BMW ///M Forum

Hello,

I am a Finn living in Warsaw. I already bought my cherished E46 M3 (2003.5 SMG) this spring - most likely from a member of this forum. It was accident free and originally bought from a Polish dealer. I bought it at approx 145,000km and already managed to put 15,000km on it!

After meeting several local petrol heads over the summer, they convinced me to join the forum even if I do not speak Polish. So here I am

My car was mostly standard when I bought it, apart from
- spacers (25mm front, 12mm rear)
- CSL brakes
- Vogtland lowering springs

Since then I have mostly focused on maintenance plus some small modifications:
- CSL style alcantara steering wheel
- Alcantara gear stick & hand brake boots
- Carbon fibre SMG paddles
- Storm SMG gear shift knob and gaiter ring
- Replaced all scratched interior bits
- Repainted all exterior scratches + full paint correction
- New foglamps
- New front lamp covers
- New OEM M3 carpets inside + trunc
- New OEM BMW badges
- M-track mode traction control programming
- Evolve tune (357hp)

Hopefully I will manage to meet some of you on the spring trackdays or elsewhere!

Cheers,
Sam

Ps. oh, and a few pictures of the car below.

Outing at Tor Poznan:



Interior refresh (a little grainy iPhone pics):



Summer setup (courtesy of the ex-owner):


Winter setup:

It's beautiful
Cool as you wrote in Polish
Good luck
P.s Lamps you evaporate

Hi,
Beautiful car. My favourite combo - black with red leather.
Welcome on board and good luck.

Beautiful car!
I'm the previous owner.
I hope that works well?
357hp is the result of the dyno or the value specified by Evolve?

It's beautiful
Cool as you wrote in Polish
Good luck
P.s Lamps you evaporate

Hi,
Beautiful car. My favourite combo - black with red leather.
Welcome on board and good luck.

Dziękuję bardzo!

In fact I was planning to buy a manual with < 100,000km. But I saw probably 8 cars in total an most of them were not in a good shape. This one was with higher mileage, but very well kept...and I loved the colour combo + factory sun roof delete.

--==maly==---- pisze:Beautiful car!
I'm the previous owner.
I hope that works well?
357hp is the result of the dyno or the value specified by Evolve?

Indeed it does, I have been very happy with the purchase! It is in amazing shape for soon 10yrs old car with 160,000km. Only alternator gave up few months back. I am planning a little refresh (cooling system etc) during the next inspection as a precaution and it should be as good as new

The hp is based on my before/after dyno test (base run before remap was a healthy 333.5hp):



It was not during the same day and also after very short adaptation. So it may have a little more now. I was expecting more mid range gains, but it is all above 7000 RPMs.

Welcome to the group BMW m3 . Beautiful interior, in my car is black leather and I think the change to red.

Welcome aboard!

Where did you get Evolve tune? Directly from Evolve? or you get this in Poland?

And please tell what's your impresions after Evolve?

Hi Samuli,
It's nice to see you at MForum
I hope everything OK with SMG after last track day at Poznań

PMS///M3 pisze:Welcome aboard!

Where did you get Evolve tune? Directly from Evolve? or you get this in Poland?

And please tell what's your impresions after Evolve?

Thanks!

This was the Evolve-r remote tuning kit + "Stage 1" tune from Evolve - I bought it straight from the UK, see: Evolve-R

If you are interested, you may want to drop a line to Imran Arshad (imran at evolveautomotive com) and say greetings from me;)

To be completely honest, on a stock NA car it does not make a huge difference. It has a bit more top end urgency but as the torgue did not change much, you do not really feel big difference in every day driving. This would be better if you have done some other modifications (exhaust, manifold, CSL airbox...).

BUT, based on a lot of reseach on the US and UK forums, Evolve has a very good reputation and they are probably the tuner of choise for most folks.

Krystian pisze:Hi Samuli,
It's nice to see you at MForum
I hope everything OK with SMG after last track day at Poznañ

Nice to see you too!

In fact, SMG has been faultless since the track day. I was on the US forums and they suspected that the temperature sensor is on its way out: Linky

Welcome Sam,
It seems that you've bought a very well maintained car. As I remember previous owner has done a nice revision in this M3. To be honest I'm not a huge fan of this interior, for me it's way too vulgar but Carbon Black is the best possible colour on M3 E46 What I like the most is your attitude to this car, I mean replacing all scratched interior parts and some really nice mods like CF SMG paddles and alcantara steering wheel. I'm intrested what's your impressions after MTM install, do you like it? Does it work fine?

Oleg pisze:Welcome Sam,
It seems that you've bought a very well maintained car. As I remember previous owner has done a nice revision in this M3. To be honest I'm not a huge fan of this interior, for me it's way too vulgar but Carbon Black is the best possible colour on M3 E46 What I like the most is your attitude to this car, I mean replacing all scratched interior parts and some really nice mods like CF SMG paddles and alcantara steering wheel. I'm intrested what's your impressions after MTM install, do you like it? Does it work fine?

Thanks, yes, it was a peach!

As for the interior, if somebody would have asked me 1yr ago, I would have said that I would not buy a car with red interior...but I have changed my mind. M3 is somehow able to pull it off. Also, it is not "porno eye-cancer red" as e.g. in older Porsches, but a little bit darker colour.

I have a bit of a weak spot for classics/modern classics...I like the idea of driving an older car that looks almost new.

M-track is nice. I would say that it is rather ideal for street use. Allows a little play and does not kill the engine at the first hint of wheel spin. Still has a little safety net if you overcook it. But for track I think it would still be DSC off for me

sam_a156 pisze:

I have a bit of a weak spot for classics/modern classics...I like the idea of driving an older car that looks almost new.

Definitely undrestand this point of view, I feel the same about my M3 and also try to keep it in mint condition.

sam_a156 pisze: M-track is nice. I would say that it is rather ideal for street use. Allows a little play and does not kill the engine at the first hint of wheel spin. Still has a little safety net if you overcook it. But for track I think it would still be DSC off for me

That kind of answer I was expecting I consider MTM for street use only. One more question, where did you install MTM, is it complicated operation?

Oleg pisze: One more question, where did you install MTM, is it complicated operation?

In fact, I did the programming myself. It is a little involved and you have to be somewhat comfortable with IT/programming, but at the end it went well. There are good insructions online. You need a facelift car though - or I think that at least it won't work with the cars with earlier DSC module.

Instructions on enabling m-track

You can buy the required cable and sw here

Note - the above instructions alone do not activate the m-track light on the instrument cluster, but with a litte more massaging it can be done as well quite easily.

If you are planning on doing this, I recommend joining m3cutters.co.uk and talking to Chris at BMTechnic there. He is a very helpful guy.

sam_a156 pisze:
Instructions on enabling m-track

You can buy the required cable and sw here

Note - the above instructions alone do not activate the m-track light on the instrument cluster, but with a litte more massaging it can be done as well quite easily.

Thanks for that links

Hi guys, reluctantly have to sell this car after 6 years...

More details here:

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