'04 bmw 325ci

[roastbeef]

bought this car in april of '08 after a year of using the truck as a daily driver after it went solid axle.
truck just wasn't practical. well, neither was a bmw, but you only live once, ya know?
so i wanted something sporty, beautiful, and got good gas mileage. started looking online at alot of options and styles that bmw offered, and found a 325ci to meet my needs.
its a commuter, so i got an automatic tranny (for that california traffic), and one of the smaller engines bmw offeres for fuel economy (2.5L I6). the coupe is also slightly less weight then the four door, and looks bettere as well. i'm quite happy with the car, i have put about 20k miles on it with no problems and get about 20mpg city/28 highway. the car handles like its on a rail, and produces pretty good pull for only a 2.5L. i love it.

i told myself i wasn't going to mod it, and that was a lie.
current mods:
engine and performance:
-dinan high flow intake
-8k hid fog lights
-power slot cyro treated, slotted rotors
-hawk high performance street pads
suspension mods:
-dinan front strut brace
-dinan rear strut brace
appearance:
-m3 gauge rings
-umnitza orion v2 led angel eyes
-led license plate lights
-led reverse lights
-debadged

mods for the near future:
-18" velocity motoring V710 rims wrapped in nitto nt05's
-dinan high flow exhaust
mods for the distant future:
-dinan high flow throttle body
-dinan performance software

the day i brought it home;

with the truck;

angel eyes;


m3 gauge rings;

other then a few tiny chips up front, you can't tell that the paint is almost seven years old;


dinan intake and strut brace;

rear dinan strut brace;

[roastbeef]

updates!!!

dinan exhaust, h&r race springs, and koni adjustable shocks. the bimmer just rolled 70k, and is running great.

with the dinan exhaust, i can honestly say that i can feel a difference in car power. bmw put a very restrictive muffler on these cars to keep the noise down. there is a built-in vacuum actuated valve that closes one of the outlets to the exhaust at wide open throttle. tell me how that makes sense... the dinan exhaust gets rid of that and the car breathes and responds to throttle increases much quicker then stock. the dinan muffler cuts about 14lbs of weight, while adding a dyno proven 12hp @ 6500 rpms, i believe it, and love it.



rims and tires are next!!!

[Zero Six LE]

Super nice Bimmer.

[spfdenhugh]

I had almost the same car for 7 years (2000 323Ci, 5sp, sport, premium). Arguably the best BMW to have (smaller engine, great mileage, still enough power-always fun to drive a lesser powered car then dog a higher powered one; very comfortable, great looks, can be modified without ricing it out and still maintain all the goodness, great BMW community). I sold it (why, oh why) and ordered a new Mini (very quick, but very quirky and not what I hoped it would be). Traded it in after 18months on a 135 coupe. Very nice (too fast), but I love it overall and will keep it for a long time.

[roastbeef]

since the last update, i added some 19x8.5 MORR VS7 rims. while going up 2" in diameter and 1.5" wider in rim size, these aluminum alloys only added 1.5 lbs of weight. the width increased the tire contact patch, which was a vastly noticeable performance increase.

i also added rogue engineering camber plates up front, giving me -2.4* of camber for increased cornering performance. rear is around -1.8*, which is around factory specs.

for appearance, i added bmw center caps on the rims, with bmw valve stems, and painted reflectors on the bumper.

[dubie2003]

I was worried when you said rims since most people add gaugy ones but those do look nice. I can only imagine the extreme driving differences between the Frontier and the BMW. Must be night and day, lol.

[roastbeef]

i can't begin to fathom some of the crap people put on their cars, but i have always liked the less flashy- yet tastefully modded look for these cars. the lines of the car are already beautiful. in my opinion, theres not much needed to perfect the look.

[HKYStormFront]

looks good beef

[Devius1]

Originally Posted by dubie2003

...I can only imagine the extreme driving differences between the Frontier and the BMW. Must be night and day, lol.

^Haha.. Truck to BMW = whoops.. 95mph?

Sweet lookin' ride man!

[roastbeef]

thanks guys, and yes, there is a huge difference between driving the beast and the bimmer. the truck feels like its going 100 mph at 70, and the bmw can creep up past 100 if you aren't paying attention to the spedometer.