Building the ultimate 135i - 2009 Season Re-cap with lots of pix....

[BerkTechnology]

Just wanted to give you guys a quick recap of the 2009 season with all that we've done with the car this year.

Berk Technology just wrapped up an awesome 2009 race season for the 135i, breaking our own personal bests at every single track by several seconds and setting new BMW 135i track records at 2/3 of the major race tracks out here in the SoCal area. The last race of the year was held by Redline Time Attack at the Autoclub Speedway in Fontana CA. It was a sweet punctuation mark to an already great year where we beat the standing 135i record at this track by over 5 seconds!

In our ultimate 135i track car build we've now begun to focus on weight reduction and aero mods. This latest installment of goodies consists of carbon fiber, lots of it! In the off season the car is going to be partially disassembled and then reassembled as light as possible.

The car today:



Some of the mods will not jive well with the daily driver mentality, but for those of you who can view the beauty of a well engineered race car the Berk car is ever more a sight to see. In 2010 we're working with manufacturers to bring you guys some brand new go fast bits. Over here we're never done making fast cars faster! As you can see we've pushed the boundaries of what can be done with a host of bolt on parts and what we've done here can be done by any of you with some late night work and hard earned coin.

Current mods to date:

Engine:
afe intake system
Berk Technology 3" Downpipes
Berk Technology catted dual 2.5" midpipes
Berk Technology race exhaust
Burger Tuning JB3 + O2 sims (custom Mynes ECU tune coming soon, car is on the dyno right now)
Code3 Performance IC kit

Suspension + Driveline:
Berk Technology custom brake ducts
HP Autowerks Quaife LSD
KW Variant 3 Coilovers w/ custom spring rates
NEW Rotora 335mm BBK
Vorshlag Camber Plates

Wheels + Tires:
D-Force EmPower 18x8.5 +41, Dunlop Direzza Star Spec 255/35/18
Enkei NT03 18x8.5 +38, 18x9.5 +57, Dunlop Direzza Star Spec 255/35/18, 265/35/18
Apex ARC-8 135i specific wheels coming soon with 255/35/18 & 285/35/18

Exterior + Aero:
NEW APR Performance GTC-200 Carbon Fiber 135i rear wing
NEW APR Performance Carbon Fiber front splitter
NEW Seibon Carbon Fiber Hood
NEW Seibon Carbon Fiber trunk lid
V-Fiber Front lip
V-Fiber Side Skirts

Safety Equipment:
Berk Technology Custom 4pt harness bar
Sparco Pro 2000 seats
Sparco 5pt harness
(6pt roll bar coming soon)

These are two of my favorite shots from this year. Here is the car on a 20 degree banking turn on a NASCAR oval. The car is doing about 140-145mph here. We've been blessed with no limp mode gremlins for the past two years, until now... This year we are going with a custom ECU tune from Mynes to remove our top speed limiter and see what is going on with the ECU. One a side note did you guys know there were 3 different speed limiters on these cars? We saw at least 2 different speed limiters last weekend. One of them is a "soft cut" and one was a "hard cut" speed limiter.



Here's a shot of the car at SEMA this year as part of the SEIBON display. We didn't get the black roof wrap of APR Performance wing & splitter on in time. IMO the black roof really ties in the whole look of the car. In 2010 we will have a very cool race car livery package on the car.


The APR GTC-200 wing. Love it or hate it, this thing really works! We opted to get all of the bells and whistles. APR's optional gurney flap and 2.5" risers complete our package.




Hopefully this gives you DIY warriors some inspiration to get out to the garage and make something yourself. Here are the custom brake ducts we fabricated to compliment our Rotora 335mm BBK. The whole brake duct kit was well under $100, the Rotora BBK was only a couple of pennies more. These two work great together. Not sure if the brake ducting was overkill but this car is finally able to go a full session without any brake fade and we can go DEEP into the braking zones.




And last but not least. The 2009 Berk Technology Team pic. The BMW 135i will return in 2010 as a faster and meaner race car in the Time Attack circuit. The Nissan 370Z is going to make a run for it in the NASA time trials circuit, it already holds several street tire records at various tracks. The MR2 is the most developed car out of the bunch and finished off the year Time Attack year with a 1st, 1st, & 2nd out of 3 races and is without a doubt one the fastest street class Time Attack cars for 2009. Just wait till the MR2 is converted to run methanol next year.....



Thankfully what we learn from our race program funnels directly into parts manufacturing. From this car the 1addicts community and all 135i owners have seen the development of many new parts that didn't exist a year ago. Many of the parts that we have tested on our race car have gone straight into production for the general public to install on their own vehicles. Some of these parts include the APR Performance wing, Berk Technology downpipes, midpipes, and axleback, V-fiber lip kit, and Rotora brakes to name a few. All of this all comes full circle to the "track tested, dyno proven" mantra that we live by.

I'd like to thank all of our sponsors for making the BMW 135i what it is today. Lots of people have had a part in building this car, we certainly didn't do it completely on our own!

APR Performance
Berk Technology
Bonanni Motorsports
Burger Motorsports
Dunlop Tire
HP Autowerks
Gruppe-S Engineering
KW Suspensions
Seibon
Rotora
V-Fiber

Hopefully some of the things we've done here will inspire you guys to go out and build your own vision of the ultimate 1er!

Take care and happy Thanksgiving!

Bryan
Berk Technology Inc

[Yvette]

looks like awesome work and care has been done to the car,
does the spoiler specifically made for our car? what is the msrp for it?

[BrokenVert]

My NFS past is quickly comming back to me...please hide that beatifully functional wing from me...


On another note high-fives all around...and I expect an updated poster for my dorm

[KVMan50]

Thanks Bryan and the team at Berk Technology for all the development work you are doing to the 135i. I may not be ready to do this stuff to my car (a daily driver) but it gives me something to think about for the future. I kinda wish I got a 135 instead of the 128i, but I still love my car. It drives great!
Thanks again!
Dave

[Yes2m3cs]

Berk Technology does indeed Rock

I love my Berk Exhaust every time I fire my car up

Happy Holidays!

Brian

[cagekicker]

sweet!

[escobar929]

awesome car!

i really like that 370z too

[ajvee]

Congrats on a great year.

Did the JB3 suit your track needs? Did the tune remain consistent throughout the year?

The best of luck for 2010.

Cheers.

[anthony @ eas]

Originally Posted by escobar929

awesome car!

i really like that 370z too

+1

[larryn]

Great thread, Bryan. It's looking more and more bad-ass all the time!

[InsaneSkippy]

Congrats on your good season Berk! I love what you've done with the car and can't wait to see what's in store for next season.


Off Topic: I'm so glad I didn't buy that Seibon CF hood, the fitment looks awful on the front.

[Advanced]

OMG!!!!!!!!! jizz in my pants . . . that wing is epic!

[BMWinNorthdakota]

Nice cars man. The one three five is pretty sick!!!


How does it compare to the 370z? Obviously they are both moded pretty heavily...

[Evice]

Can't see the pics... is it just me?

[Replay]

Originally Posted by Evice

Can't see the pics... is it just me?

yes it's just you They are hosted on photobucket so you may have a problem connecting to that site

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x...y/DSC_0203.jpg

[Ghostbear]

Can you still use the trunk?

[M3Newbie88]

Wow very nice.. good first season..

[ZER0_C00L]

you guys should check out the aeromotions spoiler,

would be great addition to those who want to get the most out of their track car

[vladberca]

great car! congrats! good luck for 2010!

[fourtailpipes]

congrats on the car! i wish you good luck and a roll cage in the upcoming year!

[TMR]

Originally Posted by BerkTechnology

custom Mynes ECU tune coming soon, car is on the dyno right now

I saw it on the Dyno and it looked SO good!!!

[Berduderunner]

I have a new wallpaper. That's all I have to say.