//steve\\ - 2012 Alpine White E92

[HELROTM3]

While I do like the suspension I'm most likely going to change it up at some point to something more performance oriented. Maybe I'll look into the possibility of just putting a bit more spring on the Bilsteins? Hard to say at this point. They weren't disappointing by any stretch. My short list would be 1-way MCS or JRZ, KW Clubsports, revalved Ohlins R&T. Maybe depending on pricing I'd look at 2-way MCS or JRZ but I also like the idea of keeping it simple.

I've had JRZ's and the KW Clubsports on the e92 and e90 chassis. My perspective would be to go with a KW Clubsport 3 way.

[wyatth]

I want those seats so bad.
How long have you spent in them? Do you find them comfortable for ingress/egress, and also after a few hours?
Any more photos - interior, or exterior where they show - would be appreciated. At their price point, comfort and looks are both a must, haha!

[//steve\\]

Originally Posted by wyatth

I want those seats so bad.
How long have you spent in them? Do you find them comfortable for ingress/egress, and also after a few hours?
Any more photos - interior, or exterior where they show - would be appreciated. At their price point, comfort and looks are both a must, haha!

The drive I did last Friday was about 3.5-4 hours. I was sitting down almost the entire time. NO issues whatsoever. Getting in and out is easy. Keep in mind I'm coming from getting in and out of a S2000 with Pole Position bucket seats so almost everything short of a caged halo seat race car is easier. I do wish there was a bit more hip/leg support but it's always a compromise. They look like they could be OEM. The seat back being able to fold is really nice. They give the rear a bit more legroom because the seat is a bit thinner.

I'll definitely try to get more photos soon. I picked up a few things recently so once I get a chance to dig into them I'll get some new pics, thoughts, info up.

[//steve\\]

I had one of the wheels off to make a quick check of something and figured I'd use it as a chance to get a little photo practice. I'm barely an amateur when it comes to photography. I think I know just enough to problem mess up pictures more than help

The wheels and brakes are some of my favorite parts on the car. The detail on the back of the E88s is awesome.

[//steve\\]

This seemed to take forever but I finally got the electric steering wheel removed from the car and put my new wheel in. I LOVED having the data that you get with the steering wheel although I didn't particularly love the look of it right in my face. I think if I was tracking the car it might be something I really wanted to have. I won't say that I'll never have another one, just not for now. Removal of the electronic steering wheel was quite extensive. It's connected in multiple places and in my case the harness was run behind the CIC instead of through the console. This was the first time ever working on a car that I had to de-pin and re-pin electrical connectors. Good learning experience and it's wasn't nearly as intimidating as I thought it might be. Easy to say now that I'm done and verified everything works

I picked this new wheel up a month or so ago from a friend here. Very happy with the quality for aftermarket and I really like that the wheel alcantara matches my shifter trim.




I generally just like very clean and simple so I also removed the red M button and red start button in favor of the simple OE parts.

I don't think this will be the last wheel in the car but I'm happy with it for now. I would definitely purchase another wheel from the same place though.

My gut says what I'll end up doing is having them make me a wheel with the same color alcantara but a fully round wheel (I don't love the D-shape) and either no top stripe or a stripe that's the same color and material so that there is still a stripe but it's just very very subtle. It would ultimately look much like the OE GTS wheel.

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by //steve\\

CAE shifter
Another part that in the function category it just hits a home run. Every shift is crisp and direct. I don't think I actually want to get rid of it but I wouldn't mind if it was 2-3" shorter. I usually prefer a taller than stock shift lever but this is on the extreme side of tall. I don't see myself ever going back to stock but maybe the RTD shifter is a compromise. It looks a tad more OE. I haven't done a lot of looking to see if I can just get a shorter lever CAE, if so that might be the ticket. No rush to change this though but it's on my thought list.

You can always swap it for a Autosolutions SSK. Much more oem-looking, same performance.

That would bother me more than the electronic steering wheel or the red buttons!

[//steve\\]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

You can always swap it for a Autosolutions SSK. Much more oem-looking, same performance.

That would bother me more than the electronic steering wheel or the red buttons!

Shifter is on the list of things I'm evaluating as well. Part of me likes the look and at the same time thinks it's completely over the top. Functionally though the part is excellent. I wish it was a little bit shorter.

[ALTAEZZA]

+1 for being a fellow S2000 owner!
The E92 looks great Steve, those black E88's ended up in Jersey and currently up for sale on FB market place!

[JPWEraser]

Welcome and it looks like you picked up a great M3. I too had a S2000 and it was a great car. I did make a stop between the S2000 and the M3 though and drove a Z4M roadster for a few years. Great car. Must be something about high piston speed engines that attracts me... F20c, S54, and now S65.

[ALTAEZZA]

Originally Posted by JPWEraser

Welcome and it looks like you picked up a great M3. I too had a S2000 and it was a great car. I did make a stop between the S2000 and the M3 though and drove a Z4M roadster for a few years. Great car. Must be something about high piston speed engines that attracts me... F20c, S54, and now S65.

Here is my F24C stroked AP2
Also owned a E46M at the same time.
Then sold for the E90

[Drifter2090]

Originally Posted by ALTAEZZA

Here is my F24C stroked AP2
Also owned a E46M at the same time.
Then sold for the E90

[M3_Legend]

Originally Posted by //steve\\

This seemed to take forever but I finally got the electric steering wheel removed from the car and put my new wheel in. I LOVED having the data that you get with the steering wheel although I didn't particularly love the look of it right in my face. I think if I was tracking the car it might be something I really wanted to have. I won't say that I'll never have another one, just not for now. Removal of the electronic steering wheel was quite extensive. It's connected in multiple places and in my case the harness was run behind the CIC instead of through the console. This was the first time ever working on a car that I had to de-pin and re-pin electrical connectors. Good learning experience and it's wasn't nearly as intimidating as I thought it might be. Easy to say now that I'm done and verified everything works

I picked this new wheel up a month or so ago from a friend here. Very happy with the quality for aftermarket and I really like that the wheel alcantara matches my shifter trim.




I generally just like very clean and simple so I also removed the red M button and red start button in favor of the simple OE parts.

I don't think this will be the last wheel in the car but I'm happy with it for now. I would definitely purchase another wheel from the same place though.

My gut says what I'll end up doing is having them make me a wheel with the same color alcantara but a fully round wheel (I don't love the D-shape) and either no top stripe or a stripe that's the same color and material so that there is still a stripe but it's just very very subtle. It would ultimately look much like the OE GTS wheel.

I agree I feel the same way about simple OE parts

[//steve\\]

Finally got the car up on jack stands to start removal of the supercharger and pull the exhaust as well. This car is infinitely more of a pain to get fully on stands than my S2000 was. That car probably spoiled me a bit because despite it's low ride height it was simple and I could do it all from sliding a jack under the side of the car.

I will most likely end up doing some cleanup/detailing while I have things this far apart. I like to deep clean any chance I get especially when some of these parts are exposed and normally wouldn't be .

[//steve\\]

I wanted to get the exhaust pulled so I could wipe it down and get it listed in classifieds. I know some part of me will miss this and maybe have a small bit of regret but I've already made up my mind. I definitely know I don't want a catless setup and I've also never particularly loved the exhaust tips on the Akra. Custom tips more like OE would actually be perfect to me. I'm not entirely sure what I'll do for exhaust in the long run but for now the stock is going back on. Next change will probably be primary cat deletes and a stage 2 tune.

Here is the Akrapovic GT4 exhaust. All of these parts are hilariously lightweight and the quality is excellent. It's a bit of a shame it all ends up under the car.

[wyatth]

Gorgeous parts looking brand new as usual!
You’ll miss this setup.

[HELROTM3]

Why are you removing the Akra ?

[e90///M3]

I can respect the simple and clean approach on your car. I'm pretty sure you got a deal you didn't want to pass up...but wouldn't it been a lot easier purchasing a stock m3 and mod it to your liking vs. going through the trouble of removing or replacing so many quality parts. Either way, I love this build and look forward what's next.

[//steve\\]

Originally Posted by HELROTM3

Why are you removing the Akra ?

The catless is way too stinky on this and poses headaches for emissions I have to do yearly. And to be quite honest because it was worth a good chunk of money. I'll maybe do a rear section down the road but need to find a better tip solution. I don't particularly like either option they come with.

Originally Posted by e90///M3

I can respect the simple and clean approach on your car. I'm pretty sure you got a deal you didn't want to pass up...but wouldn't it been a lot easier purchasing a stock m3 and mod it to your liking vs. going through the trouble of removing or replacing so many quality parts. Either way, I love this build and look forward what's next.

I did get a good deal on the car but most definitely not starting from stock would be easier. There are still far more parts staying with the car than going. Also starting with stock and doing all the same mods would cost me significantly more, it would easily be a 5-digit number difference.


I also very much enjoy working on cars and modding them to be my own. This was quite possibly the best start I could ask for and luckily so much of what was already done are things I'd want to have. I have a ton of ideas in my head about what's next but none of it will happen over night. I'm also new to this chassis and want to get a feel for it at completely stock power.

[//steve\\]

A little progress update....

Getting closer and closer to seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

As usual I can't just focus on the one thing I had originally set out to do. There is so much exposed while doing this removal that I'd like to take the best chance I have to clean it all up. I'd say every time I work on the car I end up spending 20% of my time doing a little cleaning. I know I should just come back and visit it later but my mind never seems to let me do it.

Here is sits as of now. Getting close to the point that it's start to put things back together. Only one or two more small items before I'm ready for that.





All in all this motor so far has been pretty easy to work on. Nothing feels too terribly foreign or difficult at the level of work I'm doing.

[//steve\\]

This felt like a huge victory I've been thinking about since before I even owned the car. OE plenum back on finally. Until you've done an install (or removal) I don't think people realize just how many components go into make a complete supercharger setup and Harrop did an amazing job making this seem about as OE as I think you could. It's taken a LOT of time to get to this point but I've had fun working on the car so far.

There really hasn't been anything quite yet that just sucks to do or they've engineered to be overly difficult (I'm sure there is something, I just haven't had to touch it yet). I do think a lot of this is that I've now been wrenching on my own cars for ~15 years and when you take your time to do jobs right and find out it's not so bad you slowly build the confidence to tackle hard and harder jobs. I think with age I'm less afraid to just jump in and have gotten better about trusting myself that everything will be ok. The end result is also far more satisfying knowing I did it myself.





I truly feel like I'm on the home stretch. Most of what's left should go fairly quick too. Not so sure I'll have it done quickly but the individual tasks are not hard or very time consuming.

Expect to find the Harrop in classifieds soon enough. I still want to do one final inventory to make sure I'm not missing anything and understand what the next person might need to buy (I think it's just hose clamps).

I'm probably the only person to have purchased a car with a Harrop+Akrapovic setup and removed both to go back to stock .

This is just the beginning. The next phase for me will likely be very little change to the car and just getting as much seat time as I can. I'd like to get to know how the car drives when pushed a bit at stock power before I dig into anything else.

[Rusty_Schackleford]

Damn I wish I would have picked up that exhaust

[//steve\\]

Harrop Supercharger is officially 100% removed and boxed up for the next person. You can find it listed in classifieds. On many levels I'm sure I'll miss it but for how I'd envision building my dream M3 it's not a boosted setup.