E92 Dedicated Track Car Build

[Shmelgy]

After the lease of my 2011 M3 ended, I found a 335is on swapalease that was too cheap to pass up. Once that lease ended, I ordered an individual F80, here, and started modding it to be a dual purpose monster. After a few track days, I found myself missing the E92 M3 more and more, until I drove my buddy's one day at Big Willow. That was it, I had to get another one and go balls out.

If I was going to get another M3, it would have to have some similarities to my original order: Melbourne Red, manual transmission, E92, 2009+. So I started searching the forums for a good deal, and ended up finding the perfect project car on autotempest.com - a zero option 2010 with ONLY 12,000 MILES at a price too good to pass up. I sent a deposit, flew out to Utah the next morning, and drove it home to LA.

Inspired by dogbone and others on here, I had a few ideas of what I would do to transform the M3 into a dedicated track car.
On to the mods:

- Fully gutted, heater/ac delete, radio delete
- As much unnecessary weight removed, still need to thin out more of the wiring harness
- Custom full cage by Racewerkz, painted gunmetal grey
- relocated the traction button and horn onto the dash
- MCS 3-way remote reservoir coilovers with Swift (f) Eibach (r) springs and GC race camber plates
- Eibach sway bars front and rear
- Essex AP Radi-Cal 9668/9449 Pro 5000r brakes w/ ss lines
- Ferodo DS1.11 pads
- Motul 660 brake fluid
- Sparco Circuit driver's seat and Sprint passenger's seats
- Schroth 6-point Hans compatible racing harness w/ non-Hans 6-point for passenger's side
- Bell RS7C LTWT helmet with HANS III
- Puma Podio race suit
- Lifeline Zero 2000 4L electronic fire suppression system
- kill switch
- Forgeline GS1R 18x10.5 et20 square wrapped in 305/645/18 Pirelli DH, 295/30/18 Hoosier R7
- Apex ARC-8 18x10 et25 square (spare)
- MSI race studs
- LCI taillights
- Gintani catless x-pipe with a custom lightweight axleback
- Alex@Alpine tune and coding
- 10,000k Alpine HID angel eyes (leftover from the OG e92)
- BMC drop in filter
- Motul 300v 20w-60
- CAE Shifter
- Turner Motorsports solid engine and transmission mounts
- MS solid diff and subframe mounts
- Rothsport quick release
- MOMO hub
- Racetech 330mm steering wheel
- APR GT-250 swan neck rear wing w, Gurney flap: chassis mounted
- Zebulon chassis mounted carbon front splitter
- Alumalite chassis mounted front splitter made by Racewerkz (backup)
- Polyurethane Challenge rep front lip
- Seibon carbon fiber hood and trunk (will eventually paint them Melbourne Red)
- Aerocatch hood latches/ OMP trunk pins
- OS Giken race diff with Motorsport 4.10 gears
- diff cooler w/ fan
- full SPL parts front and rear
- ebrake delete (completely removed from rear axle)
- GT4 canards
- Lexan rear 3 windows
- Lightweight Spal radiator fan
- Electric power steering pump conversion
- AIM Solo 2 DL hardwired with slicer dash mount
- Spec carbon/carbon race clutch with lightweight flywheel

Sitting around waiting to be installed:
- Geoff Steel carbon doors

Shoutout to Racewerkz Engineering for doing a great job, taking all my money and answering all my questions, Speeddistrict for hosting greats events that led to this addiction, as well as Alex@Alpine dogbone slicer lemanszcpm3 Malek@MRF and AutoTalent

[Shmelgy]

[Shmelgy]

How she sits now

[slicer]

It's such an awesome build!!

[roastbeef]

holy smokes. very nice! keep the pics coming.

i do have a stupid question... how streetable does it feel? i'm addicted to the lightness.

[Shmelgy]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

holy smokes. very nice! keep the pics coming.

i do have a stupid question... how streetable does it feel? i'm addicted to the lightness.

I registered it in Montana, so it technically is street legal. I would say the only thing that is not streetable for me is not having windows/door locks/air conditioning- but I'm also sick in the head. I still take it out for a drive here and there, but tow to the track. I also love how solid everything feels with the bushings and mounts swapped out for aluminum- others might hate that. Can't comment on the new diff with 4.10 gears yet since the car is at racewerkz getting that installed along with the full line of spl components.

You can definitely feel the lightness

[dogbone]

Looks like it’s ready to rock’n’roll now!!

[MPACT]

So awesome to see my old MCS kit found an awesome home. Keep us updated!

[Shmelgy]

Originally Posted by MPACT

So awesome to see my old MCS kit found an awesome home. Keep us updated!

Can't believe you lived so close to the dealership I bought the car from! Such a great setup

[okusa]

Great build. Now you just need Casey to print you up some respectable looking track numbers.

[Shmelgy]

Originally Posted by okusa

Great build. Now you just need Casey to print you up some respectable looking track numbers.

Haha, I got them done myself

[dogbone]

Have you been able to weigh the finished car yet?

[Shmelgy]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Have you been able to weigh the finished car yet?

My car is at racewerkz right now getting the diff and spl parts installed. I'll see if Casey can do a final weigh-in

[Nate Tempest]

Hey, Nathan from AutoTempest here. This came up in my Google alerts (thanks for the mention!) and I had to register just to say sick build man! My track car's got nothing on that (although it does dual duty as an STR autocross car, so there's not much more I can do on it...)

[Shmelgy]

Originally Posted by Nate Tempest

Hey, Nathan from AutoTempest here. This came up in my Google alerts (thanks for the mention!) and I had to register just to say sick build man! My track car's got nothing on that (although it does dual duty as an STR autocross car, so there's not much more I can do on it...)

Thanks man. I would literally wake up every morning when I was looking for a car and search the site. One morning there was a new one up, and the dealership told me I was the first person to contact them, within the hour they posted it online!

[M3 Number 86]

nice bro.

I think your driveway still has my sweat stains on it.

[Shmelgy]

Originally Posted by M3 Number 86

nice bro.

I think your driveway still has my sweat stains on it.

Haha that night was brutal, but way more has gone down now in the front. No more garage in the back :

[M3 Number 86]

Originally Posted by Shmelgy

Haha that night was brutal, but way more has gone down now in the front. No more garage in the back :

dang...must be sunny and sweaty sometimes lol

[Shmelgy]

Regardless of aero- when tires are dead, its time for some slidey fun.

[kayha12]

I see Racewerkz has done a few chassis mount splitter set ups. I wonder if they're willing to sell the chassis support separately? Wish I was on the west coast!

Car looks amazing, I'm curious with the weight as well

[ixm3]

Build looks great.

If you can live with it...to save some more weight you could ditch the headlights and go with carbon blanks.

Besides the a/c delete, can also delete power steering pump (and convert to an electric pump).

[Shmelgy]

Originally Posted by ixm3

Build looks great.

If you can live with it...to save some more weight you could ditch the headlights and go with carbon blanks.

Besides the a/c delete, can also delete power steering pump (and convert to an electric pump).

Yeah, I feel you. I just love the angel eyes so much. I think I'll do the power steering conversion in the future. I spoke to Casey at racewerkz today when I picked up the car, and he said I can free up some weight by replacing the fan up front with a smaller/lightweight fan