135i Build - Track Toy with a License Plate

gmx

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Dec 8, 2017
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BMW 1M
If you do that, you need to very carefully modify the core to fit as intended or come up with a solution. They may not sell the kit piecemeal/separately.
The 1M duct does not hit all 19 rows unfortunately, about 4-5 don't get airflow. Ideally we need to open it up somehow, but I'm going as is for now.
25 row would be a larger challenge, however I believe the space is available. I have to yet to get the car off stands and look at clearance throughout the suspension travel range (won't/can't effectively measure compression, only droop/static). I'll post more pics once there's more progress.
 

The Convert

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Jun 4, 2017
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If you do that, you need to very carefully modify the core to fit as intended or come up with a solution. They may not sell the kit piecemeal/separately.
The 1M duct does not hit all 19 rows unfortunately, about 4-5 don't get airflow. Ideally we need to open it up somehow, but I'm going as is for now.
25 row would be a larger challenge, however I believe the space is available. I have to yet to get the car off stands and look at clearance throughout the suspension travel range (won't/can't effectively measure compression, only droop/static). I'll post more pics once there's more progress.
Banjos wouldn’t be ideal for flow, but you could likely keep same ground clearance your 19 row setup has if banjos were used instead of the 90s.
 

The Convert

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Jun 4, 2017
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PS - check out these badass uprights...

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I’d love to see more info on these. Went to both company’s sites and couldn’t find anything...
 
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berns

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Jan 15, 2018
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'09 135i
If you do that, you need to very carefully modify the core to fit as intended or come up with a solution. They may not sell the kit piecemeal/separately.
The 1M duct does not hit all 19 rows unfortunately, about 4-5 don't get airflow. Ideally we need to open it up somehow, but I'm going as is for now.
25 row would be a larger challenge, however I believe the space is available. I have to yet to get the car off stands and look at clearance throughout the suspension travel range (won't/can't effectively measure compression, only droop/static). I'll post more pics once there's more progress.

Currently I have my fitting pointing upwards, their kit has the cores flipped. Waiting to hear back from Mark over there to see what's possible. Not sure how this would be interfering with suspension travel? Curious what about the core needs to be modified. If it's just grinding off the brackets on the core, I'm not too concerned. If this turns out to be a pain in the ass, I'm just going to fab custom brackets and ducting as I originally planned to. Especially since the 1M ducts don't fit perfectly. Thanks for the heads up!

I’d love to see more info on these. Went to both company’s sites and couldn’t find anything...

They're figuring out tooling and production right now to make them less expensive and do a small batch initial run. They are going to be PRICEY. Strom is a full race shop and these were intended for race cars running full slicks. Likely not something us commoners will be buying, but super cool nonetheless.

My new MCS 2way Remotes just showed up, I'll be pairing those with some new Eibach springs, additional SPL bits and M3 rear spring arm conversion. Excited to get back on the road if my car ever gets out of the body shop.

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gmx

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Dec 8, 2017
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BMW 1M
Banjos wouldn’t be ideal for flow, but you could likely keep same ground clearance your 19 row setup has if banjos were used instead of the 90s.

Ground clearance isn't really the problem, it's clearance to the tyre/wheel throughout it's range including lock. My 25 row on the other side is fine but it's damn close, can't fit a finger in between. The core edges touches the bumper and "air guide" on the 1M bumper and when they get up to operating temp... that isn't good. Some might let it slide.
Also have to do something about the "opened" up wheel liners I'm left with. Read: There is basically is no liner anymore. Having some custom louvers made out of 1mm Aluminium, ETA in about a week.
 
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tsaulsbu

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Mar 16, 2017
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Any trouble with the G30 lithium battery? I know that folks have reported low battery warnings and trouble cranking with the non-lithium Brailles, but I'm not seeing much feedback on the G30.

EDIT: I should also say, hell of a build. Definitely inspiring me to look for a 1er.
 
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berns

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Jan 15, 2018
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'09 135i
Any trouble with the G30 lithium battery? I know that folks have reported low battery warnings and trouble cranking with the non-lithium Brailles, but I'm not seeing much feedback on the G30.

EDIT: I should also say, hell of a build. Definitely inspiring me to look for a 1er.

Thanks! Zero issues with the G30. Thoroughly impressed with it. It's tiny, insanely light and holds a charge for over two weeks when the car is just sitting. Zero issues with cranking or any kind of warnings.
 

berns

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Jan 15, 2018
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'09 135i
Well, today was a good day! The car saw sunlight and left the body shop for the first time in about 5 months. It's been a long journey, but it's an awesome feeling to see what's only been in my imagination for so long, parked right in front of me. Just a cell phone pic for now. Long to-do list once I trailer it from the body shop to EAS tomorrow where I'll take over a lift for a few days to take care of maintenance and upgrades.

-Need to make new mounts for the oil coolers to push them further back toward the fender liners so I can build some ducting to help temps.
-Installing the new CSF intercooler, which will shave weight and hopefully be better suited to stock turbo track things, compared to the massive VRSF race core.
-Have to fit the new MCS 2way Remotes and find a nice place to mount the reservoirs.
-Also swapping to M3 rear spring arms
-Full nut & bolt check and making sure everything is torqued to spec. Have had too many loose bolts in bad places, and this is just from laziness on my part. I need to be better about doing things right and checking up on it. Amazing that I set my record lap at Buttonwillow with three loose control arm bolts (both fronts and one rear). I could change camber on all the wheels by hand in the air...
-Swapping out my RedLine 10w40 and trying out some Ravenol 5w40. Also replacing the stupid oil condition sensor, but man do I wish there was a dipstick kit out there.
-Going to install a 185* thermostat as well, because this thing doesn't warm up unless it's on the track which is really no bueno.
-Have to mount the front splitter, and then it's time to get it on the scales and see where we're at. At that point I'll decide if there's anything else I want to remove to save weight. My goal is 3000lbs without me. Any bets?

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berns

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Jan 15, 2018
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'09 135i
Well, Thursday was an awesome day! Car finally left the body shop and I towed it over to EAS. I'll start working on it on Monday.
This process was long, and painful at times, but I have to say, it was totally worth the wait. The car looks insane in person and I'm thoroughly in love with it now. I'll take some better pics soon. Crazy that it used to look like this just 1.5 years ago!

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And now:

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ShocknAwe

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Jan 24, 2018
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Looking into rear wheel/tire options for my 1M front conversion. What rear wheel did you use originally? Haven't seen that +48 offset offered.

Also curious what you did to fit that much rubber back there before the fender grafting.

Great build thread, glad I stumbled on it.
 
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berns

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Jan 15, 2018
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'09 135i
Looking into rear wheel/tire options for my 1M front conversion. What rear wheel did you use originally? Haven't seen that +48 offset offered.

Also curious what you did to fit that much rubber back there before the fender grafting.

Great build thread, glad I stumbled on it.

I ran the 135i spec APEX ARC8 in 18x9.5 +58 with a 10mm spacer.
Up front I ran an 18x9.5 +22.

Didn't have any problems fitting big rubber in the back of the car. There is a lot of room back there. I ran -2.6* camber as well.
 
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ShocknAwe

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Jan 24, 2018
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I ran the 135i spec APEX ARC8 in 18x9.5 +58 with a 10mm spacer.
Up front I ran an 18x9.5 +22.

Didn't have any problems fitting big rubber in the back of the car. There is a lot of room back there. I ran -2.6* camber as well.
Fantastic. That's what I have on order, just in EC7 trim.

Why did you use the 10mm spacer? Fuel filler?
 

berns

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Jan 15, 2018
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'09 135i
Fantastic. That's what I have on order, just in EC7 trim.

Why did you use the 10mm spacer? Fuel filler?

Fuel filler and looks. There was room for it and the front track was already wider, so I did what I could to offset it. Pun!
 

berns

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Jan 15, 2018
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'09 135i
Getting there... Went down to European Auto Source (my other family) and installed my MCS 2way Remote setup with Eibach race springs. I know I've said it before, but seriously, Steve and Tom and the rest of the guys there are the best. Don't hesitate to reach out if you need anything handled on your car.

I decided to stay with a divorced rear spring for now and am using Ground Control rear weight jackers. These things are super rad. Height adjustment is now made via and long allen head. No need to disconnect anything in the rear, just jack up and rotate with a socket and ratchet with a long extension. Corner balancing time is cut down by a ton. The weight jackers articulate to keep the spring moving freely with the suspension. Also added M3/1M rear spring arms which are lighter, stronger and wider than stock. The coilovers are setup for true rear should I want to do that in the future.

Haven't driven much since the car isn't fully registered yet (stupid SMOG), but I did take an old freeway merge that I love (105W to 405N) at 100+ late at night and cannot believe how planted and glued this thing feels. Could also be that I've been driving a 4Runner for 6 months...

Car weight is 3170lbs with a little less than 3/4 tank of gas. Last weight with the sunroof, steel roof and OEM trunk was 3244lbs, so I shaved 75lbs since the 1M conversion, carbon roof and I'm guessing the MCS setup is a bit lighter than the KW clubsports.

***Sidenote -- I decided to create a new Instagram account for racing and car-build things, since I didn't want to floor my other account as it serves mostly as my portfolio. If you want to see other build updates or track vids, www.instagram.com/bernooo_1m

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Here's where I mounted the reservoirs... Wasn't using the kidney ducts for the intake, so why not keep these cool.
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Here is the curb weight:
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And here is the perfect 50% cross weight after corner balancing with me in it.
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berns

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Jan 15, 2018
175
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'09 135i
I have really been slacking. Sorry guys!

Here's the major update from where we left off with stock turbos!
Car is insanely quick... A lot of this is owed to the CES kit paired with this heavenly Garrett GTX3076R, t4 divided 1.06. The response and power is amazing. Yes, it is laggier than stock turbos, and I'm pretty sure a hair dryer is too, but the delivery, consistency, heat and topend power make it a winner on the track, and the street.

Keep in mind, this is not an all out power car... It's tempting to put down big numbers, but I have to control myself and stay focused on the goal at hand: reliability and ease of use. I've maxed out the stock HPFP on E40 and 17.5psi, where the car made an effortless 522whp at 6200rpm and then the rail pressure tanked. Ken at Wedge Performance has been tuning this car for the last 2 years, and he's one of the best people I've dealt with, ever. So, for your tuning needs, look no further. We are currently running logs on an E30 tune, and I'm lowering the boost down to 15psi. This should put us around 500whp and keep the fuel pressure happy.

If I really want more power, I'm going to give the Spool Performance Helix a try, but 500whp is more than enough for me for now.

The CES kit is lovely, and going into it, myself and John (owner of CES) knew I'd be pushing the kit harder than anyone else. I did end up having some heat related / clearance issues, but this was also due to me running a smaller turbo than the kit was designed for, which placed the hotside intercooler coupler much closer to the manifold than desired. To solve this, I had my fab buddy weld an aluminum extension straight onto the compressor housing, and now there is only one connection between the turbo and the intercooler. Track proof!

With the addition of the CES kit, the aero and MCS 2ways, I've shaved 5.5 seconds off my PB at Buttonwillow. There is still a lot of time on the table with a cleaner lap, and I'm on 200tw Nexen SUR4G's. The goal is to run a 1:51.xx on these tires, so I'll keep pushing for that. Next outing is on 2/9.

Here are some pics of the kit before install.

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Here's the dyno. Can't miss the HPFP crash there... It'll look better next time for sure. Keep in mind, this is with conservative timing and zero gain on the boost controller. Literally just added duty cycle, as I'm trying to keep torque lower, and adding gain/spool would only work against me on the track. That's a solid 450lb-ft at 3800rpm.

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Unfortunately on my PB lap, the GoPro decided it didn't want to record sound, so I had to overlay sound from a slower lap. It syncs up sometimes, but it gets the job done. My tires were shot and you can see I pushed my braking point way too far on the last corner, which was the different of a 1:52 vs the 53.1! Oh well, still learning.


Here are some photos during install, and of the modifications made for the intercooler piping.

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More on that VTT billet valve cover and dual catch can setup soon! ^
 

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MDORPHN

Corporal
Jan 28, 2018
196
162
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BMW 1M
Such a wonderful build! FWIW, I gave serious consideration to a 3076, but went with a Gen2 GTX3576r with a MOTIV mani on my 1M. I,too, am very happy with my set-up.

Neil
 
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