135i Build - Track Toy with a License Plate

[berns]

Hi guys -- wanted to introduce myself. I've been lurking around here for a while and figured I'd start a build thread.

The E82 marks my 14th car, I think, and I've built some fun things in the past. Evo's, big turbo VW's and Audi's, a Saab 9-2x Aero (Saabaru), an E46 M and an E90 335i.

I've been getting way more into competitive racing and time attack and wanted to start with something lighter than the E90. Almost bought a Z4M coupe, an E36, S2k... Lots of options, but here we are. I found this E82 with 60k on it, M Sport, for a total steal and may have gotten a little carried away. But I love this thing.

Goals - 3000lbs, 450-500whp, ability to run 15 minute sessions in >90* weather. I'll likely stay in classes that require 200+ treadwear street tires. Aero is on the way, with a rear wing and front splitter.

Day I got it:

One week later... Actually transferred over my KW Clubsport dampers, Vorschlag Camber Plates and Swift springs from my E90 to the E82. This works, but it's not a properly valved setup for this car. Dampers will be changed soon.

Few weeks after that

VRSF Downpipes, Chargepipe & Inlets

StopTech Trophy BBK front and rear

Berk Technology mid pipes and race exhaust (sounds incredible, weighs nothing!)

Wavetrac LSD with 3.46 FD built by Dan @ Diffsonline

AKG DTM shifter, motor and trans mounts

\

PowerFlex black track bushings everywhere possible on the rear subframe

BimmerWorld rear arms and precision bearings

Reached the 30 image limit in this post, and accidentally deleted all that followed this, so now to write it all over. To be continued...

_________________________________________________________
@The Convert asked me to place an updated parts list on this first post, so here you go. Updated 2/3/20

Engine
- CES Motorsports Single Turbo kit with Garrett GTX3076R Gen 2, t4 divided 1.06a/r
- Tuned by Ken @WedgePerformance with MHD
- GFB G-Force 3 electronic boost controller with 4-port MAC solenoid
- Fuel-it! Stage 2 bucket with upgraded lines and ethanol content anlayzer
- VTT Billet Valve Cover with dual catch can setup, head ports plugged, fully external PCV
- 3.5bar tmap

Drivetrain
- SPEC stage 3+ clutch with billet steel flywheel
- AKG DTM shifter with DSSR
- AKG 95a motor mounts
- AKG e21 trans mounts with isolating cups
- Wavetrac LSD with 3.46 FD built by Diffsonline

Brakes / Wheels / Tires
- StopTech Trophy BBK front & rear
- StopTech SR33 pads
- Castrol SRF fluid
- Titan 7 TS-5 18x10 +25 forged wheels
- Fikse Profil-10 18x10 +19 3pc wheels
- Nexen Sur4G 275/35/18 front and rear
- Motorsport Hardware stud conversion and Titan lug nuts

Cooling
- CSF radiator
- CSF intercooler
- Twin Setrab 19-row oil coolers, custom lines, mounts, Motiv thermostat delete
- Trackspec hood vent

Suspension
- MCS 2-way coilovers with Eibach Springs and true rear conversion
- Vorshlag camber plates
- SPL Front lower control arms
- BimmerWorld precision front upper control arm bearing kit
- BimmerWorld rear spring arm bearing kit
- BimmerWorld adjustable rear camber and toe arms
- M rear guide rods
- PowerFlex Black Track bushings for rear subframe & diff

Interior
- Anti Gravity Batteries ATX30-HD lithium ion battery. Weighs 8lbs, holds a charge for over a month, has a bluethooth adapter to check charge and condition. The single best dollar per pound weight reduction you can do.
- Recaro Pole Positions
- OMP Superleggera steering wheel and OMP 6pt harnesses
- Macht Schnell floor mounts
- Custom rear seat delete and custom roll bar by Ed @ Mobile Weld Specialist
- OEM 1M slicktop headliner
- Coby Wheel alcantera wrapped dash trim, door handles, shifter and e-brake boot

Exterior
- OEM 1M front & rear bumpers, front fenders, rear quarters, sideskirts
- IND Distribution / RKP Carbon Roof
- APR 135i-spec rear wing and custom front splitter
- Chassis mount splitter brackets and support by Ken Suen (@bigredksr on IG)
- Vicrez front lip and rear diffuser (I don't recommend this rear diffuser unless you just care about looks. It creates a parachute effect at the rear. Will be swapping it for an OEM 1M rear diffuser.)
- Seibon Carbon hood & trunk

 

[berns]

Ah, cooling! Such a fun part about driving an N54 powered car on the track. Also, California heat is a real bitch.

Built a custom twin oil cooler kit to pair with the CSF Radiator and VRSF intercooler. I deleted the thermostat and used the Motiv plate for that, along with some AN fittings and lines cut to size. Drastically improved oil temps on track, but there is still a very real ambient temp limit for sustained track abuse.

Weight is a huge factor here, and the E82 isn't as light as it looks. The goal is 3000lbs without me in it, so I've got some work to do. Went with a Braille 6lb G30 Lithium Ion Battery. That's a 55lb savings over stock, at least. No other mod will shave that much weight per dollar.

In the quest for more negative camber up front, I went with SPL Parts front lower arms, now I'm at -3.5* and can go much further if I want to.

Pulled the rear seats out and picked up some Recaro Pole Positions off a friend. Used Macht Schnell rails, a VAC extinguisher bracket and had a custom roll bar and rear seat delete made.

I didn't get a chance to weigh the bar, and it could be made much lighter, so I may go a different route soon, but here's where I'm at with a full tank.

Took home 1st place in Round 3 of Global Time Attack at Big Willow!

Clutch started to slip, which is odd, because my E90 clutch lasted till 100k.. This car has seen some more track miles, but I'll blame it on the previous owner.
Went with a SPEC Stage 3+ and SPEC Billet Steel Flywheel. In hindsight, I wish I went with the lighter aluminum flywheel for weight savings, but wanted to reduce chatter during street driving. This is before I bought a daily...

My first few months of ownership looked like this way too often

To Be Continued, again...

 

[berns]

So, I got really tired of trying to stuff massive tires under the tiny front fenders of the E82 non-M.

Although many said it couldn't be done, I had 18x9 +39 wheels up front with a 255 Nexen Sur4G. Awesome tire by the way, I would highly recommend trying it out for all out dry grip for a street tire on track. I toyed around again with the idea of buying a car that had room for wide tires and said screw it, so I went ahead and started my 1M conversion with my friend Ivan at Strasse Sport in Irwindale, CA.

Also picked up a super light (12lbs) Seibon Carbon Fiber Hood

Naked and vulnerable!

Can't believe I'm going to run these up front... 18x9.5 +22 with a 275/35/18 BFG Rival S. The Rival S measures closer to a 295...

Fresh out of paint and assembly begins.

Like most likeminded dudes who get their car fresh out of paint, I headed to Laguna Seca to compete in Bimmer Challenge. Rock chips and rubber everywhere.

Some fun in the Corkscrew

Some fun onto the front straight

A full lap and my personal PB. Shaved 6 seconds off my E90's time there!

I guess this bring us up to present day. Few things not shown here: I upgraded the sway bars to E92 M3 bars, but the big E92 rear bar was way too stiff and caused a huge issue with lack of suspension travel and just too much stiffness to get power down properly, even with the Wavetrac LSD. I've since swapped the M bars out for Eibach bars with proper greased bushings and the car feels way better.

On Friday, I'll begin the teardown of the rear of the car to finish off the 1M conversion. I'm doing full 1M rear quarters, sideskirts, rear bumper, new front lip, rear diffuser, APR front splitter and APR rear wing. New wheels are on the way. I'll be running 18x10 +25 all around and I'll finally be able to rotate wheels and tires.

Patiently waiting in the garage

I recently achieved my goal at Buttonwillow, which was to run sub-2 minutes without aero or major weight reduction. I ran a sloppy 1:58 with some traffic and know that with fresh tires and clean lap I could improve, but I'm excited for this next phase of the build. I'll be competing in way more events for Bimmer Challange, Gridlife and Global Time Attack this year and can't wait to see how the car feels with 200 less pounds and some proper aero!

Here's a video of my record lap at Buttonwillow. Let me know if you guys have any questions and thanks for reading.

-Alex

 

[drunkenup]

How do the akg motor mounts sound? I had the turner aluminium motor/trans put in and eliminated almost all of the noise coming into the cabin from the BERK.. Considering switching to the akg 75d to hear it again.

 

[berns]

How do the akg motor mounts sound? I had the turner aluminium motor/trans put in and eliminated almost all of the noise coming into the cabin from the BERK.. Considering switching to the akg 75d to hear it again.

I'm running the AKG 95A motor mounts, a bit softer than their hardest offering. You hear / feel them at idle, and leaving from a stop, but once you're moving all is well. I don't even notice them anymore. Something to keep in mind is that this car isn't my daily. It's streetable, but little nuances get a writeoff for me because it's part of the joy. As for the trans mounts, I again opted for a softer option, so I'm running AKG aluminum cups with E21 OEM mounts. Had to drill out some more space on the bracket for these but I'm very happy with both paired together. Right amount of stiffness and NVH without you wanting to drive off a cliff.

Here are the links to what I'm using from AKG. They're super awesome to deal with and the build quality is art.

https://www.akgmotorsport.com/product/motor-mount-set-poly-95a-e8x-e9x-non-m3/
https://www.akgmotorsport.com/produ...pgrade-set-e30-e36-e46-e82-e90-e92-e93-z3-z4/
https://www.akgmotorsport.com/product/rear-lower-shock-mount-set-poly-bushings-e8x-e9x-spherical/
https://www.akgmotorsport.com/product/motorsport-quick-shifter-stage-ii-e90/
https://www.akgmotorsport.com/product/dtm-selector-rod-7075-aluminum-e82-135i-n55-e90-e92-335i-n55/

 

[Garvis]

How do you like the AKG shifter?

 

[berns]

How do you like the AKG shifter?

I love this shifter. Takes some getting used to, but it's so precise and easy to work with. It's also a fraction of the price of something like the CAE and having driven a few cars with CAE & RTD, I'm happy with the AKG. Those shifts are really intense, require a lot more effort and sit extremely high. The other nice thing about the AKG is that the mounting plates are chassis specific. There is no room for error, question or adjustment, other than a bit of play for forward or rearward shifter lean, which makes this super easy to install and pretty worry-free. The three bolts go through three existing holes in the car. No drilling required at all.

Honestly, just watch any of my in-car videos to see how nice shifting is with the AKG. Banging gears is so fun, and that 3rd to 4th shift takes no time at all.

 

[Bumbleb]

That looks like the Hoonigan shop

 

[Stokes]

Following and will have questions! Very nice. I didn't realize the 1M front fenders would mount up okay with regular rockers. I'm thinking of a similar path. Front for a while then rear. Those lower front arms! Didn't know they exist. I'm in awe of all the details.

 

[berns]

That looks like the Hoonigan shop

Good eye!

Following and will have questions! Very nice. I didn't realize the 1M front fenders would mount up okay with regular rockers. I'm thinking of a similar path. Front for a while then rear. Those lower front arms! Didn't know they exist. I'm in awe of all the details.

Pretty painless to get the 1M stuff on. And yes, SPL makes incredible stuff. I want all my arms to be SPL!

 

[Stokes]

Okay first question. Did you leave the wider 135 rear hubs on? Personally, I hate them. 10mm wider each side and super unique.

 

[Garvis]

You're talking me into that shifter haha. I used some of their stuff on my e30 with great results.

 

[berns]

Okay first question. Did you leave the wider 135 rear hubs on? Personally, I hate them. 10mm wider each side and super unique.

Yes, stock 135i rear hubs. I don’t see any reason to swap them out. Zero performance gain, waste of time and money. I’ve had no problem fitting a ton of rubber under the stock rear fenders either. My current setup is 18x9.5 +48 rear and 18x9.5 +22 front with 275/35 BFG Rival S all around. These measure closer to a 295.

 

[doublespaces]

That looks like the Hoonigan shop

Looks like the Hoonigan car

Following and will have questions! Very nice. I didn't realize the 1M front fenders would mount up okay with regular rockers. I'm thinking of a similar path. Front for a while then rear. Those lower front arms! Didn't know they exist. I'm in awe of all the details.

I was wondering this exact same thing, looks like it can be done temporarily. I wonder if there are more shots of this for pure curiosity sake?

 

[Jeffman]

What engine mods did you do? Turbos? Tune? Fueling?, etc. to achieve 450-500 WHP?

 

[The Convert]

The 1M body panels are sooooo sexy!

 

[berns]

What engine mods did you do? Turbos? Tune? Fueling?, etc. to achieve 450-500 WHP?

Those are my goals, not my current figures.

As of now, engine mods:
- stock turbos with 8k on them
- stock location inlets
- catless downpipes, mid pipes and no-muffler exhaust (berk race sounds amazing)
- AFE intake
- n20 map sensor
- fuel-it stage 2 bucket (haven’t install Motiv flex box, e-content analyzer or upgraded lines yet)
- VRSF 7.5” way overkill intercooler
- CSF radiator
- dual setrab oil coolers with thermo delete
- tuned on pump 91 with MHD by Ken @WedgePerformance

Haven’t dynod the car like this but would guess it’s in the 38x-39x area.

Getting the car to stay cool is the primary goal at this point, and while it’s fine in the winter months, we’ve got work to do if we want it to last through summer.

 

[berns]

View attachment 21722
Looks like the Hoonigan car


View attachment 21721

I was wondering this exact same thing, looks like it can be done temporarily. I wonder if there are more shots of this for pure curiosity sake?

Ha, bit of a Hoonigan car. Some of my closest buds work at Hoonigan and we're all in the same industry. I used to work on staff for mags like 0-60, RIDES, European Car, Road & Track, Automobile, etc... Now I shoot commercial automotive advertising. If you're bored, here's my IG @bernooo or you can see some of my work here: www.alexbernsteinphoto.com . Vin and I try to build our cars in similar fashion and we race together at most events.

As for the 1M front-end on a non-M E82, not much to it! I have the full parts list somewhere over here, and I ordered everything from www.getbmwparts.com. They usually have the best prices on OEM body panels and great customer service. The front fenders fit right on with the stock non-M sideskirts, but you'll be left with a visible gab as show. I actually kind of like it, and thought about how I could incorporate this look rearward for the rear arches but it'd be way too costly and dumb, so the gap will be gone soon once the 1M sideskirts are fitted. I actually left the fender liner exposed to serve as a rock guard, and since I knew I'd eventually do the rest of the 1M conversion and didn't want a missing slice of fender liner. Here are a few more shots:

 

[Jeffman]

Getting the car to stay cool is the primary goal at this point, and while it’s fine in the winter months, we’ve got work to do if we want it to last through summer.

Yup. Keeping everything cool in an N54 track car is what Barry’s @barry@3DM thread is all about.
https://bmw.spoolstreet.com/threads...r-temps-during-extended-track-use.4352/page-5
I’ll be watching both of these threads.

 

[Boorda]

Love Hoonigan, been watching those crazy guys on Youtube for some time now.
Checked out your site, your photography is superb and your car kicks ass.
Keep up the good work.