How to spend a lot of money upgrading your E89 (what can you spend it on)

B21

B21

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Toting up that I've got over 100 mods / upgrades to the AY 35is.

I decided to tot up the costs of doing the various mods to my two AY E89s!

Working my way through what was the 35is.

I'm not suggesting anyone follows / repeats this.

But it's interesting to note how the costs can mount up, especially if you have to pay someone else to do this work.

For clarity this is the 'straight line' or direct mod cost..in some cases there were a lot of other costs.

Smaller front BBK
Previous set of turbos
Various re-maps


I've not finished documenting it yet but you get the jist!

I'll do my 20i MSport next..that wasn't as extravagant!


If anyone wants the excel spreadsheet with the links pls ask!
 

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For expediency I've done a rough update to get some totals ..£32k excluding most labour.

Obviously and awful lot of labour was moi..

Ignoring external labour on re-works, revisits etc which I guess is around £5k I'd say I spent about £7.5k on 'direct to' labour..

So that's £40k not including reworks, repairs etc!
 

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B21 said:
For expediency I've done a rough update to get some totals ..£32k excluding most labour.
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Three years ago I would have said you were absolutely mental with more money than sense......then I bought a Z3 and a lot of GRP.

My 'mods' spend is more than yours and the engine/ drivetrain hasn't been touched! And to cap it all it actually drives worse than it did before. :rofl:
 
That's some chunk of money, Peter! There's no price on happiness 😊
 
ARCS said:
That's some chunk of money, Peter! There's no price on happiness 😊
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Can’t take it with you..less than a hi-fi upgrade on some cars..

Compared to my time running a fleet of aircraft pin money ..

Post expenditure rationalisation!-:)
 
Pondy said:
My 'mods' spend is more than yours and the engine/ drivetrain hasn't been touched! And to cap it all it actually drives worse than it did before. :rofl:
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This is so true.

The best way to start to spend your money to improve your driving experience is with some professional coaching on a race track. Over 20 years ago I had a full day race coaching and car suspension setup/adjustment on my MX5 Race car at Snetterton with Simon Mason...and it was the best money I ever spent. I advanced from back of the grid to mid field with just 1 days tuition !


simonmason.com

Simon Mason / Home

Simon Mason is motorsport professional with vast experience in the sport.
simonmason.com simonmason.com
 
Very interesting to see the parts and costs!

The N54 is always heralded as an easily tuneable engine, but it's cost about £9k to get to 550bhp? More than I would have expected.

£40k is a lot of money, but having something you've created yourself always feels more special than something off the shelf.
 
tiglon said:
£40k is a lot of money, but having something you've created yourself always feels more special than something off the shelf.
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Having just spent £40k (yes it was a very expensive project) on a £6k Z3 to make it 'special' I sort of agree...but.....
After completely taking a standard production car to pieces and re-building it into something different, at great expense and hundreds of hours of blood, sweat and tears (a lot of tears), I have come to the conclusion that production cars weren't designed to be 'modified'. So they fight you. The end result is 'different', yes, but is it better? Subjective.
My car now squeaks and creaks, drives worse than it did before and is less comfortable. There is also ALWAYS something to do, as a modified car is never completely finished. And if it ever is, something will go wrong constantly which needs fixing or changing. I understand that for Peter, and many, that is part of the fun. It's a hobby.....it can become a very expensive hobby, though.

What I have done is completely different to Peter, and for very different reasons, but spending lots of money doesn't necessarily make a car 'better', just different.
 
tiglon said:
Very interesting to see the parts and costs!

The N54 is always heralded as an easily tuneable engine, but it's cost about £9k to get to 550bhp? More than I would have expected.

£40k is a lot of money, but having something you've created yourself always feels more special than something off the shelf.
Click to expand...
There's ALWAYS a trade off cost vs 'performance' improvement and almost always its non linear..ie 80/20 ..20% spend gets you 80% of the improvement..

You can go from a stock 305/335 to 400 ish for the cost of a MHD OTS tune. ON UK fuels.

After that it goes up..past 550bhp crank then you can add another £15k-£20k for a built motor..
 
Pondy said:
Having just spent £40k (yes it was a very expensive project) on a £6k Z3 to make it 'special' I sort of agree...but.....
After completely taking a standard production car to pieces and re-building it into something different, at great expense and hundreds of hours of blood, sweat and tears (a lot of tears), I have come to the conclusion that production cars weren't designed to be 'modified'. So they fight you. The end result is 'different', yes, but is it better? Subjective.
My car now squeaks and creaks, drives worse than it did before and is less comfortable. There is also ALWAYS something to do, as a modified car is never completely finished. And if it ever is, something will go wrong constantly which needs fixing or changing. I understand that for Peter, and many, that is part of the fun. It's a hobby.....it can become a very expensive hobby, though.

What I have done is completely different to Peter, and for very different reasons, but spending lots of money doesn't necessarily make a car 'better', just different.
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Oh definitely not always objectively better, but usually subjectively more special. Unless you've cocked it up!
 
B21 said:
There's ALWAYS a trade off cost vs 'performance' improvement and almost always its non linear..ie 80/20 ..20% spend gets you 80% of the improvement..

You can go from a stock 305/335 to 400 ish for the cost of a MHD OTS tune. ON UK fuels.

After that it goes up..past 550bhp crank then you can add another £15k-£20k for a built motor..
Click to expand...
Absolutely, that's why I stopped after the MHD map on my 35is, despite much time looking into options and making plans.

Same with my Yeti, the remap gets from 170 to 210, then you start thinking how cool it would be to have 300 in a Yeti but you've got a shopping list of £4k+.

I did succumb a little on the A6 allroad, a £1k remap to take it from 310 to 420-450bhp turned into £3k just to get it to 494. Objectively it's poor value for money, which is why I didn't tell the other half, but I'm so glad I did it.
 
tiglon said:
Absolutely, that's why I stopped after the MHD map on my 35is, despite much time looking into options and making plans.

Same with my Yeti, the remap gets from 170 to 210, then you start thinking how cool it would be to have 300 in a Yeti but you've got a shopping list of £4k+.

I did succumb a little on the A6 allroad, a £1k remap to take it from 310 to 420-450bhp turned into £3k just to get it to 494. Objectively it's poor value for money, which is why I didn't tell the other half, but I'm so glad I did it.
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Yup strange how we rationalise these things..I tell everyone 400 bhp on an E89 is more than anyone needs..then I take 4 cars in row on the NC500 with all that boost!-:)
 
B21 said:
Yup strange how we rationalise these things..I tell everyone 400 bhp on an E89 is more than anyone needs..then I take 4 cars in row on the NC500 with all that boost!-:)
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"Need" and "want" are very different things!
 
  • Haha
Reactions: B21
Pondy said:
You should have gone for the two days tuition! :poke: :rofl:
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LOL, maybe you are right, but I would not have gained any more knowledge. As the mentor saying goes ...I taught him everything he knows..but not every thing that I know :)

The good thing was that I was in 'Simons' camp that racing season , and he helped/advised me during the whole racing season...and the experience/info that I learnt in that year of Championship racing was priceless :)
 
Pondy said:
Having just spent £40k (yes it was a very expensive project) on a £6k Z3 to make it 'special' I sort of agree...but.....
After completely taking a standard production car to pieces and re-building it into something different, at great expense and hundreds of hours of blood, sweat and tears (a lot of tears), I have come to the conclusion that production cars weren't designed to be 'modified'. So they fight you. The end result is 'different', yes, but is it better? Subjective.
My car now squeaks and creaks, drives worse than it did before and is less comfortable. There is also ALWAYS something to do, as a modified car is never completely finished. And if it ever is, something will go wrong constantly which needs fixing or changing. I understand that for Peter, and many, that is part of the fun. It's a hobby.....it can become a very expensive hobby, though.

What I have done is completely different to Peter, and for very different reasons, but spending lots of money doesn't necessarily make a car 'better', just different.
Click to expand...
Great job you've done/ are doing on the car, as for how it now handles etc, it maybe no Z3 any longer but does it drive better than the car it was designed to replicate?
 
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