You're 100% correct on swapping everything over and honestly I don't think either series would care if I did that all. At the end of the day it would be nice to have a competitive car to drive but the reality is the E90 is not going to be it. So I'll have fun and set the car up how I want, which is fine.
I lowered the tire pressure on these Continentals last night- the fronts were about 2psi higher than my new calculations and the rears were about 4psi high. It seemed to make a bit of a difference- the car felt a bit less floaty and more stable. I'll give it some more time for long term impressions.
I really should have read the Tire Rack comparisons more thoroughly before buying these tires- they complained about wishing these tires gave a bit more steering weight. I have similar sentiments. If given the option to swap them out, I likely would have gone with the Bridgestones that were noted for having better steering response. Apparently Continentals were more noted for their driving comfort (they are very smooth). Lessons learned- next time read the comparison tests more thoroughly and go with the tire that suits my preferences (sharper steering response).
Note about the Bilstein setup: I went over a couple of abrupt road undulations with them last night (including a manhole cover)- I liked the way they absorbed the bump- instead of a prolonged wallow that reverberated for 1-2 seconds (like stock) they absorbed the bumps quickly, without feeling harsh and immediately recovered back to a more flat/stable ride without additional reverberations- one quick, smooth compression and they were back on track. They might not be a hardcore track setup, but good dampers nonetheless.
When I swapped the Bilstein suspension in recently, I noticed just how worn out the OEM front sway bay endlinks were. So I ordered a new Lemforder set from FCP Euro and swapped them in:
This was a very easy job. We're talking 15-20 minutes, including the time it takes to jack the car up, put it on jack stands and torque everything down... or at least that's how long it would have taken if one of the endlinks wasn't missing a nylon nut that it was supposed to come with. Fortunately, Ace Hardware is only ~7 minutes from my house, so a quick trip and I had everything buttoned up and torqued down in no time.
The old endlinks were LOOSE! How loose? As in, I could easily push the bolt to it's full extension with 1-finger, using barely any pressure at all:
The new endlinks feel far far stiffer by comparison.
How does the car drive? Well, it's hard to tell if there's a placebo effect or not... it might be a bit tighter, but it might also just be in my head.
I wish I would have driven it around for a while before the new endlinks to get a better impression- I'm trying to go off of memory... but unfortunately, I spent a few hours driving my S2000 today... which, makes things tough to compare- when it comes to transitioning, the S2000 feels like a hyperactive mongoose! Not many cars make my 128i feel a bit sloppy, but I'll be damned if the S2000 isn't one of them.
I went for a longer drive tonight and also took the car to the Carwash- updates:
-The headlights are now putting out noticeably more light. Honestly, I'm pleasantly surprised. I haven't driven it at night in the rain yet, but on a clear night they're much better than they were... now if only the windshield didn't have so much night glare...
-The car feels substantially more confidence inspiring. Even my wife was commenting on it. It feels more planeted, less floaty and fairly eager to rotate. Between the Bilstein setup, the subframe bushing inserts, the new endlinks and playing with tire pressures, it's starting to feel like a real sports car.
-The roof leak has been fixed! Unfortunately there's still water getting into the passenger side footwell, but I'm now pretty confident that it's not coming from the roof... apparently I have 1 more leak to track down.
-I now have another (seemingly much slower) A/C leak. Sigh. And here I was thinking the A/C leak was fixed for good!
We're getting there! Yet again though, I'm not sure I would recommend these cars to the faint of heart! To say this thing has far more issues than my old (older than this) Honda's and Miata's is an understatement! The powertrain seems pretty stout, but all the things around it are of questionable quality lol.
I think I fixed my passenger side footwell leak! I was quick to blame BMW, but after looking at it, I don't believe BMW had anything to do with this issue.
After scouring the internet for answers to my water leaking woes, I determined that water was leaking into the right/passenger side front footwell (right behind the glovebox) via the blower motor.
I removed all the layers of cowling from the engine bay, and found that the seal along the metal edge above the blower motor was completely hanging off of the right/passenger side, not even connected! I should have taken a photo before I reattached it, but I did remember to take a photo of the seal itself after I reattached it, in the event it might help someone find what I'm talking about in the future:
^^^I'm talking about the removable rubber seal that runs along the metal edge right there. When the seal was hanging down, it looked like water was literally running down into the blower motor, ending up on the right/passenger side footwell of the car. After removing the cowling, it only took 1-2 minutes to reconnect the seal to the metal portion of the car. Looking at the design, it would appear that the rubber seal is actually a rain guide, as it looks like it funnels the water to the edges of the engine bay, where there are 2 drain holes for the water to run down.
After putting everything back together, I soaked the car with the hose and didn't see a drop of water entering into the cabin of the car! I wasn't using a pressure washer, only a garden variety hose nozzle, but I'm confident the car will now repel rain water.
For the record, this is what I'm talking about, mine looked the EXACT same way: https://youtu.be/bxuaQYl--GI?si=NU0WIBUvKjyrnBjt
So, why don't I think this was BMW's fault? Well, let me point out Exhibit A, circled in red below:
^^^There's actually more of it on the driver's side as well... which makes sense, as the rubber portion of the cowl has never sat flush against the window since the day I bought it... it would appear that the windshield was replaced at some point and whoever replaced it did a piss poor job of cleaning up the sealant. As a result, the rubber portion of the cowl doesn't sit flush, allowing water to run behind/underneath it with ease; which likely wouldn't have been a big deal if the rubber seal on the metal edge was connected... but what I'm trying to say is that someone removed all of this stuff at one time and seemingly never put it back on correctly. Yet again, I'm fixing problems that were created by someone else being lazy. Honestly, that's been most of my history with this car!
My recommendation: if you're buying one of these cars, like any other car, buy one from someone that took good care of it to avoid trying to track down and correct the mistakes of previous owner(s).
At this point, I'm about the take another wrenching hiatus for a bit. I'll likely take my sweet time tracking down the other A/C leak and cross my fingers that it's something simple!
In reply to roninsoldier83 :
Wrenching hiatus (hiati?) are needed. There's some mathematical balance of driving/wrenching to keep sane.
Well, I took the car in for an alignment today... as it turns out, she was pretty out of spec!
Interesting note vs aligning the car last year: there was a slight loss of front end negative camber (it was -1.7 degrees on both ends last year). There was a slight gain in rear camber, but the rear is also adjustable and I pretty much maxed it out in my garage, so I'm not really sure if that means anything. The tech didn't think it was adjustable and I didn't want to argue with them (he must have missed the eccentric bolts in the rear)... either way, I'm fine with it.
So, the tech did find one thing of MAJOR note: the right front endlink that I JUST replaced, snapped! My jaw was dropped!
I think I know exactly when it happened: right after installing them, while pulling out of the driveway, I need to turn the wheel and take the curb at an angle to avoid my bumper scraping... I could have sworn I heard a snapped sound coming off of the curb... I couldn't re-create it, so I didn't give it much thought. Well, now I know. I can't prove that's when it happened, but I'm pretty confident.
When I installed them, I double and triple checked they were on the correct sides- matching them up with the OEM endlinks. I put them in the correct orientation: on the back side of the front strut and on the outside of the front sway bar hole- they slid right in without me having to muscle them at all. I torqued them down to my shop manual's recommended specs (43 ft-lbs). For the life of me, the only thing I can think of is poor casting?!? I've installed countless suspensions over the past ~20 years and I've never had this happen. I'm always open to "user error" tips or observations to avoid having issues in the future, but I just don't see how I would have caused this...
Pictures of the mayhem:
They're easy to replace, but this was unexpected to say the least. I also don't have a ton of confidence in an identical replacement, to say the least.
So, I go onto FCP Euro's website to apply for a lifetime warranty return... when I start going through the menu, it gives me a long list of orders I've made with them... I'm pretty sure every order I've made with them is listed... except this one. WTF?!? I tried calling but they're closed. I sent them an email, so hopefully I'll hear back from them soon.
I'm about ready to drive this German pile of E36 M3 off a cliff. It's on my last nerve. This might not be the car's fault, but it's sure starting to feel like a fragile, needy pile of bolts.
So, I just played with the snapped off end of the endlink... it seemed to be a bit jack-knifed for lack of a better term.
It took a considerable amount of strength to break the ball-joint end loose! It was TIGHT! After I broke it loose, it seemed to swivel much easier- still tight, but required a fraction of the strength to get it to swivel. So, maybe the ball-joint was just somewhat "seized", which put too much pressure on the link itself? That's the only logical explanation I can come up with... unless I'm missing something?
Either way, I'll be sure to swivel the ball joints around on the replacement (to loosen them up) before installation, just in case.
To make sure I'm not crazy and installed them on the correct sides, they actually have them labeled RH (right hand) and LH (left hand), so even a dummy like me doesn't get this wrong. Sure enough, they're on the correct sides, as the broken one was on the right/passenger side:
The only things I can think of are:
-Ball joint was just too tight, causing too much pressure. OR
-Just a poor casting by Lemforder.
I think I jinxed myself by mentioning I was going to take a hiatus from wrenching for a while! The car has responded that it is not pleased with that plan of action!
Wow, that's unexpected... I also recently replaced the end links on my E90 with the exact same one that I also got from FCP - the old ones were super loose similar to yours.
Every customer service I've had with FCP has been positive so you should be in good hands with a replacement unit. Sucks but hopefully you'll be back up and running soon.
Well, I went to the dyno today in order to see what difference the new 3-stage DISA intake manifold and OEM Euro airbox/K&N filter made. To be clear, I went to a different dyno today than I went to last time, but they're both here in the Denver metro area (read: high elevation) and they're both Dynojets using the SAE correction factor and same smoothing factor, so it's an apples to apples comparison. Temps were in the mid-low 80's today, so very similar to my baseline last month (maybe a touch hotter today). The only reason I didn't go back to the same dyno is cost. MoFab is a great tuner shop, but they charge a fortune (I didn't realize how much they charged for baseline runs until I got the bill), whereas Dyno-Pros charges a fraction of the price- plus, Dyno-Pros does that majority of the NASA certifications in the state (for good reason- they're fast and cost effective).
I actually got to drive my own car on the dyno today! Bear (the owner/operator) said he was filthy and instead of getting my car dirty, asked if I would be willing to drive it myself, which was pretty cool!
So, similar conditions. Same model Dynojet. Same tires. Same oil. Same SAE correction factor. How much did she make compared to last time? A solid 27whp and 32wtq!!
I had both shops send me my dyno run files so I could do my own comparison at home. Here's how the power curve changed:
I then went ahead and put a cursor in a few keys areas to accentuate the differences:
Around 2800rpm, she now has about an extra ~37wtq! Let me tell you, in a 128i that only weighs around ~3100 lbs, it was very noticeable!
Around 5900rpm, there's about a 33whp jump vs stock!
If you decide to keep your foot in it, at around 6800rpm, there's about a ~35whp gap:
^^^^As you can see, there's a massive increase in torque down low, which is maintained throughout the entire powerband (minus the dips where the DISA valves are opening/closing). With the stock manifold you can see power peaks at around ~6200rpm and begins to fall, whereas with the DISA manifold, peak power is essentially sustained from about 6000rpm until around 6600rpm. Overall, there's more power everywhere.
I can see why BMW calls the cars with the single stage manifold "28i" and the cars with the DISA manifold a "30i", as it literally just feels like the car gets a bigger motor, with no loss or downside anywhere (other than cost, installation and tuning).
Another interesting thing I noticed: the car made more power while simultaneously running a richer AFR than stock (see previous graph to see that the OEM map is a good bit leaner). I don't know what the timing map looks like, but those are seemingly safe AFR's to run on track.
Overall, this is a very worthwhile mod that I would highly recommend. Calculating for drivetrain loss would put the car around ~260bhp, which is about where it should be. That's with all stock exhaust and emissions equipment in place, using OEM parts (with the exception of the Turner Motorsports intake elbow that adds no real power).
Side notes:
-The drive to the dyno was about ~45 minutes of mostly highway... even without the front sway bar connected, the car actually felt very good/stable on the freeway!
-I went to the car wash on the way back, to see if I fixed the leaks... roof leak: 100% fixed- it was absolutely the sunroof drain... leak behind the glovebox? Just a few drops made their way through this time- which is a massive improvement from the water fall that came through previously- I would say it's about 90-95% better than it was, but still not 100%. I'm confident it will keep the rain and hose water out, just not high powered sprayers from above. I have a feeling that if I can get the cowl to lay flat against the windshield, this will bring it up to 100%. We'll see.
Out of random curiosity, I ran some of the torque numbers through a shift point calculator, using 6900rpm as the highest RPM point (I was letting off around 7000rpm on the dyno, but it didn't register above 6900rpm), to try and see the the optimal shift point in each gear. The results, well, pretty much redline unless you're shifting into 5th, then, just slightly below redline:
https://glennmessersmith.com/shiftpt.html#data
^^^Nifty little tool to help calculate maximum wheel torque while factoring in gearing multiplication. The numbers should essentially stay the same, regardless of if I end up with a different final drive ratio. In hindsight, I should have banged the engine off of the rev limiter on the dyno, lol.
I want to get my car on Bear's dyno, it's only been on a mainline dyno, which doesn't really give the sort of numbers everyone understands. Need to pull the front driveshaft first tho.
Those are solid number for just an intake manifold swap, totally worth it!
roninsoldier83 said:
what book is this? I need one.
In reply to docwyte :
I forgot your 911 is AWD! If you wanted to avoid removing the driveshaft and pay a good bit more money, you could always go back to MoFab, as I'm pretty sure they have an AWD Dynojet.
And I agree, the manifold is a very worthwhile mod. If someone wanted to make even more power, for even less money, the N54 intake manifold flows much better up top, usually making an extra ~5whp or so over the 3SIM DISA, with solid gains above ~6600rpm or so- the only trade-off being you don't get the extra low-end torque, which, if you look at the N54 manifold, you can visually see how short the runners are in comparison- it's no wonder it makes good power up top. If I were going the N54 manifold route, I would be looking very hard at a very short final drive.
In reply to OHSCrifle :
It's a Haynes manual that is primarily geared towards the N52 powered E90. Most of the things in there translate over to the E82, since they're essentially the same chassis.
Today, I decided I was going to try and sort out the last of the leaks in my E82. The roof has been solved for a while and I got the majority of the leaking behind the glovebox to stop when I simply re-attached the stock rain seal below the cowl. I am determined to get rid of the last few drops of water going through the car wash.
So, when I last pulled the cowl, I noticed I couldn't get the cowl seal to actually press up against the windshield due to large gobs of excess sealant, left over from the last half-wit that put a windshield in the car. As a result, no matter what I did, there was a giant gap between the rubber cowl seal and the windshield:
When pulling the cowl, you can see the giant gobs of sealant from the piss poor windshield install:
I called a buddy of mine that used to install windshields for a living and he advised me to just use a razor blade and start trimming. Copy that!
I started with a scraper and just got all the excess off of the glass, to make sure the cowl would sit flat:
^^^I eventually trimmed the lower portion as well, to give the lip of the cowl a smooth mating surface, but I forgot to take pictures of it.
I went to put everything back together, but I noticed when I re-installed the cabin air filter, the weight of the filter pulled the cowl away from the windshield just a bit, somewhat defeating the work I had put in. Looking closer, there are supposed to be 2 plastic tabs on the cabin air filter housing that help to hold up the weight of the cabin air filter... they've long ago snapped off (super common on these cars):
^^^I considering ordering a new cabin air filter housing from FCP Euro, but when I looked up the part number, some of the reviews said those plastic tabs again snapped off within months... so, I decided to just use some metal stock, bend it, drill some holes, throw some paint at them and make my own damn cabin air filter mounts:
^^^They're not pretty, but dammit they work!
After I buttoned everything up, unfortunately, there's still a very small gap between the windshield and cowl seal in some places, but it's a fraction of the size it used to be! I can now get it to lay flat against the windshield, but I feel like it's just a bit out of shape due to not being flat against the windshield for so long... I'm hoping a hot, sunny day somewhat "melts" it against the windshield a bit.
^^^If not, I might just order a new one from FCP Euro.
Although after I was done, I took the car to go grab dinner... on the way back, we had a crazy, torrential downpour- like, can't hardly see in front of you, if it keeps up, there's going to be flooding rain... the interior of the car? Bone dry! Not a drop of water anywhere I could see! I'm not certain that means it will survive a pressurized car wash, but that's as hard as the rain gets here, so at least I have some peace of mind knowing the car won't leak sitting outside in the rain.
In reply to roninsoldier83 :
I don't think Mofab's dyno in a linked awd dyno, which is what my 911 needs. It's not hard to pull the cardan shaft and like you pointed out, Bear's dyno is used for NASA.
My car was tuned by Harvey@The Boost Creep on his Mainline dyno. He told me it'd make at least 75more hp at the wheels on Bear's dyno jet...
I installed the new right front endlink last night. I took a couple of extra steps this time:
1. I swiveled the ball joints around a bit to make sure they weren't going to seize on me.
2. I jacked up the control arms/knuckle/strut with a jack to make sure the lower endlink ball joint was perfectly level before pushing it through the sway bar, just to make sure the ball joint wasn't swiveled when I torqued the nut.
I pulled out of my driveway slower than an old lady on her way to bingo night! I drove the car around for about ~15 minutes, around some twisty roads. No big shocker: body roll has been drastically reduced. The car now transitions like a legitimate sports car. Between the Bilstein/Eibach's, the rear subframe inserts, corrected tire pressures and the new endlinks, the car feels very tight and more eager to rotate. Although I'm still not impressed by these tires- they ride well and have decent grip, but they don't really load up in the corners- the steering still feels just a bit lighter than I think it should when cornering- that might just be a personal preference thing. Overall, for a fun street car, the little 128i now feels pretty damn good. It doesn't feel like a dedicated track car setup, but it certainly feels like a sports car.
For reference, FCP Euro was impressive- I sent them an email late Friday evening, after they were already closed... first thing Monday morning, they sent me a replacement that they overnighted, free of charge! Can't beat that for service!
In reply to roninsoldier83 :
I'm on my second 128i - first one was set up nearly identical to yours when I purchased it.
DWS are great tires, but they don't mesh well with the 128i. The factory suspension is designed to work with runflats and even with the B12/subframe inserts/M3 control arms and a bigger FSB, they felt off. The car needs a tire with stiffer sidewalls.
On my new-to-me 128i, I'm running Koni Orange shocks/struts, Whiteline inserts, BMW Performance Springs, bigger FSB and Meyle HD control arms. The car came with DWS and I'm currently waiting for Kosei K1s to get back in stock for I can switch over to a better tire.
Your dyno tune looks similar to my N51 128i . . . Mustang dyno, so it reads conservatively, but solid gains: https://photos.app.goo.gl/MxrK258NjXu7qPg19
Agree with DWS observations. PS4S that I had were all used up on my E90 (Koni reds/sports suspension/Whiteline subframe inserts and M3 front control) and feel there is too much squirm; ride comfort is definitely better though.
For alignment I am only able to get -0.9 camber with sports suspension and M3 control arms which was less of an improvement than I was expecting. I suspect the ride height on B12's are are lower than mine though and when I swapped over to Koni reds I replaced the rubber bushings/strut mounts in front and that actually raised the ride height slightly as the what was on the car were well worn/squished after 120k miles.
In reply to newold_m (Forum Supporter) :
When I first bought the car, I took it to the alignment rack with all stock parts (worn out 130k+ mile sport suspension that was definitely sagging a bit). All stock I ended up with -0.7 L & -1.0 R front camber.
When I added the M3 control arms that jumped up to -1.7 on both sides.
Adding the Bilstein setup dropped it back down to -1.2 / -1.3. I suspect that was because I replaced everything and I'm sure the old strut mounts were pretty worn down after 138k miles. Honestly there's not much of a ride height change between my worn out sport suspension and the brand new B12 setup, so I'm sure the B12's are slightly lower, but not by much.
I've spent some more time driving the 128i around town and am only posting this morning to share my impressions:
The car is wonderful! I know a lot of folks overuse the expression "it should have came like this from the factory", but truly, the car should have come like this from the factory. It's honestly just about the perfect street car. Body roll is now minimal, the car rotates with ease and feels incredibly planted! It's so much fun to pitch around! It feels like a legitimate sports car. So well balanced and poised, it just begs to be pitched around on a back road!
At the same time, the car is still very comfortable. It rides perfectly for a street car. I suppose some might consider it "firm" (I'm not in that crowd), but I honestly can't imagine a car that handles like this that rides better. It's softer than my essentially stock (OEM parts only) AP2 S2000. I could drive this car all day without it wearing my out. There's still a tad bit of body roll (what street car doesn't have any body roll?), but it's pretty minimal on these all-season tires.
The car is not a muscle car. It's not going to keep up with modern V8's in a straight line. It is in no way "scary fast" or remotely intimidating. But it has good/adequate power, across a very wide powerband. It's just as fast as my S2000, but it doesn't need to be revved out- a very relaxed torque curve that allows the car to still feel quick without ever going over 4000rpm. Although if you decide to run it out to redline, it pulls linearly from start to finish. It's not quite as rewarding to rev out as a VTEC Honda, but there's no time where the motor feels like a lifeless brick- it just feels strong, everywhere. It's also a very consistent motor- it never feels like the DME/ECU is pulling power like you'll get on a lot of turbo cars.
The shifter, while a bit on the numb side, is very, very smooth and intuitive. Honestly, replacing all the shifter bushings and putting the tall Condor Speed shift knob back in (with a bit of extra weight added) was one of the best things I've done for the car. It didn't seem like a huge difference at the time, but now after driving it around quite a bit in anger, I can't believe how much more precise the shifter is- I let the clutch out a split second too early the other day, but beyond that, I literally haven't missed a shift in months! Changing the shifter bushing was a total pain in the neck, but it was 100% worth it- and I don't say that subjectively, I say it objectively, as the amount of missed shifts went down drastically (essentially to zero).
Overall, the car feels very well balanced and is an absolute joy to drive! As always, the sport seats are great, the ergonomics are great, the steering feel (while a bit numbed from the tires) is still excellent, the pedals are easy to work, the chassis is very communicative, the shifter is smooth and intuitive and the motor, while not a powerhouse, is an absolutely gem- smooth, refined and with more than enough power to give the car an entertaining feel. It's a blast to pitch around on a back road, but at the same time, I wouldn't hesitate to take it on a road trip. Just a great blend of sportiness and refinement.
After adding all the new parts and aligning the car, the high speed freeway stability is back! The car will now cruise at autobahn-esque speeds with confidence! Mission accomplished!
At this point, there's not a much I would like to "improve" on the car. I mean, a LSD would be a nice addition. Not required to have fun, but would certainly add to the overall sports car feel... I'll likely add some type of helical LSD in the future (likely a Wavetrac)- I know a clutch type would make for a better track car, but I really don't want to ruin the car's excellent street car manners.
Whenever I add an LSD, there's a solid chance I'll also swap over from the stock 3.23 rear end gears to the commonly found 3.73 gears (easily sourced for cheap out of any automatic E8X/E9X 128i/328i). The car's powerband is wide enough where the taller OEM gears aren't really a problem, but being a long time fan of VTEC machines, I'm a sucker for short gearing and don't mind a bit of extra noise on the freeway.
For reference, this is a list of the current mods to the car (not counting OEM refreshes of essentially stock parts):
-CSF Racing radiator (not needed, no noticeable improvement, only originally added for track work)
-TRW/OEM BMW M3/1M front and rear control arms
-Turner Motorsports intake elbow
-Condor Speed Shop tall shift knob (which I added a bit of extra weight to)
-OEM 3-stage DISA intake manifold
-OEM European BMW airbox (conical style filter vs USDM panel filter) with K&N air filter
-eBay clutch stop
-OEM sized Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 Plus tires (if I had to do it again, I likely would have accepted a slightly harsher ride and went with the Bridgestones)
-Whiteline rear subframe inserts
-Bilstein B12 cup kit
-Bimmworks tune
^^^If you asked me if I would buy the same parts all over again, I would say absolutely, with the exception of the Continental tires- they're not bad, they have a ton of grip for an all-season and they ride very well, but I would prefer a bit more weight from the steering and would have likely gone with something from Bridgestone or Michelin instead.
Next steps? Take the car out to High Plains Raceway to set a lap time!
Well, let me back up a second... before I head out to the track, there's a few things I want to do to the car:
-Track pads & new rotors (no sense in being limited to a single hot lap on track)
-Add the OEM 135i oil cooler to the car (everything I need to install is literally on my garage floor, I just haven't gotten around to it yet). Again, no need to bring it out to our high elevation track (read: higher oil temps vs sea level) just to hit limp mode a couple laps in.
-I'll likely drop the oil pan and install a Condor Speed Shop oil pan baffle. I'm not looking forward to this job. The baffle is cheap ($90 IIRC), but dropping the pan requires dropping the subframe. This is just as a precaution. I'm not a terribly slow driver and I prefer to keep my rods inside the block.
-New wheels and tires. Likely a set of 17" Apex ARC-8's and some flavor of 200tw tires. I considered running the all-season Continental's on track, but I don't want to ruin them with the excess heat, so I figured I might as well get proper summer tires that will hold up to some abuse... and if I'm getting summer tires, to avoid swapping tires back and forth, I might as well get a set of wheels to mount them to... I'll try running a bit wider setup on my current suspension and if I get any rubbing, I'll either add a bit more camber or pull out my fender roller, or both.
That's the plan. Add the above mods (likely a few months down the line to allow my bank account to heal) and see what the car can do on track!
After setting somewhat of a "baseline" lap time, the next phase will likely be a 3.73 final drive and LSD, followed by another trip to HPR to see what improvements can be made. Then we'll assess and potentially move onto "Phase 3"...
It's been a few weeks. I've had some time to think, which is always a scary proposition.
Firstly, I spent a couple hours on E470 today in the 128i- heading way up north to drive a Lotus Evora- the high speed stability I loved about this car is absolutely back. This thing will now cruise at autobahn speeds with ease. Lately, I've been driving cars I should stay away from: today, I drove the Evora, yesterday, I drove a C7 Corvette Z51 7MT. Which has led to some thoughts.
I'll just say it: I'm thinking about selling the 128i. It's a great car. I still enjoy driving it, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around some things:
-When I bought the E82, I was planning on tracking it. I've spent a small fortune on it since then. Unfortunately, I know exactly how much more money, time and effort it would take to make the car competitive in one of the local autoX or time attack leagues. I literally just got discharged from physical therapy a couple weeks ago, after spending more than a year in PT for lower back/hip problems. I just don't know if I want to keep spending my weekends on jack stands, waiting to hurt myself again. And I'm also not sure if I want to keep dumping money into a car that I know for a fact I'll never recuperate when I sell it. Essentially, I'm just not sure I want to go back to tracking a car competitively, and I'm not sure I want to continue burning cash for the 1-2 times a year I might run an open lapping or test and tune autoX event.
-For a while, the E82 was the nicest/easiest car to drive that I owned. Even though I have a work car, it became my de facto daily driver per se. That changed a few months ago when I bought my Mazda 3 Turbo, that only has 9k miles on the clock. As much fun as the 128i is, the Mazda is a nicer car- it literally has a nicer, more modern interior, far more torque for around town (300+ ft-lbs), an auto transmission for boring light-to-light stuff, AWD for the snow, far more features, it's even less stressful to drive, a slightly larger back seat, larger trunk, it stays cooler in the summer (tan/white interior vs black), it still has several years of warranty, is roughly similar in size (just as easy to park/drive on narrow roads in) and is just an overall better daily driver. This has led to me driving the 128i less. Don't get me wrong, the RWD 6MT 128i is still more fun to pitch around than my Mazda, but there's another issue I'll get to a couple paragraphs down...
-I still hate the fact that the 128i gets parked outside year round. It's far more scratched up than my much newer Mazda and there's no way the S2000 or the Challenger would ever be parked outside, so unfortunately, it gets the shaft and stays parked in the elements.
-Our insurance rates just spiked by nearly 30% in the last few months. I haven't had an accident or ticket in almost 20 years. Apparently my state (Colorado) is now #1 in the nation for Motor Vehicle Theft and #2 for hail damage... I'm sure Denver agreeing to house tens of thousands of illegal immigrants had nothing to do with our massive spike in crime rates in recent years (I really need to leave this state)... which, I'm not terribly thrilled about carrying full coverage insurance on a car that just sits there most of the time. I tried to insure it with Hagerty, but they declined, saying at this time, they don't see it as having any collector car value... and I'm a bit too paranoid to leave it sitting outside all year with only liability.
-No matter how much better it's gotten, nothing I've done to the 128i has made it nearly as much fun as my S2000. They both have similar power to weight ratios, similar acceleration, similar weight distribution, both are manuals, etc... but the S2000 is just a superior sports car- the engine is more exciting, the chassis is more exciting, the clutch/shifter are better, it's substantially lighter (and feels substantially lighter), it has a FAR greater sensation of speed (the BMW has luxury car roots, it smooths everything out, whereas the S2000 is raw, more engaging and always feels like you're going faster than you are) and the roof comes down when it's nice outside.
This leaves me in an odd spot: when I find myself needing to drive to run errands, commute, etc, I prefer the Mazda... and when I want to go on a spirited drive, just for fun, I prefer the S2000. So, I have to ask myself: what's the 128i for? If I'm not going to track it, I'm having a tough time answering that question.
I don't know that I'll sell it- I'm not trying to be too hasty. But I am pondering why I'm keeping it around if I don't have a defined purpose for it. It's no longer my de facto daily. It's not terribly practical compared to the Mazda. It's not as much fun as the S2000, so it has less "weekend sports car" appeal. I'm not convinced I want to go back to the world of competitive motorsports and I don't know if I want to sink a boatload of extra cash into a car that might only see a track once a year. So, I again ask myself: why do I own this thing again? And why would I continue paying full coverage insurance, maintenance and registration on a car that sees more time just sitting there these days...
That's probably not what anyone following this thread wants to hear, but that's kind of where I'm at right now. To be clear, it's a great car and it's still a pleasure to drive when I grab the keys- I'm just not grabbing them very often these days and I know why.
Our car insurance went up the same amount, also USAA. Both my wife and I grew up here, although I've lived all over the country, she lived in Boston for many years and traveled the world for work. We both have small businesses here and all of her family are here. We're not leaving anytime soon, we like it here and anywhere else we'd consider moving is even more expensive than here, which we can't pull off.
You've described the issue and people with miltiple cars have, one or more sit around a bunch and unless you've got a huge garage, they sit around outside. If you sold the 128, would you even replace it? What other car would fit into your stable better? You've already got the sports car covered with the S2000 and if you're not going to hit the track, many of the other sports cars are just too fast/powerful to enjoy on the street.
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