Jimmy P.
New member
So yeah, I bought it december 2011. The car is a 2008 335xi automatic, I named her Sabine as in Sabine Schmitz. I wanted manual but auto is still pretty chill, quick shifts and bips the gas on downshifts. I had it at 65 000km. A returned leased. It was completely stock except red painted calipers... I was a bit worry that the previous owner was a douche and drives like he stole it but I could also call it properly broken in LOL
I drove it for 5000km during winter and it was due to the service thing. Brought the car to the dealer and they did oil change, spark plugs, bleeding brake fluid etc etc even change tires on some new rims. The very next day, I had an appointment at Autobar for a set of catless downpipes. The day after that, I went at Vag Motorsport for JB4 stage 3 tuner and AFE stage 2 intakes. A couple of months later, got a bigger front mount intercooler.
I was pretty happy with the car. I would even call it a sleeper. It was quicker than 80% of the cars on the roads. It was a beast on the highway. All I was missing is the exhaust to be FBO. I went to the drag strip once and clocked 12.6 seconds on the 1/4 miles at Napierville at the carfever event. The X drive system and the auto gearbox launch me perfectly every time.
Then I don't know... the car was performing well but it wasn't looking as well as it performs... I wanted to do something to the look so it would be different to the other 3 series out there. I'm not the kinda guy who would put a massive body kit and 22s with smoked lights. I liked the OEM look, I mean its a BMW... but wanted to be different at the same time...
Yes! LOL I decided to change the paint on the car at Garage Car-Pro. Silver is a great colour because it doesn't get dirty and you don't see much of the minor swirl marks. Took me a month to decide the colour. I wanted blue like smurfs blue but I don't know might be too flashy and a little bit gay in my opinion (no hate) Also wanted dark grey for a long time but then after a lot of thinking I made a simpler choice...
Decided to respray it matte silver. I think its the smartest choice since inside the engine bay and all would remain very close to the matte silver from the outside. Plus, its still discrete but very unique at the same time. Exactly what I was looking for.
Painting the whole car wasn't enough... I bought an M3 front bumper replica of course and got my hands on some M-tech rear bumper and side skirts. Got them get rid of that chrome trim and painted them black instead. Very very OEM on the choice. Maybe missing a front lip but maybe later.
Also got black kidney grills to ditch the chrome ones. Got same colour paint eye lids... still don't really like them but I just hate seeing the yellow reflectors thing. Got some LUX angle eyes. A BMW isn't a BMW without one of these. I like the M3 bumper, it really shows my massive intercooler! Got some blacklines tailights also. So everything was done in the performance side and the aesthetic side. Now the stance!
I kept the monster truck height during winter cuz I didn't want to kill the bumper on some hard snow or something. But still the season was tough on the paint. I had to constantly wash it every 3-4 days to keep it clean so nothing actually attack the metal etc. After this winter, I got myself a set of H&R Sport Springs and Bilstein dampers. Its perfect set up for the E90 AWD. I wouldn't even go lower if I had coilovers. The car still feels OEM the feel of that BMW steering rack isn't lost. I also got rid of those red calipers LOOL The only thing missing was a new set of rims. I've never been a fan of big wheels but to really finish the look of the car I've had to get some 18s or 19s. So after a lot of looking on the internet and endlessly trolling on forums, I still decided I would go OEM on the rims.
Those rims are not replicas! Style 220m. I got them from a previous owner of E92 M3 who upgraded for 20s. The rims are 19 x 8.5 ET29 and 19 x 9.5 E23. Had to change the tires size to 235/35/19 and 265/30/19. That back rubs but no fks given. It looks so good on the car!
I decided to give a little touch at the interior by wrapping the old wood look alike by some 3M black carbon fiber vinyl done by Auto World Design.
Been recently going to car meets. Some people think its an M3 others 328 some frozen paint M3 LOL some think its a wrapped or worst plastic dip hahaha look the whole car was build with my taste. It doesn't catch your eyes with bright colours. It doesn't catch your eyes because of the cheap modifications. It doesn't catch your eyes because of obnoxious stickers. Its presence is established from the sense of class and quality that the carefully chosen enhancements come together to create. (A gentleman's car) I present to you Sabine, the OEM+ three three five. Thank you
Some proper shots by JAG
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