2009 Z4 Sdrive35i featuring the Duke Dynamics widebody kit
This is my first major post here on bimmerpost and my first BMW. I've been a car guy for a long time and have been active with my "other" 3.0l twin turbo red and black car, my 1991 Nissan 300ZX, on
http://twinturbo.net. I've owned that car over twelve years now and have formed so many friendships and learned so much through all the performance modifications and track days that I could never bring myself to sell it. Here is one of the last major writeups I made on twinturbo.net about having the Z32 tuned after completely replaceing the fueling sytem with ethanol compatible parts for anyone interested
LINK
A few years back I was in a motorcycle accident and found it a lot harder to manage the manual transmission on my Nissan and while I still love driving the car, I wanted something more stock and easy to manage for less stressful driving. I decided I wanted direct injection, an automated manual, launch control (which I have yet to use), and turbo(s). Those checklist items narrowed it down pretty quickly and in March of 2013 I flew out to California with my father to pick up my 2009 Z4 from it's previous owner. It came with an ESS tune and programmer but was otherwise stock.
Here is what the car looked like after I drove it back in the Spring of 2013:
I spent the rest of the spring of 2013 gathering performance parts to get the car right where I wanted it, the Full Bolt On (FBO) performance level. I also favor BBS wheels as I've had BBS LM wheels on my Nissan since 2003. So, LM-R wheels were a natural choice for the car. I got a set of Red BBS caps too and decided my BMW would be the mirror of the Nissan, what was red on the Nissan would be black on the BMW and vice-versa (interior/exterior, BBS wheel caps, front brake calipers).
I ended up finding most of the performance parts and the wheels in the NYC area via the bimmerpost classifieds. So I planned out a road trip with some of my cousins and we rented a minivan and drove to NYC to pick up:
Red BBS caps and PS2 tires (user
John Tanglewood)
BBS LM-R wheels 20x8.5F 20x9.5R (user
Jkuo)
Eisenmann quad tip Race exhaust and BMS Dual Cone Intake (user
STOOF who was nice enough to pick up the LM-R wheels and store them for me for a bit -- great guy!)
I also bought the AR catless downpipes, Evolution Racewerks FMIC and 3D design spoiler but had them shiped as the owner wasn't from NYC (user
mpbruin108)
Here is a picture with my cousins and I posing with my new soon to be rear (and later my front) BBS LM-R wheel before leaving New York:
I had my friends at
Speed and Sound STL install most the mods and this is what the car looked like when I got it back in the summer and fall of 2013 (quick camera phone shots, sorry):
I pretty much daily drove the Z4 for the summer and fall of 2013. I put it away for the winter, switched jobs and moved from St. Louis to Chicago. I'd been watching the development progress of the Duke Dynamics widebody kit and saw that it was finally released with pretty nice introductory pricing and decided to do it. I called my friends at
Speed and Sound in St. Louis and they said it would be no problem (they've built plenty of super custom wide body cars and I've know them for over 10 years). The kit was shipped straight away after I ordered it and in the Spring of 2014 I dropped my Z4 off at their shop. Due to some factors beyond anyone's control it took longer to get the widebody project completed than expected. The guys at Speed and Sound are great, and with the new job in Chicago, moving to a new place and trying to sell my home in St. Louis I had enough to worry about for the rest of 2014. At the end of 2014 the widebody installation was completed, but due to the weather and the fact I didn't have a wheel solution at that point I waited until the Spring of 2015 to take delivery of the car.
As far as the wheels...I was torn between getting custom barrels made for my LM-R wheel centers and piecing together wheels using parts from BBS. The advantage to custom 3rd party barrels is you could get them in any size and create any effective offset to fit maximum width wheel and tire under the new wider fenders. I am confident 10" wide wheels would fit under the widebody front fenders and 12" wide wheels would fit under the rear fenders. However, the disadvantage to custom barrels is you have to get them measured and made EXACTLY the right size, the new barrels will likely not be as strong and light as the authentic BBS forged aluminum barrels, and certainly wouldn't look as good. As I wasn't there to measure precisely and I found it difficult to work with anyone to create the custom barrels, I went the 100% authentic BBS route. The widest wheel 20" diameter multipiece wheel BBS makes are sold in the Japanese domestic market only and they are designed to be the rear wheels of a Nissan GT-R and are 11" wide. Unfortunately, BBS will not sell parts for their road wheels, complete wheels only. On top of that is is very difficult and costly to get JDM specific BBS wheels into the US. I got lucky and found someone selling a single GT-R sized LM-R rear wheel on yahoo japan auctions and paid a broker to import it. I was not as lucky a second time and had to import a brand new JDM GT-R LM-R wheel to complete the set. All the while I had to cross my fingers that the 114.3x5 BBS LM-R wheel centers for the GT-R would unbolt and the 20x11 barrels would accept my current 120x5 LM-R wheel centers. Everything worked out and the end result is:
BBS LM-R (custom size 100% authentic BBS)
20x9.5 front (used to be rear, model LM315 +35, -5mm spacer = +30 effective offset)
20x11 rear (Hybrid of LM314 and LM330, -15mm spacer, unknown effective offset)
In front of red F30 BMW M performance big brakes
+ 2x bonus 5x114.3 20x8.5 LM-R wheels
All 114.3x5 BBS LM-R wheels are JDM only. If anyone wants to be the only one in the US with BBS LM-R wheels for your Lexus NX, IS250/350/F Toyota Avalon, Honda Accord coupe, Nissan Maxima, 350Z, 370Z, Infiniti G35/37, or even Ford Mustang, or know anyone who want's a killer deal getting 1/2 the wheels (2 of 4 and likely the front two), please PM me.
My uncle Scott Z of Mercedes of St Charles (the Detail Doctor), worked his magic on the paint and my buddy at
Peter Cruse Photography met me around Elmhurst, IL to take some shots in the area. Finally, the money shots you originally clicked this link for (sorry the story was so long).
Special thanks to my soon to be wife, Vanessa, my family and friends for all that you do.
I'll be posting the stock fenders, hood, bumpers, and 296 wheels with almost new one sizes up 19" PSS tires in classifieds soon but PM me if you want dibs on anything. I'll also be hitting many other car forums later on to trying to sell my two extra 20x8.5 114.3 BBS LM-R wheels, but PM me if you know anyone interested.
Otherwise, thanks for reading! Reply and let me know what you think or to ask me anything else.
-Anthony