Nardo Grey E92 M3
21st April 2015
This Nardo Grey E92 M3 is a prime example of the pursuit of happiness of a BMW owner. Envisioning something that has never been done, putting in the man hours wrenching away through the night and ultimately executing each and every single goal that was put forth. Below is an excerpt from our buddy Chad who truly went above and beyond the bill when it came to his E92 M3.
“Over the past several years I have spent quite a bit of time tinkering with my car. As the years passed I gained an incredible amount of knowledge learning from other members; their successes, failures, and the constant debates between members (not always the most civil or productive lol), but nonetheless I owe a tremendous amount to the members of this community and have always done my best to treat the members of this community like my extended family.
Having performed 90% of the work on my car I had developed a personal connection with the car; essentially figuring out every nut and bolt and learning as much as I could about the construction and mechanics of the car. I simply couldn’t allow all of that to be set aside and dismiss the car in search of something better because quite frankly I didn’t feel that any one particular new car had convinced me that it was indeed better.
After I came to the realization that I was going to hold onto my car until I felt a strong motivation otherwise, I set out on a new journey to create my ideal M3. Taking lessons from the successes of many other forum members before me, learning from many of my mistakes over the past 4 years, and attempting to tie some of my favorite things about the E92 platform into one special car that I would want to hold on to forever.
Special thanks to Sam and Nick at Mode Carbon for putting out great products, for their friendship, and support of my build over the years.
I spent 2 months in my garage at home on weekends and after work tearing the car apart piece by piece. Ever since I was a little kid, I always took lots of joy in taking things apart to figure out how they worked. My experience with the M3 was no different in the sense that you really learn a lot about the construction of the car by taking it apart.
In the process of dismantling the car I finally decided to put many of the extra parts I had accumulated over the years up for sale. Partially to make enough room in my garage and partially to ease the stress on my wallet while making the changes to the car; extra sets of wheels, lips, bumpers, brakes, trunks, seats, exhaust components, and other miscellaneous items went up for sale to other members of the forum.
My ultimate goal with the car was to create something very OEM+. I wanted essentially every section of the car to be significantly altered from stock but only to the discerning eye of a fellow BMW owner by making very subtle changes.
Beginning with the front of the car, I wanted to smooth out everything that was wrong with the stock front end. I did away with both the headlight washers and the notorious US spec reflectors and obviously didnt want to run a front plate regardless of the amount of tickets I would expose myself to. I swapped on a Euro bumper from ECS Tuning. To match the new front bumper, I ordered all new fender linings, felt trays, and other miscellaneous components to make the front end look like it had just come off the factory line. To keep with the theme of the car, I replaced my old IND Carbon Fiber front grilles with Gloss Black options from IND as well. I also carried the Gloss Black accents on to the hood vents and side gills with tinted LED markers. The front end was tied together with a GTS Variant 1 front lip from my brothers at Mode Carbon (Thanks! Sam and Nick).
One thing that always made me a little jealous vs. the new M3/4 were the braces that showed up behind the front kidney grilles on the new model. I machined a few pieces to settle down my envy and installed the braces behind the kidney grilles of the E92. Its a very subtle change that most people dont even notice but I always like the look of the car when its driving toward you down the street. Its kind of a poser move but I think the execution was exactly what I was going for.
The car has been lowered on KW V3 coil overs onto the 18×10 and 18×11.5 BBS E88s built by my good friend James Floss Design. We built the wheels to keep with the black and grey them of the car, with gloss black lips, and a satin black face with silver hardware which in my opinion helps to define the face and contours of the wheel vs. an all black wheel. The wheels are bolted tightly to the Silver StopTech 380/355 BBK with a Titanium Stud Conversion Kit from MRG MotorRennGruppe.” – Chad
