The antidote to bloated M Cars, My 2000 S50 M Coupe

[bluepony]

I have one of these, same colour. It needs a few bits doing to it but I love it. Bought it five years ago when the values bottomed out. Could not afford one now!

[urquattroGus]

A few pictures from today after a much needed wash:

[Dr Nookie]

Very nice - they're such a joy to own.

[urquattroGus]

Fitted my new Hayward and Scott exhaust a couple of nights ago, finished up by about 11.30pm after work but wanted to get it on.

Fitted quite nicely, had to tweak one metal bracket slightly, and as you can see one side is not quite level, wanted to drive it though so will have to re adjust later!

Happy with the way the twin pipes look.

Sound wise I have to say that at high revs its sounds awesome, it screams quite nicely. Also sounds good when the blip the throttle and idle sounds just about right.

It is towards the louder spectrum for most I should imagine.

However, there is quite a resonance or drone between 2-3k rpm, probably more than I would like. Not been on the motorway yet.

I have spoken to Hayward and Scott and they claim that you need up to 500 miles for the drone to reduce and the sound to mellow out, a bit sceptical but I shall give it a chance. About 70 miles driven so far and it does seem to have changed tone a little.

Here is a short vid of stationary sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKW2HeAFu_Q

Will try to get some one the move at a later date.

[urquattroGus]

Found out there was a Dyno day on just 10 mins away from me today, so couldn't resist popping down for a quick power run.

Car has been feeling very healthy but was curious.

Video of my runs below:

https://youtu.be/XMpjHV7Y9Mg

Pretty happy with the results, that's about right for a standard S50????

Standard apart from the Hayward and Scott rear boxes anyway....

Graph:

[gareth h]

urquattroGus said:

VeeTenM said:

Nice, do miss mine. I had H&S exhaust on my car along with Evolve Carbon Airbox, sounded amazing.

Get over on https://www.z3mcoupe.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=...

Thanks, did you sell to a guy in Scotland? I was talking to him about his highly modded car, sounded interesting.

Carbon airbox is tempting although Evolve apparently won't map a S50 anymore, only person in the UK is Wayne at Chipwizards apparently.

I'm also a bit unsure about going for Alpha N as I've read it can be bad at part throttle/not as drivable as you lose the MAF.

Trying to mod her but without compromising usability

Have a chat with Ray at West Tuning, Thruxton, he builds E46 M3 race engines and can map, he’ll give you the lowdown on what is worthwhile doing.

[urquattroGus]

gareth h said:

urquattroGus said:

VeeTenM said:

Nice, do miss mine. I had H&S exhaust on my car along with Evolve Carbon Airbox, sounded amazing.

Get over on https://www.z3mcoupe.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=...

Thanks, did you sell to a guy in Scotland? I was talking to him about his highly modded car, sounded interesting.

Carbon airbox is tempting although Evolve apparently won't map a S50 anymore, only person in the UK is Wayne at Chipwizards apparently.

I'm also a bit unsure about going for Alpha N as I've read it can be bad at part throttle/not as drivable as you lose the MAF.

Trying to mod her but without compromising usability

Have a chat with Ray at West Tuning, Thruxton, he builds E46 M3 race engines and can map, he’ll give you the lowdown on what is worthwhile doing.

Thanks, might do that, so far just can't stop driving her, really enjoying it!

[dalecan]

Zarco said:

TR4man said:

Why, oh why, did I not buy one of these when they were £12k?

Yep

Love your garage OP.

I had to sell mine when I emigrated to the US from London in 2008. It was the same spec as the OP with around 50k on the clock; I sold it for 13 grand! I would've kept her if I had not moved. Great car.

[urquattroGus]

So, a couple of weeks ago my car went to Reddish Motorsport and they cleaned up some surface rust on the sills and jacking points.

They did quite a long video on this which will be posted in the near future, will link to it.

Gives me great peace of mind.

They also fitted a braided clutch hose for me at the same time (Glad I didn't have the faff with bleeding up myself)

Getting to love the Hayward and Scott Exhaust Exhaust now.

Shame I can hardly drive it though

I've done a few little jobs like swapping out the TPS for a new one. Replaced the screws with new allen headed ones which I think are much more robust than the original ones, one of which was very soft and rounded off. Think the idle and response is slightly better now.

I also have some Performance Friction Front Brake Pads to fit, my discs are next to new so keeping the same discs. Should make a nice little upgrade along with some braided brake hoses at a later date.

I fitted these same compound pads to my 916 3.0 Alfa Spider and I found the brake feel to be really good and confidence inspiring, with a bit more bite. No drawbacks with cold performance or noise either.

I'm now contemplating whether to remove the rear axle and trailing arms to re-bush, blast and paint.

I have plenty of POR 15 paint and various consumables in the garage.

But will I get any of the other parts I need??, I don't want to end up completely disabling the car for a long time!!!

[urquattroGus]

A detailed video of the sill tidying work Reddish Motorsport did on my car:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d99Ba7lictE

[urquattroGus]

Loads of updates on my car, all posted on the coupe forum.

I had the boot floor strengthened amongst other things, and about to fit all new suspension.

https://www.z3mcoupe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20...

[MNBrennan]

Did I see your car at DMWorx this week?

[urquattroGus]

Nah that wasn't me, she's still going back together at home.


Need to get out and drive her again on back together!

[urquattroGus]

Update on this.

It's all back on the road and sailed through the MOT after me spending since March 2020 giving the underside a major overhaul.

I've fitted new Bilstein B6 Dampeners and Eibach Proline springs along with H&R Anti roll bars.

I've also replaced every bush and ball joint in the suspension including new control arms, top mounts etc etc.

I took the rear axle beam and diff out, painted up this with POR 15 etc and added poly subframe mounts which stop the subframe whipping forwards and backwards under power.

Spent ages rubbing back the boot floor area and had a coded welder fit a new diff ear and reinforce the boot floor in the style of the Randy Forbes kit.

This was after finding that a couple of the boot spot welds had started to lift, this was only visible after removing the seam sealer in the boot.

And numerous other stuff, too much to list really, it's been great to have a lockdown project!

I'm very pleased with how it drives, the ride is very compliant yet it feels a little sharper, it's like OEM plus etc and it's not silly low to the ground.

Owning this car continues to be a joy, so fun to drive and yet so usable.

If you want pictures I have a build thread on the Z3mcoupe forum that's linked above.