maglito's black E89 Z4 widebody story - Duke Dynamics, BBS, 3D design, M performance

[maglito]

     Featured on BIMMERPOST.com

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

[STOOF]

Hey Anthony!

Glad to see you still modding the Z. Had no idea you were going wide body. Looks insane. Great job man.

I still have the backup cam and oem winter mats FS if you're interested lmao.

[hiltonfa]

Great job Anthony, car looks stunning.

[mPlasticDesign]

Nice stable. Both cars look amazing! Great job with sourcing the BBS wheels for the Z4. The wide body is ridiculous! I bet it looks even better IRL! Would like to see a straight on back shot of the car too!

[Hujan]

Car looks amazing! The red caliper, BBS center caps, and interior all tie in so well together. You have a very nice eye for detail without going overboard.

The DD body kit really brings out the sporty lines of the Z4 without going overboard as well. It looks like the M car BMW should have made but never did. I really love it on your car.

I missed it, but what did you do suspension-wise?

[maglito]

Originally Posted by Hujan

I missed it, but what did you do suspension-wise?

The suspension is the stock adaptive ///M suspension.

The only ///M branded part of the car from the factory!

I'm happy with it, no need for me to go lower or more firm (than sport+ already provides).

Thanks for the compliments!

[ttuner]

awesome. car looks amazing. who did you order the DD wide body from?

[Zteve]

Wow, you made some great choices with your mods! Congrats on having an amazing car!

[VailM3]

I like the kit the only thing thats sticks out is the hood line gap which is shockingly big compared to OEM, no way of adding extra paint layers to front bumper and hood to offset as it is huge.

[maglito]

Originally Posted by ttuner

awesome. car looks amazing. who did you order the DD wide body from?

Thanks! I tried to I order it through bimmerkit (Duke Dynamics retail store), but as it turns out, they directed me to Carrozzeria due how they had their stock distributed at the time. Johnny over at Carrozzeria was great to work with and always very responsive with emails.

Originally Posted by VailM3

I like the kit the only thing thats sticks out is the hood line gap which is shockingly big compared to OEM

Yeah, fitment between the hood, front bumper and front fenders isn't perfect. I'm confident with enough fiddling it could be a bit better, but it will never be OEM perfect. It's an aftermarket full body panel replacement widebody kit, I had reasonable expectations going in and I am very happy with how it turned out overall. If you go into a project like this with the expectation of very close to OEM perfect fitment, you better be ready to spend countless dollars in labor costs to very skilled and creative people to make who will make it perfect* or be prepared to be disappointed.

[ttuner]

I was looking at buying the hood. Are the fitment issues due to the hood, or the bumper (or both)? Looks amazing either way.

[18LLC]

Is it just me or can anyone else see the line from the hood doesn't level with the line on the driver side door? Looks a little higher than the door?

[nicknaz]

whoa, going big time on the cosmetics. Thanks for sharing OP! congrats on finishing your build

[VailM3]

Originally Posted by 18LLC

Is it just me or can anyone else see the line from the hood doesn't level with the line on the driver side door? Looks a little higher than the door?

dont think its just you.

[Innovative AutoConcepts]

Congrats on finishing the amazing build. Looks great!

[VMRWheels]

Love it! Car looks awesome

[pyceasyas123]

Very nice!!!

[M3 Number 86]

nice!

[sakson]

Originally Posted by 18LLC

Is it just me or can anyone else see the line from the hood doesn't level with the line on the driver side door? Looks a little higher than the door?

[dbworld4k]

Best Z4 build I've seen yet! Congrats. Where in Chicago are you? That garage pic looks so familiar to my friend's place near UIC.

[atopa2002]

This is how the E89 Z4 M roadster would have looked like

[JEllis]

NICE