M3Dragon - NorCal CSL build

After 10 years for going around in circles, I have decided finally, how I wanted to build out my M3. As it is customary, I am joining the build thread group to share in the car modifying experience. I hope you enjoy the thread as much as I have enjoyed owning the car. I have tried to place the images in chronological order as best as I can. I wish I had thought about documenting more back then then I have been now.

Car History
I started looking in September at 330ci's, as I wanted a sports car to have for weekend drives. I had never owned a BMW and had only been had owned Ford bronco's before. After some research, I changed my mind and ordered a M3 as it had the SMG system. I asked the dealer to order a silver one and let me know when it arrived. A week later, the dealer called me and said they had a customer back out of an order and asked if I was interested. At first, I was hesitant because I wanted silver but they gave me the options free off the sticker price so I agreed to buy the car. I am glad they did, as the color is one of the rarer colors for the M3 now. So on October 15th 2002 I bought my M3 with 88 miles on the clock.

Vehicle Specifications
2002 BMW E46 M3
Build Date: XX/2002
SMG II
Steal Gray Metallic. Black Nappa Leather
Premium Package, Bi-Xenon Headlights, CD Player, 19inch wheels, Harmon Kardon Sound.

Images of the car at the dealer the day she became mine :beer:

Here is a list of parts that I have tried in my quest to make the car into what I envisioned. Some of these parts were a big step in the wrong direction while others definitely were worth doing. I will post the current list of parts on the car later on as well as the parts that have been ordered. Once all the new parts are installed, I will make a master list of all the parts and part numbers.

• UUC RaspX gen I
• UUC Sway bars
• Grouppe M Intake
• Conforti Shark Injector
• Evosport Headers
• SuperSprint Race Cats
• SuperSprint Gen II Headers
• Vorstiner CSL roof with sun roof
• Vorstiner CSL bumper With Fogs
• OE 19 Rims
• K&N Pannel Filter
• Painted match reflectors
• H&R Sport Springs
• Koni Adjustable Shocks
• Front Shock tower mount Swap
• Powerchips software

First mod was a K&N Panel filter. Soon after that, I bought the UUC RaspX as I was trying to get rid of the metallic sound when you pushed the car. System worked great and I did not have any issues with it but I changed it out for a SS system to get more power.

I cannot remember when I got the muffler exactly but I went with an Eisenmann Race muffler with 83mm tips. It has been the only muffler that I have had on the car and it is still on the car today. The only issue I have had is the side bracket broke on a drive but it has been weld back to the muffler and no issue as of yet.







Here are also some random images of the car still in pretty much stock trim. I see these images and cannot believe that is what the car started out life as.

This was my first ever BMW and it was with a local E46 fanatic's member in early November. It was a rainy day so I have proof these cars do not melt in the rain HAHA. It was only the two of us and we went to a local winding road section, which I call the test track. We took a ride in each other cars and took a few photos. Not much else to do when it rains and the roads are slick.

I do not know how or what caused me to start organizing drive meets but I have been doing it for as long as I have owned the car. The images below are the first ever run up HWY 1 I organized. At the time of this run, I only had the K&N filter and the RaspX installed.

I seem to have lost many images over the years but I do have the first big BMW meet I organized here in Sacramento. This was back when I was only on E46fanatics mostly.





The following images are of the first South Lake Tahoe drive I put on. There was only a few of us on this drive compared to the drive I put on now to Lake Tahoe. These do bring back memories when the car was still the hottest model on the block =)

Some random images I had when I gave my baby a deep scrub. Tried to be a little artistic with the photos but looking back on them now it was a total fail boat HAHA. Oh well, we all had to learn over time how to take images right.

I went with OE CSL rims to replace my stock 19inch rims. They arrived just before my first Bimmerfest in 2003. To my knowledge when I went to the Bimmerfest in 2003 I was the only one there with OE CSL rims. I had six people on the spot ask me to buy them from me. The image of the hand out the sunroof was me filming the group from Sacramento on our drive down PCH to LA area.

My second CSL purchase was the OE CSL Trunk. I think this part started a trend of me having stories when I change something on the car. When I was driving to the shop to have the trunk installed I was pulled over and got a no front plate ticket. No biggie but no one likes talking to the man for any reason. I get to the shop and they install the trunk but when they were backing the car out they backed my car into a Z06 corvette that the other tech was backing up. The look on my face must have been I am going to kill you cause the guy turned pail white. Car was ok other than the paint in the right light showing some spider marks. I will have it repainted soon when I install the OE CSL front bumper. When it rains it poor's.

Another story in the long history I have had with the car. After organizing a drive down in the Bay Area , CA, I was driving back over the Bay Bridge and found some debris in the road. I just side swiped it enough with the rim to take a chunk off the lip and of course cause the loss of air pressure. I was able to limp across the entire Bay Bridge as it happened right as I entered on the San Francisco side heading east. I have no clue how I survived not getting rear-ended. At the time, I did not know you could fix rims so I ordered a new CSL rim. It was not until recently in the last few years I found out you could repair rims. I have had the damaged rim fixed along with another front rim and a rear rim. Joys of driving on crappy California roads. At any rate now I have a "spare" tire in case I need it.

I am not 100% of the parts order but I think to this point I have kept them in order. The next big purchase I did was to go to StopTech BBK, with stainless steel lines and ATB super blue. I have had no issues with the StopTech brake kit and could not be happier with the purchase. The only thing I wish I did was go with the slotted pads to get a little more bite and braking surface. Even with the cross drilled the car stops on a dime with change to spare =)

I wanted to be different so I installed a Vorsteiner Carbon Fiber roof with sunroof insert. I had it for about 5 months at which point I had a leak over the driver side window. I had this removed and found the reason was due to a poor install. Long story, but from that point on, I tried to stay with OE as much as possible for the items I wanted to change. A quick story on getting the roof installed was when I drove to LA to have the roof installed, when I crossed over the Grape Vine it lightly snowed on me. Granted for you folks in snowy areas you are like woos, but for CA that white, wet water stuff is a myth unless you live in the Sierras HAHA.

I used to have the Vorsteiner bumper with CSL splitter cutouts and fog lights. The fit was probably 90-95% on the mark but I could tell it was not OE. In an effort to get a OE fit I ordered a Euro front bumper and had the cut out for the splitters molded to match the Vorsteiner bumper. I have had this on the car for about 4 years, which is going to be replaced by an OE CSL Bumper. I did order a OE CSL diffuser which I have had on the car for years.

I have gone through several intakes over the life of the car. The intake that is currently on the car is installed an AFE intake stage 2 with a Samco elbow. The AFE intake was to replace a GrouppeM intake that I run on the car for a few years with the shark injector from Turner. I actually thought the GrouppeM felt faster than the AFE. I kick myself on the purchase of this intake sometimes but what is done is done. It has been in the car for years now and soon will be replaced with an OE CSL Intake =).

That's PCH near my house lol. Also that's the exact straight away the "famous" Ferrari Enzo crashed on.
You've got a great mod list. But it's missing FI imo.

p.s. mad respect on you putting a REAL CF roof on unlike wanabe's CF people who have CF wrapped roofs

About 4 or 5 years ago, (a little foggy on date's haha) I researched parts to remove all the crap part the shop that did the poor Vorsteiner roof install said were the best. I had a Turner Motorsports oil cooler installed, SuperSprint Stepped Header (I think v1), SuperSprint Stepped Race 100 cell cats installed, SuperSprint Center Section with Resonator, TC Kline dual adjustable coil overs, TCK 500/500 springs at the time of install, and TC Kline Camber plates installed. I am currently running 500/600 on the spring rations now and love the way the car drives.

Some more random images of a photo shoot I did at the Sacramento State garage.

This was the day I was washing the car that the drive side leak appeared. This was my biggest fear about going with the roof and it came true. As mentioned above it was due to a poor install.

I removed the leaky, poor fitting Vorsteiner carbon fiber sunroof and went with good old OE CSL. The shop that installed the roof is no longer around =( but they did an amazing job on the install including welding in the center section cross brace. I have had no issues (knock on wood) ever sense the OE CSL roof has been installed. The shop was so good I have working roof rack flaps as well. They were so thorough the even found the BMW manual on how to install the CSL roof.

nice job
i'm just curious about one thing, there were cars like Lotus Elise, an M3, a Vet ...

Originally Posted by M3Dragon

Images from my first track day in 2011 and the latest one I did in 2012.







2012 track day images

and then you see a (corolla?)

Originally Posted by M3Dragon

Random images from the last Bimmerfest I went to. I think that was 2007 if my memory is correct.

I am out of old parts pics unless I can figure out if I saved them to an old backup drive. As you saw from the start of this I have had a lot of parts on the car and off the car. I have a list of parts that are currently on the car and will post that after a few vanity shots =). Cannot blame me for wanting to show off my baby.

Last set of vanity shots. One thing to note is I ran no rear plate for 3 ½ years till I got tagged by Mr. CHP. I thought that was pretty impressive that I could do it for 3 years HAHA.

Images from my first track day in 2011 and the latest one I did in 2012.









2012 track day images

In October of 2011, the wife and I decided we wanted to say we have driven down ALL of HWY 1 or PCH. We took a week of work and hit the road. We had no plans, no pre-defined stops, just the open road and a map. All we knew was we wanted to stop at Disney Land and end up in San Diego. Other than that, it was all up in the air. If you have not done the PCH drive from SF to San Diego then you are missing out. Once you get to Monterey heading south you really hit some amazingly beautiful country. It is well worth the time off to take trip. We did the northern section in April of 2012 to complete the northern and southern sections. Below are the Images of the car on that drive.



Yes the wife was driving the car for the HWY leg to Monterey. We both have been on HWY 1 from SF to Monterey so no need to retrace what we have already done.