inazupra

I think my favorite part about this, is how excited you are to be able to share the car with your wife! That’s so awesome.

Wish Rolls was like that [emoji102]

I really need a ride in this thing when we get the chance. Every time I brought the idea of purchasing one of these to Mitch I was always immediately talked out of it lol. Sounds so good!!


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This week has been crazy for me at work and I haven't had a chance to update everyone on the full story of this car.  It's been a roller coaster but everything turned out alright in the end!
I've been looking for an M3 for a while and a few of you know that I've been obsessing about an M3 for roughly 6 - 9 months.  I have been telling myself that for my 30th birthday I wanted a real sports car.  I tossed around a 996 briefly but it just wasn't practical for me.  I've always loved Skylines and an r32 crossed my mind but again, not very practical.  I have loved the e90 chassis.  It's the perfect size for me, the perfect amount of tech and comfort and I love the looks.  I loved my 335i but I just wanted something different from a car.  I've always compromised on my vehicles because I have always needed a dual use vehicle due to whatever circumstance I was in.  I still need to make some compromise due to my current situation (toddler) but being able to share this car with him is more enjoyable than having no compromises. 
The ups and downs start with me deciding to start the search and then finding out my wife has MS.  We went through the diagnosis process for a few months and after a lot of waiting and a 2nd opinion it was confirmed that she has MS.  During this time there is no way I could continue to search for a car.  Once the diagnosis set in and "normalized" then I started searching again.  And then my basement walls started leaking... I feared the worst and brought in multiple people for estimates.  Once again as a responsible adult I can't justify an M3 when i'm fearing a $20k home repair.  After getting a few estimates the consensus was to add some drainage outside of the wall once the ground thaws.  Woohoo!  Disaster avoided!  So I started searching again.
I test drove a few cars and came up with what I wanted and didn't want in the car. The toughest part for me was deciding on the DCT.  I have owned a MT vehicle since I was 18 and thought I wanted a 6spd M3... until I drove the DCT.  Oh my god is it good!  The shifts are so fast, the rev matched downshifts put a smile on my face every time AND my wife would be able to drive it.  With that and a few other specific search parameters in place I started searching!  The car I ended up buying happened to be one of the first cars I inquired about.  After a week of discussion with the dealer and negotiation we couldn't come to an agreement on the price.  I walked away from the deal.  That was a Friday.  I found an Alpine White 2010 in Fond Du Lac, met Ben to show him my car at the dealer adn we took the M3 for a drive.  It was a mess to the say the least.  A mouse got into it and chewed up connectors, wires and a seat belt.  It had a shitty wrap on the dash trim and many other red flags.  I walked away from that car very discouraged and kept searching.  I was ready to expand my parameters because I was getting impatient.  Jordan helped keep me centered on the search and kept reminding me what I didn't want and why some cars were a bad idea.  It's probably thanks to him that I'm not driving a 150k mile jet black 08.
That Monday I got an email from the dealer in Atlanta asking if I was still in the market.  I said yes but only if they could meet me at my price.  I got an email back telling me the deal was on!  I was pumped!  I booked a flight, rearranged Easter plans and arranged a ride to O'hare.  I had to travel to Rice Lake and Chippewa Falls the next couple days after that.  That Wednesday I was leaving Rice Lake and got an email from the dealer apologizing to me.  A mistake had been made and the price went up $1000.  I was furious to say the least.  I sent a very strongly worded email to the sales guy and basically said they will meet me at my price or refund me my flight.  I wasn't expecting much but had already planned on calling the Dealer Principle if I didn't get the answer I wanted.  Again, I wasn't expecting much from this plan but one way or another I was going to be doing a lot of yelling at someone or multiple people.  The worst part is I had a 4 hour drive home to think about this.  Well about 2 1/2 hours after I go the original email I received an email from the Sales Manager apologizing for the situation and letting me know that they would keep their word!
The deal was on!  I didn't sleep for the rest of the week!  I went to my brother in laws house on Friday night, left at 5am Saturday morning, go to O'hare, had a Redbull confiscated and waited to board my flight.  Once boarded my flight was delayed... all of a sudden there were 2 cops and an undercover on the flight taking a guy off in handcuffs.  That was unsettling to say the least but there was some peace of mind knowing he was taken off the flight.  A quick 2 hour flight to Atlanta and I was that much closer!  The sales guy was supposed to pick me up at the airport.  Well... there are two airports in Atlanta.  This guy went to the wrong airport and couldn't figure out how to get to me even after I shared my location on google maps.  I ended up hopping on a shuttle to get to him.  That killed an hour of unscheduled time.  After a 20 minute drive we were at the dealer.  I looked over the car and it was exactly what I had expected except for a few rock chips in the hood but nothing major.  The dealer had no idea what kind of exhaust it had and I was very happily surprised to find a Borla exhaust.  I test drove it, came back and said I wanted it.  Well this happened to be a very busy day at the dealer so I ended up waiting an hour and a half for finance so I could finish up.  I had taken care of all of my finances prior to showing up so once I got in the office it was a matter of signing some paperwork and about 5 minutes later I was done.  I hopped in the car and started heading north at about 2:30 pm.
Traffic was shit in Georgia.  Traffic was shit in Tennessee.  Traffic was OK in Kentucky but it was raining.  I did stop in Nashville for some hot chicken at a place called Helen's but the chicken was going to take too long so I got catfish.  It was the best catfish I have ever had! I got to Illinois at 9:30pm and I had never been so happy to be in Illinois.  I told myself that Bloomington would be my check in point since I was familiar with it and I would only be about 2.5 hours away from home if I needed to sleep.  I hit Bloomington around 2:30am and I felt fine so I powered through!  Driving through Illinois I did find that the exhaust has a slight drone at 78 mph BUT at 76 mph it's fine.  Anyways, I kept driving and consuming Redbull and water.  I stopped every hour or so to get out and move around to keep myself awake.  At 5am on Sunday I pulled into my driveway.  I slept for 4 1/2 hours and woke up for my son's first Easter egg  hunt!
Since i've doomed Wisconsin to an eternal winter I've only had a couple chances to drive the car but I love it!  My son's first response was "dada, this is FANCY!  I like it!"  shortly followed by "Can we drive crazy?".  My wife's first response was "It's loud."  We took it to Easter and I let her drive it for a bit.  She had the chance to pass her mom's husband on the highway and with my prodding she put her foot down.  What proceeded was some giggling and a big smile!  She then said "It's loud!" but with much more enthusiasm this time.  I love the DCT but I love even more that my wife will drive the car!  Despite her propensity to buy boring cars she likes fast cars and to share this with her is great!  My son also told me today when I picked him up from daycare "dada, I like your M free!" so that's a win.
This won't be much of a build thread and more of a "look at the silly cosmetic things I bought" and "here are pictures of me driving my car" thread.  Just like the last car she will see track time thanks to a birthday present from my wife!

She's coming home...

I almost guarantee a body shop will just want to replace it. A brand new OEM fender is probably under $300 from the dealer, plus another $150 to have it painted. It'll cost way more than that in labor to work it back to straight unless they use a ton of bondo. If you can find a nice used fender at a yard and have it painted (or better yet in the right color), then swap them out on your own, that's definitely the way to go. 

Showed up, now it’s time to get a not crappy laptop and get everything ready to go

Not a doubt in my mind it would be fun, but I think we have different definitions of “real driving event.”

I bet he wants miata parts!

$2000

$500 is two track days.  That's where my $500 will go.  Side note, isn't 270 miles kind of on the edge of the Model X range?  That should be interesting.

Rolls over here won’t tell me what he wants so I get to play the “what car related fun items can I buy him this year” during Christmas. We play round 2 in June for his birthday as well.

Rolls over here won’t tell me what he wants so I get to play the “what car related fun items can I buy him this year” during Christmas. We play round 2 in June for his birthday as well.

You and Kaiser fall into the rare category where your significant other is into cars and you are not gay.

Doesn’t hurt to test the tstat in some hot water before installing it. Just to make sure it works.
I imagine the eBay chip won’t do anything noticeable, but for $30 it will force you to make sure the DME compartment doesn’t have any surprises in it. Don’t install the chip backwards either lol.
Good time to check the serp belt as well & the stock expansion tank for cracks
I’m surprised it has both fogs lol
It’s probably not a bad idea to change diff fluid/trans fluid/oil too.

Well, MS3 Pro is on the way.
Never really liked the idea of the chiptune and no datalogging capability.
Thankfully the turbo Miata has been a good learning experience

Had spare sport seats taking up room in my storage unit so I figured I’d put one to use.

Added some bracing on the top and pedal stays on the deck to keep everything from moving
Bring on winter I guess

The struggle is real

First and last drive of 2017 happened today.
Until next spring!

The music comes out the back dude!

No, the full way silly!
 

Looks like the deer's insurance agent is around for questioning this morning....

Thats kinda how you repair dents. If its done the traditional way, its even worse because they will just use body filler and paint. If you want the beam replaced, I think you are looking at a repair insurance wont pay for, and will cost 85% more than PDR or body work.

I love V8s so I hate nature. For this reason I ran the playback of the deer getting smashed by German steel about 30 times as I sit here smiling smugly drinking my coffee. It's a small price to pay, my friend, but we all need to do our part to control the deer population on the road. I salute you. 

Finding a used mirror that matches or buying a used one and having it resprayed should cost you much less than $500. 
Also, PDR isn't a cheap or bad repair. They painstakingly message the dent out from the back to remove it 100% and it leaves your paint undamaged. In my opinion, it is the best way to go about it before having a body shop look at it because they will use filler regardless and respray the pillar.