//steve\\ - 2012 Alpine White E92

[statik]

i have the same problem with the pedal for heel toe, infuriating to be so bad at it in this car lol

[//steve\\]

One other comment from driving this that I don't like. On acceleration I prefer not having the power button enabled so that it's "standard" throttle mapping but it does make heel-toe even that much more difficult. My ideal setting would be "Power" only on for downshifts and normal throttle mapping otherwise. Like a few other people have said with it on the throttle pedal feels way too much on/off to me.

[Drifter2090]

Originally Posted by //steve\\

One other comment from driving this that I don't like. On acceleration I prefer not having the power button enabled so that it's "standard" throttle mapping but it does make heel-toe even that much more difficult. My ideal setting would be "Power" only on for downshifts and normal throttle mapping otherwise. Like a few other people have said with it on the throttle pedal feels way too much on/off to me.

Yeah that's exactly why I run with the power on all the time now, easier shfits

[//steve\\]

I had the chance to get the car out both days this weekend which was amazing. Weather was as good as you could ask for.

Sunday I just wanted to do a casual cruise and grab a few pictures. There is a particular shot I want to get but was a bit bummed that there were others at the location so I'll have to save it for another day.

I'm still very much learning this camera thing so I tend to take a LOT of pics and hope that at least a few come out ok. I usually have what I think are decent ideas in my head for how a picture could look, just trying to work on the execution now.











I'm loving the car the more I get to drive it

[wyatth]

Hot damn !!!

[cchen9_]

great pics/location

[reidetailing]

Who makes those hood vents? Are they gloss black or carbon?

[derbo]

Originally Posted by reidetailing

Who makes those hood vents? Are they gloss black or carbon?

IND gloss black.

[//steve\\]

I've been itching to get this car out to Tail of the Dragon just to see how it compares and really shake down the current setup to see where I feel like I'd like to make changes. It's just around 3 hours from my house with a few other fun roads on the way. If you ever get the chance to go, it's a unique experience. Not a whole lot of other roads like it. The road definitely suits small agile cars but it's still a lot of fun in something big and heavy. You really can't hide the size and weight of this car which is what's taking me the most time to adjust to.

As a whole the car did great. Brakes never felt like they fell off all day, temps stayed in check. I do however think I've officially confirmed the B16 Damptronic is just not up to the level of performance I'm looking for. I think some of this is due to being on progressive springs and just the feeling of how much less sharp it makes the car feel. They truly are perfect 85% of the time but just lacking that last bit I want. I don't have a good benchmark though so until my MCS setup is on the car I really can't say. It's entirely possible what I'm feeling is just a E9x thing and I need to get more used to the car. My gut says that a true motorsports damper will help though. I'm hoping to get this stuff swapped in a few weeks. The biggest thing I'll miss for sure is how nice it is to just be able to put the B16 on comfort after I'm done having my fun and just want to cruise.

I have a few other parts I've been collecting to make some other small changes that I'll hopefully be able to detail soon. My intent is to commit to putting the car on jackstands for a few weeks and knock out several things as once.

[slicer]

Looks incredible!

[//steve\\]

I got out for a good 4 hour evening drive on a road I hadn't driven in probably 2 years. It's one of those roads where you get to a lookout and all you see is trees and mountains, not a single other sign of civilization in sight. It was also a good chance to clear my mind and enjoy some slightly cooler weather before the Georgia summer really hits.















This was also the last drive before I knew I'd take the car home and stick it on jack stands to make some changes.

-Finally install MCS coilovers
-Swap the CAE for Autosolutions shifter
-Uninstall the DO88 trans cooler


The Autosolutions shifter is done now and I must say that is not a fun install at all. In terms of feel, it's good and there is absolutely zero play but it still doesn't compare to the action of the CAE. I did it though to what in my opinion was clean up the interior a bit for a more OE+ look. If the car had bucket seats the CAE might have looked a bit more at home but to me it was the glaring racecar part in an otherwise very clean mostly stock looking interior so as a whole package it didn't work. Future phases of this car I have in my head likely include another one or maybe the RTD which seems to give you 99% of the same experience but doesn't require you to hack up the console, etc to make it look complete. I'm still also all over the place about shift knobs. The OE setup looks very clean although it feels a bit boring to me but a lot of aftermarket options look "cheap". I do plan to pick up an alcantara shift boot and e-brake boot to match the steering wheel color.


Before:






After:






I think at the end of the day my happy place is somewhere between the two but I haven't seen any setup that I was 100% in love with.

I'm looking forward to getting all these projects wrapped up and the car back on the road to feel the changes.

[cchen9_]

Might have to grab that cooler off ya!

[Drifter2090]

Looking great! I wish there were good driving roads near me

BTW, how was the CAE for regular driving, is it hard to put it into gears (would it become tiring during daily driving)? Compared to the auto solutions?

[//steve\\]

Originally Posted by Drifter2090

Looking great! I wish there were good driving roads near me

BTW, how was the CAE for regular driving, is it hard to put it into gears (would it become tiring during daily driving)? Compared to the auto solutions?

CAE is cake for regular driving. It isn't any harder to use than a standard shifter. It may be even easier in the sense that the throws are shorter despite all the extra height.

I envision a future state of the car where I may very well have another one. I think the car needs buckets and a rollbar for it to properly look at home.

[M3vk23]

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.

Steering wheel looks amazing. Would you share the company who makes it?

[wyatth]

^ LedermanZ made it. I plan to have him rewrap my M Perf Wheel soon, does great work.

[M3vk23]

Originally Posted by wyatth

^ LedermanZ made it. I plan to have him rewrap my M Perf Wheel soon, does great work.

Do you know where you can get one ? Does he just wrap your existing one or does he have a store. Thank you

[//steve\\]

Originally Posted by M3vk23

Do you know where you can get one ? Does he just wrap your existing one or does he have a store. Thank you

I think you can find him on eBay but also check out @grigul_design on Instagram, it's the same person. I'm not sure the best way to get in touch as I bought it secondhand from derbo

[derbo]

Originally Posted by //steve\\

I think you can find him on eBay but also check out @grigul_design on Instagram, it's the same person. I'm not sure the best way to get in touch as I bought it secondhand from derbo

ledermanz is his ebay name. He does amazing work!

https://www.ebay.com/str/ledermanzbygriguldesignusa

[mawsheen]

Awesome read great thread .... love the direction you have taken your 92 .... Less is always better

[Exclusivs]

Nice approach on this build! Can definitely relate to heel/toe blips being a bit stubborn without "Power" button on. Keep up the good work! Clean S2K!

[//steve\\]

Since my last update I did finally get the MCS shocks on the car. It's a 2WNR setup with 500/800lbs springs. I can honestly say so far if I lost any comfort moving away from the Bilstein B16 Damptronic it's almost unnoticeable. What I did gain was a little sharpness that I felt the B16 was lacking. I've also just left them on the recommended settings from MCS right now which are just a bit towards the softer side from about the middle of the adjustment range. As I drive more I'll tinker a bit.

My only complaint with this switch was my move to the Bimmerworld shorter endlinks that are required. They just simply aren't as nice as the outgoing SPL I had. I'll likely replace these at some point. The joints are looser and they make some noise that I didn't have before and I'm 99.9% sure it's the links. It does appear there are proper length links from SPL off the shelf that are meant for one of the F series cars so unless I look for something else custom that will probably be the route I take.

I still need to trim holes in the rear trunk lining for the shock adjusters and then reinstall it all.

I did pick up a Brey Krause mount for my Recaro bucket I've had for years so I'll be sticking that on the driver side soon just so I can get an idea how drastic the change to a full bucket seat is in this car and weather it's something I want to leave or something I just hold onto to swap in for the times I really want the extra holding a bucket provides. The Recaro Sportsters are a great in between but they definitely do not hold like a bucket seat and a few times I've really wished I was more secure.

After a good bit more driving too I can say I'm definitely happy with the Autosolutions shifter. For a functional perspective it still isn't the CAE but it looks far more at home for the state my car is in today and I'm ok with that.

I also purchased a Stage 1 tune from Epic and that was a nice bump. Nothing that's going to blow you away but you can tell there is just a little extra there. I intend to do test pipes and their Stage 2 tune in the near future. I considered several tune options but Epic seemed to be one of the few that just simply didn't have any negative reviews (aside from price). You get what you pay for though and Randy@Epic has been very responsive.


Took a few more shots over the weekend at a local spot I really like and then did a bit of exploring.