09 Melbourne Red 6MT - Journey to the Ultimate Spec

[weavingtraffic]

After owning an F80 for some time, I realized that it wasn't doing it for me anymore. Started playing with miata's and getting heavily into autocross. A buddy of mine asked me to tag along and look at an e92 m3 for sale locally to give the GL on the car. After taking it for a spin on the test drive, I was hooked.

My miata and old f80.



Fast forwarding about 2 weeks from the test drive, I had been scouring the market for a manual cf roof car. Low and behold, I found a car that was seemingly listed by a dealer who had no idea what the market value was.

Melbourne Red E92 M3 6mt Black Leather Nav Individual Sound CF ROOF



Drove it back to CT from where it spent it's life in Florida. Upon taking delivery of the car I ordered a few things. Not long after I returned, it was time to start putting them on the car. Started off real simple.

IND Paint matched reflectors



DEPO LCI Tail Lights (Not a fan of these will eventually find OEM ones)


F10 M5 Illuminated Shift Knob


Was in love with the sound of the E92 M3 and enjoyed the car in its stock configuration for a while. But decided I wanted a bit more bark. Despite lots of information online with reports of the MPE being a bit too tame, I decided to try my luck.





Loved how it sounded and the tones were perfect. Exotic and subtle with some bark when I wanted it. But at the same time, I didn't hear it unless I really put my foot down. So I started researching exhaust setups that would fit the bill. I wanted something that always sounded like it was there but yet not enough to bother passengers or passerby's.

Basically what I had gathered was that the rear section of the exhaust is what would dictate the majority of the sound and specifically the loudness of the exhaust. So I opted for the bimmerworld forward facing x pipe. There wasn't much out there as far as audio clips but I was able to find a few threads talking about it and specifically the rasp associated with it.

I purchased the resonated version which also deletes the primary and secondary cats. Coupled it with the AlpineMSS stage 2 tune and am still working through iterations with Alex to fix the "hiccups" in the lower rpms.



Here's a clip!

Installed an OEM m performance spoiler. Felt like the rear of the car "needed some more". Used betalink and although messy... super happy I used it. Haven't had luck with 3M long term in the past.





Fast forwarding...

Did my first ever real track day, at Lime Rock Park. Car performed exceptionally well and I had a blast "using it". Although surely enough all of the pitfalls of the chassis in stock form showed their true colors. Brakes faded even in my first session driving like a total noob and I could feel how soft and tired my suspension had become. Likely not totally the MPSS fault but the car really needs some more camber. Good news is, it gave me a really good idea of what I need to do over the winter to prepare it for further festivities.



Now getting into some more interesting stuff...
I started becoming obsessed with the idea of having my own "unicorn" spec. For me this was: single hump, cloth seats, no EDC and some form of GTS spirit.

I set out on my journey.
A seemingly large undertaking which has started spiraling out of control. But there is an end in sight!

My car was originally spec'd with individual audio. As far as I'm aware, there are only a few US examples which were spec'd with no-idrive and individual audio. This was due to the fact that you could not physically build and order one in this configuration unless going the individual a-la-carte route.

First step was removing the center console armrest. Im short but have extremely long arms, with my seating position it seemed like the 2-4-6 shifts caused me to awkwardly position my arm and twist my wrist. At least that's what I told myself anyways. Mjunkees GTS style armrest. A beautiful product



A few hours later... goodbye iDrive.





And.... we're live!



Coding completed, satellite and individual audio working with the new headunit. Also took the time to delete the EDC, module and coding as my EDC module has been giving me trouble for some time now. The suspension will be pulled out in the winter.

Remember when I said things will start getting out of hand? Anyways, I was brainstorming a solution for the idrive controller being out of the car. I decided that I didn't want to purchase another center console and instead dive head first into a learning experience. As a software engineer, often times I'm faced with issues that need some real critical thinking and obviously, creativity and learning. I set out to learn the basics of CAD and make use of a 3D printer that has been collecting dust.

I am retaining audio as the car will still serve as a street car and with the center console space being out of play.. I needed a way to use the aux input.

First prototype of a plate that holds and solves the issue of the aux/usb falling through.



After about a month of prototypes, measuring, raging at my computer and trying to learn how to CAD...

It was time to print the final piece and put in some finishing touches... some alcantara to match the armrest. Never worked with fabric before and it's certainly not perfect. But for the amount of learning and progress that I made, I am extremely happy to share the final result.











To top it off, my custom plates came in. In hindsight, they are kinda silly. Was going for a BMW dealer plate type of "vibe" but BMW M3 was taken.



So I settled on this. Will likely change it down the road. Feels a little tacky.



Certainly more craziness to come.

[michaelalex17]

Great write up! The single hump dash conversion looks amazing!

[weavingtraffic]

Originally Posted by michaelalex17

Great write up! The single hump dash conversion looks amazing!

Thank you! Totally worth the effort.

Small update that unexpectedly made its way in the mail today.
95% fully deleted EDC. All that's left is the hardware that is a part of the suspension itself. Simple but necessary.





Now time to focus on the rear. Currently a blank slate. Quite literally. Still mulling over a few options, but good thing it is in the rear of the car so I don't have to look at the mess

[Dr Ed]

Nice car, love the progress so far.

Random question about your phone mount, have you tried using on it with the non I-Drive dash? I've wanted the mount from Rennline, but I wasn't sure if it would work with that dash.

[weavingtraffic]

Originally Posted by Dr Ed

Nice car, love the progress so far.

Random question about your phone mount, have you tried using on it with the non I-Drive dash? I've wanted the mount from Rennline, but I wasn't sure if it would work with that dash.

Thank you!

So it won't fit. The screws for the bracket are not oriented in the same position as the old dash. I actually contacted Rennline regarding this because I loved my mount. Was told that we should look for sometime early next year for a non I-drive mount. They have an employee with an e90 no nav that they will use for R&D. So unfortunately we wait until then!

[Sthbaysam]

Loving the progress! What're your future plans?

[M3_Legend]

Great stuff. Need more updates

[weavingtraffic]

Originally Posted by Sthbaysam

Loving the progress! What're your future plans?

I don't like to "upgrade" things unless it serves a purpose. While I'm no seasoned track junkie, through my time building my miata into a nationally competitive autox car and competing, I've learned to pay attention to and feel out issues that hold the car and/or me back from improving and otherwise reaching a higher limit of the chassis.

So for the winter my plans are to:
- Find speed cloth interior
- Finish my vision for the interior
- Swap out the suspension for something suited to track use but still compliant on the street. Preferably remote, something like a JRZ/MCS 2 or 3 way.
- Camber plates / Anything else that will be required to achieve more camber in the front and rear. Still need to research and ask questions.
- Front sway bar
- BBK / Lines / Fluid
- A set of dedicated track wheels/tires
- Harnesses either quick fit or cage + harness as I bounced around quite a bit on track and was not used to not being secured like in my miata.

Originally Posted by M3_Legend

Great stuff. Need more updates

They will certainly be rolling in! Dumped pretty much all of my ownership and progress thus far so as things happen the thread will be updated

[iamtrashman]

This is super cool!!! Great progress so far. I love that you got rid of the EDC switch as well.

[DirtyM3]

Subscribed.

[Ubersmooth]

Great thread and great car. Curious, what don't you like about the DEPO tails?

[xdarwin13]

Very cool. Single hump/EPS is the way to go - I was lucky enough to find one of the few US examples that left the factory that way.

[spazzyfry123]

Curious, where did you source the single hump dash? My E90 was delivered like that, but I've often thought of doing exactly what you've done with another car. Salvage car or is it something that can still be sourced?

Looking good!

[cdavis93]

Nice looking cars and you did nice on the mods.

[weavingtraffic]

Small update, getting somewhere with the rear portion of the interior. After a bit of theory crafting I’ve decided that I wanted to delete the e92 rear center console.

Along with that vision, I’ve been wanting to figure out what to do with the rear seats. Do I get a rear seat delete and a cage? Do I keep the rear seat and a cage? I looked to the E92 M3 GTS for answers.

A factory seat delete and cage. But more importantly, no rear center console. There are only a limited amount of photos of the rear interior, at least for the portion that I’m concerned with. It seems like there is a part that is unique to the e92 m3 GTS, which is a rear console cover that doesn’t extend into the rear seat area. I could not find a part number for this but I figured that if the e90/92 center consoles are the same… that an e90 rear console cover should fit.

And it does.





Note: I know things are scratched up and one day, when I'm done with "the vision", I will replace plastics and trim pieces with fresh new ones
While I mock, modify and test.. I don't see a good reason to potentially scratch or otherwise damage things.

I'm not color blind.... however, I am having a very hard time figuring out if the cover is the same shade as the center console. Whether it is faded or if it is entirely different. But it fits perfect. I would ideally like to have it match as well as make a factory looking vent delete, identical to the GTS (unless I can source the part) and have it be the same finish/fitment.

There are going to be some big learning curves coming soon to some projects I want to tackle and I am very excited to share as they start coming along.

[weavingtraffic]

Originally Posted by cdavis93

Nice looking cars and you did nice on the mods.

Thank you!

Originally Posted by iamtrashman

This is super cool!!! Great progress so far. I love that you got rid of the EDC switch as well.

Small touches here and there make for a nice polished product

Originally Posted by Ubersmooth

Great thread and great car. Curious, what don't you like about the DEPO tails?

The wiring harness that is "plug and play" is super bulky and there are these huge (resistor blocks?) that dangle and need to be secured by the battery. It is the least bit factory and I would rather just have a clean OEM solution. The overall fitment itself and their operation, I have no issues with.

Originally Posted by xdarwin13

Very cool. Single hump/EPS is the way to go - I was lucky enough to find one of the few US examples that left the factory that way.

Amazing! So simple and elegant.. I hope you enjoy your amazingly spec'd car for lots of time to come.

Originally Posted by spazzyfry123

Curious, where did you source the single hump dash? My E90 was delivered like that, but I've often thought of doing exactly what you've done with another car. Salvage car or is it something that can still be sourced?

Looking good!

I like to use ebay to find parts. Often times items are well priced and you have the added warranty of dealing with paypal, returns, etc just in case of any problems.

[reidetailing]

Originally Posted by weavingtraffic

Small update, getting somewhere with the rear portion of the interior. After a bit of theory crafting I’ve decided that I wanted to delete the e92 rear center console.

Along with that vision, I’ve been wanting to figure out what to do with the rear seats. Do I get a rear seat delete and a cage? Do I keep the rear seat and a cage? I looked to the E92 M3 GTS for answers.

A factory seat delete and cage. But more importantly, no rear center console. There are only a limited amount of photos of the rear interior, at least for the portion that I’m concerned with. It seems like there is a part that is unique to the e92 m3 GTS, which is a rear console cover that doesn’t extend into the rear seat area. I could not find a part number for this but I figured that if the e90/92 center consoles are the same… that an e90 rear console cover should fit.

And it does.





Note: I know things are scratched up and one day, when I'm done with "the vision", I will replace plastics and trim pieces with fresh new ones
While I mock, modify and test.. I don't see a good reason to potentially scratch or otherwise damage things.

I'm not color blind.... however, I am having a very hard time figuring out if the cover is the same shade as the center console. Whether it is faded or if it is entirely different. But it fits perfect. I would ideally like to have it match as well as make a factory looking vent delete, identical to the GTS (unless I can source the part) and have it be the same finish/fitment.

There are going to be some big learning curves coming soon to some projects I want to tackle and I am very excited to share as they start coming along.

It's remarkable because you and I are doing very similar things with this center console project (deleting vents, etc).

Excited to see this build continue to progress.

[weavingtraffic]

The winter has come and gone. Hibernation is over and instead of nuts, I was hoarding some parts. Going to be some major and very notable updates to the car this year. Especially in the next coming weeks!

A very exciting change of... shoes!
OEM ZCP wheels with 255/35 275/35 P4S tires







Totally changed the look of the car. Couldn't be happier to remove the 220m wheels for the last time.
Since the car will end up on coilovers at some point, I decided to go with 12mm front and 10mm rear spacers.
Along with a 75mm macht schnell stud conversion. Stud conversion is here, but still waiting for the spacers.

Now, for my favorite update...



I HAVE SECURED MY DREAM INTERIOR!!

It is still a work in progress.. need to find some more time to finish installing the rear portion but behold.... SPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED CLOTH!!





Everything is dirty, the car has pretty much sat since winter. Interior needs a good detail, however everything needs to go back together first.

[iamtrashman]

Were you able to pick up the matching cloth door cards as well? Its looking sweet!!

[niz181]

awesome build

[SupraSaiyan]

Wow, awesome build!

[AdonM3]

Originally Posted by weavingtraffic

Thank you! Totally worth the effort.

Small update that unexpectedly made its way in the mail today.
95% fully deleted EDC. All that's left is the hardware that is a part of the suspension itself. Simple but necessary.





Now time to focus on the rear. Currently a blank slate. Quite literally. Still mulling over a few options, but good thing it is in the rear of the car so I don't have to look at the mess

Looks great! Where did you find the blank button to replace the EDC button?