Esquire's Dakar Yellow M3 coupe - a Photo Modification Journal

[esquire]

Here comes....

[esquire]

Originally Posted by flipm3

Looks very clean and classy. Keep us posted on the other mods!

they're coming.

Originally Posted by AV9

I love the tri stitched parts you have added to the interior - as you say, very cohesive. I also find it strange as to why BMW doesn't throw those in there from factory.

And that center console is just money.

Congrats bro, looking forward to your future posts with more exciting mods

Thanks AV9. :cheers:

Originally Posted by shaggag

nice mods. I especially like the piano black. im sure it makes the interior feel more upscale.

I settled on the Individual Piano Black trim because it emphasize the already existing gloss black elements in the car. I've always loved it. Now with the center console to boot, I love it that much more.

Originally Posted by GOLFFRR

sweet!

Originally Posted by ROB_S2K

That center console looks amazing. One question though, how does it do with light scratches since that's an area of the car that has a high chance of getting scratched.

So far so good Rob. No scratches yet. I've had it for a little over a month. I just try to keep my change and whatever else in the little change compartment, and outside of that, that area rarely sees any contact, other than with my right arm - and I wear my watch on my left. I'll keep you posted though.

[Its_lobelt]

Cool sounds good. I was thinking of doing this for a long time but I was a bit weary. I might end up doing carbon wrap.

[VCMpower]

Very very classy mods esquire! I mean, it has the word "piano" in there

[Wendall]

Originally Posted by esquire

Here comes....

Oh Damn you! Yous gots every-ting I want!

[esquire]

Originally Posted by ROB_S2K

Cool sounds good. I was thinking of doing this for a long time but I was a bit weary. I might end up doing carbon wrap.

If you have carbon leather trim, I might go for a wrap. If you have carbon fiber trim, I'd go for the real thing.

Originally Posted by VCMpower

Very very classy mods esquire! I mean, it has the word "piano" in there

That was my exact thought process. Haha. Thanks for the kind words VCM

Originally Posted by biggynuts01

Oh Damn you! Yous gots every-ting I want!

Haha. But you haven't even seen what's coming.....

[GOLFFRR]

Is that a vortex blower

[esquire]

Not sure where it came from - the urge to supercharge. I guess part of me always wanted to do it - to have power on tap, to make the car move at neck-breaking speeds... to have a little 'secret' under the hood. But the urge came and went. It would wax and wane within me.

Around February though, something snapped in me - I crossed the line from only casually thinking about supercharging, to being determined to do it.

Before I could talk myself out of it, I pulled the trigger on an ESS VT2-625 Kit. It was the highest HP kit recommended on the DCT system, so I just went with it. I've heard a LOT of stories of people starting lower, then getting bit by the HP bug, and spending a lot of money to bump their kits up, paying for new software, and paying additional installation fees - so i just decided to go for the highest kit from the beginning and save myself the time, money and headache. I know myself well enough to know that once I put on the supercharger, I was going to want to max it out. haha. Its a weakness of mine.

I gave some thought to the other competitors, but ultimately decided on going with the ESS kit because of the reliability of the kit. I'm not saying the other kits out there are unreliable - in fact it might be the case that the other kits are just as reliable as the ESS - but with so many ESS kits out there, the sample size was there for me to have complete faith in its reliability.

I reached out to Malek at MRF Engineering over in Irvine, CA to do the install. His vast experience and reputation in Forced Induction made working with him a no-brainer. Not to mention that he's worked on some of the most serious cars on this forum. What I like about MRF is that its a shop focused on performance project cars. They're not trying to do "volume" They take a few projects on, but what they do, they do perfect.

I knew I wanted to do a custom manifold, but it was important to me that the design be cohesive. Malek who's also has an impeccable aesthetic eye importantly pointed out to me, that its important for the manifold to be cohesive not only in the context of the entire car, but just as importantly in the context of the engine bay. He pointed out that while I was using gloss black accents on all the other parts of my car, those accents wouldn't work as cohesively inside the engine bay where virtually all the black elements are in satin, not gloss. That advice turned out to be instrumental.

With that advice, I decided to go with gloss dakar yellow through the center of the manifold, flanked by satin black on the left and right ribbed sides. To create the illusion of continuity and length, rather than paint only the center of manifold yellow, I decided to continue the yellow past the normal 'end point', all the way forward through the manifold bend, and also to have the vortex supercharger painted dakar yellow as well. The idea being to create the illusion of one continuous line.

For the custom manifold work, I enlisted Nate of M-Fest fame over at C&C Collision in Alhambra. He's been doing custom M3's for a long time and knows the community intimately. His attention to detail is unparalleled, so i knew the project would be in good hands with him.

Some pics....

Manifold Prep


Anyone who knows how textured ESS's manifolds come out of the box, knows exactly how much sanding goes into doing a custom manifold.










Supercharger Prep














Installation over at MRF Engineering




Front Bumper Comes Off







The Obligatory Manifold Off Shot







Clocking the Supercharger












And Finally......

A Major thank you to Malek @ MRF Engineering, Roman @ ESS, and Nate @ C&C Collission, for all of their hard work and invaluable advice.



Comments on the car's performance and more pics, coming soon.

- esquire

[Jet335i]

looks amazing - nice job!

[Its_lobelt]

Originally Posted by esquire

If you have carbon leather trim, I might go for a wrap. If you have carbon fiber trim, I'd go for the real thing.

I have piano black trim so if I do anything it would have to be carbon fiber.

[Powerbeast]

Looks great, enjoy the new found power.

[Its_lobelt]

OMG just saw your post on the SC. I have to say that the satin black and yellow looks nuts man. I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. Nate does some amazing work.

[sales@ESSTuning]

The blower and manifold turned out really nice

[JEllis]

AWESOME!

Jason

[GOLFFRR]

looks great buddy. That blower turned out awesome

[slicer]

Looks great!

[mPlasticDesign]

Seriously, soooo nice!

[ki__]

Woah dude I love how that looks! I need to see this in person asap...

[63NP]

Very nice mate, have been contemplating a SC for some time now. Nice paint job,
What BHP did it make on Rolling road.??

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Jet335i

looks amazing - nice job!

Thanks Jet - thanks go to everyone involved. Was definitely a team effort on this one.

Originally Posted by ROB_S2K

I have piano black trim so if I do anything it would have to be carbon fiber.

I say do it in Piano to match the rest of your pieces then.

Originally Posted by Powerbeast

Looks great, enjoy the new found power.

Thanks buddy.

Originally Posted by ROB_S2K

OMG just saw your post on the SC. I have to say that the satin black and yellow looks nuts man. I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. Nate does some amazing work.

Thanks for compliments man. The satin really worked in my opinion (realizing of course that this is all subjective, and some people might not like it at all).

Originally Posted by Roman@ESS

The blower and manifold turned out really nice

Thanks Roman. And also Thanks for all the feedback and advice.

Originally Posted by JEllis

AWESOME!

Jason

Pot calling the kettle black Haha. Thanks man.

Originally Posted by GOLFFRR

looks great buddy. That blower turned out awesome

Thanks Jimmy. See you at Bimmerfest right?

Originally Posted by slicer

Looks great!

Thanks for the kind words slicer

Originally Posted by Mr.Metak2you

Seriously, soooo nice!

Now i'm getting sentimental.

Originally Posted by KEYON

Woah dude I love how that looks! I need to see this in person asap...

Done and done. Let's do that hookah finally?

Originally Posted by 63NP

Very nice mate, have been contemplating a SC for some time now. Nice paint job,
What BHP did it make on Rolling road.??

Since we got COTM in the same month (all those years ago) - you're basically obligated to get a supercharger. So do it !

I did a preliminary Dyno not too long ago over at EAS. Conditions weren't optimal - 94 degrees that day. I put down 557 whp STD. I was really pleased with that figure. Roman recommends waiting 300 miles to allow the car's computer to adjust. I dyno'd after about 50 miles. Either way I"m going to go back in soon for a follow up dyno, now that the car is fully adjusted, and hopefully on a slightly cooler day - maybe in the morning sometime. Definitely pleased with those figures, though.

[GOLFFRR]

def Ill be there!

[63NP]

Time has flew since COTM. Sound amazing.
Wished we had problems with the heat over here.!! Rain rain rain and more rain.. Boring..