[14] Erhard Bmw Farmington Hills On Monthly Topic

Another member and the Cult of the Roundel here, and currently have in my collection:
– 2006 M3 Coupe ZCP (“CSL Lite”) 6MT in Alpine White over Imola Red Leather with 59K miles of which 8K are on the track (full Vorsteiner lineup of dual-sided dry carbon fiber body pieces including GTR hood + CSL trunk + rear diffuser + side mirrors + CSL sideskirts + full front bumper + splitter + CSL roof which remember is all pure carbon fiber, Performance Friction BBK w 6-piston monoblock calipers and 380mm 2pc floating rotors front + 4-piston monoblock calipers and 365mm 2pc floating rotors rear, VAC Carbon Fiber CSL Intake, Akrapovic full-Titanium exhaust, Fabspeed long equal length tubular headers, cat delete, TC Kline Race coilovers, GC adjustable sways, UUC engine and transmission “race” mounts, TMS diff mounts, UUC EVO3 SSK+DSSR, full OEM CSL carbon fiber interior, Schrick Stg2+ Cams, TMS pulleys, Stewart water pump +ZZionsville Race radiator + Samco Sport hoses, CSL oil filter housing, SuperTech +1 inconel valves and titanium spring/retainer set, Dinan bored throttle bodies, OS Giken 28-plate 3.38:1 Limited Slip Differential, Genuine BMW Performance carbon fiber frame w Alcantara seating surface 19lb seats from Europe, Extrude-honed head and manifold which were also flow-tested and benched then flow-matched, 5-angle grind for valves and seating area which with the head work resulted in a perfect flow curve eliminating all dips and flowing between 8 and 45 percent more total air with the more important velocity increase of 182 percent, Bosche Revision 3 uprated injectors (R3 have the best atomization of any injector ever made to date), ATI hydraulic dampener, UUC Stg1 Dual-mass clutch kit (25lb total for a true dual mass clutch + LTW flywheel kit rated for 650bhp yet is smoother than stock) + UUC SS clutch line, TMS wheel lugs, BBS LM 19×9″ & 19×11″, Rays Engineering Volk TE37 19×9″ 19×10.5″ gunmetal, Apex 18×9.5″ & 18×10″ matte black extreme-lightweight race wheels (18.8lb/19.2lb, total of 46.9lb lighter), CCW Classics 19×9.5″ & 19×11″ w polished lips (2.5″ front and 4.75″ rear lips), Michelin Pilot Super Sports for street (245-265 front and 265-295 rear) and Pilot Sport Cup for street-legal race rubber (255f 285r), 7″ touchscreen head unit from Pioneer + Focal Utopia component speakers replacing all stock speakers + 2 700W 4.5lb Class D3 amps, Odyssey 13.7lb battery, ZHP shift knob, Alpina genuine pedals, OEM HID’s w upgraded 6800K bulbs + Fog HID conversion w high end projectors and the same 6800K bulbs + 110-LED Angel Eyes w matching 6800K color temp, Clear Turns and Clear Rears, LED Tails, Conversion to LED sidemarkers, Blackout Exterior Trim + Full CF kidney grills + CF headlight interior housing + CF door handles, and a lot more. 378.7rwhp and 299.2rwtq naturally aspirated on 93 pump gas w custom tune and about 36hp/25lb-ft more on 100 race gas; total weight loss is about 295lb with a huge reduction in unsprung weight and a center of gravity 3ft 5in lower) Apart from the test pipes it’s 100pct Street Legal but we don’t have emissions in my state, and as its a “fun track” rather than “serious/competitive track” car, and I don’t do any wheel to wheel in it, the race harnesses with welded-in custom mounts and a bolt-in custom chromoly cage (reinforced steel panels welded to the chassis where it bolts to, which actually help, along with the TMS weld-in full chassis reinforcement kit + Rogue Engineering “RaceBrace” 3-point front strut brace and 2-point rear shock tower brace, to stiffen it up a bit even when the cage is not installed) which was made specifically to minimize the downsides of bolt-ins such as the welded mounting plates that are more than 3x larger than anything I’ve seen off the shelf and which use 12x half-inch thick bolts that mount through and alternate head or thread side down to prevent rattling from loosening the cage. It’s not as good as a “real” cage, but every single instructor or racer who’s seen it has said that they’ve never seen anything close to it in design or quality. It’s also wrapped with 2″ high density closed cell foam padding, which is then covered in OEM Imola Red Leather that I got from a totalled car and the interior specialists even matched the M3 trim stitching perfectly. It looks factory, for real.
2010 E92 335i 6MT in Alpine White over Natural Leather with Sport, Premium, Premium Audio, Full Bixenons, and Cold Weather packages (far fewer mods; all bolt-ons including 3″ downpipes w/o cats, and a custom tune, AA large intercooler w silicone XL Tubing, twin oil coolers, UUC Stg1 dual-mass clutch kit, UUC EVO3 SSK+DSSR, M-Technik M3 front bumper, Vorsteiner Hood+Trunk+Diffuser+Mirrors all dual-sided dry carbon fiber, Akrapovic titanium exhaust system, StopTech Trophy BBK 8piston 380mm 2pc floating front and 4piston 365mm 2pc floating rear (Monoblock calipers with bare aluminum finish aside from protective coating, titanium pistons, SS Lines), custom widened fenders with +1.2″ front and +2.5″ rear, BBS LM 19×10 and 19×12, Kinesis 20×9.5 and 20×12 ultralight wheels, Custom Quaife 5-plate LSD, KW V3 coilovers, Hitchkis sways, all upgraded bushings and mounts, and misc other stuff. It’s making 442.1rwhp and 468.3rwtq with 90pct of torque from 1950 to 6825rpm!).
2006 330Ci ZHP 6MT in Imola Red over Charcoal Alcantara and Leather mix, ZHP/Sport/Audio/Cold packages w Bixenons; daily driver with bolt-ons, suspension and brakes, LSD, 19″ staggered lightweight wheels, and SSK/similar “daily driver enhancing mods” + aesthetics like the genuine CF Clubsport splitters
2000 328Ci 5MT (6MT swapped in tho) in Topaz Blau over Dove Grey Leather with every package and option except for the useless auto trans, and this is my all out no holds barred car, engine built with the absolute best of everything and supercharged with a modified ESS TS2 Lysholm twin-screw supercharger kit (ie plumbing an FMIC, boost increased from 8psi to 13psi on a two-points-higher-than-stock compression ratio, and made to fit the S54B32 individual throttle body conversion), everything down to literally the nuts and bolts have been upgraded in suspensions, brakes, drivetrain, most of the body has been modified (same setup as my M3 but with more, plus custom fenders, and brand new M3 full front and rear axles/hubs/suspension points/etc to allow me to use M3-specific Performance Friction monoblock race 16″/15.2″ BBK + the larger diff housing + stronger driveshaft mounting etc… She is my baby. 449.5rwhp and 431rwtq on pump 93 or 491.2rwhp and 474.8rwtq on 100oct race gas. Total of 76.2lb dropped from suspension/brakes, 42lbs from wheels, 69.8lb from drivetrain mainly from the CF driveshaft + UUC Stg1 dual-mass clutch kit but the con rods are each 0.8lb lighter and the pistons are each 0.38lb lighter, for example, and the combination of razor honed blueprinted crank and dry sump conversion reduces a lot of friction as does the same SwainTech coatings as the M3 but more, where I’d say the M3 has “Level 3” coating work, this would be “Level 5+” and don’t dismiss the stuff as I couldn’t run this boost without it and the engine bay is over 60deg cooler (intake air temp is never more than 3-6F above ambient, and below 2when mmoving more than 25mph), all in all reducing parasitic losses from 15.2 percent to 7.8 percent or less, and the sprung weight is down by 352.9lbs, for a sub-2600lb E46 Coupe with nearly 2.5x the stock rigidity and chassis strength, and a center of gravity below the mid-section of the car… Oh, and corner weighted, it still has perfect 50:50 weight distribution, set for me in the car, the variance F/R, R/L, and corner-corner is a maximum of 2lb 3oz.)
2001 E46 325i 5MT Sport TiAg/Black and a genuine European model. 162,890mi as of today and never once have I done any repairs, only preventative maintenance. And I always upgrade what I replace, because KW V2’s, Hotchkis sways, PowerFlex poly bushings, UUC mounts, TMS camber arms, BMW 135i 6-piston front calipers and Euro 2pc floating rotors kit + Wilwood rear caliper spacer and up sized M3 ZCP 2pc floating rotors, and so forth, they are lifetime parts with the warranty to match. Same with the Stewart pump, Fluidyne rad, Samco hoses, Zionsville expansion tank, etc. The car has only BimmerBrakes ceramic headers, UUC TSE3 exhaust, Dinan carbon fiber long-tube true CAI, 3.5″ MAF + Silicone Intake tubing, Shark Injector tune, and Rogue Pulleys as far as power parts, and while a totally different beast from my 328 or M3’s/M5, is still a blast to drive. The suspension is more capable than the limits of any backroad, yet even with the 19×8.5″ & 19×9.5″ J-Line 5LR2 2pc forged wheels (19.9lb/20.7lb) and Pilot Super Sports 235/30R19 and 255/30R19, it’s not just comfortable enough to be a daily driver for a 78mi round trip commute, it is a daily driver for that commute 4-5 out of 5 days a week, and it’s the only one I drive in winter (and as such, the entire underside was steamed, stripped down to the original surface, and it has a thick layer of clear protective coating that’s basically “stronger clearcoat”, and all the suspension and other underside bits were either steamed and scrubbed and coated, or were coated when brand new; the difference is incredible, as 2min with a hose and everything looks newer than a show car’s underside!). I recently changed out plugs and such, and did a new headgasket and other things, and incredibly there is zero oil sludge and barely even a patina, the cams have extremely little visible wear, piston and valve surfaces show the wear I’d expect from 40k miles not 170k, and neither had any carbon buildup. I went ahead and upgraded the PCV system at the time to the enhanced cold weather version to keep the possibility of sludge even lower.
I attribute this to using ONLY true synthetic oil, Group 4 and 5, specifically Redline (G5) or occasionally Royal Purple (G4), as I do in all my cars. 5W30-40 summer and winter, with Redline D4 ATF in the tranny, RL 75W90 in non-LSD diffs, Motul RBF600 brake fluid for street, RL ATF in place of BMW brand PS fluid, and a 30-70 anti-freeze to water coolant ratio with a bottle of RL Water Wetter in the cooling system. Hundreds of thousands of miles and never a single problem, in fact when my friend, who’s a BMW master mechanic and has his own shop, was helping me tear down my 328Ci’s motor prior to the build for the blower, he asked when I replaced the stock cams and why, but he was holding my original cams, not replacements because they hadn’t been. 82k miles, at the time (the rebuild brought everything but the block back to “0”, as it exceeds the criteria for a new motor more than 3 times over, and tolerances for everything were exactly the BMW tolerance, not a single ten thousandth off, and not at the loose end of allowable, but the exact ideal tolerance)… They had no wear marks, aside from an almost imperceptible color difference at the contact points, they looked brand new. I had them checked, and sure enough they were not even close to being outside allowable tolerances, and the report asked me to call because they thought 82k was a typo, and it even said “if not, call anyway, because I want to know what you’re doing!”. I have only run Redline and occasionally Royal Purple in the motor, the only time it had anything else was during break in (1600mi) after which the oil was changed by the dealer, I drove home and dumped it and replaced it with RL, did OC’s every 1K til 6600mi, then 2.5k til 15k, and have done 5k max ever since.
Now, my buddy, who had formerly always told me I was crazy for not using BMW fluids, only carries Redline (aside from the Castrol that’s the “Warranty Oil” for the cars that require it for warranty), and I let him “borrow” the cams, along with the cam wear report and Blackstone full oil analysis (6329mi, zero wear metals), on the wall of the waiting area in his shop. He said that since switching most of his customers to RL on a 7.5k OCI, he has had on average 22 percent fewer engine repairs compared to prior.
I also do every 15k on transmission, 15k on regular or 7k on LS diffs, 15k PS, and coolant every Spring and Fall (go to 60-40 water-AF for winter).

Also, in the garage, are my 1999 M3 naturally aspirated over 400bhp Euro motor/trans race car, a 1995 E34 540i M-Sport 6MT (one of 133 ever made) w just 65k miles, 2003 E39 M5 w all options in a very rare blue, Estoril Blau, and only one of about a dozen and the only Estoril over Tan leather (48k miles), 1995 M5 Euro with the full European engine and 6MT (NA version made a lot less power and was essentially the same as comparing the NA E36 M3 vs the European versions), a European and 9.8/10 quality last-model-year E24 M6 with a manual (deep but bright red over natural tan leather) which again was a hugely better car than the American one (not just motors, but it doesn’t have the ugly US bumpers), a 1991 E30 M3 in Helrot over Caramel Leather with the entire EVO II OEM parts collection installed (all brand new from BMW Germany) including an EVO II motor and transmission my friend got for $2600US from a car that was wrecked from the rear in Germany with only 9728miles on them! Oh, and a 2002Tii Turbo project car, a 325iS E30 undergoing a heart transplant to the Euro S50B32 converted to OBD1 and 6MT and LSD, my other project.

You don’t see any pristine 35yr old Toyota’s, do you? It’s because while they have their faults, BMW makes insanely overbuilt engines and has the absolute best body panel fitting in the world, and they don’t use cheap materials. My friend has an E30 325iS that’s on the original motor and transmission that’s his DD, and he hit 500,000 this year. Never had a repair bill over 500US, instead he does preventative maintenance and saves huge money and time.

This is the key: if you are vigilant, and go beyond the BMW service recommendations while knowing what the trouble areas are, and doing the maintenance preventatively instead of as repairs, and use high quality Aftermarket (upgraded) parts from reputable companies (which are cheaper than, or the same price as, the weaker OEM part), You will pay less for repairs than anything else. I would keep a slush fund as with ANY car, but if you know when and how much months and years in advance, and always minimize labor by doing all like items together, these are EASIER AND LESS COSTLY TO OWN THAN JUST ABOUT ANYTHING! If you donâ€™t care about cars, and You just want a status symbol w wheels, buy a dam Lexus!!!