MPW3RLee

@MPW3RLee came in clutch with the socket for the lugs, which are indeed identical to what I had on my red e30.

Out with the old

On with the new!

I've always wanted a set of style 32's, but never had a car for them. These were completely unnecessary but it seemed like the right thing to do!

I also grabbed a set of stockers from @DrLeadFoot that I will end up using for snow tires

It was idling rough yesterday, but still doesn't show a CEL. I feel like someone may have pulled the bulb....
I plan to scan it to see what codes are lurking and see if I can't quickly narrow down the issue.

I will say that driving it yesterday was amusing, it pulls stronger than I remember and sounds good to boot!

Now to make it less of a rolling death trap! 

Until next time!

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'd say if you didn't have problems then don't do it.

I also agree with that. If there are no issues I would leave it alone. Inspect it really well and then make the judgment call.

Pics from the weekend! (Photo credit: Austin Boynton)



 
There seems to almost always be a few of us at every event, I'd love to see more people get into it, you won't regret it! 
 
Thanks! I wish I would've known that was you, I would've stopped by to say hello! I was working turn 1 for your heats, fun to watch, congrats on the class win!
 
Man, that would be awesome... They actually did a similar color called saddle brown that looks really nice, though it looks slightly lighter and less orange than Modena in some lights, haven't seen it in person to compare though. I'm loving the black for a daily driver, so easy to keep clean haha

 
 

I was there, and I did see the E36 out there, looked good! @SteelBlue yes you should make an event, the E30 would do great out there, I used to track/autoX my E30 and it handled like a dream! (Although I did upgraded suspension, Bilstein shocks, Eibach lowering springs, and ST sway bars) My E90 is cool and all but the E30 was so much more predictable and controllable.

142.5k
After picking up the wagon I now have too many cars, so over the weekend I did a bunch of things I've been meaning to do to start prepping this car for sale ... all that's left is to give it a good detail and remove a few parts I want to transfer to the wagon or sell separately. 
 
As a last hurrah before it gets listed, I took it to the FVSCC autocross at the newly repaved Road America motorplex and had a blast! The car didn't miss a beat and handled fantastically despite the higher treadwear tires and meh brake pads. I didn't have any of the common lifter tick issues either as I ran it a half-quart over full and let the revs sit at 3500 for the 2-3 minute drive back to grid after each run. The new motorplex surface is really smooth but it is also super slippery, lots of counter steering was needed! There were a lot of people doing a bit of landscaping in the earlier runs. I competed in STR and took a respectable 10th place... out of 10 haha, turns out that class is super competitive and had 4 of the top 20 overall times. I ended up in 91st out of 159 for raw times so I'm more than happy with that! 

Well, finally made some progress! Been a busy summer but we’re moving along.
 

Well, finally made some progress! Been a busy summer but we’re moving along.
 

Well, finally made some progress! Been a busy summer but we’re moving along.
 

Well, finally made some progress! Been a busy summer but we’re moving along.
 

Well, finally made some progress! Been a busy summer but we’re moving along.
 

@MPW3RLee's E90 booty looks good going thru those corners...

it sounded amazing too!

Thanks for sharing your pics @HipMF
some tips if you need 'em for nikon cameras:  If your lens has the VR switch, turn it off. it wont play well with camera panning or moving objects. Set your Autofocus mode to AF-C and 3D tracking. it predicatively changes the focus based on your subjects movement, to help catch focus on cars coming towards you.
finally got around to my photos














 

Had to post this here, because it's cool, AND because I think it really illustrates what it's like to drive this car.

After braking hard and hucking the car into a corner it's pretty neutral. The car rotates well, but both ends of the car feel like they have about the same grip (ie both sliding the same amount 🤣). If you're patient and wait for the exit, and then ease into the throttle gently as the grip returns, you can keep the car nice and composed. If you're less saintly, you get into the throttle too early, or too aggressively. The car tells you you've done it wrong by stepping out the rear just a little. I learned long ago that at this point, letting off or countersteering to stop the slide causes the car to regain traction suddenly, and you're left scrambling (with no power steering) to keep the car pointed in the right direction. So, you basically have no choice but to steer the car with the throttle. Less throttle, less rotation. More throttle, more rotation. Stepping out the rear like this in a car with 140 crank horsepower probably isn't the fastest way around the track, but it's a helluva lot of fun. 👍

Unfortunately it’s not mine, I’m just the one putting all the go fast parts on it 👍🏻
I think they’re some knockoff wheel but I honestly haven’t looked close enough at them. Either way I think they look pretty nice on it!

Well it’s about that time for me to start on another time consuming adventure and something to actually post about, so here it is.
I will try my best to take pictures of progress in case anyone is interested. Should be a pretty fun car all said and done!

cool car, cool project!
btw, those are definitely knock-off wheels. no factory style 5 has stepped lips.

@suspenceful wins! I’ve driven it a couple times but I never actually got on it enough to compare to a stock e46 M3....I’m always afraid of breaking other people’s cars on a test drive 😫
But I imagine it moves pretty well!

Christmas came early 👌🏻

Christmas came early 👌🏻

Well it’s about that time for me to start on another time consuming adventure and something to actually post about, so here it is.
I will try my best to take pictures of progress in case anyone is interested. Should be a pretty fun car all said and done!

Well it’s about that time for me to start on another time consuming adventure and something to actually post about, so here it is.
I will try my best to take pictures of progress in case anyone is interested. Should be a pretty fun car all said and done!

Well it’s about that time for me to start on another time consuming adventure and something to actually post about, so here it is.
I will try my best to take pictures of progress in case anyone is interested. Should be a pretty fun car all said and done!