i_love_cars

I can never get it right :c LOL

love where your head is at. Unfortunately those are the wrong offset. I'm looking for an ET22 for a square 265 setup
BHF with Badger bimmers on august 13th! 

Couldn't ask for a better car for the money. Glad I can be held to blame for getting the fire lit under your ass haha. Getting to drive it a while today makes me want one now too....must resist.

Congrats on the purchase! LOOKS GREAT!
Here are some APEX ARC-8s back on that WCEC if you haven't seen them already.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/wcecforsale/permalink/2197557040514211/?sale_post_id=2197557040514211&ref=messenger_share

I blame TJ. Woke up this morning and saw that he sent me a link to a very reasonably priced 2005 M3 in the most unlikely of places - WCEC classifieds. Upon brief deliberation, we agreed to go together to the shanty one-horse town of Watertucky and see if this car had any merit. 
It turned out to not be a piece of shit, in fact it was actually quite solid and fit the bill perfectly for what I was looking for in a new track car. I had almost given up hope that a reasonably priced, non-clapped out E46 M3 existed. Engine and clutch are solid, no signs of subframe cracking, amazingly the seats are like, mint for being 150k miles, and it's quite clean underneath. I will be taking the car to Efab next week for some GC coilovers and camber plates, subframe reinforcement, and refreshing a lot of the bushings. In the meantime I need to scoop some apex wheels because the wheels that came on this car are junk ebay wheels with questionable fitment. 
This will be my dedicated track car and be parked most of the year, but I don't have any plans to do crazy track prep with it because I don't want to be back in the world of needing a truck and trailer. I want a car I can drive to/from the track, has cheap-ish running costs, and holds its value. I think at the price I bought this thing for, I should always be able to sell it to a broad audience if I had to and get my money out of it. 

I blame TJ. Woke up this morning and saw that he sent me a link to a very reasonably priced 2005 M3 in the most unlikely of places - WCEC classifieds. Upon brief deliberation, we agreed to go together to the shanty one-horse town of Watertucky and see if this car had any merit. 
It turned out to not be a piece of shit, in fact it was actually quite solid and fit the bill perfectly for what I was looking for in a new track car. I had almost given up hope that a reasonably priced, non-clapped out E46 M3 existed. Engine and clutch are solid, no signs of subframe cracking, amazingly the seats are like, mint for being 150k miles, and it's quite clean underneath. I will be taking the car to Efab next week for some GC coilovers and camber plates, subframe reinforcement, and refreshing a lot of the bushings. In the meantime I need to scoop some apex wheels because the wheels that came on this car are junk ebay wheels with questionable fitment. 
This will be my dedicated track car and be parked most of the year, but I don't have any plans to do crazy track prep with it because I don't want to be back in the world of needing a truck and trailer. I want a car I can drive to/from the track, has cheap-ish running costs, and holds its value. I think at the price I bought this thing for, I should always be able to sell it to a broad audience if I had to and get my money out of it. 

I had my first track day in the car today at Blackhawk Farms Raceway and ran in the intermediate group.  This is my 4th track day in 3 years and it's amazing how quickly you get to know people by attending these things semi regularly.  It's great being able to run with some of the same people year after year and developing a trust on the track. 
Ok now that that's out of the way, the car.  She ran beautifully!  Stock brakes, stock suspension and pss tires.  The car was perfect. It did what it was supposed to with no surprises. I took it slow for the day to feel the car out.  The NA power took some getting used to.  Even though the s65 is a supposed torqueless turd I had a low end power that i didnt expect and it was consistent through the power band.  Power came on easy and steady.  No surging or lag to deal with.  It was great.  Right off the bat I was running similar  times I ran in my 335i but I was way more consistent. My fastest in the 335i was 1:29 and in the M3 I managed a 1:32.  I'm pretty happy with that considering it was my first time out with it and i wasn't pushing very hard.  The DCT was awesome!  It did get a little laggy on up shifts when it got hot but downshifts were excellent.  Being able to focus on braking zones was a really nice change.  I could put my energy into hitting better lines instead of worrying about my feet. 
Of course every driver walks away from an event saying "if I just had this item it'd be that much better!".  For me I'd like to get the Schroth quick fit harness and a slightly better pad with more bite.  These worked and I NEVER had any fade but I'd like the pedal a little more effective sooner.  The car does have a little wiggle under heavy braking which led to some butt puckering moments but I'm not sure how to fix that yet.  The easy answer is coilovers but I'm happy with the ride quality so we'll see if I "fix" that. 
Now for the video!  My go pro only recorded the last 10:25 of each session unbeknownst to me but this was the last and my fastest session.
 

First track day with the M3 tomorrow at BHF!  I'll have a video up hopefully some time tomorrow of the event.  In the meantime I have some spark plugs that i'll be throwing in tonight and I bought the Ziza master LED set for $30 from ECS so i'll be installing those at some point here.

Definitely was a perfect day for it and a lot of fun. 
Unfortunately it made me realize how much I need to force myself to dedicate time for track days again. Especially since we ran in to some of my old track buddies who were on track yesterday. I've clearly been focusing too much on money and not enough on fun. I am now officially looking for a ragmuffin trackrat E46 M3.
Thanks for organizing this, it was great to see people, fast cars, hundreds of missed apexes at Canada Corner, and a muffler flying off of an E30. 

+9 on this being a good time, thanks Brian for setting it up.


 

is this the e30 that lost its muffler?


 
Mustang HDS (home depot special)

 
Because Shelby club😍


 

 

Definitely was a perfect day for it and a lot of fun. 
Unfortunately it made me realize how much I need to force myself to dedicate time for track days again. Especially since we ran in to some of my old track buddies who were on track yesterday. I've clearly been focusing too much on money and not enough on fun. I am now officially looking for a ragmuffin trackrat E46 M3.
Thanks for organizing this, it was great to see people, fast cars, hundreds of missed apexes at Canada Corner, and a muffler flying off of an E30. 

Definitely was a perfect day for it and a lot of fun. 
Unfortunately it made me realize how much I need to force myself to dedicate time for track days again. Especially since we ran in to some of my old track buddies who were on track yesterday. I've clearly been focusing too much on money and not enough on fun. I am now officially looking for a ragmuffin trackrat E46 M3.
Thanks for organizing this, it was great to see people, fast cars, hundreds of missed apexes at Canada Corner, and a muffler flying off of an E30. 

haha not exactly what I'm looking for but I like where your head is at. Snapsby already linked me to a car in Crystal Lake today that I am reviewing right now

I had such a great time today, thanks so much for everyone who came out to enjoy it! It was my first time at RA and it was like visiting heaven for a little bit. 
A few tidbits from the day:
The drive to the track was very good, the roads were exceptionally smooth and freshly paved with minimal traffic and the pack stayed together without too much difficulty.
This is what it looks, feels, and sounds like when @i_love_cars is behind you.

I freaking love your car
 
This happened because I was in a 335i.

Clear skies, perfect weather, and the view from the lunch spot. The Gearbox Melt could have been better but I had to give it a try.

 
His an hers GT3 Cup Porsches

 
We wandered through the paddock criticizing everyones cars and then some of us went to the Sargento bridge to get a better view. RA is a much more beautiful place than video games make it out to be haha!
 Great to meet you @wally509, that E21 is just gorgeous and its great to see it being enjoyed! 
Hope everyone else enjoyed the day as much as I did

Maybe it is yours 🙃

That's almost identical to what my wagon was, even has M-sport. Slightly higher mileage but not by much. Makes me feel good about the 5500 I got when I sold it. $5k seems like a solid price for this if it isn't a rust bucket underneath. 

yeah NWSC is basically like every other HPDE group these days. Open registration for anyone as long as you pay the annual club membership fee. 
Glad I checked the forum. I spent the last month billing 120 hours a week and literally have had no concept of time. I was shocked to see this is only 2 days away hahah. I should probably dust the cobwebs off of the M3. I'm looking forward to this because I haven't done anything at all related to cars for 6 weeks now

agreed. sounds like he wants to say it's a pile of crap without saying it.
" is sold as is "
" but it is far from being a daily driver "
" so unless you are mechanically inclined or have the time and money to put into this car, this is not the car for you "
" This car is being sold as is "

I will be there.

It's been a long day and a big shout to @i_love_cars for stopping by to help!  We're almost completely moved in now!

But what about M5's?!?
 

We haven't defined what best means. 
If we are talking about the best overall package for driving on the street and to/from the track, the E9x wins by a fucking landslide. The tech and creature comforts and interior are a cut above the E46, and as Pat already noted - the lap times are on the same page or better in the E9x. 
If we're talking about raw driving experience overall - the E46 wins. It is the pinnacle of the "pure driver engagement" factor of the M cars. E30 started it but E46 perfected it. 
If we're talking about the engine - the S65 perfected what the E46 started with 100+ hp per liter, because the S65 did it with 2 more cylinders and a significantly higher redline. There's no question that the S65 mechanically is the more impressive piece of engineering. It's simply a fact of physics and design. 
For a dedicated track car it is a no brainer - the E46 wins. But only as a dedicated track car because it's cheaper and parts are plentiful and the aftermarket has had an extra decade to perfect itself compared to the E9x. 
For literally anything other than a dedicated track car, the E9x is a superior vehicle choice on paper because it retains everything that made the E46 good like hydraulic steering and high revs, and improves everything else inside the cabin. The only reason to get an E46 M3 at that point is because it's cheaper, or if you simply just arbitrarily "like it" more than the E9x. But in terms of facts and engineering achievement, the E9x is just simply better. 
My next track car will very likely be an E46 M3.

I'd say this should have been posted on Taco Tuesday, but then I remembered that really every day should be taco day. 

sounds like shit because no xpipe. I'm gonna buy you an xpipe as a house-warming gift so it no longer sounds like shit. 

sounds like shit because no xpipe. I'm gonna buy you an xpipe as a house-warming gift so it no longer sounds like shit.