RoyalFlushness's 2001 Imola Red E46 M3

[0-60motorsports]

Looks awesome

[liam821]

Car looks great, really like those Apex's.

[Loopyspec]

Carr looks absolutely perfect! Love the progress so far.

[RoyalFlushness]

Imola Red has so many personalities

[RoyalFlushness]

Finally got around to getting the rear end sorted. RMP Motors here in Toronto did the reinforcement. They found 3 hairline cracks. Welded all of them up, locked it down with Turner plates and installed Powerflex Black subframe bushings all around.

[RoyalFlushness]

Car looks fantastic.

Really like the new setup and the OEM 18s you had on there. A lot of guys are running stretched tires but imo this is the right approach. I think the front end would really benefit from OEM chrome grills and gills to match the indicators and wheels - but that's just me. Good work 🤙

Thanks man. Definitely considered going back to OEM sides and grills.

[DI46LO]

Car looks fantastic.

Really like the new setup and the OEM 18s you had on there. A lot of guys are running stretched tires but imo this is the right approach. I think the front end would really benefit from OEM chrome grills and gills to match the indicators and wheels - but that's just me. Good work 🤙

[RoyalFlushness]

Wheels and tires are fitted. A few teaser pictures from today.

[RoyalFlushness]

Remember watching your build from M3F! Since I just saw it, what drew you to a pre facelift example? Car is look great and those wheels will make it even better!

Thanks man. I have been searching for a clean Imola Red E46 for years and didn't really care about pre facelift or not. I kinda dig the OG pre led tails.

[Inizes]

Remember watching your build from M3F! Since I just saw it, what drew you to a pre facelift example? Car is look great and those wheels will make it even better!

[RoyalFlushness]

New wheels just arrived with some fresh center caps.

Apex EC7 - 18X9.5 ET22 all around

[RoyalFlushness]

Dialed in the suspension, added some spacers to the rear and added a stud conversion kit.
And... the result which is currently as she stands today: My take on OEM +
There are still a number of items that need to be addressed such as subframe, cut and polish, alignment etc... however those will be tackled this summer. Pictures:

[RoyalFlushness]

From here, it was time to go back in for some more paint work. There were a number of things that I still was not happy with on the body of the car. There was some peeling clear coat near the quarter panels and various chips and dings I wanted to have taken care of:

[RoyalFlushness]

Now it was time to pick a coilover. While price was not really a major issue, I knew I would not be driving this car daily and only tracking it a handful of times. After allot of research I decided to pull the trigger on a custom set of BC Coilovers with SWIFT Springs with the proper offset camber plates:





Installed but not yet dialled in:

[RoyalFlushness]

Fast forward to the next summer and now it was time to tackle wheels / suspension / some additional paint work. I managed to source 4 OEM Rear 18's and had them refinished in my version of shadow chrome. Mixed with some fresh 265/35/18 AD08r's and here was the result:




Coby Wheel came through with a nice new re-wrap of the old steering wheel. I went with grey Alcantara and a black centre stripe: