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      02-03-2013, 07:20 PM   #1
CCC4321
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What do I need to know? 135i

Hello 1Addicts
I just picked up a 2011 135i M Sport DCT. This is my daily driver, but I plan on tracking the car.

What do I need to know to keep this car happy and healthy?

I have a Cayman S race car so I don't want to get extreme, but want it to handle very well on and off the track.
I tend to like my street cars stiff, but I need it to be a good reliable, comfy commuter? I know its a compromise.

I have been thinking about a cheaper coil over kit, H&R, Eibach...Thoughts?
Ajustable Swaybars.
Camber plates- 1M Control arms
NT-01, 888, RS3- for track any issues when using R compounds?

Are there any reliability mods that need to be done?


Thanks in advance
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      02-03-2013, 07:24 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CCC4321 View Post
Hello 1Addicts
I just picked up a 2011 135i M Sport DCT. This is my daily driver, but I plan on tracking the car.

What do I need to know to keep this car happy and healthy?

I have a Cayman S race car so I don't want to get extreme, but want it to handle very well on and off the track.
I tend to like my street cars stiff, but I need it to be a good reliable, comfy commuter? I know its a compromise.

I have been thinking about a cheaper coil over kit, H&R, Eibach...Thoughts?
Ajustable Swaybars.
Camber plates- 1M Control arms
NT-01, 888, RS3- for track any issues when using R compounds?

Are there any reliability mods that need to be done?


Thanks in advance
By the looks of it^^^^you already know what it needs
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      02-03-2013, 07:33 PM   #3
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Originally Posted by Rukuss View Post
By the looks of it^^^^you already know what it needs
But, I'm a newby around here. This is my first BMW.
I need some experienced BMW gurus to guide me.
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      02-03-2013, 08:25 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CCC4321 View Post
Hello 1Addicts
I just picked up a 2011 135i M Sport DCT. This is my daily driver, but I plan on tracking the car.

What do I need to know to keep this car happy and healthy?

I have a Cayman S race car so I don't want to get extreme, but want it to handle very well on and off the track.
I tend to like my street cars stiff, but I need it to be a good reliable, comfy commuter? I know its a compromise.

I have been thinking about a cheaper coil over kit, H&R, Eibach...Thoughts?
Ajustable Swaybars.
Camber plates- 1M Control arms
NT-01, 888, RS3- for track any issues when using R compounds?

Are there any reliability mods that need to be done?


Thanks in advance
If you have a Cayman track car you're in for a surprise, but maybe not in a good way. Good news tons of torque. Bad news everything else not quite as good as a Cayman. Grip can be addressed with tires without sacrificing much else in terms of drivability. For the track/street R-S3's or if you've got the coin track only Hoosier R6's 245/35/18 squared.

If you want to eliminate most of the understeer then consider the full M3/1M conversion minus the strut tower brace. It won't affect livability on the street too much and you can dial in some negative camber (about 1.25 deg.). If you want you can set the toe out a bit to give you quicker turn in, but it makes it a little darty for daily driving. You can then either do coil-overs or spring/shock combo (less expensive). I'm not aware of any adj. sway bars for the 1. They may be out there, but I'm not sure.

Lastly brakes. This is a heavy car, especially in comparison to a Cayman, so the brakes would need to be addressed for track duty. There are a couple of DIY fixes for cooling the brakes, but I'd swap the pads/lines/fluid at a minimum.

After that you'd have a pretty darn quick track day car. Keep in mind that our cars cool themselves ok in stock trim, but the stock intercooler is not that good for track day stuff. When you address the power which is easy with a tune cooling may be needed in conjunction with the tune to keep heat soak at bay while on the track.

My .02 cents tires 1st susp. 2nd brakes 3rd power/cooling/lsd last. Of course you could always say screw it throw on a JB4, run e85, and drift around the whole track. That'd be fun too.
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      02-03-2013, 11:26 PM   #5
CCC4321
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Quote:
Originally Posted by blutattoo View Post
If you have a Cayman track car you're in for a surprise, but maybe not in a good way. Good news tons of torque. Bad news everything else not quite as good as a Cayman. Grip can be addressed with tires without sacrificing much else in terms of drivability. For the track/street R-S3's or if you've got the coin track only Hoosier R6's 245/35/18 squared.

If you want to eliminate most of the understeer then consider the full M3/1M conversion minus the strut tower brace. It won't affect livability on the street too much and you can dial in some negative camber (about 1.25 deg.). If you want you can set the toe out a bit to give you quicker turn in, but it makes it a little darty for daily driving. You can then either do coil-overs or spring/shock combo (less expensive). I'm not aware of any adj. sway bars for the 1. They may be out there, but I'm not sure.

Lastly brakes. This is a heavy car, especially in comparison to a Cayman, so the brakes would need to be addressed for track duty. There are a couple of DIY fixes for cooling the brakes, but I'd swap the pads/lines/fluid at a minimum.

After that you'd have a pretty darn quick track day car. Keep in mind that our cars cool themselves ok in stock trim, but the stock intercooler is not that good for track day stuff. When you address the power which is easy with a tune cooling may be needed in conjunction with the tune to keep heat soak at bay while on the track.

My .02 cents tires 1st susp. 2nd brakes 3rd power/cooling/lsd last. Of course you could always say screw it throw on a JB4, run e85, and drift around the whole track. That'd be fun too.
Thanks Blutattoo

I'm loving the torque for sure and enjoying driving it around town a lot.
I ran it yesterday at the track, on stock runflats and it wouldn't turn, I worked with tire pressures but still it wouldn't turn. I was wishing for some -camber and some adjustable sway bars. I had no braking issues, accept lack of tire grip. I didn't have any heat issues with the engine or brakes.

I know these issues can be fixed, but I don't want to build a second race car.
At first I was thinking just springs, but then theres no height adjustment or corner balancing, shock travel. I'm hoping some of the 1Addicts may have some experience, insight into the lower end coilovers and can steer me in the right direction. Do we know the stock spring rates and the rates of any of the kits?

I would really like some adjustable sway bars, anybody know of any?

As far as the weight, its not that different, when I was TTing the Cayman it was 3200 LBs, I even raced it at the weight for a year in 2008. Now it's gutted and fully caged at 2600 LBs not street able.
Tighten the tire belt, thats part of the 135's duty. I'm going to try Hankook Z214 on the Cayman, I have been running Hoosiers, for the 135 most likely NT-01s.
If you think Hoosiers are bad try Yoko slicks 1800+ Michelins are more, and good for only a weekend.

Thanks again
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      02-04-2013, 07:18 AM   #6
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In order to compensate for the RFTs, the OEM spring rates are pretty soft. I believe they are 140lb in the front and 300lb in the rear. I would suggest looking into a set of coilovers that utilize Swift springs. With SA coilovers most people run 350f/700r and with DA coilovers you can run upto 400f/800r. I run 350f/700r with DA TC Kline coilovers which has turned out to be a perfect compromise for a DD. The ride is firm, flat but never harsh. I also run Dinan fixed camber plates (cheap and no noise) and M3 front control arms. I'm about 30mm lower than stock and can get -2.3 up front. Again a perfect compromise for a DD. Blutattoo brings up a good point. As long as you don't text on you phone while putting on makeup and drinking coffee, run zero toe or slight toe out. It definitely improves turn-in. You may experience a bit of tram lining but nothing worse than what you experience with the RFTs on the stock settings.

One other to consider is the rear subframe bushings. These are incredibly soft in stock trim and will be the weak link if you tighten up the rest of the suspension. The simple but costly solution is replacing them with M3 bushings. It's costly since you need to lower the rear subframe and rear brake lines. This would be a good time to swap out brake lines and change your fluid to SRF.
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      02-04-2013, 03:04 PM   #7
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I haven't been able to find a set of NT-01's that'll fit without getting to narrow in the front. If you keep the staggered setup then it should be doable, but if you want a square setup you may have to go with something else.

I personally only have Dinan springs and Koni adj shocks and they work quite well on the track. I'm sure I'd see some improvement with coil-overs, but the car is pretty dialed in now so why spend any more money. Any money spent in this regards should pay immediate dividends once you replace the RFT's due to the spring rates he mentioned.

I also have the M3 bits in the front with Dinan plates and I'm able to get 2.4/2.7 degrees neg camber set with 1/16th of an inch toe out and turn in is really quick. For some track and DD I recommend this highly. Makes a world of difference.
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      02-07-2013, 01:18 PM   #8
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^ all good advice, don't for get the LSD. Welcome to the dark side
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      02-07-2013, 06:32 PM   #9
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I used to track my Cayman S before getting my '09 135. The stock handling was horrible, and I was pretty disappointed. I replaced the runflats with Michelin PS2 (225/245), put in the BMW performance suspension, and changed front and rear sub-frame bushings to M3s. Now it's pretty decent handling and the ride on a daily basis is good. Only one day at the track, and it still pushes a bit, but it's much, much better. A square setup would, of course, be better. It's not a Cayman, but it's fun and it wasn't too expensive. In the Porsche, I was in the White run group, so I don't push the car as hard as a hard core driver, but I can make it around the track near the top of my run group.
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      02-07-2013, 08:01 PM   #10
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Most of the good points have been brought up already.

I'd say get camber plates, M3 front sway bar, better tyres, a good alignment and see how you go.
From there I'd get M3 front control arms and rear subframe bushings
Then coilovers or a spring and shock kit.

I'm not that impressed with the stock brakes and will be upgrading to Stoptechs.
But I'd say better pads, fluid and backing plates are a minimum. Ferodo DS2500s are better on the track and good on the street (rear pads clunk and squeal a bit, fronts are silent).

Right now I've got all of the above and the car is a better daily driver than when I started and decent enough on the track. It's never going to be the best track car but it's fun.
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      02-08-2013, 07:36 PM   #11
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Here's a post I wrote for somebody with a similar question:


I don't know of a comprehensive guide to modding the 135i, but I recently went through the process of learning all of this stuff (just got mine a couple of months ago), so I'd be happy to share the knowledge that I've picked up. What sorts of mods are you mainly interested in? Straight-line speed? Handling? Cosmetics? Interior? Audio/entertainment?

In terms of straight-line speed, the best thing you can do is get an aftermarket tune. The most popular ones are JB4, Procede, and Cobb. They'll all give you an extra 60-80 hp and a LOT of extra pep. They also help you extract more power from standard mods like exhaust/downpipes (20-30 hp), intercooler (10-20 hp), etc.

Another very effective performance mod is improved tires. Being in Kuwait, you're blessed with the ability to run summer tires year-round. Replace your run-flats with some max-performance summer tires and your car will become a lot faster. If your budget allows it, you can get even better performance if you get lighter/wider wheels and wider tires.

For handling, there is a lot of debate regarding what to do first. The roads in Kuwait are really nice, so ride harshness probably isn't as much of an issue for you as it is for some others... so I'd suggest starting with coilovers or aftermarket shocks/springs. There are a lot of options on the market, but the specifics depend on what exactly you want. The next step would be to consider front/rear sway bars, camber plates, and M3 suspension bits (starting with lower control arms and rear subframe bushings).

There are also two other general performance mods. One is a mechanical limited-slip differential, which can be pricey, but it's arguably the biggest difference between your car and an M-car (aside from wider body/tires and stiffer suspension, which are cheaper/easier mods). The other is braking, which can be done in several stages (performance pads, lightweight/drilled/slotted rotors, stainless brake lines, etc.). If you're interested, I'll tell you more about it.

For exterior cosmetics, there are a lot of body kits available, depending on how much you want to spend. Personally, I think that a cheap eBay front lip with aftermarket wheels and a lowered suspension are enough to make the car look way more aggressive. Some people prefer to make more thorough changes. I'm planning to do a 1M front-end conversion eventually, but not yet.

For interior, there are lots of bits here and there. Shift knobs, accents, trim, etc.

For audio, there is a lot of discussion in the e90post forums about the different setups, but there are a couple of posts summarizing the "best bang for your buck" setups. I won't go into too much detail here unless you say that it's a particular interest of yours.


So that's a brief overview. Tell me which areas interest you and I'll go into more detail.
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      03-01-2013, 01:21 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CCC4321 View Post
Hello 1Addicts
I just picked up a 2011 135i M Sport DCT. This is my daily driver, but I plan on tracking the car.

What do I need to know to keep this car happy and healthy?

I have a Cayman S race car so I don't want to get extreme, but want it to handle very well on and off the track.
I tend to like my street cars stiff, but I need it to be a good reliable, comfy commuter? I know its a compromise.

I have been thinking about a cheaper coil over kit, H&R, Eibach...Thoughts?
Ajustable Swaybars.
Camber plates- 1M Control arms
NT-01, 888, RS3- for track any issues when using R compounds?

Are there any reliability mods that need to be done?


Thanks in advance
How deep is your pocket?

The 135i could use lots of help, but you can start with giving it lots of front camber, better control arms(HD or M3), a larger front bar(E93 M3 or larger), better brake pads for both street/track duty(Stoptech Street Performance, Porterfield R4S or something more aggressive, Ferodo DS2500), stainless lines and high temp brake fluid. If you are going to install a coilover kit, make sure it's a good one, otherwise you will have better performance and less of a dent with your wallet just buying Koni Yellows.

RS3 will be the fastest street tire you can buy. Beyond that will be R-Comps, but your brakes and suspension may need further help with stickier tires.
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