FD pulls on '04 BMW M3
 

I just fixed the blown gasket on the plate covering the secondary turbo exhaust valve, and took the FD for my usual test drive on a section of highway that has very little traffic, and lots of visibility.

I'm approaching one of my favorite curves listed at 30-MPH at 60+MPH in 3rd gear and doing a little left-foot braking to keep the turbo spooled.

The curve flows into another set of lanes (no merging), and this 2004-2005 BMW M3 is now next to me at 60 MPH.

He hits it, but I'm just coming out of the apex, see him, and nail it as well. I'm pulling about 12-lbs. of boost and pull all the way 120 MPH and he was already dusted at 100 MPH.

I ease up, and he's no where to be seen.

As I merge onto the main highway, I keep it cool at 65 MPH, and wait about 4 miles until I see him coming up. He stays behind me and won't pass, so I move over, and I ease up some more.

We are now next to each other, and get to eyeball each other. So I motion to pull again, however, he just gives me a nice thumbs up and a wave, and I take off.

Nice guy, and very cool about it.

The only mods I have are a NEW motor and balanced injectors with 5K miles on it, DP, free-flow metallic cat & magnaflow resonator; free-flow TRUST muffler, Efini Y-pipe, and a conservatively tuned PowerFC set to 12-lbs of boost.

Is this normal, or would a better driver been a closer race ?

:-) neil

nice kill, i assume its normal. i took one pre 100s a few months back. the car still had dealer tags though, maybe he didnt know how to drive it?

Neil,
The FD is lighter and with the amount of mods you're probaly close to 290rwhp. I believe that's more then a bone stock E46 will put down.

nice kill

the e46 (2000-2005) M3's have a 0-60 of 4.5 seconds and gets to 150 realy fast(faster then the FD)... i dont know how well FD's take mods(how much HP they add) but that guy probably didnt know how to drive or just didnt want to push it that much.

Thought E46s went from 0-60mph in the 5s range, big difference from 4.5s. They also are 600 lbs heavier....FD for the win....

FDs take to mods very well, it's a turbo car. Neil also has a stand alone to support his mods. I would think his FD is closer to the 300rwhp range. What do those M3 make, 336hp? What's that equate to the wheels... 280rwhp? And how much heavier is it? I don't doubt what so ever that his FD walked away from the beemer. BTW, FD's with mods get up to 150 pretty damn well.

FDs take to mods very well. The thread starter is in the 290 rwhp range, which equates to similar motor hp to the M3. As already stated, 600 pound delta in curb weight makes a huge difference. The E46 is a nice car no doubt, but is it a lightweight thoroughbred 2 door 2 seat sports car with 50/50 weight distribution? I didnt think so :).

that is absolute music to my ears man...WOO i love owning an FD!

hehe, very nicely put Rich!
Are there any Bimmer enthusiast on here that are gonna throw in the torque figures into play??? lol
good kill, just watch out for the 06...The one i ran into might have been some kind of special edition or Dinan or something(i hope), cause that thing was pretty close to my bumper. Curious to run into him again and do a proper pull!!!

the E46 M3 only makes 262 ft-lbs of torque. it makes it's power the same way rotaries do, by revving sky high(8000 rpm redline)

8250.

I think I smell a little bulls@#t

Actually I'm fairly certain, after driving a E46 M3 multiple times, that the redline is in fact 8000. Not 8250... Recheck your numbers man.

You sir, are correct. my sincere apologies.

I'm going to call BS on your sense of smell...

:bsflag:

0-60 times and 1/4 times for the E46...thats all i can find.

2001 BMW M3 Coupe (U.S.) 4.8 n/a
2001 BMW M3 Convertible (U.S.) 5.4 n/a
2002 BMW M3 4.7 13.4

Okay, the e46 m3, has 333chp, given say an average of 17% drive train loss it goes down to about 275whp +/-. It doesn't have the comparable torque the e36 m3 had. It became a high revving engine when they put the dual vanos on.

The e46 m3 is a good car, but not enough to take down a vehicle that weighs like 600lbs less and has a good chunk more whp than it. The story sounds about right.

I'm not sure what yoru definitions of dusted and what not are, but if you were a few cars ahead by 100 then yes, it does sound correct.

ALso, I'd say the e46 m3 is a low 5 sec 60 car. But they are weird, many on teh road are autos or SMGs, SMG makes for quick shifting, but actually pulls slow 1/4's, because they can't launch. Many people will break the rear end lose on a 6 speed e46 m3, so they can't launch either. But in capable hands the 6 speed should net better times in the 1/4 than the SMG. SMGs can only launch at 2k rpm. e46 m3s are mid to low 13's stock though. But in reality, tend to be mid to high 13's.

Another bit, the e46 m3 ran from 01-05. 01 is when the most problems happened. 05 the CSL version was out. So it could've really been any year, unless you know for a fact it was an 04 or 05.

If you actually did run into an e90 m3 then one, you are lucky. I'd love to see one. But they are coming stock with a 400chp V8. (Similar to the one in the e39 M5). They did that, so BMW can get back into the races. They used to mop up, by putting the e39 m5 into the e36 m3 chasis, but then the sanctions put in rules saying vehicles had to have near stock vehicles (pretty much meaning stock amount of cyinders) So when they went back to the I6 they couldn't take on the Porsche GT2s.

But also, don't be scared of every Dinan badge on the road. Some people are buying them off of Ebay just to put it on. But also you qualify for the badge by spending 10 points with Dinan. You can get 10 points by buying the Dinan Supercharger. Or by buying many different accessories that total the 10 points. Dinan floormats get you 1 ponit. :)

Also Dinan superchargers are no where close to being the fastest FI products for the bimmers. Many bimmer owners go with other companies, because they get more performance for cheaper compared to Dinan.

good info man. its nice to see a BMW driver that puts out truthful and fair facts. most BMW guys i come across think theyre the fastest things on the road... one example is a 3 series 'vert that i embarrassed on I-95.

as for the E46, ive always loved that car.... and as for the E90... never heard of it or seen one... but would definately like to.

Its rather impossible for you to have run an E90 becuase they aren't out yet, I think they are comming out late '06 as an '07 model. Also, I'm not suprised, very few M3 owners can really run them out to their full potential in the twisties or down the quarter. A E46 M owner that can really drive will be able to cut a 12.9 stock, seen it with me own eyes. The best I've seen out of a stock SMG is a 13 flat, and that was with the launch control. Dinan is good becuase you get a matching warrenty, and thats about it. If your gonna FI the M3, my understanding is to hit up DA in Europe, because some people have been having problems with the AA supercharger. I'm just waiting for another year or so for the E90s to come out to look for major price drops on the earlier E46 M3s.

Night, I am a regular in the kills of Bimmerforums, so I definately understand the limits of the BMWs. Usually in that section if somebody comes on thinking our car is the be all end all car, there is plenty of us to slap them down to reality. RX7 is still one of my favorite cars, I thought about getting one, until people on here convinced me not to, since i knew nothing of turbos and/or rotories.

Cassies, yeah I thought e90 m3 wasn't out yet. The M series tend to come out 1-2 years after the start of the regular chasis, and stay in production 1-2 years after. E46 m3 is a capable car, like you said, it can dip down to low numbers, but generally do not.

Dinan is only good for warranty, but not all dealerships honor the dinan warranty. Dinan still technically voids the BMW warranty, but they provide their own, which mirrors BMW's.

I can't speak much on teh FI scene for e46, other than the fact that i heard it was pretty hard to do, due to high revving engine and high compression...even more so than e36 m3, I know for e36 m3, the common ones are AA, ECIS and Technique Tuning. If I go FI I'll get the TT Stage 1. The TT Stage 1 will net 340-350whp on a bone stock S52 engine. One guy on there has 348whp with everything stock but the turbo, he even has stock exhaust. I heard the Stage 2, costs like 1 or 2 thousand more and gets you into the low 400's. But hell the STage 1 kit is like $7k. So going FI on a bimmer is not the cheapest route at all.