Over the past several years I have spent quite a bit of time tinkering with my car. As the years passed I gained an incredible amount of knowledge learning from other members; their successes, failures, and the constant debates between members (not always the most civil or productive lol), but nonetheless I owe a tremendous amount to the members of this community and have always done my best to treat the members of this community like my extended family.
As I watched member after member begin to put their cars up for sale in preparation for moving on to the F8X M3/4 or moving on to different platforms altogether, I too toiled with the thought of doing the same. I had the fortunate capability of driving the new M3/4 at the Performance Center at the Thermal Club this past fall. (Before I get completely flamed, let me first state that the new F8X M car is a very capable and fun car. Styling wise I think its a little too big and there are too many things going on with the exterior but its still a wonderfully beautiful and powerful car.) However, for several reasons I was thoroughly underwhelmed by the car and more than anything else didnt feel the intimate connection that I had developed over the past 4 years with my E92 M3.
Having performed 90% of the work on my car I had developed a personal connection with the car; essentially figuring out every nut and bolt and learning as much as I could about the construction and mechanics of the car. I simply couldnt allow all of that to be set aside and dismiss the car in search of something better because quite frankly I didnt feel that any one particular new car had convinced me that it was indeed better.
After I came to the realization that I was going to hold onto my car until I felt a strong motivation otherwise, I set out on a new journey to create my ideal M3. Taking lessons from the successes of many other forum members before me, learning from many of my mistakes over the past 4 years, and attempting to tie some of my favorite things about the E92 platform into one special car that I would want to hold on to forever.
Thus was born the hopeful last iteration of my car The Da Vinci Code.
Special thanks to Sam and Nick at Mode Carbon for putting out great products, for their friendship, and support of my build over the years.
I spent 2 months in my garage at home on weekends and after work tearing the car apart piece by piece. Ever since I was a little kid, I always took lots of joy in taking things apart to figure out how they worked. My experience with the M3 was no different in the sense that you really learn a lot about the construction of the car by taking it apart.
In the process of dismantling the car I finally decided to put many of the extra parts I had accumulated over the years up for sale. Partially to make enough room in my garage and partially to ease the stress on my wallet while making the changes to the car; extra sets of wheels, lips, bumpers, brakes, trunks, seats, exhaust components, and other miscellaneous items went up for sale to other members of the forum.
My ultimate goal with the car was to create something very OEM+. I wanted essentially every section of the car to be significantly altered from stock but only to the discerning eye of a fellow BMW owner by making very subtle changes.
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Beginning with the front of the car, I wanted to smooth out everything that was wrong with the stock front end. I did away with both the headlight washers and the notorious US spec reflectors and obviously didnt want to run a front plate regardless of the amount of tickets I would expose myself to. I swapped on a Euro bumper from ECS Tuning. To match the new front bumper, I ordered all new fender linings, felt trays, and other miscellaneous components to make the front end look like it had just come off the factory line. To keep with the theme of the car, I replaced my old IND Carbon Fiber front grilles with Gloss Black options from IND as well. I also carried the Gloss Black accents on to the hood vents and side gills with tinted LED markers. The front end was tied together with a GTS Variant 1 front lip from my brothers at Mode Carbon (Thanks! Sam and Nick).
One thing that always made me a little jealous vs. the new M3/4 were the braces that showed up behind the front kidney grilles on the new model. I machined a few pieces to settle down my envy and installed the braces behind the kidney grilles of the E92. Its a very subtle change that most people dont even notice but I always like the look of the car when its driving toward you down the street. Its kind of a poser move but I think the execution was exactly what I was going for.
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At the profile of the vehicle, my guys at Mode Carbon stepped up again with their E92 side skirts which I paired with OEM carbon fiber mirror caps painted in a reversed M5 paint scheme. I also removed all of the tints from the vehicle as I hate to disrupt the natural lines of the car by creating opaque surfaces.
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One of my favorite creations for the car was the one off custom rear bumper that was created for the car using various components from different vendors. We painstakingly molded in all of the components to the stock rear bumper and painted everything as if it had come from the factory. You would be surprised how many M3 owners come up to me and cant figure out the rear end. Sometimes people notice the side pieces and sometimes people notice the center section, but more times than not people just stand around scratching their head. Even if I cant fool every M3 owner, I like to think that most people who are unfamiliar with the rear end of the E92 M3 will think that this is how the car looks from the factory. Not to be outdone the OEM BMW Performance Spoiler was also molded into the trunk to create one seamless transition of color.
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Again to keep with the theme of the car, I had my Megan exhaust powder coated in satin black. I was never a big fan in spending thousands on exhaust components that really didnt add to overall performance so I was happy to stick with the relatively low cost (free to me) Megan option
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The car has been lowered on KW V3 coil overs onto the 18x10 and 18x11.5 BBS E88s built by my good friend James Floss Design. We built the wheels to keep with the black and grey them of the car, with gloss black lips, and a satin black face with silver hardware which in my opinion helps to define the face and contours of the wheel vs. an all black wheel. The wheels are bolted tightly to the Silver StopTech 380/355 BBK with a Titanium Stud Conversion Kit from MRG MotorRennGruppe.
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The interior is pretty subtle with some very standard additions; OEM Performance Steering Wheel, Pedal Haus pedal kit, kick plate, and shifter paddles, Recaro Sportster CS seats, and a few other knick knacks here and there. I have never been a big fan of leather, so I opted for OEM speed cloth from the factory.
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Oh, the Paint! Cant forget the paint! The guys over at Strassesport in Irwindale (Thanks Ivan!) executed a nearly flawless paint job as if the car had come direct from the Audi (eh hem I mean BMW) Factory. The paint code on the car is Audi Nardo Grey aka The Da Vinci Paint Code. And while this color has been done several times now; when the car was first conceived it did not exist to our knowledge on any other E92 M3. Since conception I have seen a few other E92s with the Nardo Grey paint scheme, but thankfully most are located overseas in Europe and the UK. So at least I can rest assured that I wont be pulling up next to one at a stoplight anytime soon (unless its a wrap #sigh).
