Hello all,
I've been following and reading up on e46fanatics.com long before I had an e46, but I've decided to finally start posting. I'm new to the Houston, TX area, if there are any other e46fanatics in the area.
After searching many months for the right manual transmission M3, I picked up my 2002 e46 M3 a little over 3 years ago, and it has been the best. A lot of fun from the pure joy of driving, as well as getting to meet other enthusiasts.
Now onto the pictures::clap:
One of the first days as a proud new owner in Dec 2011.
I've had the great fun taking the M3 autocrossing a couple times with SPOKES, drag-racing at San Antonio Raceway, and even on a circuit once at Harris Hill Road in San Marcos.
I've gone pretty regularly to the local car meets in the Austin area (i.e. Car's & Coffee, Cobb Tuning meets, etc..)
The car is just phenomenal. Love taking it for drives out in the hill-country and fun roads.
Here it is with the daily driver, a 2004 e46 325xi touring automatic with cold weather package. Great for the commute and Houston traffic.
Now onto the M3's MODS :thumbup:
First thing I did was add the Turner Motorsports Power Pulley Set. The butt-dyno felt a slight throttle response and mid-range torque gain.
Put in some shiny aluminum pedals
Smoked side marker turn signals and black side grills
Matte black kidney grills, smoked front bumper reflectors, and DEPO smoked corners with orange bulbs.
Had the DEPO LED tail lights most of the time but recently switched to the OEM BMW LED tail lights. The car originally came with the bulb tail lights. The interior panel that goes into the trunk with the trunk light is miles better on the OEM LED tail lights versus that of DEPO. Just much cleaner installation.
Finally installed some Angel Eyes from Khoalty, and some very sharp looking LED smoked corners from DEPO. The angel eyes look great and the finish is really nice. The headlight shroud unfortunately blocks and is in the way a little at the bottom of the lights, but overall I am pleased with how it ended up. i managed to make the wiring through the engine bay clean.:woot:
The biggest mod yet has been the installation of Custom Performance Innovation's Single-Stepped Headers along with their Euro200R section 1. I had the Euro200r section modified to only have one resonator as oppose to the two they offer. The finish and quality is excellent. I was very impressed when I received both pieces. The welds look awesome. Installing them was pretty tricky taking up much of a day and night. There was some difficulty getting the new headers both through the small passage way. The biggest difficulty was getting the old nuts off and the new nuts tightened up. A combination of the tricky angles and the very long new header studs that came with the installation kit made for a long process. The new gaskets, studs, nuts, stickers, and gummy bears were all great quality and fit well. I was disappointed the entire kit did not come with 2 plugs, as the headers have four (2 of which are taken by the O2 Sensors). Luckily, my fellow M3 enthusiast buddy had some to spare). The results are awesome. I think the real power gains will come with a tune, but there's certainly some difference in the mid-range of how the car picks up. The sound is rad, especially on cold start up. Much more race car like, especially with the smell while the race cats are warming up. There's some added drone at 2400rpm & 2800 rpm, which adds a lot of character that I enjoy.
I will add to the log as my journey with this car continues. Thanks for reading this far, hope you enjoyed it!
Cheers,
gmanM3
