328xi M-Sport. 50k on it with a few nice additions.
First orders of business: raise the coilovers and throw on some 513M F80 wheels. Any maybe some F80 brembos... Amazing car for the money.

[okusa]

Originally Posted by berns

Quick break from M3 things. Decided to sell my wife's trusty TSX and pick up this sweet dad wagon.
2014 328xi M-Sport. 50k on it with a few nice additions.
First orders of business: raise the coilovers and throw on some 513M F80 wheels. Any maybe some F80 brembos... Amazing car for the money.

Nice ride but that stance is truly cringeworthy. Glad you will be addressing that.

[m3number86]

Originally Posted by berns

Overdue update time. Sorry for anyone that cares -- it's hard to keep this thing updated sometimes.

Dirty white TE's have my heart.


SO, since the 51.8 at Buttonwillow, I've run Chuckwalla CCW, Streets of Willow CW & CCW (19.4 & 19.7), and went back to Buttonwillow to play around one more on old tires and worn brakes (which wasn't great... you'll see why).

The car has been insanely reliable and fun to drive, and I really haven't changed anything. But, with the summer heat coming in, the itch is back, and with all the data and driving time I've had with this setup, in the name of science and a sub-50 Buttonwillow goal without slick or completely gutting this thing, I'm going to make two changes.

Before I get to those, wanted to give some love to the custom spec'd KMP Drivetrain wheel I ordered. Hard to believe a steering wheel can change the whole car, but man... the E92 was meant for a 330mm wheel. The car feels amazing on track now, and I love the look of this thing. Went with their grey alcantera, tri-stitch, and I worked with them on an inverted classic BMW logo. So cool. The horn has been useful, and having traction control up there is just a nice easy bonus, especially if I remove the console later and want to hide that big button by the shifter.







I also managed to find another 17.7lbs in the car that I wasn't using, thanks to the rear door cards, bench carpet and passengers 3-point seatbelt assembly. I needed an alignment before Bimmer Challenge anyway, so went to Chewerks and hopped on the scales with half a tank of gas just to see where we're at. New goal achieved, we are under 3200lbs!





Sometime in June, I'm going to send my trusty MCS 1WNR's to MCS in Georgia to be upgraded to their 3-way remote setup. My goal with this car was to see just how far an NA E92 could go on 200tw tires with 1way adjustable dampers. While it would have been cool, and it's definitely possible to extract some more from the current setup, the data and the videos show the car could be handling curbs and bumps with some more composure. The remote reservoirs will really help there. Will they instantly make me faster? Time will tell.



Next up -- aero. I've enjoyed my 8-month honeymoon with the beautiful carbon GT4 MkII wing. I do love the look of it, and it's proved itself to be functional without a doubt. But sometimes I see a photo from the rear and I just feel like it's just too cute. Top that off with the fact that I really have to work for my fast laps. And while this quality is part of what makes the M3 fun, I'm curious if a more substantial rear wing could be run without adding a ton of drag and understeer.





Again, I don't know if this will make me faster, but I feel like I'm at a point in my driving, and the car is at point where any change is felt and seen instantly, that now's the time to try something else out. We don't see a lot of BimmerWorld Ultralight wings out there. It's not the prettiest from some angles, or the most economical, but it's light AF (I'll weigh it soon) and mocked up on the car, I am SOLD. It just looks right.











The stock steel trunk has some nice holes from the GT4 wing, and I really have been wanting a carbon trunk but haven't felt the desire to spend $2500+ to get one, plus paint... So, I posted up on Instagram to see if anyone had one they weren't using and low and behold, my buddy James Paick had an oldschool Challenge OEM-style carbon/kevlar trunk collecting dust in his garage. One of the holes for the hinge is stripped and there's some holes from different wings, which made it a perfect candidate to be restored for my M3. So thankful for awesome friends in this community.

Stock trunk is 29lbs, the Challenge trunk is 7.5! And with the wide mounting feet on the BimmerWorld wing, I think we'll be in good shape mounting to this.



The car will go back down to Kings Autobody for some cleanup and paint and then to EAS for some suspension work where the dampers will be pulled and sent out to MCS.

As far as Bimmer Challenge goes, this new setup will be maxed out in B2 class, which should be pretty interesting moving forward as Bailey in his 2400-ish lb e36 on A7's is an incredible driver and opponent. I haven't showed up enough this year for it to matter in the series, but 2023 should be fun.

Planning to run GTA Street Class at Buttonwillow Finals at the end of the year. Likely going to get destroyed by Mk5 Supra's, but hopefully can put on a good show for the NA BMW crowd.

19.47 at SOW CW for the first time in years, on 3-day old RT660's.

Did a 1:56.1 at CVR CCW in dust and heat. Was disappointed with my pace there, but I tossed the keys to legendary time attack driver Jackie Ding, and he only ran .1 quicker with a 56.0, so at least I know it wasn't me! Just a slow day... I'll have to go back. Jackie should be posting his lap in my car soon, since my GoPro decided not to cooperate. Was pretty cool that he was in love with the E92 and said it felt better balanced than his Supra

1:53.7 @ Buttonwillow on worn tires, catching up to a Cayman GT4 in a terrible spot.

1:19.7 @ SOW CCW for Bimmer Challenge R5. Got 2nd place. Might have been a first place finish if I didn't hit traffic on this lap. Needed an 18.6... Would have been close!

Bonus lap in a friends S54 E30 on 3-year old NT01's, no ABS and a wonky diff. This car has mega potential and hopefully Rob will take my advice on some changes! What a blast.

Thanks for following along, etc... I'll try to be better at this!

Late but fucking amazing.

Damn i havent been out in about 4 years! Time flies.

[StripclubDJ]

You really had to quote a whole
Page worth Phil?

I expect better from you .

[m3number86]

Originally Posted by StripclubDJ

You really had to quote a whole
Page worth Phil?

I expect better from you .

Its been so long i forgot how to use the forum lol

[berns]

Been a nice summer break from the track. The wagon has been awesome, and now runs 18x10 513M F80 M3 wheels all around, along with F80 Brembo's front and rear! I did the XHP stage 2 trans flash along with the X-delete to make it RWD and that's that for this awesome daily. Very, very stoked with it.





In other news, some of you have seen that I worked with a Nolan, an awesome fabricator from Washington, to bring my idea of the ultimate X-pipe to the market. Highlights: Forward X, 9lbs, made in the USA from TiCon titanium. This will save 20lbs off my MS x-pipe... pretty good! It's also 80% lighter than stock.

Amidst the heat wave here, I'm just waiting for some cooler temps so we can get on the dyno and start getting some data. Randy from Epic Motorsports will be dialing in the car.

Two changes I'll be making will be this forward X-pipe and the new Turner Motorsport plenum. The way I'll conduct the study will be:

Fresh plugs and bill of health --> baseline dyno --> X-pipe install, dyno & tuning adjustments --> airbox install, dyno & tuning adjustments if needed. This will all be done on the same day at European Auto Source, so we'll have consistent info to see where the gains are, and hopefully we have some!

The car is over at EAS now having the front StopTech caliper seals replaced. Unfortunately I somehow busted one of the seals when compressing the pistons for a pad change last time I swapped pads. Doing a few other maintenance items and going for an impromptu shakedown at Buttonwillow CCW1 this Sunday for Bimmer Challenge.

First test with the wing, on old tires, with no suspension changes... Assuming I'll have some understeer, but we'll see. Just excited to dust the cobwebs off and see some friends.

In the meantime, here are some photos of the X-pipe and the Plenum! Both pieces were fun to shoot. Beautiful car parts make me happy.

Packed house at EAS.



Parked next to my favorite E36, owned by my good friend and co-owner of EAS, Steve Lee. S54, 2500lbs, Zebulon aero and 295s all around... Epic.



Here are some shots of the plenum, which is actually 15% off right now at ECS & Turner! Sub $2k for this piece is awesome. I'm blown away by the quality.








And here's the X pipe! Let me know if you'd like one. You can have it as stock location X, forward X, resonated or unresonated. No plans for cats. Comes with everything you need including an updated and lightened aluminum center brace. PM me if interested.