People have different visions of the perfect car. That's not to be discussed.
Vince LombardiPerfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.
For many, like Teodor, a high revving engine in the front sending power to the rear via a six speed manual gearbox is pure bliss. Sounds easy enough to achive doesn't it?
It isn't. Nowadays there's a popular automotive slogan carrying genuine truth that describes this build very well -
Unknown.BUILD IT TUNE IT RACE IT BREAK IT FIX IT REPEAT.
QUEUE THE MONTAGE.
The following is a "short" version (When I say short I mean I've tried to leave only the important parts) of the building process of this 3.2 litre joy bringing machine. Let's follow Teodor's almost two year chase of his dream car.
Two cars were required for this automotive piece of perfection to be able to roam the streets freely. A crashed Arktissilber Metallic M3 Evo with no damage to the M parts and a Cosmos Schwarz 320i. Queue the transfer of every single M GmbH piece including the wiring harness, fuel rails, fuel tank, chassis enforcements, etc.
GEARBOX TROUBLE.
The gearbox plays a major role in the build. The six speed manual we all love and appreciate was not originally fitted. This silver M3 had a SMG 1 gearbox, which after the transfer in the Cosmos Schwarz coupe had to be reprogrammed. After countless nights of studying this far from user friendly and problem free creation he finally got it to work.
FIRST TEST.
Sound check after fitting the SMG. Exhaust manifold only.
Now with everything working and the car moving, he took it out for its first drive. Without a registration. Or an exhaust. On the street. He must've been scared out of his mind, but the adrenaline and joy flowing through him surely dulled the bad emotions. Until he stopped at a traffic light. All that went through his mind was how a police car was going to pull up to his unbelievably loud, exhaust manifold only, no number plate, different colored panel M3. And then the culmination - turning on the blinker caused the horn to honk every time the turning signal lit up. At that exact time he decided to not do any more test drives until the car was complete.
DO YOU HEAR THAT?
After sorting out most the moving bits it was time to sort out the absence of a full exhaust. The stock one went back on, but it was way too silent. After some research regarding what big companies did to improve the sound, he decided to mod it himself. Removing the muffler packing brought back the liveliness of the straight six.
A more street legal and composed sounding M3.
BREAKING TRACTION. AND AN ENGINE.
During a drift day at an airfield he decided to test out the cars possibilities which ended up in destroying two rear tires and after making a mistake earlier during the fitting of new rod bearings... a broken engine. After spending more time, nerves and money it was eventually fixed.
GRANNY SHIFTING, NOT DOUBLE CLUTCHING LIKE YOU SHOULD.
With temporary plates and an exhaust the test drives commenced once again. They all went well until the one where due to a broken fuel sensor in the tank the car died 6 miles before the destination. That was fixed later on. Strange for this thought to occur to his mind at that time, but right there he realized that the SMG changed gears way too sluggishly. He tried fixing it, it got a bit faster, not fast enough though. Adding to the decision of the swap were the big thumps from the gearbox every time it changed gear. He knew it was going to break at some time in the near future. After an express installation it now has a beautiful six speed bringing the joy of driving, which the SMG lacked.
MAKING IT LEGAL.
Finally, it was street legal. A permanent registration was next. He traveled 140 miles to his hometown of Stara Zagora to "seal the deal", if you will. Everything went fine, he even randomly received an brilliant number plate - 6321. 6 cylinders, 321 horsepower. What a beautiful sight it was, people waved at him, gave him the thumbs up. And then he crashed it. Head on.
THIS ISN'T OVER.
After some time without the M3, still chasing the trouble free driving experience, he decided that since painting a car was something he never did before, he would replace the broken parts just to make the car drivable for the winter season as fast a he can. And he did. Bilstein B14 suspension was fitted, snow tires were bought, but the problems didn't end there. The BMW Motorsport wheels that were used as winter beaters were with different ET and caused one of the bolts on the front suspension to loosen up. The aftermath of that adventure resulted in being stuck in a village all night, however he did manage to get some driving time out of the winter setup so it wasn't as bad as crashing.
RETROFITTING AND FRESH PAINT.
Winter passed and so did the fondness of Cosmos Schwarz. After some time in the paint booth, the color code went from 303 to 475. Otherwise known as Black Sapphire Metallic as seen on his E92 335d. The scratched front window was replaced, new door seals and an OMP deep dish steering wheel were installed. Reverse parking sensors, CD43, USB , alcantara roof lining, yellow highbeam lenses, yellow foglights, the amazing BBS wheels and even more goodies were retrofitted to the car to give it its current look.
Current state of the car.
ARE WE THERE YET?
He did it. He got a number of problem free drives through the Bulgarian countryside. And it was worth it. All of it. He liked it so much that he started making excuses to go on random drives. We know what BMW's slogan states - Pure driving pleasure. It was achieved. Where does he go from here? More mods are coming, mainly exterior ones and I'll make sure to notify you about them.
I'm not going to write an ending, because projects never end. See you next time.
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Comments (1)
One of the most awesome and dedicated e36 builds so far.