vegastrashed

Lately, I've been having a grand 'ole time modding my 545i. I was initially a performance oriented guy, and I still am, therefore I didn't want to do anything that would compromise my performance. All my mods up to 4/07 have been exterior-wise. I never got around to baselining my car while it was stock. The closest to a baseline is a G-Meter run of 5.6 from 0 - 60.

So, the opportunity arose for me to work in the San Francisco Bay area and it so happened that my new assignment is very close to a popular tuning shop, SonicMS, formerly CarLab, in Santa Clara. I decided to blow up my car's appearance and start all over. First, the 166 wheels had to go to a new home. In came the replacements. 20" 3-piece forged VIP Modular VR 02 wheels with lower profile 245/30/20 and 285/25/20 tires. Bigger wheels usually adds to the unsprung weight of the car, right? Thus slowing the car down.

I've been wanting quad exhaust for awhile but didn't want to lose any low-end torque which is what will apparently happen with an aftermarket exhaust. The only benefit would be gaining hp in the top-end. I was over doing the 0 - 60 and 1/4 mile launches these days so losing low-end torque didn't matter too much and I didn't want to screw up my SMG again. One day EuroCarFan did a sales pitch on me and we both got RDSport quad exhausts for our respective rides. Now, I'm fully expecting my car to be slower with the bigger wheels and loss of low-end torque if I were to ever do any timed launches in the future.

Last Friday night, I was at SonicMS having Darwin resolve some rubbing issues. What would you expect with 10"x20" rear wheels, 4" lip, 30mm offset, 285/25/20 tires, H&R Race springs, and Koni Sport shocks? There will be issues. After the work was completed, a friend of Darwin's approached me and asked if I was interested in doing some launches. He has a G-Meter in his Porsche. The thought of doing timed launches never crossed my mind with my new setup but with this impromptu suggestion, I decided why the heck not?

I lined the car up and began preparation for my first launch. Traction control disabled, Sport button engaged, and A/C off. Doubtful that my Launch Control works, I begin to press on the throttle and manually shift at 6500 rpm from 1 to 2 and 2 to 3. The time for my first attempt was 5.8. I didn't know what to make of the time. Was it good or bad with my new mods? I waited for about 5 minutes before attempting another launch. This time, I wanted to know for sure if my Launch Control was still disabled or not.

I lined up the car again like the first time. Only thing different the second time around was I stomped on the throttle. I saw as the needle rev'ed up to about 4K, heard the clutch get dumped, tires were spinning, tires finally grabbed, started going sideways and made adjustments to straighten out the car, chirped twice, and the car was shifting itself. After the run, I looked and saw 5.6. Hmmm... that was most pleasantly surprising.

This tells me that my exhaust mod offset the heavier unsprung weight of my car due to the bigger wheels and tires. But then again my RDSport cat-back exhaust is also lighter than stock. And, I didn't lose any low-end torque as I expected. Now, I need to test out the top-end. Oh, Turkey5... where are you? Gooble, gooble.

jordan23junkee

So now we can concentrate on the engine and break the 5 sec mark

vegastrashed

Honestly, if I can get the tire spinning under control I'd be near 5.1 - 5.3. I'm working on swapping out my final drive ratio from 2.91 to 3.73. More powa to the wheelz!

I'm still not going to be doing to many timed runs. I'd rather line up for some highway rolls in the dead of night on a desolated highway.

cap217

any problems fitting those wheels under there?

vegastrashed

I found out an interesting tibdit that I bet many here don't know about our cars. Our cars are not symmetrical. My rear wheels measurement are 10X20 with 30mm offset. The tires used are 285/25/20 and dropped on H&R Race springs. Looking from behind the right rear fender, it would appear that the right side tires, front and rear, protrude outward more than the left. It's no coincidence that all my rubbing issues are on the right side, front and rear. The rear has been resolved as best as possible, but the right front is a difficult fix. Rubbing becomes a major issue when I turn right onto driveways with an incline. The tires rubs up against the metal of the fender. I'm beginning to second guess my choice of a square sidewall (Faulken FK452) vs a more rounded sidewall (Toyo T1R). Toyos would probably help with eliminating the rubbing.

Yes, I'm aware that the battery and gas tank is on the right rear side.

info@trinityautosport

sounds good. nice findings joe

MikeBuzzsaw

I agree that Toyo tires are used more predominately on 20 inch applications on e60s. Iceman and Knightrider is running that setup.


Your car still looks BADDASS though...

SoCalM5Mang

[quote name='vegastrashed' date='Jun 25 2007, 05:14 PM' post='439724']
Lately, I've been having a grand 'ole time modding my 545i. I was initially a performance oriented guy, and I still am, therefore I didn't want to do anything that would compromise my performance. All my mods up to 4/07 have been exterior-wise. I never got around to baselining my car while it was stock. The closest to a baseline is a G-Meter run of 5.6 from 0 - 60.

So, the opportunity arose for me to work in the San Francisco Bay area and it so happened that my new assignment is very close to a popular tuning shop, SonicMS, formerly CarLab, in Santa Clara. I decided to blow up my car's appearance and start all over. First, the 166 wheels had to go to a new home. In came the replacements. 20" 3-piece forged VIP Modular VR 02 wheels with lower profile 245/30/20 and 285/25/20 tires. Bigger wheels usually adds to the unsprung weight of the car, right? Thus slowing the car down.

I've been wanting quad exhaust for awhile but didn't want to lose any low-end torque which is what will apparently happen with an aftermarket exhaust. The only benefit would be gaining hp in the top-end. I was over doing the 0 - 60 and 1/4 mile launches these days so losing low-end torque didn't matter too much and I didn't want to screw up my SMG again. One day EuroCarFan did a sales pitch on me and we both got RDSport quad exhausts for our respective rides. Now, I'm fully expecting my car to be slower with the bigger wheels and loss of low-end torque if I were to ever do any timed launches in the future.

Last Friday night, I was at SonicMS having Darwin resolve some rubbing issues. What would you expect with 10"x20" rear wheels, 4" lip, 30mm offset, 285/25/20 tires, H&R Race springs, and Koni Sport shocks? There will be issues.

What up bro? Can you help me out as a real Neophyte when it comes to understanding Tires. I "think" I believe what 4" lip, 30mm offset means. I like "that look" but was wondering what would be a good recommendation for mine? Front 245/35 R 19 Rear 275/30 is what I have now. I'd like a bigger lip. What would you recommend not switching the current tires and how to do it?


After the work was completed, a friend of Darwin's approached me and asked if I was interested in doing some launches. He has a G-Meter in his Porsche. The thought of doing timed launches never crossed my mind with my new setup but with this impromptu suggestion, I decided why the heck not?

I lined the car up and began preparation for my first launch. Traction control disabled, Sport button engaged, and A/C off. Doubtful that my Launch Control works, I begin to press on the throttle and manually shift at 6500 rpm from 1 to 2 and 2 to 3. The time for my first attempt was 5.8. I didn't know what to make of the time. Was it good or bad with my new mods? I waited for about 5 minutes before attempting another launch. This time, I wanted to know for sure if my Launch Control was still disabled or not.

I lined up the car again like the first time. Only thing different the second time around was I stomped on the throttle. I saw as the needle rev'ed up to about 4K, heard the clutch get dumped, tires were spinning, tires finally grabbed, started going sideways and made adjustments to straighten out the car, chirped twice, and the car was shifting itself. After the run, I looked and saw 5.6. Hmmm... that was most pleasantly surprising.

This tells me that my exhaust mod offset the heavier unsprung weight of my car due to the bigger wheels and tires. But then again my RDSport cat-back exhaust is also lighter than stock. And, I didn't lose any low-end torque as I expected. Now, I need to test out the top-end. Oh, Turkey5... where are you?

My concern of losing low end torque is probably why I won't change out the Exhaust. Would a Dual Exhaust like Remus/Eisenmann also "potentially" cause torque loss?


SoCal

snikt21

I would guess the same thing. Collins from D2 mentioned the same thing. He was using michelin and it rubbed, then he switched to Toyo T1R and it's clean.
Thus he recommended me to get T1R. That's what I have now on my setup, and I got a very very minimum rub on my setup (even with 4 people in the car).

vegastrashed

I'm about to take another loss to fix this problem. Will most likely get Darwin to buy back the Faulken and get the Toyos. Dammit, shoulda listened to EuroCarFan.