Manifold

No, I didn't sell the GT3. I still think it's a fantastic car, and my weapon of choice for the track.

But I did just pick up a 2010 M3 convertible, and I LOVE the car for the road. In fact, it's now my favorite car for the road, beating our GT3, GT4, Cayman R, 997 C2S, and C63 AMG. Why?

- The engine is amazing. 4.0-liter NA V8 which revs to 8300! Reminds me of the GT3 engine in its response, and sounds amazing (throatier than the GT3).
- The double-clutch seems just as good as the PDK, and does really satisfying blips on the downshifts. Can be set for 6 levels of aggressiveness.
- The car is fast - more than fast enough to feel fast on the road.
- Hydraulic steering feel is excellent. Very precise and alive. The handling of the car isn't at Porsche level, but it's damn good for a sedanish car.
- Seats are great, comfy and they hold you in place well.
- It's a convertible! Yes, that adds about 500 lbs - which is a lot - but it's not that noticeable for road driving.

Overall, the car strikes me as a blend of the GT3 and C63 characteristics, with the bonus of being a convertible.

In this inflated used car market, I paid $40K for the car with 27K miles on it, clean history, great condition. Considering how good and fun this car is, I think that's a bargain, and I think this classic car will only increase in value in the future. A car like this will never be made again.

ParadiseGT3

Congrats! Love the initial impressions, you’re spot on. Well, aside from the 8400 rpm redline (!).

Come from BMWs, most recently 2 x E90 M3s. First was a 6MT, then a DCT. Covered over 100k miles and did just about everything that the automotive world has to offer in them.

For a while I owned the DCT alongside my 6MT GT3. That could have been a permanent garage. Remarkable how much of the GT3 engine experience the S65 delivers, and yes, that generation BMW DCT is perfectly synced to the engine.

Ran a full Akrapovic on my DCT, but intake is the car’s highlight. Add a performance intake filter for even more grins (easy and inexpensive DIY), or this system is next level https://www.eventuri.net/products/bmw-e92-e90-e93-m3/

Could go on and on… Anyways, peak BMW M and truly a special car in any garage. Enjoy!

AMJ0000

I had an E90 M3 that was a 6spd that I tracked heavily after modifications to the suspension, braking, etc ... loved that car and then I had a E92 M3 DCT that I supercharged. Would love to find a mint E90 M3 DCT to daily one day. Enjoy!

Manifold

LOL, I've heard numbers ranging from 8000 to 8500. And speaking of redline, pretty cool that it has shift lights. Funny how bad the gas mileage is, you can almost see the gas needle move.

I've actually thought about getting an E9X M3 for more than 10 years, and had test driven a few of them over the years. Problem was that I had a 2-car garage until a few years ago (now 8/9 car garage) and I've been mostly on a Porsche and track kick for the past decade. Almost traded my C63 for a E92 Lime Rock a decade ago, but just couldn't do it, C63 was/is too good and had its own unique appeal (6.2-liter NA V8!). But now I'm getting older and tracking less, so interested more in various cars I can enjoy on the road (IMO, post-997 Porsche GT cars are just too fast and capable for fun road use). I wasn't actively looking for an M3 at this time, but my wife happened to walk through the BMW showroom a few days ago, saw the car and took a photo, and next day I test drove it and bought it - got pretty lucky to find a nice example meeting my requirements (convertible, low miles, great condition, clean history, not leased, DCT, decent exterior/interior color).

BLKMamba

awesome pick up! That s65 cross plane v8 just screams to redline. An aftermarket exhaust or even going straight pipe would sound quite intoxicating while having the top down.

Had a 6spd E90 M3 slicktop and it was one of the best M cars i've owned. Sold it for an M3 cs and then sold that for an M2 cs. Those E9x M cars along with the E46 will always have special place in my heart. Only if i can have more garage space, every single generation M cars would've been parked next to each other. lol

btw - don't get too caught up with that rod bearing stuff

Bxstr

Very cool - enjoy it! I got a ride in my friends E92 M3 and it had quite an amazing sound.

Fang911

8 or 9 car garage? Left to my own devices, I would sacrifice the kid's rooms and the entire backyard to build out that kind of garage space but the wife can be so unreasonable.

Love the E9X M3 DCT- what a great overall package- congrats! Hope to eventually add one (or an E36 manual) to the stable

Manifold

We got lucky to find a medium-sized house with an attached big garage. The previous owner was a family of three and a car dealer who was a car collector (had 13 cars, using lifts). It started as a smallish house with a small garage (on 8 acres of land), and the owner expanded the house and garage as the $$ rolled in from the car dealership. His new house is on 50 acres and his garage can hold almost 20 cars with lifts.

Drifting

Sounds like a fun car. Hope it lasts.
I’ve heard that early generation of DCT in the M3 are not very reliable.

Manifold

I researched it. Overall for the car, rod bearing replacement is about $3K and needed as a preventive action as the engine gets into tens of thousands of miles. Otherwise, the other things that may eventually need fixing aren't overly expensive. I haven't heard about prevalent issues with the DCT.

Now compare that with my 991 GT3, which is on its third engine (under warranty), with the second engine failing after only 8K miles, with not many of those being track miles. And my PDK failed last year, out of of warranty, with Porsche not selling replacement parts, so I had to spend $19K to replace it.

Fang911

Gulp, $19K for the PDK? Lordy...did your dealership / Porsche USA subsidize the transmission- ie provide it at cost?

Manifold

Nope, no discount at all. The transmission failure resulted in damage to the flywheel, which my mechanic had never seen before.

pitt911

E90/E92 are fairly reliable
an E92 2008 was my first sporty car .... only kept it for one year as I switch cars around frequency , and never had problem with it
my son just bought a E92 2013 with 62k miles and still drives very well and the DCT still shifts crisp

jordanw

The E9X generation was my favorite M3. I owned an F80 and now have a w205 C63S. I was hoping the move from F80 to AMG would give me that fix I was looking for. It definitely didn’t and I still plan on owning an E92 at some point. **** I think I prefer the buckets in my RS to the sport seats in the AMG. Those seats kill the driving experience for me, whereas the seats in the E9X M3 are great. The exhaust note also has a very exotic sound to it.

Congrats OP!

Larry Cable

Porsche has *always* "repaired" PDK failures with a complete PDK replacement/swap, the "broken" units are returned to their OEM AFAIK