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My Alpina Roadster S (supercharger conversion @ ESS)

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 9:11 pm
by FemmeT
Hi there,

I'd like to introduce you to my 2004 Alpina Roadster S. I bought this car from a German BMW/Alpina dealer when it was two years old. There where only 6000km on the odometer so it was as almost like a new car. The Alpina Roadster S is based on the Z4 3.0i. The engine is replaced by Alpina's S52B32 based 3,4l unit producing an official 300bhp and 265km/h top speed. I'm living close to the German border and the famous Autobahn A31, so there's always the opportunity to drive the car at top speed.

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I really enjoy giving a personal touch to my cars. The first mod was a Helene Performance filter, followed by an eOpen eTip module and a Strong Strut strut tower bar.

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In november 2006 I ordered a limited slip differential with shortened final drive ratio (3,46:1 instead of 3,23:1) from Drexler Motorsport in Germany. The LSD finally arrived in february of this year. The improved traction of the LSD is very noticable under hard acceleration on oneven surfaces and under high speed cornering. The shorter gear ratio made the car even more aggressive, decreasing 0-100km/h acceleration to about 5,0s.

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Unfortunately an unfriendly collision with a tree caused a premature ending to my driving pleasure in late March. At that time I was already planning an extensive list of mods. I decided to use the insurance payout to recover some of the costs of the project. My idea was to convert the Roadster S into a real sportscar while conserving the luxury and level of sophistication Alpina is renowned for.

The suspension was uprated with a new front lower arm bushing, rear bushing limiting kit, rear trailing arm bushing and front subframe reinforcement kit, all sourced from Turner Motorsport. The shocks where replaced by high performance units from Reiger Racing Suspension. Reiger is a small company located near my hometown which supplies shock absorbers to several racing teams, including the Ford WRC team, the Chevrolet WTCC team, the BMW X-Raid team and many Dakar teams. Their products are of very high quality.

Front subframe reinforcement:

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Front lower arm bushing:

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Bush limiting kit:

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Rear trailing arm bushing:

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Reiger rear shock:

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Reiger front coilover:

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The front brakes have been upgraded by a 4 piston Mov'it big brake kit with 342mm brake discs. The rear brakes have been upgraded with drilled brake discs, Ferodo brake pads and stainless steel brake lines. The fenders will be widened to create space for the BBK. Without modification the front wheels stick out of the body by 7 millimeters.

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Headlights and rear lights will be replaced by facelift units and the hood is replaced by the Z4-M bonnet. I will also have the facelift bumper, aero diffuser and aero sideskirts fitted to the car. The Alpina exhaust will be replaced by a quad pipe exhaust, see pic below for illustration:

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Z4-M hood (unpainted):

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BMW aerokit diffuser:

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As you can see this is still work in progress. I hope the car will be ready in september. For the end of the year I'm thinking about supercharging my car. ESS Tuning is developing a twin screw supercharger for the E36 M3, which should fit to the Alpina engine with relatively minor modification. Most of the effort will be in developing customized software for the Alpina engine.

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:06 pm
by Curtis
Very nice!! I like the rear deffuser but it would be nice to see it on the car before I run for my cheque book. In the mean time where can I get one and how much are they? Is it a supplied by BMW? My dealer will blow a fuse trying to locate it. I had to supply them with the part number for my oil filter before he could get me one. Turned out to be an E36 M3 item. :roll:

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:36 pm
by muppet
shiney cars and shiney new bits, nice.....Muppet like shinry things

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:42 pm
by FemmeT
Curtis wrote:Very nice!! I like the rear deffuser but it would be nice to see it on the car before I run for my cheque book. In the mean time where can I get one and how much are they? Is it a supplied by BMW? My dealer will blow a fuse trying to locate it. I had to supply them with the part number for my oil filter before he could get me one. Turned out to be an E36 M3 item. :roll:
The diffuser is a BMW part. It's listed in the Dutch accessoires brochure, which I think is a direct translation of the original German brochure. For some reason it's not in the online UK brochure. I believe it will only fit the facelift bumper however. There's a diffuser for the pre-facelift Z4 but that one is real ugly.

The part number of the facelift diffuser is 51 71 0 410 384. It's made of carbon fibre and it's very light.

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 8:34 am
by senwar
God I love the Alpina.

Lovely car

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 10:43 am
by Curtis
Thanks FemmeT, I will definately look into it. Can you post a pic as soon as you've had it fitted? Time to completely confuse my dealer!

Re: My Alpina Roadster S

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 1:47 pm
by FemmeT
Two months later the car is still in the garage. The headlights were adapted to make them work with the pre facelift light control module. The rear units are partly working. The brake light is lightens together with the rear lights. This should be fixable by reprogramming the light control module. So far there has been no need to change the light controle module to the facelift version.

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I've had the door handle LED mod done and the door panels were filled with sound dampening materials to enhance the "tinny" sound when closing the doors.

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The front control arm / wishbone was replaced with 330i ZHP ones featuring solid ball joints. I don't know if it's different to the stock control arms. I now have all the suspension enhancements from Turner Motorsport :).

Unfortunately there are still problems with the brakes. To clear to brake caliper the front spacers need to be 7mm wider than originally expected according to the data supplied by Mov'it. The wheels will now be 1,5cm outside the wheel wells which is a lot more troublesome than the 7-8mm we originally had to find a solution for. Mov'it is offering the replace the brakes at no extra cost with bigger ones which should have better clearance. It would take another five weeks to get these parts delivered however :( .

The wheels and the stock brake calipers on the rear axle have been repainted.

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Work on the rear bumper, diffuser and exhaust is still in progress.

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I've also bought a Voltphreaks 6lbs battery (back in July when they had a nice discount).

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Re: My Alpina Roadster S

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 2:26 pm
by Z4 Forum AMW
Wow - I love the diffuser (and the car to be fair!)

Re: My Alpina Roadster S

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 4:51 pm
by WLH
WOW...Very Nice... :thumbsup:

Re: My Alpina Roadster S

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 4:58 pm
by sp3ctre
FemmeT wrote: Image
f**k me, that's a big battery!!! ;)

Re: My Alpina Roadster S

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 6:38 pm
by gajah
"I've had the door handle LED mod done and the door panels were filled with sound dampening materials to enhance the "tinny" sound when closing the doors."

FemmeT, do you mind to give extra information about this?
I'd be very interested with this...

Re: My Alpina Roadster S

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 6:58 pm
by FemmeT
The DIY guide for the LED door handle mod is linked in this thread:

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1634

Once you have the door panels off it should be easy to put sound dampening in there (I haven't done the mod myself). There was a guide on z4um.com but I'm afraid the content is lost. I only have this picture:

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Re: My Alpina Roadster S

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 7:18 pm
by Curtis
I'm interested in finding out how you get on with the battery. I was thinking of getting a "Red Top" one to offset the extra weight of the M3 rear axle but I heard stories of them going flat quickly if you so much as listen to the radio without the engine running for 30 mins! Probably an exaduration but you understand my concern. I also heard that there were problems with the engine management light coming on in a CSL that was using one. Like I said, I look forward to hearing how you get on with it. Did you get a clamp with it or do you have to fabricate your own?

Re: My Alpina Roadster S

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 2:31 am
by GP20
Wow I can't wait to see the finished product. This car's gonna look amazing! :thumbsup:

Do you have plans to add the aero side skirts?

Re: My Alpina Roadster S

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 9:56 pm
by FemmeT
Curtis wrote:I'm interested in finding out how you get on with the battery.
The reports from the M5 people and other owners have been positive so far. If it works reliably and offers reasonable reserve capacity in a M5 it should work in a Z4 too.
GP20 wrote:Wow I can't wait to see the finished product. This car's gonna look amazing! :thumbsup:

Do you have plans to add the aero side skirts?
Thanks :) . Yes, I will add the aero side skirts too.