Kong’s E46 M3 Track to Street Car Journal

[SQ13]

The car needed a Laguna pipe so I could drive the car at Harris Hill. Pretty much copied KenO’s setup since his had been proven to work.




On Nov 11, I went to the Track Night event at Harris Hill. The owner took photos of the pipe and thanked me for being considerate.

Three days later, I did another enduro race in the SM. On the second day towards the end of my stint, some contact hurt me and took me out for the rest of the race. The car was able to complete the race though.

Why not



Tech inspection bc I went off roading at Harris Hill

[SQ13]

I’m really bad at keeping up with my journals. Gonna try to start from where I left off.

Dec 2020
Track day at COTA with WRL. What I love about the WRL DE is that I’m pretty much driving my car on track during the racers’ practice sessions. So I get to share the track with M3 racecars and $200k GT4 class cars which is super fun.

[SQ13]

Feb 2021
Manual swap just completed on the blue car. Didn’t like how the stock brakes performed at the WRL event, so I got a StopTech C43 front BBK and rear 996 calipers. I held off on installing the 996 calipers bc I needed to refinish them.


Garage kitty


Champcar race at Harris Hill in March 2021. We had tons of issues on Sat, fixed it up overnight, and it ran well on Sun, except for the trans going out with 20 mins left…had to keep it in fourth gear.

[SQ13]

Late spring to summer 2021
Was going to do an open track day with some friends in May, but my rear brakes said no. Idk what changed to cause it, but the spring clip decided that it wanted to make contact with the rotor hat. The 996 caliper pistons and seals were good, so I threw them on with new rotors.


New HANS


Unrelated to this car, but we did a 24h race at VIR in August 2021. One of our drivers was being a dumbass by passing in a runoff area and crashed into the tire wall…two hours into the race and just before it was my turn to go smh. Eventually put the car together. At night it’s foggy and raining. Super sketchy esp with a Porsche driver who was passing under yellow, almost made one of our drivers crash. We were taken out of the race again when a tie rod failed, sending us into the main straight wall. We almost called it until I decided to search for a replacement rack on FB marketplace. Found a dude was like two hours away and was willing to drop off a nice manual rack, and we were able to get it up and running again. A couple more contact incidents and a failed tire later, we somehow finished the race. Out of six drivers, only me and two others kept it clean. Bucket list track for me and such an awesome experience! Hope to go back someday

[SQ13]

Page break

[SQ13]

Aug 2021
Not much going on. Just a bunch of regular maintenance stuff like changing motor, trans, and diff fluids.


NICE


Washed


Replaced the coils, wrapped the roof black, and cleaned the engine bay. I would like to get a Karbonius CF roof, but that’s a project that I’ll take on much later.

[SQ13]

Dec 2021
Outer tie rods replaced, then aligned


Another trip to COTA with WRL. During the first or second session, I lost power steering. One of the hoses that hooks up to the reservoir was over tightened, causing the clamp to dig in to the hose and eventually cut thru. Totally my fault. I removed the partially decapitated top 1 cm portion and installed the remaining line to the reservoir. Worked well.

[SQ13]

April 2022
Drove the car again after it sat in the garage for a while. I forgot my earplugs, and within five mins I hated driving it thanks to the loud exhaust, trans noise, and squealing brakes. Total drive time that day was 25-30 mins, and when I got back, I started to take parts off the car, as I had finally lost all interest in keeping it as a dedicated track car. For a while I had been wondering what to do with the car since I stopped tracking it often (maybe once a year now that I was doing endurance races).

In the end, I decided I would keep the car and turn it back into a street car. It won’t be a quiet, super comfy car like the blue car – will have louder exhaust, stiffer springs, monoball suspension components, more aggressive camber setup.

Stripping the car of parts I don’t want

[SQ13]

I have this project planned in three stages. Items with “-“ next to them are things that have not been done/installed.

Stage 1
F&R black carpet
Sound deadening (secondskinaudio)
Footrest
Avin Avant 4
Dash cam
New radio bracket/ashtray cover
-Center console w/o armrest
Cupholder
Coin holder
-Induktiv wireless charging insert?
-Rear ashtray (NLA?)

Stage 2
AS SSK, 25% Autocross
RE trans mounts
Shifter rubber boot
Foam shifter surround
OE shift knob
SS V1 headers
SS catted sec 1
SS resonated sec 2
SS Race sec 3
CarboProject CSL diffuser
996 brake kit
-Paint calipers yellow
Replace wear items inside transmission
Diff input seal
-OE diff bushings
-Vincebar

Stage 3
-Cobra nogaro
-IR interior conversion
-Nogaro seat mounts
-BK harness mount
-Schroth harnesses
-Alcantara 9002 steering wheel
-CF roof
-Slicktop Headliner
-3 yd Alcantara 9002 (recover headliner & pillars)
-Silver ARC-8s
-Plastic engine cover
-Karb CSL intake
-HTE tune
-Headlight lenses
-Fog lights??

Stage 1 will complete the interior, 2 will get the car back up and running, and the parts in 3 are my longer term/end goals for the car (interior in 1-2 years, exterior maybe 3-5 years). I’m experiencing inconsistent clutch pedal feel and the flywheel is rattling in a manner that I have not experienced before. So, I think something inside the trans has gone bad. Unsure if I want to DIY the clutch job or pay someone else to do it. Diff front pinion seal is leaking; at 103k miles, I need to decide if I want to replace the seal or do a complete rebuild. If the diff is coming down, so is the subframe so I can install the Vincebar. If I don’t install the Vincebar now, I’ll be installing one simultaneously on both cars Summer 2023. I think summer 2023 would be a better idea bc I’ll be knocking out both cars at once.

Initially I was going to recover the original sunroof headliner and buy new pillar covers, but then I thought about how I’d want my interior to look when it’s all done. Wasn’t sure if I wanted to go back to an all black interior, or maybe switch to Imola red which I always wanted in the silver car, or do an M-Texture conversion. After looking at several examples for inspiration, I was super torn between M-Texture and red. I had the rest of the interior figured out: 9002 alcantara headliner, pillar covers, and steering wheel + aluminum trim. After much thought, I finally decided on red. I have a spare black interior that I’ll have dyed red probably. Still working with HMS to figure out how I want to proceed with the custom order for Nogaros, which I was going to get regardless of what route I went with. The vinyl they use looks very similar to their leather, so I wouldn’t mind saving like $3k by getting black vinyl instead of sending over IR leather from Relicate to Cobra; I just need to see if the person I end up hiring to dye my black leather is open to dying the vinyl, too.

Anyways, next steps are to remove dash and cross bar (hopefully leaving heater core in place), add sound deadening, hardwire dashcam, route wiring for Avin head unit, reroute wiring for AiM SOLO CAN, add carpet, and reinstall dash. Then, I can install headliner and pillar covers, stock front and rear seats, and center console stuff. I think I’ll be able to get this done by end of June or July. Just need 3-4 days dedicated to working on the car in Houston.



Edit: I’ve decided to go with red. TiAg/IR with aluminum trim is a color combo I have always loved, so I’m gonna make my dream become a reality. M-Texture would make more sense if I had M-Texture rear seats and door cards already. Also saves me a few thousand.

[SQ13]

May 2022
Did like 30 mins worth of work to prep for dash removal. All I have left to do is remove cluster, steering column covers, and glovebox, and the dash should pop off.

I really want to thin the OE and Avin Avant audio harness wiring, since I only plan to use the head unit with HK speakers and amp. But I’m terrible with wires so idk. I’m also on the fence about installing new sound deadening. The CSL doesn’t have it either, so it shouldn’t be a big deal I think. Have about a month to decide on that.

I’m hoping to have the front and rear carpet in next time I visit. I’ll also try to get the pillar covers, headliner, and rear deck wrapped in alcantara + have the black leather dyed red on the same visit. Wrapping and dyeing will be outsourced. I’ve also decided to drop the trans and replace the internal wear parts. Think I’ll address that in July since the AS SSK should be made by then.

[Thoglan]

Good call on the red I think. Creating an entire mtex interior is dumb expensive and rarely looks 'right' imo. On the other hand I've seen leather dyes look indistinguishable from OE.

[SQ13]

Good call on the red I think. Creating an entire mtex interior is dumb expensive and rarely looks 'right' imo. On the other hand I've seen leather dyes look indistinguishable from OE.

Yeah it’d be a lot more expensive, and I think I’d be happier with the red leather anyways.

[SQ13]

May 2022
Installed Damplifier Pro sound deadening on the floor and trans tunnel. I used a lot less than I expected. Initially thought I needed 20 sq ft, but I only used 10 sq ft. Added seven pounds to the car..not bad.


Then I removed the rest of the things needed to allow for dash removal – glovebox, foot well panel, steering column parts, and instrument cluster. Just a few nuts and screws, and the dash will pop off. Interestingly, the footwell panel and glovebox had cracks around a few of the screw holes. Maybe I overtightened the screws when installing the footwell panel, but I’ve never done anything with the glovebox so idk? Maybe tracking the car put stress on the plastic? Will order new pieces from FCP.


Pulled the rear rotors and listed the stock brake stuff for sale. I previously left the rear Porsche calipers grey bc I was too lazy to paint them, but I will attempt to paint them yellow soon.


Next time I’m in town for at least three days, I will pull the dash, clean up wiring and hardwire dashcam, and attempt to thin the stereo harness. Then I’ll clean and install the new carpet. Maybe pull the CPI headers.

[BTB]

I have this project planned in three stages. Items with “-“ next to them are items that I have not purchased yet.

Stage 1
F&R black carpet
Sound deadening (secondskinaudio)
Footrest
Avin Avant 4
Dash cam
New radio bracket/ashtray cover
-Center console w/o armrest
-Cupholder
Coin holder
-Induktiv wireless charging insert?
-Rear ashtray

Stage 2
AS SSK, 25% Autocross
RE trans mounts
Shifter rubber boot
Foam shifter surround
OE shift knob
SS V1 headers
SS catted sec 1
SS resonated sec 2
SS Race sec 3
CarboProject CSL diffuser
996 brake kit, paint yellow
-Clutch job?
-Diff input seal vs full rebuild ($800)?
Vincebar?

Stage 3
-Cobra nogaro
-IR interior conversion
-Nogaro seat mounts
-BK harness mount
-Schroth harnesses
-Alcantara 9002 steering wheel
-CF roof
-Slicktop Headliner
-3 yd Alcantara 9002 (recover headliner & pillars)
-Silver ARC-8s
-Plastic engine cover
-Karb CSL intake
-HTE tune
-Headlight lenses
-Fog lights??

Stage 1 will complete the interior, 2 will get the car back up and running, and the parts in 3 are my longer term/end goals for the car (interior in 1-2 years, exterior maybe 3-5 years). I’m experiencing inconsistent clutch pedal feel and the flywheel is rattling in a manner that I have not experienced before. So, I think something inside the trans has gone bad. Unsure if I want to DIY the clutch job or pay someone else to do it. Diff front pinion seal is leaking; at 103k miles, I need to decide if I want to replace the seal or do a complete rebuild. If the diff is coming down, so is the subframe so I can install the Vincebar. If I don’t install the Vincebar now, I’ll be installing one simultaneously on both cars Summer 2023. I think summer 2023 would be a better idea bc I’ll be knocking out both cars at once.

Initially I was going to recover the original sunroof headliner and buy new pillar covers, but then I thought about how I’d want my interior to look when it’s all done. Wasn’t sure if I wanted to go back to an all black interior, or maybe switch to Imola red which I always wanted in the silver car, or do an M-Texture conversion. After looking at several examples for inspiration, I was super torn between M-Texture and red. I had the rest of the interior figured out: 9002 alcantara headliner, pillar covers, and steering wheel + aluminum trim. After much thought, I finally decided on red. I have a spare black interior that I’ll have dyed red probably. Still working with HMS to figure out how I want to proceed with the custom order for Nogaros, which I was going to get regardless of what route I went with. The vinyl they use looks very similar to their leather, so I wouldn’t mind saving like $3k by getting black vinyl instead of sending over IR leather from Relicate to Cobra; I just need to see if the person I end up hiring to dye my black leather is open to dying the vinyl, too.

Anyways, next steps are to remove dash and cross bar (hopefully leaving heater core in place), add sound deadening, hardwire dashcam, route wiring for Avin head unit, reroute wiring for AiM SOLO CAN, add carpet, and reinstall dash. Then, I can install headliner and pillar covers, stock front and rear seats, and center console stuff. I think I’ll be able to get this done by end of June or July. Just need 3-4 days dedicated to working on the car in Houston.

Edit: I’ve decided to go with red. TiAg/IR with aluminum trim is a color combo I have always loved, so I’m gonna make my dream become a reality. M-Texture would make more sense if I had M-Texture rear seats and door cards already. Also saves me a few thousand.

I have a spreadsheet with similar maintenance/build stage 'categories' except mine are called 1. Keep it Runnin' 2. Budget Build 3. Street/Track Hero-- LOL

Totally would like to see your car(s) sometime !

[SQ13]

I have a spreadsheet with similar maintenance/build stage 'categories' except mine are called 1. Keep it Runnin' 2. Budget Build 3. Street/Track Hero-- LOL

Totally would like to see your car(s) sometime !

Nice lol. I’ve had to change priorities on some stuff. Replaced all wear items inside trans due to failing TOB. And I need to replace the headlight lenses soon bc one just started letting water inside.

Both cars are in Austin at the moment so lmk. Both are also still a work in progress, so they don’t look pretty.