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New build! E90 M3


patsbimmer1

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1 hour ago, m42b32 said:

How stretchy is it out of curiosity? I've been thinking of re-doing a few things in my car and last time I did a headliner I used a not stretchy suede and it was a huge pain. 

It has basically zero stretch if your pulling vertically or horizontally but diagonally it has a little stretch but that distorts the graphic.

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I started on this project last night.  The foam backing adds some level of trickery as far as fitment goes but the biggest thing is really just a lack of stretch makes it difficult on the corners.  The thickness of foam backing does make it look odd around the vents. In my opinion nobody could look at the vents and think it was factory fitment because of the way the fabric spills into the opening.  It's a project where I will know every little mistake but overall I'm happy with the look so far.  My wife's opinion was "It looks fine.  It looks 90's.". I said yea, it's a fabric from the 90's and she said "Yea, the. It looks fine.  It's better than the grandpa wood trim."

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On 8/30/2020 at 12:14 PM, YoungCR said:

door looks great! Maybe you could make an additional trim ring for the vents?

 

On 8/30/2020 at 11:26 PM, SteelBlue said:

Might have to fret creative and do some cutting and use some adhesive around the vents. Might be your best bet to get a tight fit. Or maybe ask an upholstery shop to give it a go?

I think I need to make my corner cuts a little tighter so I can pull it closer in the corners and pull it tighter behind the trim.  After driving around with it for a couple days I really like the couple pieces I did.  I'm not looking forward to doing the big trim piece on the dash.  This stuff is more forgiving than patterned vinyl wrap to work with in that I can pull it off without consequence to the fabric.

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I just came here to say that I love driving this car.  Sometimes I think about selling it for a dream type project or a "real" sports car but this thing just makes me smile.  It's so easy to control the back end, it's extremely stable at highway speeds and the noises.... THE NOISES!  I don't think a car has ever kept my attention at a fairly stock level for so long.

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I knocked out another trim piece today and it was the large one that expands almost the entire dash.  I figured out that i needed to use a lot more fabric to make the corners work better and got into a nice rhythm of glue/fit/hold.  I'm a lot happier with this piece and overall I absolutely love the scheme of it.  It pops with enough color without being over the top.  3 more pieces to go!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I did my first autocross event on Sunday with FVSCC and MSCC at Road America on the kart track.  My initial impression as a newcomer was that it was confusing.  There wasn't really anyone directing people, you just kinda had to know what to do or figure it out.  Thankfully I had some grizzled veterans in @RamenNoobles, @KaiserRolls and @inazupra to help me throughout the day.  Without them it would have been a lot more intimidating to be there in the morning.  Overall it was a great day, I had a lot of fun and finally got to meet @MPW3RLee in person!  I took my son with and he had a great time as well!  He loved watching the Gridlife cars on track and for some reason is obsessed with corvettes lately so the plethora of generations all day had him  jacked up.

The driving style was different than what I've experienced at track days.  It felt like there was less finesse and more forcing the car where you want it to go.  I was nervous about remembering the track after I walked it but once I got out there everything just makes sense as far as cone placement goes.  I kept the car in MDM with the M DSC on for almost every run and i'm glad I did as I had very little grip out back on the course.  I can still slide the car a bit in MDM but it prevented me from just lighting up the back tires on the uphill section.  I took it off for my second to last run per the request of some spectators who requested that I "fucking launch it" at the start.  The starting grid worker looked at me and said "OK, launch it" and so I obliged and left the start line with my foot buried and the back tires singing.  That was good for adding about 2 seconds to my lap.

I started the day with a 54.6 lap time and ended at 50.7 and I definitely have room left to improve on that.  I was happy to see continuous improvement each lap and that's all I was looking for on the day.  The car performed flawless as I'd expect.  Brakes worked, oil never got much above normal operating temp, no weird noises, etc.  Overall, any day driving hard is a good day and i'll definitely mix more auto x into my seasons along side my track days.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I finished up all of the door trim pieces and I'm very happy with the look!  Very subtle while still being eye catching.

Next up is something I've been wanting to do for awhile!  GTS DCT tune and motor tune are on order from Alpinemss!  I'm probably most excited for the GTS DCT tune. The DCT is good to begin with, I can't imagine how it'll drive with faster shifts!

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On 10/12/2020 at 10:25 PM, patsbimmer1 said:

I finished up all of the door trim pieces and I'm very happy with the look!  Very subtle while still being eye catching.

Next up is something I've been wanting to do for awhile!  GTS DCT tune and motor tune are on order from Alpinemss!  I'm probably most excited for the GTS DCT tune. The DCT is good to begin with, I can't imagine how it'll drive with faster shifts!

Requesting before and after video

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Here it is!  I'm very happy with the results so far!  Alex at Alpinemss was awesome!  As soon as the cable showed up I shot him an email and he responded with directions to request the tune and options.  Sent the request and was sent back the GTS tune and motor tune within about an hour along with detailed instructions.  I loaded everything to my computer, backed up the stock ECU which took about 35 minutes then started loading the tunes which took about another 30 minutes.  No issues, no hiccups, car started right up with no concerns at all.  I opted for these options on this tune:

  • Stage 2 93 octane
  • Cold Start Delete
  • Servotronics (increased steering effort)
  • Speed Limiter Delete

The shifts feel a lot faster after the GTS tune and it smoothed out the reverse to 1st gear transition along with smoothing the throttle mapping for nicer take off.  At first I couldn't quite tell if the car felt faster or if the shifts were making it feel quicker but after a bit of driving I can definitely tell there's an increase in power and after watching the videos (over and over and over) I can see the tach needle climbing faster.  I've got some dyno time scheduled next week with @wasnt m3so we'll see what kind of gains I got!

  Before and after video as requested by @KaiserRolls.

 

 

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This morning I took the car by @wasnt m3 at Late Model Throttle to have it dyno'd and make sure my butt dyno has been calibrated correctly.  As I've been driving more the car definitely has felt faster and the dyno confirmed that for me!  This is also the first time I've heard my car from the outside and I was not disappointed.  My favorite part's were TJ asking "Did you know your car was this loud?" and TJ saying "Thank you for putting a smile on my face.".  That about sums up this car.  It doesn't win any contest on paper but the value is in the noise and the feel of the car.  From about 3k RPM I've got full torque and the horsepower just climbs and climbs.  The crescendo of screams coming from the exhaust and the constant gain in horsepower makes it very exciting while feeling predictable.

I picked up about 30whp and 18wtq from the tune and downpipes.

 

2011 m3 dyno catless tune.jpg

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