slcook54 Build Journal - SMB F80 M3 CS

[slcook54]

Hi all,

I'm the proud new owner of a 2018 SMB M3 CS. I picked it up 03/01/22 with 21k miles on the clock. I bought the car from kimcheebowl and picked it up at Cantrell Motorsports in Bellevue, WA. It was a fluid transaction and fantastic experience overall. I spent the next two days driving home along the Oregon coast to San Francisco. The original listing can be found here. I passed on the FI-R's and we adjusted the price accordingly.





Background

The F80 M3 joins the family with an existing older brother, the Melbourne Red 2012 E92 M3 pictured below. Track Journal for those interested. I absolutely love the E92 and it has slowly been morphing into a dedicated track car, granted it still has a baby seat in the back. I was tired of having the E92 perform dual duty and didn't like the idea of being stranded after a track day and not having a back up plan. The E92 sits on Ohlins and has full Essex AP brakes with Ferodo pads DS1.11 pads, which are not well suited to street use. I wanted a turbocharged car, with 4 doors and better gas mileage. I had been waiting for the G80 M3 to come out, but we all know how that turned out. I also contemplated a 991.2 Turbo S, but at roughly 2.5x the cost and no trunk, the F80 was a better overall fit.





As you can tell, I'm partial to red M3's and was disappointed that red was not a standard color. I did find some later MY Imola / Ferrari Red competition cars listed around $70K, but I didn't see the point of paying $70K when a CS could be had for another $5-10K. Given the GTS hood, 763 wheels and other additions, it was the obvious choice to me.

The Car Itself

The car came with a slew of extra parts, both installed and uninstalled. Already installed on the car include a Dinan intake, Dinan carbon fiber mirror caps, Dinan heat exchanger, Dinan HAS kit and Dinan monoballs. The car also has Autoteckic carbon fiber bits on the front and rear, which I will be removing shortly.

The uninstalled parts include a Dinan midpipe, Dinmann side skirts and an extra set of Diamond all weather floor mats. All of these items will be put up for sale and were factored into my math on the total purchase price.

There is a small blemish on the windshield and a small scratch above the rear driver side window, otherwise the car is in fantastic condition. Unfortunately, on the drive back from WA, I picked up a fairly decent blemish on the front, which stung, but I'll have my shop touch it up before it goes in for a full correction.



One of the front wheels was also curbed in 3 different places. I am going to have my shop repair it and refinish all the wheels in OEM BMW silver.



Initial Driving Impressions
The majority of my seat time over the last 3 years has been in the E92, so the comparisons will predominantly be measured against that.

The Good
- The stereo sound! The E92 has a pretty crappy standard system, but I was impressed with the stock sound, it has significantly more depth and clarity compared to the E92
- Driving ergonomics, primarily the steering wheel. You can pull the steering wheel significantly closer to your chest compared to the E92. I'm 6'0" and in the E92, you're compromising how close you want to sit versus having to reach for the steering wheel.
- Gas mileage! I've never cracked north of 250 miles on a tank in the E92 and that is my all time best, my average fill up is around 200 miles per tank. I hit 340 miles on a tank in the F80, the F80 tank is also 0.8 gallons smaller in total. It's amazing not having to eye the gas gauge all the time
- DCT feels similar, a bit cleaner
- Heads up display is awesome
- Driving in auto is significantly more practical with the torque, you can accelerate in 7th, which I love.
- I think the F80 sounds awesome, it doesn't have the same theater at redline as the E92, but has a lot of other cool sounds in the mid range and off throttle. I do plan to unplug the active sound module.

The Bad
- Despite the total weights being similar, it does feel larger overall, inside and out, which was to be expected
- While this is probably the best version of electric steering on the F80 chassis, it does feel like a downgrade to me.
- The front end feels VERY floaty, I wasn't pushing the car anywhere close to where I take E92 and the traction indicator was lighting up like a Christmas tree. This persisted even in off throttle scenarios, coasting through corners at speed. I knew I couldn't be at the limits of the car but the front end didn't feel planted at all. I believe there are two culprits, I think the front 255 Michelin PSS's are tired, I don't even know how long they've been mounted. The rears were also recently replaced with Hankook Ventus Evo v2's. I also have a steep driveway and asked that the front lip be removed for the drive back, so it’s possible there was a touch of missing downforce on the front end.

Life is too short to be driving on shitty tires, so I'll likely just scrap the tires and buy fresh PS4's (PS5's if they are out) or even Cup2's. I'll increase the front from a 255 to a 265. After replacing the tires, adding the lip back and aligning the car, I'm hoping that the front end feel improves. I did find that having the suspension in Sport helped, having it in Comfort exacerbated the problem.

What's Next?
- Remove all exterior Carbon parts
- Remove tint
- Sell Dinan midpipe, Dinmann side skirts and carbon parts
- Refinish wheels in in silver
- New tires, PS4S or Cup2
- Blendmount and Uniden R7
- iND painted reflectors (arrive 3/4)
- Reinstall CS front lip with Acexxon lip protector (arrives 3/4)
- TLG mudflaps
- Install CG Precision VSC-2 - Variable Sound Controller (ordered)
- AA Equal Length Resonated mid pipe (not ordered)
- Touch up front bumper
- Full paint correction and PPF on front clip

Where it all started

My first build back in 2004. 1995 M3, turbocharged making 470rwhp on a built motor. I still miss her.



Special shoutout to Alex RugbyBro for helping me navigate the purchase and answering my endless questions.

Look forward to meeting some of you in the future.

-Steve

[RugbyBro]

SUBBED

Always happy to help

[N44RP]

I have some new TLG flaps If you want them

[swagon]

Tacky carbon bits and mis-matched shitty tyres, oh boy. Nice to see you bringing her back to former glory!

[sugammadex]

What a great read! I'm interested in the rear carbon pieces if you part ways with them.

[Kilabyte]

Originally Posted by swagon

Tacky carbon bits and mis-matched shitty tyres, oh boy. Nice to see you bringing her back to former glory!

Truth. I wouldn't put those tires on my base M, why get the CS if you're going to ruin it?

[windnsea00]

SMB M3CS is one of my favorite looking M3's ever in the history of all M3's, look forward to seeing more! -Tyler (Bryson's friend)

[IB M]

Subscribed.

Best of both worlds - turbo and NA with the E92 in the same garage.

Your old E36 looked mean and fun. Those cars are coming into their own again in enthusiast and collector circles with more new E36 builds and high dollars being paid for low mileage cars.

Note - the F8x CS cars already have the active sound disabled. No need to code it out or tear apart your trunk to unplug the module.

[icegrill]

$85k how's it go "a something and their money" Good for the seller!

[Maitre_Absolut]

Seems like yours didnt come with the CS front lip. Hop that was disclosed, its not cheap

[slcook54]

Originally Posted by Maitre_Absolut

Seems like yours didnt come with the CS front lip. Hop that was disclosed, its not cheap

It's in my living room. I have a bad driveway and removed it for the drive back. It will go back on a couple of weeks.

[slcook54]

Originally Posted by icegrill

$85k how's it go "a something and their money" Good for the seller!

I'm up to speed on the market. Maybe I overpaid slightly for the car, but it came with $10k of Dinan parts. I'll likely recoup $4-5k from parting out the extra parts. It was a west coast car in SMB with a solid maintenance history. It was still an 18% discount to MSRP, which I'm happy about in this market.

[Gtracer]

Originally Posted by slcook54

I'm up to speed on the market. Maybe I overpaid slightly for the car, but it came with $10k of Dinan parts. I'll likely recoup $4-5k from parting out the extra parts. It was a west coast car in SMB with a solid maintenance history. It was still an 18% discount to MSRP, which I'm happy about in this market.

Beautiful car! Just picked up a SMB M3CS also! My second F80, behind an E92 M3 as well as a previous 01 M5. I'm so blown away with the car and have pretty much done everything you're going to do. All IND reflectors and key hole cover, full paint correction and ceramic coating, AA EL non res mid pipe, MPS4S 265/30-19 and 285/30-20's. My car only has 7200 miles but the tires were the original equipment and were just so tired and heat cycled. The 4S's changed the car dramatically and going to a 265 front really balanced out the front end and looks better to boot! I also removed the charcoal filters and did a set of BMC air filters. The sound is JUST right. Enjoy it in good health sir! I attached a few pics to show the tire fitments.

[slcook54]

Beauty. I think I'm leaning resonated on the AA pipe. You happy with it? From my understanding you have to chop up your stock exhaust?

[Gtracer]

Originally Posted by slcook54

Beauty. I think I'm leaning resonated on the AA pipe. You happy with it? From my understanding you have to chop up your stock exhaust?

Two small cuts that can be put back very easily with an exhaust clamp. I am absolutely in love with the sound. It's so pure and smooth. I bought the resonated rear section as well but only because I am going to do a set of ARM resonated downpipes at some point but for now the non res sounds incredible.

[slcook54]

4/3/22 Update

Last week I dropped the car off at my shop (VT Motorworks) to uninstall the Dinan HAS kit and reinstall the stock suspension to address the floaty front sensations I've been experiencing. Needless to say, we found a couple of surprises. My shop called me and told me that the previous shop (Cantrell) who did the Dinan Monoball install left the driver side thrust arm completely loose. Honestly, I’m fortunate it didn’t completely fail on me on the 1,000 mile drive back home and have the wheel cave in. I knew something was seriously off with the way the car was handling, but having no F80 seat time, I attributed it to the suspension setup and old tires.

Moreover, when we went to reinstall the stock springs, my shop told me that they also damaged the stock spring perches during the install. Unfortunately, you cannot buy the spring perches separately, so we elected to leave the Dinan HAS kit on for now. The front still feels a bit stiff to me. I think I’ll go with the MP HAS kit eventually, but everything works fine for now.



We also installed fresh Cup2’s all around, in 265/35/19 and 285/30/20.



Needless to say, the sum of the changes were significant. It was as if it was my first time driving the car. Everything is fixed, no floaty feeling during acceleration, no traction control light, steering input is sharp. I also didn’t know the F80 had MDM mode. In the E92, there is an M button to turn it on, after chatting with RugbyBro, he mentioned you just hit the traction control button once to activate it. I’m in love with the car now.

I just had my front end on my E92 M3 resprayed and am having it corrected and wrapped on 4/29. I was planning to track it at Thunderhill on 4/15, but decided it would be a good opportunity to shake down the CS instead and spare the E92 from a huge blemish right before it gets PPF’d. I anticipate that it will be a fun experience on the Cup2’s. Given the brakes are totally stock and the fluid is likely over a year old, I’ll keep it relatively tame. I’ll report back after 4/15.



We reinstalled the stock lip with the acexxon lip protector, iND painted reflectors and iND black CS badge. We removed all the non-stock CF bits which will go up for sale soon.





Next up will be to repair the curb rash on the passenger side front wheel (potentially refinish in silver), install TLG mud flaps, install a Uniden R7 and hardwire, install GC exhaust valve controller and get a full correction. After that I’ll likely grab the AA Equal Length resonated midpipe. I also want to code out the burbles, not my thing.

[swagon]

You'd think a 21k-mile car wouldn't be full of such shitty surprises.

[Wanted_M]

VT, good guys over there. That's where my CS goes for all aftermarket work.

I knew you had something wrong with your car, bad install. The Dinan springs tighten the looseness/wobble on entry on my car but everyone has a different taste/interpretation of how their car feels or what they want. I always run in sport mode and when I hit the canyons sport +, you'll get use to it. Trust the suspension and your alignment to get a feel for the car. JRZ coils are on there way for me, can't wait .

[icegrill]

Originally Posted by swagon

You'd think a 21k-mile car wouldn't be full of such shitty surprises.

Guess that's what you expect for $85k these days:

[swagon]

Originally Posted by icegrill

Guess that's what you expect for $85k these days:

Idk which is worse, the used car market or the single women market

[FatHulk]

Originally Posted by slcook54

4/3/22 Update

Last week I dropped the car off at my shop (VT Motorworks) to uninstall the Dinan HAS kit and reinstall the stock suspension to address the floaty front sensations I've been experiencing. Needless to say, we found a couple of surprises. My shop called me and told me that the previous shop (Cantrell) who did the Dinan Monoball install left the driver side thrust arm completely loose. Honestly, I’m fortunate it didn’t completely fail on me on the 1,000 mile drive back home and have the wheel cave in. I knew something was seriously off with the way the car was handling, but having no F80 seat time, I attributed it to the suspension setup and old tires.

Moreover, when we went to reinstall the stock springs, my shop told me that they also damaged the stock spring perches during the install. Unfortunately, you cannot buy the spring perches separately, so we elected to leave the Dinan HAS kit on for now. The front still feels a bit stiff to me. I think I’ll go with the MP HAS kit eventually, but everything works fine for now.



We also installed fresh Cup2’s all around, in 265/35/19 and 285/30/20.



Needless to say, the sum of the changes were significant. It was as if it was my first time driving the car. Everything is fixed, no floaty feeling during acceleration, no traction control light, steering input is sharp. I also didn’t know the F80 had MDM mode. In the E92, there is an M button to turn it on, after chatting with RugbyBro, he mentioned you just hit the traction control button once to activate it. I’m in love with the car now.

I just had my front end on my E92 M3 resprayed and am having it corrected and wrapped on 4/29. I was planning to track it at Thunderhill on 4/15, but decided it would be a good opportunity to shake down the CS instead and spare the E92 from a huge blemish right before it gets PPF’d. I anticipate that it will be a fun experience on the Cup2’s. Given the brakes are totally stock and the fluid is likely over a year old, I’ll keep it relatively tame. I’ll report back after 4/15.



We reinstalled the stock lip with the acexxon lip protector, iND painted reflectors and iND black CS badge. We removed all the non-stock CF bits which will go up for sale soon.





Next up will be to repair the curb rash on the passenger side front wheel (potentially refinish in silver), install TLG mud flaps, install a Uniden R7 and hardwire, install GC exhaust valve controller and get a full correction. After that I’ll likely grab the AA Equal Length resonated midpipe. I also want to code out the burbles, not my thing.

Enjoy the cup 2's!

[tajsport]

Yikes on the loose suspension!! Very glad nothing came out of it.

Enjoying the thread, so thanks for sharing!