BaileyII

I bought a 15 BMW F82 ///M4 the other night. I now need to sell my 135i. So here is my question. I bought Bilstein B16 Damptronics for my 911 but now I am thinking that I would rather sell them than install them & use the money for an exhaust or other mod for the ///M4. My 911 is on H&R springs currently & looks good to me. If it was you would you continue saving for the install or sell the Bilstein’s & put a mod on the ///M4?

I am going to put my 135i in the marketplace If any is interested. I live in the Raleigh area.

edit: the picture of the opened box of Bilstein’s is not mine. I used it from the internet. Mine are still wrapped in plastic.

thank you,
b

jamesinger

I like to drive a car for a minimum of 6 months but ideally at least a year before modding it. That is how all my best mod decisions have been made.
I know doing an Akrapovic exhaust on an M4 is kind of a no brainer but the ///M exhaust is either the same thing or as good after seeing both and I prefer the sound of the ///M exhaust although the car I heard with the Akrapovic did not have a cat.
I think the F80 is pretty formulaic to make OEM+ amazing.
///M carbon bits and exhaust.
BBS Fi-Rs.
KW or similar coilovers.
I would be done with that car at that point...

Hella-Buggin'

Why did you buy the Bilseins? Were you unhappy with the 911 ride? if so, that won't change just because your new car sounds better.

Fined

I have an M2 daily driver. I had a thought to start adding mods to it also. However I would have more fun by improving the more focused 911 and take it easy on the M2 mods. I'll still do a high flow cat to get some more sound, but I plan to strongly limit the mods on the M as for a daily the stock setup for pretty much everything is fairly dialed in. Splitting the mod budget up among the two cars will keep me upgrading the 911 more slowly and I wouldn't prefer that.

BaileyII

Hella-Buggin'

My car drives & feels great. I wanted the coil overs to compliment the DSC. I need to save to have them installed. In the meantime I bought the ///M4. I was just thinking that I could sell the Bilstein’s and use the money for exhaust,downpipes or intake or tune.

Presto

Coilovers any day over lowering springs if you love driving on fun roads and care more about handling than looks. If you only want the stance, do springs and sell the coils.

Petza914

I think after 6 months the newness and excitement of the BMW will have worn off and you would have preferred to keep and install the Damptronics as the 911 is a special lifer car and most others aren't. I'd stay the course on the 997 at least for the time being.

If you had the funds to buy a different complete car, why do you not have the funds to finish the 997 suspension project? Maybe different fund accounts.

Vethen

Hello, having experience with both 997s and modern bmw ///M cars, I feel like I can give my opinion on the subject.

My 997 is on stock PASM suspension and is one of the best handling cars I’ve ever driven. I do not track and have zero desire to mod it. I have had an M2 and the MPE was my single most favorite thing about the car. Mind you, the M2 made significantly more burbles than a base M4, while the M4CS makes quite a bit more burbles. BMW’s performance exhaust is only a valued system, no engine management tune to force more noise. My money would be on getting the MPE for the M4. The Porsche is perfect from factory. The BMW is not and needs more sound. I personally do like to keep my cars “OEM” so I would choose the MPE system over other aftermarket options. It sounds like an M4, just louder.

hexagone

I spent many hours researching OE PASM+DSC vs. B16+DSC.

Most people seem to agree that B16+DSC loses most of the comfort gained from the DSC box where the button barely makes a change (it's night and day on the stock PASM suspension). I actually went away from my H&R coilovers back to PASM shocks so I can have a more supple ride.

Food for thought.

997gr8

The M cars are awesome machines, fabulous engineering and highly desirable.

A 911 is a 911 - the architecture, the flat six, the singularity of purpose and the many generations of iterative improvement to a consistent formula.

Whenever I drive them back to back, this always becomes patently clear.

Yes, when I drive an M car in isolation, I do think “wow, this is as good as, or better than my 911”.

Drive them back to back, on a twisty country road, and there’s just no comparison.

BaileyII

I really want to put something on the ///M4. I’m going to put them up for sale in the market place.


thank you everyone.

jamesinger

It is interesting that you say this. I did this with a friend. back to back to back to back on the same day, a few times over. His F80 ZCP is so much faster and stops so much (barf level) better with the CCB BUT my C2S has some kind of intangible feel to it that makes the M3 feel like a souped up sedan by comparison. My car was 100% stock at the time too. His M3 had the best of the best parts on it, including KW clubsport coilovers set up specifically for canyon driving. I also noticed that my friend sold the M3 within a month of that drive and got a 997.2 GT3. I am not sure if it is connected but the next owner of that M3 also drove a few 911s and then put the M3 up and is currently looking at 911s...

I can only guess that they felt what I felt because the M3 was my halo daily driver car until I drove a few 911s.

Fined

I don't think M cars and 911 should be compared by those in the know. They have different purposes. Some things a 911 will never do like an M car can, and some things a 911 (especially 997 generation) that an M car won't do. The M cars have a full sized back seat for example, 911 clearly do not. And a good 911 has tremendous steering feel (in comparison to modern M cars). Just one example for each.

I got my 911 as a daily driver but the M car I have beats it for comfort (mostly due to seating position being more upright), flexibility (passengers and cargo), and visibility while driving.

I plan to always have a place for each. However at the current rate of the 911 ballooning in size perhaps the next generation will have a full sized back seat since the proportions are growing all the time.

jamesinger

^^^ I like your conclusion...a place for both!!

C4SDayton

I considered buying an M2 new for same as I bought my 10 year old 997. In the end, I wanted a sports car to drive daily, not a "muscle" sedan/coupe. I love my damptronics , but on bad roads I wish they were a little softer in normal mode.