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The best of everything went in to all the mechanical and interior restorati on and upgrades I gave this very special Z3 over the past two years. Starting with a strong running Z3.0 that I bought from its original owner, I replaced, upgraded, customized, modified, and lightened the entire suspen sion, steering, brakes, exhaust, cooling system, air intake, interior, and sound system.
Beautiful M Roadster seats, panels, and console. Performance like you dream a Z3 can zoom like, but very few can. When new, the 3.0 was barely a tick slower than the previous older S52 moto r M Roadster. Now this car is much faster.
This was going to be my personal little zoom zoom car for a long time to co me, but business needs and other plans lead me to put the result of my self
-indulgent re-engineered Z3, a true autocrosser's delight, up for sale.
Engine: Rebuilt the Vanos unit, using the Beisan seals and kit. If you've never dri ven a 3.0 that has a fully and correctly operating Vanos, you will be amaze d how strong and even the torque curve is from low revs all the way to redl ine. Replaced valve cover gasket and sealing grommets. Replaced coils and insulators with Bosch S52 engine style. NGK BPR6EQUP spark plugs. Dinan software remapping. CA smog legal, adds a few HP and improves the thr ottle response. Replaced DISA valve, idle control valve, and all vacuum hoses. Cleaned and snugged down all wiring harness electrical connectors. Compression still li ke new.
Intake: Stett Engineering silicone rubber intake boots. Decreases drag and air turb ulence that the stock accordion tube intake boots cause. Will never dry rot , or crack and leak. Replaced MAF sensor with new BMW OE part. Big Bore 72mm throttle body, a custom developed unit from Riot Racing. This give 9% more intake air than the stock throttle body, without tripping fau lt codes. Solved the wandering idle problem by removing the restrictive screens and a ir guides, then made a new thicker air guide using apple slicer blades.
Exhaust: Weighs 30 pounds less than the car's original exhaust system. System fabb'ed from a Magnaflow 2 1/2" X pipe in place of the resonators, t hen running dual pipes back to a Flowmaster Series 50 muffler. This is on t he quieter end of Flowmaster's noise scale, giving a pleasing smooth low pi tched calm yet still powerful "woof" when you get on it, without ear screec hing resonance and drone that most custom exhaust systems have. Exhaust outlet is a sweet looking polished stainless 3"x5" Flowmaster oval tip. Possibly as nice a flowing street legal exhaust as you can come up with for these motors. If you've heard about Dan at Burlingame Muffler, this exhaust system is one of his masterpieces.
Cooling system: I don't let my cars run hot! High capacity radiator from S54 M Roadster. New hoses. New modified electri c thermostat, that keeps the engine cooler without tripping CE codes. Colde r 81/89C electric fan temperature switch, cross wired so that the fan runs at the high speed whenever the switch triggers it. This cools down the engi ne faster when you're sitting still at idle. Replaced the coolant overflow bottle instead of waiting for the original to start leaking. Filled with BM W brand green coolant, plus two bottles of Redline Water Wetter.
Driveline: Replaced motor mounts with BMW brand OE mounts. Replaced transmission mount s with UUC heavy duty rubber mounts and reinforcing cups. Differential: Torsen limited slip, 3.46 gears. Assembled and set up by Rear End Specialties in San Jose.
Interior: Beautiful black/gray leather M Roadster Vader electric seats, door panels, front underpanels and kick panels, rear panels, and console. All in excelle nt condition. Seat rail bushings replaced with solid delrin, so you won suffer the rockin g chair feeling, and will never have to go though replacing them again. Seatbelt guides on the seatbacks replaced and correctly realigned to belt a ngles. Console morphed in with Z3.0's burled walnut wood grain shifter and gauge p anel cluster, retaining the Z3.0's tan dashboard. New BMW oe black leather parking brake and shift lever boots. Seats slightl y raised and tilted as many Z3 owners do, to give a more comfortable drivin g position. BMW weighted short throw ZHP shift knob. LED light bulbs in interior, trunk, license plate.
Exterior and body: Was there an option this car didn't come with? Comes complete with rear wind screen, and BMW original cover for the retracted top, as shown in the pictures. BMW original hardtop too, with all mounting hardware correctly in place. To p latches and mates with the windows securely. Super Red Phillips LED tail light bulbs, all four of them, to be sure cars behind you stay off your tail. New front bumper cover, plastic under tray, and inner well wells, replaced the old scraped and cracked up ones. Painted and installed with all new clips and hardware by the perfectionists at Autobahn Auto Body. New front grills, and new M Roadster mesh style lower grill. New stubby radio antenna, with new inside and outside antenna grommets. Convertible top was replaced by the original owner a few years ago. Rear wheel wells custom rolled and flared on the inside, looks the same on the outside. Absolutely _no tire clearance issues. Total 170k miles.
Sound: Original BMW Harman Kardon premium BMW business CD stereo head and amp. BMW 7 CD changer in trunk. Re-foamed the subwoofer using the Simply Speakers kit, and repaired frayed cone connector wires. Front kickpanel speakers replaced with new Harman-Infinity two way 6" corre ct 3 ohm speakers. Rear panel side speakers replaced with new Harman-Infinity two way 5" corre ct 3 ohm speakers. Door midranges replaced with E36 OE midrange tweeters, playing the midrange only. Original door tweeters cleaned of all dust and electrical connections tight ened.
Brakes and clutch: Large 330mm oversize front brakes from the BMW 330i. New Zimmerman rotors and Hawk carbon pads on all four wheels. New BMW brand OE clutch master cylinder and clutch slave cylinder. Check valve removed from clutch fluid line, for noticeably quicker clutch e ngagement.
Tires and wheels:
17x9" Kosei dual 5 spoke wheels, extremely light at 17 pounds. Bridgestone RE71 R tires, size 245/45x17. Treadwear rating 200. Super stick y with good tread life too. 5mm spacers in front, 13mm spacers in rear. Wheels converted from lug bolts to studs with lug nuts. This car has no tire clearance or rubbing problems. The tires and wheels fi t in the wheel wells just right.Front suspension and Steering: Steering response tighter and faster than anything else most of you have dr iven.
New M3 control arms, and tie rods. New front wheel bearings. M3/ M Roadster strut tubes. Koni adjustable struts, revolved by Dinan. Centered hole E36 M3 upper strut mount. M3 strut mount reinforcing plates. M Roadster front springs, shortened one coil length by heating and compress ing.
28 mm Eibach front swaybar, adjustable, with urethane bushings and new Meyl e HD end links. UUC stress bar across the top of the strut mounts. Strut mount stud holes relocated inward and rearward for more camber and ca ster. Delrin front control arm bushings, with offset hole. Geometry adds up to -2.5 degrees camber, 8 degrees caster.Rear Suspension: Koni Dual Adjustable shocks. They adjust with a knob from the top, and a cl ick screw at the bottom. This gives easy, quick, and reproducible adjustmen ts compared to the standard Koni shocks. Ground Control upper shock mounts, with 12mm rubber bushings. AKG urethane trailing arm mounts, that have internal grease channels. AKG urethane subframe mounts and differential mount, with 12mm offset. This repositions the subframe higher up to the car floor. That allows more lowe ring without excess negative camber and toe. Eibach 430 pound per inch x 7 inch long rear springs.
19mm BMW M rear swaybar, with new BMW OE end links.Battery: Deka race battery. Less than half the size, and 25 pounds lighter than stan dard battery with just as much juice for starting and cranking. Frees up mo re storage space in the trunk.
Possibly open to interesting trades. A Z3 or Z4 Coupe or maybe a VW/Audi sp ortwagon diesel would be great.
Literally hundreds of hours of my work went into this car. While most other speeded up BMWs are a pile of parts that weren't sorted out or built as a whole, this car exceeds the sum of its parts in a totally dialed in, tweake d and tuned overall performance package that's total automotive treat to si t in and drive.
More pictures pending, or just call and come and see the car instead. Call Barry from 10AM to 10PM at (323) 487-2002, (650) 968-1228.