Sabine & The Beast

[aaronmjr]

Nice cars you guys. So how fast is a 135 anyways? I would imagine they are pretty amazing with how small they are.

[mattdesmond]

The 135 is silly fast. The boost is reasonable around town, but once you hit 4000 rpm or so, it puts your head back. They weigh the same as a 3 series, but are smaller inside for sure.

[mattdesmond]

dsg

dsc :-)

[aja]

I can't know all the acronyms because I'm totally a girl. But you're right. that was a whiff.
...
I would also like to claim complete exhaustion. How then hell could a person fully turn off a transmission.

[mattdesmond]

Lies. All of your Target acronyms should have given you superhuman acronym skills.

[Netdewt]

I have heard an N54 will crack 400hp with a tune.

[mattdesmond]

The 135 is actually an N55 engine with a dual stage single turbo instead of 2 turbos of the N54, but I'm sure with a downpipe/chip/etc it will bust 400.

[magz]

The 135 is actually an N55 engine with a dual stage single turbo instead of 2 turbos of the N54, but I'm sure with a downpipe/chip/etc it will bust 400.

How does that work exactly? Is the turbo itself like a variable vane setup, a la 997 turbo P-cars? Or is it something simple like it's just boost-limited in software until a certain RPM range, and then the boost gets cranked up?

[mattdesmond]

I guess it's just one turbo with the manifold air being managed by dividing the 6 cylinders into two banks of 3: http://blogs.insideline.com/straight...55-engine.html

[mattdesmond]

[mattdesmond]

So, I've been shopping for wheels for Sabine for a couple months and it sucks. Pretty much everything that the e90 forums guys buy are ricer/ugly/classless as shit and 19" or 20". It's tough to decide on tire sizes and offsets. I know what I'm going for... a square setup (I want less understeer and ability to rotate tires front to back) for summer driving around town (so they should look somewhat presentable) and performance events:

- Cheap because they will be beat up. Don't want to be replacing $800 a piece BBS's from breaking.
- Either 17's or 18's
- 8.5" wide
- as light as possible
- probably 235 width tires, apparently they are the widest I can go for front and back without rubbing in front without rolling fenders etc.

Tires will be either Dunlop Star Specs or Hankook R-S3's. Leaning towards the Hankooks, as they are cheaper and have a lower tread wear rating (stickier?).

Some potentials (all these are lighter than the stock m-sport setup which weigh about 23 lbs each):

Apex ARC-8 - 18", 8.5", ET 38, 18.45 lbs



Sportline CSL reps - 18", 8.5, ET 35, 19.8 lbs



Breyton GTS-R - 18", 8.5, ET 37, 19.8 lbs



Kosei K4R - 17", 8.5, ET 40, 15.4 lbs



Kosei K1 - 17", 8.5, ET 40, 16.8 lbs


I'm also doing this to save my stock m-sport package wheels and run-flat tires for if/when I turn the car in after the lease is up. Buying wheels and tires now might actually save me money in the end. I won't have to buy new run-flats, and I will be able to sell the aftermarket wheels in the future to offset the cost.

If anyone has other ideas, I'm open. I'm sure I haven't seen all of the options yet.

[sprstu]

The first three are all very similar, just different centers. I like the CSL reps out of those. I think the Kosei rims are too JDM for a BMW.

[mattdesmond]

The Koseis would be straight up race wheels since they are light and ugly.

[mattdesmond]

Went a different direction with the wheels. Just gotta get some tires put on them and I'm ready for Spring. Debating doing the coil-over thing. If I get the wheels on and it looks like there's too much gap, I'll be doing suspension for sure. I think the wheels are pretty rare, haven't seen an e90 LCI sedan on them yet.

[mattdesmond]

Teaser: