Greetings everyone,
This thread will be used to (continue) documenting my recently acquired sedan. Those of you who stalk the forum probably recognize this car, as I had the pleasure of purchasing it from Whammy, who meticulously cared for and maintained it for a little over four years. Whammy also made some very tasteful modifications. The original thread can be found on this forum if you're looking for a full history lesson!
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First, a little background:
Earlier this year I got out of the Army, somewhat panicked and sold my beloved track-prepped E46 M3. Though I do not regret it, because the ///M is an expensive letter on the track, I deeply missed a proper sports car. About a month and a half ago, I decided to start searching for an E30 to turn into a track weapon, only to realize that they're not near as easy to find as they used to be. Browsing CL, I spotted this gorgeous machine and realized that this would a better direction to go, and I'm glad I did. This is actually my third E46, the first was an Alp.White ZHP that met its fate stopped on the highway because some young paratrooper thought his phone was more important than driving.
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Onto the car:
I purchased The Darkness at 185K and have never been so confident in a purchase. Whammy deserves all of the praise, this car is healthier than 90% of what you'll find on the market today. He also gave me a great foundation to work with, it currently sits on an H&R Sport/Billy combo which provides a better ride quality than any other cup kit I've experienced, except for the Koni FSD... but those are too soft for my liking. Stopping the car is a PFC Z-Rated/ECS Slotted setup which is perfect for anything I could want to do on the streets as well as some light track use. Other mods were made, but we'll discuss those later.
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My crystal ball:
This will slowly evolve into an animal that eats inferior vehicles on the track, autoX course, and in those "Mexican" canyons. It will first serve its purpose as my HPDE car within the next few months, weather permitting. I'm a Mech. E. Student heading into the automotive industry, so the funds to transform her into an M3 Sedan won't be present for a while. Straight line speed will never be a priority, this will be setup to achieve the best handling and overall driving characteristics achievable from an E46. Most importantly, even though this car will not see much daily use, I want to keep it as street worthy as possible. This means that I will keep my full interior and all creature comforts, and I will not *intentionally* modify anything that deducts too much from its factory comfort. I'm hunting for find slip angle in comfort.
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How ECS is going to take my money:
-BC BR Coilovers, this is an awesome budget coilover, fully adjustable, with a solid build quality. A little worried about the lower pillowballs, but we'll cross that road when we come to it.
-Turner Sways, the factory front bar is clearly biased towards comfort, and a bigger front sway should decrease some articulation and help us hold the road a bit better... Sadly, I wont have a reason to go bigger in the rear before I find an LSD.
-Some Ferrodos for the track, or maybe some PFC's!
-A proper, moderately aggressive alignment for a little more responsiveness
-Michelin PSS's or Pilot Sport 4S's, what do you guys think? I'm not going to R888's for a while.
-Subframe Bushings, as well as RCAB's replaced with a monoball design if they exist.