A Good Chassis, and a Divisive Engine. The American M3.

A Good Chassis, and a Divisive Engine. The American M3.

Author
Discussion

Mike335i

5,006 posts

102 months

Sunday 19th February 2017
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This is quite some build, I'm impressed. Fancy dropping an LS3 in my 335i?

mattwhite709

328 posts

99 months

Sunday 19th February 2017
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Sounds immense in that clip. Bet you can not wait to get your hands on it properly.

AshBurrows

Original Poster:

2,552 posts

162 months

Monday 20th February 2017
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It passed!
Brought it to work today. In the morning dew and cold it's just completely undrivable.
Should be better with a proper throttle map and better map, but at the moment it's just terrifying!

ATM

18,294 posts

219 months

Monday 20th February 2017
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AshBurrows said:
It passed!
Brought it to work today. In the morning dew and cold it's just completely undrivable.
Should be better with a proper throttle map and better map, but at the moment it's just terrifying!
What tyres have you got on it?

skyrover

12,673 posts

204 months

Monday 20th February 2017
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Throttle map should be as close to direct/linear as possible (i.e cable operated)


AshBurrows

Original Poster:

2,552 posts

162 months

Monday 20th February 2017
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ATM said:
What tyres have you got on it?
Federal 595RSRs. I will put something sensible on until summer I suppose!
Will that be a night and day difference do you think or pretty small?

skyrover

12,673 posts

204 months

Monday 20th February 2017
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Continental SportContact 6 are one of the best tyres you can get at the moment

ATM

18,294 posts

219 months

Monday 20th February 2017
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AshBurrows said:
ATM said:
What tyres have you got on it?
Federal 595RSRs. I will put something sensible on until summer I suppose!
Will that be a night and day difference do you think or pretty small?
Mine was tricky to drive without winter tyres. They made a big difference. I can pull off in 3rd in mine easily so I just use the higher gears if I need to pootle. Then slip the clutch rather than use the throttle if that makes sense. Sometimes the throttle can be a bit on off.

ATM

18,294 posts

219 months

Friday 24th February 2017
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The weather is fine now. Surely you have some grip now?

AshBurrows

Original Poster:

2,552 posts

162 months

Monday 27th February 2017
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So it was good over the weekend while dry.
Popped down to Brill. Which was... erm... brill!
Mapping next week will hopefully eliminate a lot of the bucking and deadspot on the throttle. Fingers crossed!









Some guys in the petrol station asked if they could have a look round it and take some pics which was a nice feeling. They couldn't believe it had a Chevy engine haha.

ATM

18,294 posts

219 months

Monday 27th February 2017
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AshBurrows said:
Some guys in the petrol station asked if they could have a look round it and take some pics which was a nice feeling. They couldn't believe it had a Chevy engine haha.
Next time dont tell them what it is and ask them to guess. Only once has someone got it right by looking at mine. I've had a few guesses which were not even v8. That tells you a lot about someone who claims to be a car person. I was toying with the idea of the corvette plastic covers just for this reason.

Liggle

281 posts

101 months

Monday 27th February 2017
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Stunning car, top work!

ATM

18,294 posts

219 months

Friday 12th May 2017
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Ash

How's it going?

AshBurrows

Original Poster:

2,552 posts

162 months

Wednesday 14th June 2017
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Right then time for a little update.

Last time I posted I was driving around bedding in the engine on a lumpy as hell base map. Also I was pretty overwhelmed by the car.

Since then I've had it mapped by the mega talented Emerald crew.



It made just shy of 500hp on 95RON. We decided to map it this way because I'm going to be taking it on trips and it's better to be tuned for this and able to run on 95 in Scotland/France than blow it up just for the sake of a slight performance edge. We think in reality now it's run in and being run on 99 it's getting on for 530ish HP. Which is probably enough to be honest. So much torque it's unbelievable. The only slight issue is some shunting at around 1500rpm. This is because I've used such a ridiculously aggressive cam. But that slight irritation is made better by the scream at about 7k.

Emerald also managed to implement some of my pretty tricky requests as well as TCS and SM. Even got the CSL shift lights for my gears! I absolutely cannot recommend the guys enough.

This also happens in my track map haha:



Short video here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BRqyT1ADSdc/?taken-by=...

Sport button switchable maps here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BSoztq3jUmi/?taken-by=...

Dave Walker wrote a little bit about my car in last month's PPC mag too. Which was nice.



Another magazine all the way from sunny JAPAN spotted my little M3 in the corner of a mate's workshop while she was parked up waiting for me to collect and decided that they needed to feature her. A quick wash and polish and then all ready to make me an international sensation (of probably 10 people who like good wheels and ruined cars!) I'm absolutely buzzing the see the pictures. I think they're due in July! Quite an honour that they were struck by it when it's parked among GT3s and stanced out Lambos tbh!



So since this has all been done, I'm just getting to grips with it. Lots of pointless drives and fuel wasted made me realise I needed to pickup a daily. I seem to get around 10mpg if I'm not on a big run haha!



I decided to grab a R27 Clio with a view of it being a perfect, but fun, runaround. Unfortunately for me, the bottom end went just 2 hours into ownership! There seems to be a theme in this thread! So we pulled that engine out and grabbed another which went back in without too much hassle. I also realised it was worth doing the clutch at the same time. Imagine my surprise when the little Clio's clutch cost more than the huge LS7 setup I run in the M!

This dampened my love of cars for a couple of weeks but as the weather started improving, so did my mood. Couple of little blasts out and clean's with friends had me feeling like Dominic Toretto.





It was during one of these sunny, beered days we decided we should do a proper roadtrip, and just like that, hotels in the North of Scotland were booked for a NC500 trip. 3 M3s, a 911, a megane cup and a S2000. Next week we embark on this trip to see some of the absolute best scenery in the UK. Very excited!

The sun also inspired me to get my TE37s refurbished and sold. While doing this I realised it would be incredibly rude not to try on the BBS wheels!





Perfect! Probably even room for another 15mm of dish jester

Also had a run down to Stuttgart Classica's Porsche open day in the Cotswolds. Beautiful day out and got to catch up with some people I've really missed.





Essentially, I'm over the moon. NC500 next week and then a plethora of track days to follow! A friend with a certain Nurburgring famous Golf is also very interested to get out in it. Hopefully this leads to us building 2x very, very silly cars and getting round the ring faster than most! biggrin

Only gremlin I'm currently encountering is a fuse in my ignition system. Will hopefully have resolved pretty soon! Other than that, never skipped a beat. Lent it to a pal with the blue S54 circuit car above and he was absolutely blown away.

Suppose I should think about fitting this cage, some intrax and the aero once I've booked some track days! jester

Krikkit

26,529 posts

181 months

Wednesday 14th June 2017
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Looks absolutely awesome.

Give it at least another 10mm of ride height if you're taking it up Applecross though!

anonymous-user

54 months

Wednesday 14th June 2017
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Stunning

Rogue86

2,008 posts

145 months

Wednesday 14th June 2017
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Awesome bud and also good/bad timing. My ecu turned up today and Im not likely to have it mapped to meet you guys en route for the NC500 (reckon it'll be the week after). You still planning on making the detour?

AshBurrows

Original Poster:

2,552 posts

162 months

Thursday 15th June 2017
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Rogue86 said:
Awesome bud and also good/bad timing. My ecu turned up today and Im not likely to have it mapped to meet you guys en route for the NC500 (reckon it'll be the week after). You still planning on making the detour?
We'll be in Haltwhistle near Carlisle Wednesday Pal and then setting off up to Scotland Thursday morning. Gutted man! I'd have loved one nice pic of my car haha! And to see your beautiful face of course wink

Rogue86

2,008 posts

145 months

Thursday 15th June 2017
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AshBurrows said:
We'll be in Haltwhistle near Carlisle Wednesday Pal and then setting off up to Scotland Thursday morning. Gutted man! I'd have loved one nice pic of my car haha! And to see your beautiful face of course wink
No worries mate, maybe catch you on the way back down. If not then we need to do beers again soon anyway!

AshBurrows

Original Poster:

2,552 posts

162 months

Monday 19th June 2017
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Nice one! Can't wait to see that stupid rotary running!