2000 BMW M Coupe. A clown shoe for pimpm3

So I went and bought a 2000 BMW M coupe.  I have always wanted one and I thought it would be a good choice to fill some gaps in my stable.

I wanted something that I could take on a date night with the wife on friday and autocross on Sunday.  Something that would be equally at home at a cars and coffee event or on track with the PCA.

I was initially looking at 987 Caymans but the oil starvation issues coupled with the high cost of a replacement engine made them less than appealing.  A 987.2 would solve the problems but the corresponding high purchase price made them less of an option

I am pretty familiar with the e36 chassis m3's having owned several over the years and I am versed in their positives as well as their faults. 

I have always liked the z3 based coupes and figured one could work for what I was looking for.  I liked the s52 engine and appreciate that they are pretty stout when properly cared for.  I also thought an m coupe would make a decent investment.  I will probably not make money on this deal but I probably won't lose a ton either.

I found a blue one on bringatrailer and bid on it.  Fortunately I was outbid at the same time the one I ultimately bought was listed on www.mcoupebuyersguide.com.  I contacted the owner and sent him a $1,000.00 deposit.  A week later I drove up to Tennessee and picked up the car.

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/a-fly-and-drive-i-mean-drive-and-drive-adventure-t/172158/page1/

I plan to document the build with this thread as I fix a few issues and do some routine maintenance.  Once I have the car sorted I will upgrade a few things to get the car where it needs to be in order to be reliable on track etc...

NIce, love those things. Hardly ever see them any more, even here in the DC area where BMWs are like Camrys...

Wish they were less rare, I'd love to do one as a rally car (though, there is a non-M z3 coupe that rallies here on the east coats). 

Sweet

Those are super cool cars! Hard to find too 

i have always liked these.   Test drove a non-m coupe years ago before landing in the ZHP. 

how are you going to fit in it (esp with a helmet on)?
 

Oh my God - this is soooo cool. I was a teenager when these first came out and I thought they were so exotic and fast.

Go_Gators said:

i have always liked these.   Test drove a non-m coupe years ago before landing in the ZHP. 

how are you going to fit in it (esp with a helmet on)?
 

I fit fine without a helmet.  Allegedly some foam can be removed from behind the seat which helps for tall folks.  I was going to do it Saturday  but got distracted selling two golf carts.

Oooo I bet these are as epic to drive as everyone says. Nice score

You've got my attention.  I never got very good at autocrossing my M Coupe, but Brian Hair did pretty well with one in the WDC SCCA region.  It just wants the driver to be more aggressive than I was willing at the time, and loves to snap oversteer in stock form.

A new set of tires, (probably rtk615's), tc Kline coilovers and sway bars are in its future, once I catch up all the maintenance.

You know that the non M one is even more rare right?

(Somebody had to do it) 

Excellent score, one of the best chassis I've ever had the pleasure of driving. Amazing road feel, response and engagement. 

JoeTR6 (Forum Supporter) said:

You've got my attention.  I never got very good at autocrossing my M Coupe, but Brian Hair did pretty well with one in the WDC SCCA region.  It just wants the driver to be more aggressive than I was willing at the time, and loves to snap oversteer in stock form.

They definitely like slip angle but I never found my M roadster to be particularly snappy even with ~30% more power than stock. Being fast in it more or less required carrying about 5-10 degrees of slip angle through the entire course, but over the I think four or five events I did in mine, I never spun it and really only ever had one "oooh, this is about to spin" moment.

The only thing I have to compare tires to is the s.drives that came on the car, but I really liked the rt615k+s (225 and 255/17s). They seemed to fit the car's driving style well, had decent street manners and were only the tiniest bit sketchy in the rain. I went with ST coilovers and kinda regretted my choice. The front was decent aside from their packaging of the spring requiring 15mm spacers just to make stock width tires fit. The rear was under sprung and under damped (to be fair the suspension design makes it hard to get a reasonable amount of spring rate). I swapped to bilstein sport dampers and added some better bump stops which helped, but it really just needed stiffer springs. I'd probably ask TCK what the stiffest spring their konis can reasonably support is and run with that, even if it's primarily a street car.

In reply to dps214 :

From my research the TC Klines seem to be the go to set up for these cars.

JoeTR6 (Forum Supporter) said:

You've got my attention.  I never got very good at autocrossing my M Coupe, but Brian Hair did pretty well with one in the WDC SCCA region.  It just wants the driver to be more aggressive than I was willing at the time, and loves to snap oversteer in stock form.

I remember that thing. What ever happened to it? My recollection is that it was supercharged or something at some point. 

irish44j (Forum Supporter) said:

JoeTR6 (Forum Supporter) said:

You've got my attention.  I never got very good at autocrossing my M Coupe, but Brian Hair did pretty well with one in the WDC SCCA region.  It just wants the driver to be more aggressive than I was willing at the time, and loves to snap oversteer in stock form.

I remember that thing. What ever happened to it? My recollection is that it was supercharged or something at some point. 

I'd have to guess that was his dad Woody's car?  Could have been Neil Simon's car, and I dunno if Neil hung on to it before switching over to the 1M.

The first (and perhaps only) BMW I've ever really wanted.

dps214 said:

JoeTR6 (Forum Supporter) said:

You've got my attention.  I never got very good at autocrossing my M Coupe, but Brian Hair did pretty well with one in the WDC SCCA region.  It just wants the driver to be more aggressive than I was willing at the time, and loves to snap oversteer in stock form.

They definitely like slip angle but I never found my M roadster to be particularly snappy even with ~30% more power than stock. Being fast in it more or less required carrying about 5-10 degrees of slip angle through the entire course, but over the I think four or five events I did in mine, I never spun it and really only ever had one "oooh, this is about to spin" moment.

It was probably my lack of experience at the time.  I wasn't as comfortable with higher slip angles then and probably tried to adjust with a "slight" throttle lift that was closer to panic.  It was one of the most fun cars I've driven.  Looking forward to what happens with this one.

awesome car!  Love these as well.  Congrats!

Got a chance to play with the car some today.  I figured before I could start catching it up on maintenance I would clean it up a little.  Started under the hood.

A little degreaser and some elbow grease.

Then I washed the outside.  I really need to clay bar the car and give it a proper polish.

There are a few small dents that need PDR, but overall I am happy with the paint.  I will be getting both bumpers and the rear spoiler painted in the near future.

After I finished up I pulled the car into the garage so I can start with the maintenance stuff I ordered.

What color is it? I can't quite tell from the photos. Looks great regardless!
 

It is cosmos black.

In order to catch the car up on maintenance I ordered a long list of parts.

Given it's a 2000 vintage BMW I started with the cooling system.

I ordered a Mishimoto aluminum radiator, a metal impeller water pump, new hoses, a new thermostat and housing, new expansion tank, and a new fan and fan clutch.  I also ordered a new valve cover gasket and a set of NGK plugs.

I ordered a new oil filter, and a transmission fluid change kit from FCP Euro.

I of course ordered a Bentley manual for the car and a set of trunk struts, since the ones in the car suck when its cold out.  I also ordered an extended wheel stud kit because I hate lug bolts...

I  picked up a set of magnetic protectors for the rear fender flares.  The car has a spectre air filter which I have no faith in.  I grabbed a proper K&N while I was at autozone picking up some oil for the car. 

All in I spend roughly $1,000.00.  I figured it was a good idea to start out with all the maintenance caught up especially since this is a car I can see myself holding on to.

Hopefully I can start installing stuff Saturday 

Looks like you've covered the maintenance on the drivetrain side of things pretty well. I didn't see in your other posts, but how many miles on this beauty? I'd definitely check over the suspension and see if you have any excessive bushing wear. Chances are on a car of this age the subframe bushings have never been touched and are probably past it, same goes for the differential bushings.

I really like the clownshoe and I think the S52 cars are the ones to have if you're interested in driving. Obviously the S54 is a lovely engine, but there's a lot less to worry about on the stroker M52. The rarity of the later cars would also give me pause in racking up too many miles. That's my roundabout way of saying great choice on your latest purchase. I don't see how you won't have an excellent time with it.

Car has 150k miles.

I want to get it on the lift before I start ordering suspension parts.  It had a randy forbes kit installed at 100k miles so I imagine the subframe bushings are 50k miles old.  Same goes for the differential bushings.  It has an e36 two ear diff as well which is nice.

DIbs on this one when you decide to replace it!