Building a BMW 335i for the SEMA Show: Making the Ultimate Driving Machine Better!
On this episode of The Downshift
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00:00 So Bill Stein has been around for over 50 years.
00:06 We've actively been racing for over 50 years as well.
00:09 Basically Bill Stein wanted to give back to our customers.
00:11 We wanted to present one lucky person with a very high end tuner car.
00:17 We're going to raffle it off.
00:18 Anybody has a chance to win it.
00:20 It's got all high end parts.
00:22 It's being tuned by GSR Auto.
00:23 I think whoever wins this car is going to be very happy with it.
00:26 Bill Stein came to us and said, "What could you do with a street car, but not take it
00:31 too far?"
00:32 Going through and trying to figure out how well you can get a car to handle and to perform
00:38 without going down that slippery slope into the race car zone or the serious track day
00:43 zone, is a delicate balance because it's always compromised.
00:45 So it's a 2011 335i that we've got a large list of parts going into it.
00:51 It's going to be pretty impressive with the added power, with all these suspension modifications.
00:54 It's going to be comfortable, but it's also going to perform really well.
00:59 It's the car you can drive every day and take out to the track on the weekends and have
01:03 a lot of fun with it.
01:09 At GSR Auto Sport, we focus on German cars, mostly BMW, Porsche, and Mercedes.
01:14 We do everything from general service, maintenance, in-house fabrication.
01:19 We do suspension setups and corner balancing alignments, all the way up to full race car
01:24 builds.
01:25 GSR has a great name.
01:27 We actually partnered with them in Formula D. We're sponsoring Michael Essa and his E46
01:32 at the moment.
01:33 So it was just kind of a natural fit for us.
01:36 They do good work.
01:37 They know our product, and they can deliver us a very good car.
01:42 So I guess the fun part and the challenge of this car was really trying to take it as
01:46 far as we possibly could.
01:48 We wanted some performance, some horsepower.
01:50 We wanted it to handle awesome, because this is a Bilstein car.
01:54 And then we have to add some aesthetic, too.
01:55 But we didn't want to go too overboard.
01:58 Right now, we're about four days into the build.
02:00 I don't know if I got a full hour of sleep last night.
02:09 Since the in-deep cooler is much larger, thicker, and wider than the stock one, it'll turn out
02:14 to be a lot more efficient at cooling the compressed air.
02:19 You have to trim the bottom part of the shroud away to make room for the larger aftermarket
02:25 Evolution Racing intercooler.
02:27 There you go.
02:30 Right now, I'm pulling out the stock brake line for the caliper, because we've got to
02:47 replace the calipers and bigger brakes better.
02:50 I'm installing the Brembo big brake kit.
02:54 Much larger diameter.
02:55 The new calipers are big, solid six-piston.
03:00 Much better.
03:01 Much better feel.
03:02 Much better braking force.
03:04 And also, they can absorb a lot more heat, so you don't experience any brake fade.
03:12 We went through and replaced a lot of the stock 335 stuff with the M components.
03:16 That gives us a jump forward.
03:23 And then we targeted some of the core components that we felt needed to take the next level
03:28 up.
03:29 There's some track components.
03:30 The sway bars are probably a little bit more aggressive.
03:32 And then some of our own parts.
03:34 And then, of course, the Bilstein suspension.
03:36 To set the ride height of the vehicle, you just loosen these lock rings here, and you
03:41 have a full range of adjustability here, up to about three and a half inches.
03:46 The new suspension that we have is called the Bilstein IRC.
03:49 It's a fully adaptive suspension.
03:51 You can tune it from your iPhone or Android phone.
03:55 It adapts to every kind of situation.
03:57 It's very cutting-edge technology, and we're very happy to be debuting it at SEMA.
04:15 We're nearing completion.
04:19 Maybe another two days, then we'll take it out to the track and see how the car performs.
04:32 I've been obsessed with cars since I was 15 and first got a car.
04:38 So before that, I wanted to be a pilot.
04:40 And as soon as I got a car, everything kind of changed focus.
04:44 It's just amazing to be able to build something and be able to take it out to the track and
04:49 push it to the limit.
04:50 Like most car nuts, I've been into cars since high school.
04:53 I got the bug for handling cars, good handling cars, with a '72 Datsun 510 in high school.
05:00 So that's where I really learned to appreciate setting up cars to drive fast.
05:06 I've always been curious about cars and always thought about cars and can't stop thinking
05:10 about cars, to be honest with you.
05:14 That's the problem.
05:15 So with this Bilstein IRC active suspension, you can actually adjust the sensitivity that
05:28 the car feels so that the suspension can adjust in real time to what exactly you're actually
05:34 experiencing in the car.
05:36 The lateral and diagonal assist can be modified as well as assist time.
05:41 Got it.
05:42 So you just mount your phone like in a little holder in the car and it uses the phone as
05:46 the G-load sensor and that sends a signal to the Bilstein computer?
05:51 There's actually a sensor in the Bilstein computer as well as the phone.
05:56 Okay, cool.
05:57 So it uses both of them to get an accurate reading.
05:59 Correct.
06:00 That's really cool.
06:01 I think the car came out great.
06:03 I mean, the whole package.
06:06 The Bilstein suspension works really well on the track, but it also can be switched
06:10 on to street mode and comfort mode.
06:14 So out here on the track, this isn't a track car.
06:18 This is a car that you can go to the track with, drive every day, and I think it came
06:22 out great.
06:23 I think the winner of this car is going to be really happy with the way it came out.
06:27 Thanks for watching.
06:48 (upbeat music)
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