M5 "Makeover" (Photo Heavy!)

[Tifoso]

I purchased one of my dream cars, a euro-ized E28 M5, last fall. While the car was well maintained by its prior owners, as I enjoyed the car over the first couple of months, I kept a running list of all of the things I wanted corrected to bring the car to that "next level" - both mechanically and cosmetically. Thanks to Mario Langsten and his expert crew at VSR, the transformation is now complete! The car looks and drives like an absolute dream....

Here are some before and after photos.

BEFORE

Started with a nice euro look, H&R springs:



Lots of rock chips in the front valance, hood, and quarter panels:



Rear valance was a bit of a mess:




AFTER

Overall view - including new Fikse wheels, spax springs:



Hood, front quarter panels, and valance all expertly re-painted:



Rear valance completely stripped and re-finished, painted to match body color. I know it's not "stock," but it looks incredible, and really helps to "balance" the look of the car:







All business:





Interior shots, including Mtech II wheel, new audio system with Nakamichi head unit, euro cloth:









One last shot:

[S38Mike]

Looks sharp dude! I dig the Fikse's.

[Jelmer538i]

Very, vey nice and shiny! You guys are lucky with all those Swart E28s!

[gray635]

Isn't this Brooks Robinson's old car? Seem to recall the cloth interior in his car.

Looks very nice. Congrats on good job!

[rcbmw]

Isn't this Brooks Robinson's old car?

Yes, its 2875331.

Best,
RCBMW

[elcinco]

VERY NICE!

whats the specs on wheels/tires and suspension?

[Jeff B.]

The car looks great! I'm sure it drives as good as it looks.

Nice work on refreshing the M5.

[Kyle in NO]

What a fabulous M5! I really like what you have done.

[Tifoso]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone! I'm really thrilled with how she turned out.

This is indeed Brooks Robinson's former M5.

To answer the questions about suspension and wheel specs:

Suspension is Bilstein Sports with Spax springs, all worn bushings replaced, front and rear Mason strut bars.

Wheels are 17 x 8.5. Fikse spec'd an offset of ET13. Turns out that is too aggressive for a lowered car. Oops. Even with 225/45s, I was rubbing in the rear. Additional fender rolling did the trick, and there are no longer any rubbing issues, even with folks in the back seat. In retrospect, I could've gone with an 8" instead of 8.5" width, same offset, to save me some trouble.... But it's fun to push the envelope once in a while.

[5280 JB]

Dayum..........that looks great! You've taken an already great looking car and escalated it up to the next level.

Well done sir, well done.

Jim

[mooseheadm5]

Looks fantastic!

[Karl Grau]

I love it, good work!

[TurboChris]

Looking great! Get a new Radiator reservoir in that engine compartment tho, they're only like $35!

Edit: Whoops, they're more like $116.00 I was thinking of the Washer bottle.

[wkohler]

That's a beautiful car. Congrats.

[M. Holtmeier]

Wow, very nice.

[Mark in Toronto]

Heino is very impressed with the attention to detail. And the cloth seats are killer!

[Mab1957]

Very nice. Good to have you join this circus. Will we see you at PVGP or maybe O'Fest/5erFest?

[1st 5er]

Love me some cloth seats, beautiful car.

[Dinan e28]

Very nice indeed. The fisks and cloth seats make it more individual.

[1st 5er]

Looking great! Get a new Radiator reservoir in that engine compartment tho, they're only like $116.00!

FTFY

[Hilda]

Great work on a great ride,nothing like that black schwarz.

[Retro Rust]

Nice car man. Its examples like these that make me want to euro-ize mine.

[MicahO]

Beautiful! This car was in some ways inspirational for my own changes. I do love a Euro-ed car with cloth!

[Devinder]

great choice of wheels. just when you think you've seen all the combinations of wheels and trim ...

[mallex]

simply gorgeous, the M-tech 2 completes the look beautifully

[Tifoso]

I wanted to update this thread because Phase II of the M5 makeover is now complete. This update focused on engine performance and engine bay cosmetics. Modifications included:

- JB Racing lightweight flywheel
- Schrick 280 deg. intake cam and S38B36 exhaust cam
- Euro headers (ceramic coated)
- Carbon fiber airbox (approximates shape and location of stock box, but increases volume) and snorkel
- Miller "Powerfold" extended intake couplers
- MAXX Alpha N engine management
- Powdercoated valve cover (gloss black)
- Misc. engine maintenance and engine bay clean-up

My goal was to wake this engine up a bit and give it a nice intake bark. Mission accomplished -- this thing screams! And the sound of the carbon airbox at full throttle from 3,500 RPM on up is incredible (but it is very subtle when cruising).

I have to say that the every day driveability with the MAXX Alpha N system is beyond reproach. We are going to dyno tune shortly for more power and some fine tuning, but with some "real world" driving/tuning under our belt, the Alpha N has proven to really work amazingly well in all conditions. All work was done by Mario Langsten and his team at Vintage Sports and Restoration, so I can't provide any "how to's" sadly, but I can tell you that she now runs like a bat out of hell!

A few photos:

[Mark 88/M5 Houston]

Pretty and fast, I can't think of a better combination in a car!

[Karl Grau]

Can you give us any info on the carbon fiber intake setup?

[Tifoso]

Can you give us any info on the carbon fiber intake setup?

The carbon box and snorkel are made by Christian Opitz in Germany. His website is here:

http://www.vft-opitz.de/

Here's an ebay link for the box I purchased:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/BMW-M5-E28-Carbo ... 1005313994

The quality of the carbon work isn't top notch, but the price is fairly reasonable compared to other carbon boxes out there, and the box certainly functions well. He offers different inlet diameters based upon the application. Because I was doing Alpha N, he was able to provide a 120 mm inlet diameter.

The carbon setup offers an increase in volume over the stock box. No numbers could be provided, but the carbon box is considerably wider/deeper than the stock box. There is a much larger carbon box that is also offered (for an E34), but it seemed to require too much work to get it to fit in an E28 engine bay....

[tig]

I like.

Reading about http://www.maxx-automotive.de/ftp/alpha ... lus00e.pdf now.

[Tammer in Philly]

Car looks amazing. Great work. Hope you held onto the stock S38 parts.

I am trying hard, but I think the only gripe I can make is that I don't love the intake hose between the carbon fiber pieces. Is there an appropriately-sized silicone tube or something that could work and be a solid color (preferably black)?

Overall--stunning. By the way - in your first round of pics, I was thinking "such a nice and clean car but that old coolant bottle ..." Well, you fixed that and more!

[Tifoso]

Car looks amazing. Great work. Hope you held onto the stock S38 parts.

I am trying hard, but I think the only gripe I can make is that I don't love the intake hose between the carbon fiber pieces. Is there an appropriately-sized silicone tube or something that could work and be a solid color (preferably black)?

Overall--stunning. By the way - in your first round of pics, I was thinking "such a nice and clean car but that old coolant bottle ..." Well, you fixed that and more!

Thanks! Yes, absolutely, I have retained all of the stock S38 parts.

I hear you on the intake hose. The original hose that we found was red, which I was not happy with, so this one is a huge improvement! I agree that it would be ideal to have one that was all black, but I think it's difficult to find one with the right heat/rigidity specs in the proper 120 mm diameter.... I will definitely keep my eyes peeled, though.

[m-racer]

Excellent work. I used Alpha N on my former (TiminNF's) stroker M30because I had good experiences with the system on E30 M3s. Your is the only S38 with that engine management that I have read about. How is it working for you - what type of performance change did you see? I assume you used closed loop. Look forward to reading more.

[HealeyBN7]

With the new air box and snorkel are you still running an air filter? I just can't figure out where is would be given the headlights are just about inline with the radiator cross brace.

[tn535i]

I like almost everything and I won't say what I don't because it's personal preference but agree with that hose and where is the AF now ?

You might try some of those plastic straps with the snap together grips if they come big enough. The would look cleaner and are easy to reuse and it's not like you need an absolute seal there. I'm thinking the 120mm is probably going to limit your choices though and 100mm (4") would have probably been plenty big and give more options for hose and clamps. A nice aluminum transition on each would look good and could be glued on the CF boxes.

Where did you get the coated headers? Nice. What about the rest of the exhaust or did I miss the description?

Great work, wish I had the time to spend on a project like this. Maybe in retirement. Hah.

[HealeyBN7]

I do like it. The location of the MAF sensor is also interesting. I am using Dan Millers 4" MAF and I considered restricting the ID to 3.5 or smaller to pick up a more definitive signal at idle to 3k. I know that would be a trade off at 7k.

I probably won't do it as I have it dialed in well enough to pull cleanly to redline and still pass smog, but I must be missing something in my analysis of you are able to get excellent drivability with a Panamal canal sized ID. It must be the better ECU that allows the soft are signal?

As another data point, I have wonderful traceability on my Lotus with no MAF and a well tuned OMeX system.

Enough rambling. Nice work!

[Das_Prachtstrasse]

I do like it. The location of the MAF sensor is also interesting. I am using Dan Millers 4" MAF and I considered restricting the ID to 3.5 or smaller to pick up a more definitive signal at idle to 3k. I know that would be a trade off at 7k

What MAF sensor?

Nice to see someone getting good streetable results from Alpha-N tuning. I've been contemplating this path on my ITB'd M30 to avoid an airbox all together and am beginning to lean towards it more now I've seen this.

[HealeyBN7]

What MAF sensor?

I didn't realize the Alpha-N system didn't use a MAF. I should have done some homework before commenting... Always a good rule.

I guess that's a temp sensor I mistook for a MAF. And I should have noticed the TPS was changed. Probably to get a linear signal.

Nice set up.

Dean

[Tifoso]

We're planning to dyno tune shortly, so we should have some numbers to test my seat-of-pants observations which are: quicker throttle response, slight reduction in low end torque, and a solid wave of more power from 4,000 RPM on up. Driveability (including stop and go, part throttle inputs, coasting, idle quality) all remain excellent.

Someone asked about exhaust specs -- the euro headers are mated to a VSR center section and a B&B muffler. I like the exhaust sound -- I was worried it would be too loud when I added the headers, but not at all the case. A nice bellow when you get on it, fairly quiet at cruise, and no droning whatsoever....

In terms of filtration, we had to improvise -- VSR used some filter foam to fabricate a panel filter that sits just in front of the airbox, with a bracket system that allows fairly easy removal for cleaning or replacement. I will post a photo.

Carmine

[austin_caccavo]

Does it get more perfect than this? I am beyond jealous!!

[tn535i]

So I gotta say after spending my career in filtration I don't like foam filters. They don't perform well and if you get the efficiency up at all they have way too much restriction because the area is tiny by comparison to pleated paper. That is by far the better way to go and the stock M5/6 filter is good design for air.

Keep that machine on clean roads in fair weather, you don't want to get it dirty anyway.

[dan101smith]

I like this a lot. Certainly neater than my effort:

[Tifoso]

So I gotta say after spending my career in filtration I don't like foam filters. They don't perform well and if you get the efficiency up at all they have way too much restriction because the area is tiny by comparison to pleated paper. That is by far the better way to go and the stock M5/6 filter is good design for air.

Keep that machine on clean roads in fair weather, you don't want to get it dirty anyway.

While some may disapprove, I never drive this car in the rain or on any dusty/dirt roads - she's a real princess!

[Tifoso]

I like this a lot. Certainly neater than my effort

Totally badass! That's the other (larger) box that I considered.... Performance must be amazing.

[CBREEZ]

True inspiration for a fellow M5 owner, and best of all rather local! I love it!!!

[CarNut68]

Maybe I missed it but what is the exhaust system? Very nice looking.

[leadphut]

i don't share many colored, bea gifs, but this car is worth it.

[Tifoso]

Maybe I missed it but what is the exhaust system? Very nice looking.

Exhaust details are buried in one of my responses above: " the euro headers are mated to a VSR center section and a B&B muffler. I like the exhaust sound -- I was worried it would be too loud when I added the headers, but not at all the case. A nice bellow when you get on it, fairly quiet at cruise, and no droning whatsoever...."

[Tifoso]

A quick update: the car has been running great overall with the Alpha N tune. The only issues I've been experiencing are some occasional stumbling/stalling at low RPM. VSR did a dyno tuning session yesterday, and it seems much better. Still not always perfect coming off idle, but there is more fine tuning to do. The car dyno'd at 272 hp at the rear wheels (at 6300) and 246 lb ft of torque (at 5400). With an 18% to 20% drivetrain loss assumption, that's around 330 crank hp. I can post the dyno sheet, but not sure how to post a PDF on here....

[Tifoso]

FYI, I have posted my Fikse wheels for sale in the classifieds, in case anyone is interested:

http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=146141