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      01-16-2011, 03:51 AM   #46
Arxangel
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Drives: 2006 Z4 3.0si Coupe
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Bulgaria

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2006 Z4 3.0si  [8.50]
OK then, thanks for your input guys . The mist has been lifted a little. Lets summarise then what we have so far.

1. Exhaust system - I will certainly procure the Supersprint Y-pipe and Muffler, not sure about the rest of the system since you say the headers are really good as OEM (One thing that puzzles me is that the SS muffler in the SS North American web site: http://www.supersprintna.com/product...arch_model/388 costs USD 1200, and in what I believe is the European site: http://www.supersprint.com/USP0000bmwZ46.asp it costs 658 euros which in USD is around 930-940, weird). In any case, this bit would cost me around USD 1210, fitting NOT included (There is a reason I do not include fitting in the cost, I will explain at the end).

2. Catalytic converters - This is still a bit of a grey area, BUT I will not torment you any further with questions about them. I have found this tuning centre: http://www.overdrive.bg/overdrive_en.php?start=0 in my city which appears to be the only professional looking tuning shop around, so sometime next week I will pay them a visit and talk about the cats. Will let you know how it turns out. In any case I expect that to cost around USD 400 at the most, fitting NOT included.

3. Intake system - I have decided to go with the Gruppe M Ram Air System and couple that with the RPi Scoop Intake. I will have to purchase both from the US since I could not find a Europe dealer, actually I found one for the Ram Air System in the UK, but price was 30% higher and I believe that the higher delivery cost from the US would be justified. So this would set me back around USD 1200 for the Gruppe M and something like USD 200 including postage for both, NOT including fitting.

4. ECU - This will probably be done a bit later on. I am not sure if AA has a representative in Europe, I still have to figure out how this will happen. One option is to buy a spare ECU from BMW, copy my programming to it, send the original one to AA and drive with the spare until the original is done, but this is just one option IF I have to send the ECU to the US. Not sure how much that costs yet.

5. Cooling system - now this is something else I have been thinking about. Before I decide on the ECU I will, for sure, upgrade the cooling system. I have tried to find something on the web and on forums but had no luck so far. If anyone here can help it will be great. I have been thinking along the lines of a higher capacity radiator (if such a thing exists) and a more powerful fan (I am thinking both, or any one alone would be able to cope with the AA's 8-9bhp increase from the ECU re-mapping). No idea about the costs yet.

6. Front bumper - One thing that is absolutely certain about my car is that I will get the M front bumper. Even if nothing else happens, this one is certain. I have asked the dealership about this and if I remember correctly they said that the bumper would be something like USD 1500, fitting NOT included.

7. Brakes - I have been giving this a thought, it is not urgent but I would like to know my options here. I am actually thinking between Brembo and Stop Tech, the latter one being a bit cheaper, but I hope that quality is still high. I saw someone in the forum has equipped his with a Stop Tech kit. Any information would be appreciated. Also would 330mm disks fit on 18 inch rims on the Z4? This might cost between USD 1500 to over 3000 for some of the Brembo kits, fitting NOT included.

8. Tires - I have decided on both winter and summer tires. For the colder parts of the year I think I will get Bridgestone Blizzaks. They cost around USD 1100 for all four. The summer tires would be Michelin Pilot Sport (I also like the Pilot Sport 3, but sizes are limited and I am not sure what I can put on the front). They would set me back around USD 1300-1400. I do have a question here in relation to tires. Is is absolutely critical to keep to factory specification for the tires on 18 inch rims, which are Front: 225/40 R 18 88 W and Rear: 255/35 R 18 90 W. I was wondering if I could put 225/35 R 18 88 W on the front? Would it be a problem?

9. Rims - I have decided to put the winter tires on the rims the car came with. I am going to buy separate rims for the summer tires (the picture below features the car with the rims it came with, BTW this is the picture the dealership used to advertise the car, I have not yet taken pictures of the car myself). The picture next to the one of the car is of BMW's Performance Rim which they say could be ordered for the Z4 and I do believe that they might be lighter than the standard rims (I do love the look of the BMW Performance Brakes Kit and I will ask the dealership if the kit is compatible with the Z4). I am not sure how much those rims cost, but if I remember correctly the price I saw on them in the dealership it should be somewhere around USD 550 a piece, so around 2200 for the set.

10. Pain job - Now I am not the biggest fan of black for a car colour, so I am thinking of having it changed in the near future. I am still trying to decide between some sort of BMW blue (I absolutely love that colour on BMWs) and a yellow-ish/green-ish looking colour on the other Z4 pic I have attached below. In any case the maximum this would cost me, since it can be done in the dealership, would be USD 2500.

11. Seats - Although red wound not be my first choice for the colour of the seats, I have to admit that this one looks great. However, if I change the car colour to blue, I am thinking that I could have the seats and the red door panels redone in some darker blue leather in order to avoid tear and wear marks and still would look great and blue. Would appreciate some comments on that. I have no idea how much this could cost, but I will know when I go to the tuning shop next week for the cats.

Now to summarize the costs, or at least the ones I am certain of:
1. Exhaust system - USD 1210;
2. Catalytic converters - USD 400;
3. Intake system - USD 1400;
4. ECU - Not sure;
5. Cooling system - Not sure;
6. Front bumper - USD 1500;
7. Brakes - Around USD 2000;
8. Tires - winter USD 1100, summer USD 1400;
9. Rims - USD 2200;
10. Paint job - USD 2500;
11. Seats - Not sure;

Total: USD 13710; (I would like to say that this number probably would go down a bit since if I decide on the BMW Performance Brakes, Rims and the M bumper (this one is certain) I will get huge discounts on those, so I reckon I will knock at least 800-1000 USD off of that total cost)

I have NOT included fitting costs because as it happens My family has worked with BMW for over 20 years now, and my father owns one of the BMW dealerships here in Bulgaria so fitting, as you could imagine, would be free. Earlier when I referred to my other car as company (I have to clarify that none of us have paid for a car in the last 20 years since we are driving dealership cars) this is what I meant. The drawback of driving a dealership car is that you cannot mod it. So imagine the Manager's surprise when I walked into the dealership one day and told him that I wanted to buy this car. Lets just say that it took him some time to get his head around the idea. I did get a nice discount though . This baby cost me just 20 400 USD at 28 000 kms and with a brand new gearbox. I could have bought the new Z4 BUT, and this is a big BUT, I like the solid feel of the Coupe, and besides I will have wait for the warranty to expire before I can mod it, and furthermore, I still do not trust retractable roofs, I just like coupes and I particularly like the E86 Coupe. So as you can see, I am not worried about the fitting costs, hence the calculation. In any case I think that if someone has to pay for fitting for all of the above, if you do it all at once, which is unlikely but not un-doable, it would cost an additional 1000-2000 USD depending on who is doing it.
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Last edited by Arxangel; 01-16-2011 at 06:00 AM..
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