Suj’s E90 Build. Apologies in advance for the odd-sized photos but I just took them from wherever I could find them now!
Bought in September 2009 there were never any plans to keep this car stock for long. The car itself is an 06/09 built E90 LCI 320i and came with the usual array of factory options including xenons, sat nav, sunroof and Msport package. Of course for enthusiasts such as us even a well sorted factory optioned car is never enough to satisfy our urges for something a little more unique. This is my story of the car and myself between September 2009 now.
I took delivery of the car just before some pretty critical exams in 2009, which in hindsight was probably not the best point in time. Instead of focusing on studies, most of my time was spent playing Facebook poker and trawling through car forums looking for ways to modify my new acquisition. However, despite the fact that the E90 generation of 3 series had been out since 2005, my model was the “Life Cycle Impulse” (LCI) model. The problem this caused was that nobody had really modified an LCI model yet and even simple body parts such as kidney grills were hard to come by. Of course now none of this is a problem, but at the time it meant that my modifying progress was slow to start.
1. Delivery day
The first modification was relatively minor in the scheme of things, just a simple debadge to give that clean feel to the rear end.
It didn’t take long for me to get tired of how small and ugly the stock 17” wheels looked so as with many modders, the wheels were the first major item to be changed. I decided to change over to the OEM 18” Msport wheels and had them custom powdercoated in gloss black.
3. Black wheels
The black wheels certainly had more visual impact, but I soon realised that to support the black wheels I needed to make some other more subtle changes as well. A painted black diffuser, gloss black lower front grills, BMW Performance front grills, tint and black euro-style numberplates all helped to give the car a more complete black-out appearance.
4. Black diffuser and debadge rear
5. BMW Performance Grills, painted lower mesh and tint
Around the same time BMW also released the option for the Alpine audio retrofit. As some of you may be aware, this was a long on-going saga for me. In a nutshell, the kit was a failure at first and I spent about 9 months going back and forth with BMW Sydney and BMW Aus. At the end of it all I had the kit uninstalled much to my disappointment.
Now, the 320i may not be considered as a particularly high performance car but to give it the best possible chance a K&N air filter and BMW Performance Exhaust were installed. The combination of the two really gave the car a meaty sound and great exhaust note. I highly recommend this combination to anyone else with a 320i.
6. BMW Performance Exhaust
All along my modding journey I had always wanted to add some carbon fibre splitters to the front of the car for more visual impact. As the year 2010 came to a close, I stumbled upon the Exotics Tuning E90 LCI Programme. Part of their programme included a full front lip available in carbon fibre of which only 200 would be made. Needless to say, without much thinking I bought myself a new year present. In addition to the front lip I also installed an M3 style rear lip spoiler to balance out the look of the rear end.
7. Rear M3 style spoiler
8. Exotics Tuning front lip
Having parted with some serious money over the new year, including a set of Michelin PS2 ZP tyres, a set of GP Thunder 7500K angel eye bulbs was an easy purchase. It was a simple, cheap and effective way of changing out the visually displeasing stock yellow look.
9. GP Thunder 7500K angel eyes
By now my mind was wandering again, and I wanted to see how the car would look with some silver wheels. Thankfully I had some friends come to the rescue and I temporarily wore some 19” GT-CS wheels for a photoshoot.
10. Temporary wheels 19” GTCS
I instantly fell in love with this look! Compared to the black wheels these CSL style wheels gave the car a much ‘cleaner’ feel. Not long afterwards I purchased my own set of VMR V718.
11. New VMR V718
Despite looking similar to the GTCS there were some minor styling differences in the spokes of the wheels, but more importantly this particular fitment caused rubbing in the rear. My friends came to the rescue yet again, as I swapped my V718s for the GTCS. While swapping over I also had the standard brake calipers painted in black and the hubs painted silver. A nice subtle touch which really cleans up the look of the wheel and brake area.
By now I am sure you have realised I am partial to some bling. This next modification claims to improve airflow through the intake, however for me they were purely cosmetic. Yes – they are RPi air scoops in red!
12. RPi ram air scoops
After a brief stint of calm, the urge to change something kicked in yet again. After seeing more and more people using LUX for their angel eyes I decided to ditch the GP Thunders and join the LUX crew with some V3 bulbs. As aforementioned I like some unnecessary bling, hence along with the LUX I also bought a pair of yellow 2500K fog light bulbs.
Ever since delivery day I thought that having some steering wheel paddles would have been a nice feature. Unfortunately my car did not come with paddles as standard so they had to be retrofitted to my car. There were a few retrofit options around but I chose to go with a tricolour stitched M3 wheel with DCT paddles. The M3 wheel is fantastic to hold and the paddles sit right behind your fingertips within easy reach. I would definitely recommend a paddle retrofit to any cars that did not come with them. Paddles make the driving experience a lot more fun and you are able to keep both hands on the wheel the whole time.
13. M3 steering wheel with DCT paddles
Never being one to learn quickly, the Alpine audio upgrade took my interest once again. After a chat with some people at Trivett BMW and BMW Aus it was organised for me to have the kit installed again, but this time with bonus Harman/Kardon 8” under seat sub-woofers which would aim to rectify the problems I experienced earlier. Thankfully this time around the kit worked first time! Paying no more than I did back when I first had it installed, which was also a discounted price, I had now scored free H/K subs!
14. Alpine Audio
Next up was some stopping power. I was always keen on a BMW Performance Brake kit as I loved the look of the calipers and yellow colour. However, after doing some research I found out that 135i brakes were indeed the same thing, albeit without the drilled and slotted rotors. Doing a quick search led me to a set of decent 135i brakes. I bought the whole set and had them painted HSV Hazard Yellow. The fronts bolted on no problem, but the rear would have required a bit more modification which I could not be bothered doing at the time.
15. 135i Brakes
Roof wraps always tempted me as I wanted to try a black roof. As it so happened, a friend of mine was starting to do some wrapping on the side for some practice. With a little bit of patience and a heatgun we applied a carbon fiber look wrap. I was never a fan of c/f wrapping, but it looked clean and I was happy with the result.
16. Roof Wrap
The wrap didn’t stay long however, as just a week later in January 2012 the car started undergoing a part-out! This was of course because I thought I would be selling the car, as the arrival of a new car left the 320i a little in the shadow.
17. New car!
One thing led to another and basically, we ended up holding on to the 320i anyway. It was not driven a lot in the following months but was still always loved by me. I stuck around on E90Post keeping up with all the banter and following the latest of modifying trends with the E9Xs. Purely by chance, I came across a set of wheels for sale by another E90post member which caught my eye. This set of wheels was pretty much the only set of wheels I had seen on the forums which I absolutely fell in love with. Without hesitation I bought them but had to wait a couple of months as they travelled by sea!
To go with the new wheels, I bought a set of BC Extreme Drop coilovers, and had to re-purchase the carbon front lip. Not having enough money to splurge out on Lux again, I went with the BMR LED AEs and have been totally satisfied with them even compared to the Lux. I also installed another set of gloss black front kidney grills.
Finally managed to put it all together and voila! Result!
CCW Classic – F 18x10” R 18x11.5”
18. New look!
Of course, to make wheels like this fit I had to make some fender modifications.
19. Fender mods!
I loved the look, and didn’t mind the rubbing sound at all. However, practically I could not carry more than one passenger which sometimes led to awkward moments with friends and family as I tried to explain why a 5 seater car could only take one passenger. Having enough of being static, I made the decision to run an air suspension set up. This would allow me to drive ‘rub free’ whenever I wanted, but also slam the car when stationary for maximum visual impact. The set up I went with was a coilover/airbag set up from D2 Racing.
20. Bagged
21. Bagged
However, bags are a costly endeavour and mine require some further adjustments which will be occurring over the next few days with the installation of Accuair e-Level management, lowering of front struts and hopefully some front camber as well. The CCWs have been sold, so I'm on the lookout for the next set of wheels, maybe something less aggressive and opinion dividing...
In case any of you ask, yes the C63 was also modded slightly at one stage but not for long.
And Sina, heres a photo of the up!.
