Not a ton of building so far in the thread, so thought I'd give an update on things in the mix...
Android screen came in a while back.
Purchased some carbon fiber vinyl to cover the interior pieces while they were out, but realized I accidentally bought an Anthracite tinted version. Not sure if I'm going to keep it this way or not, but it was my first time wrapping and there are a few imperfections anyways.
I think the thing I'm must upset about is that it's not integrated with the car at all, which isn't something I realized when I purchased it. Since this car didn't come with idrive, it doesn't have the corresponding LVDS cable, which essentially integrates the screen with the car. It makes the home screen pretty useless. The aftermarket idrive controller that comes with it is pretty garbage as well. It's obviously meant to work with the now essentially useless home screen, and even when using it in the correct way, it's super slow to react and doesn't respond to inputs half the time.
I have started down the path of figuring out how I'm actually going to use it... just setup hotspot tethering with my phone and downloaded the Android App to the screen and synced with my Spotify account. We'll see how it goes. Still a little bitter about this one.
Continuing to agonize over what wheels I'll be throwing on her. Currently have genuine M3 513m's, which everyone seems to LOVE... except me. I know I want 19's, which these are not, and honestly I'm just not a huge fan of the design. At this point I'm stuck between 2 potential options:
19" Vertini RFS1.7 in brushed dual bronze with chrome lip, which has already been posted above
19" ESR SR07 in matte bronze
The ESR's are actual the wheel I was planning to put on this car before I even bought it, but then those Vertini's caught my eye and do look pretty darn good in the photoshop. Think I'm leaning back towards the ESR's though.
Either way however, there is one consistent piece between both photoshops that is not currently on the car, but that will be before I get new wheels/tires, and that is the brakes. When I installed the H&R springs I noticed that the rotors are toast and there's a definite surge in the pedal when stopping from high speed.
Have seen a number of big brake setups for these cars but after doing research I realized the major issue with most is that really there are only options for the front. The rear having the electric parking brake pretty much precludes most larger brake setups in the rear, and I kind of hate the idea of having huge front brakes and normal sized rears. Also, I require red calipers, and the other economical options seem to be blue or throw up green. Eventually decided to go with a 35is setup, as they're larger than what I currently have, (and actually have larger rotors than even the 235i msport setup) and are relatively economical.
Bought Zimmerman rotors and Akebono pads all around from FCP Euro, calipers all around from a shop out of FL, and caliper rebuild kits from Napa Auto Parts. Honestly I'm a little miffed about the rotors... the description on FCP says they have OEM style aluminum hats, but upon receiving them they definitely do not. Also to note, the caliper rebuild kit was WAY cheaper from Napa and they even had a kit for the rears, which no one else seemed to.
First step was to disassemble the calipers for powder coating. I was going to actually powdercoat them myself, as I have all the pieces to do it. The part I cannot do, is the sand blasting, which after I get that done, I may as well fork over a few bones to get the whole job finished. They'll be going out to the coater on Monday...
As I agonized over wheel selection, I happened across a 19" setup with a similar look to the ESR's, for very cheap. Bought them for a test fit just to get an idea of the true look.
Not bad, and I do like that it's a bit understated. Decided I definitely want to go with a taller tire though. Personally, I've always thought the overall wheel/tire diameter seemed too small on these cars. My current setup is 245/40/18 front and 275/35/18 rear, which is larger than stock and surprisingly doesn't scrape despite sitting SUPER low with these springs. The tires on the mock up wheels are 235/35/19 front and 265/30/19 rear, which is pretty darn close to the height of the current setup, but they look like absolute rubber bands on those 19s, and just too small for the car in general. I plan to try running 235/40/19s and 275/35/19s. Will wait until I get the ST coilovers so I can raise the height a little bit to match. AND, with a bit of a heigh increase, I can actually consider running a front lip.
In non-z4 news, I put the previous Emortal RS wheels back on the e30 and she looks marvelous again
Got a picture of the ladies together as well.
And lastly, took this shot during the fires here in CA a month or so back... pretty insane.
