some e46 questions

[alpinaclone]

A friend of mine just picked up a 2001 325i to replace his beat ass '77 Monte Carlo. He is a young guy (19), but has a decent head on his shoulders. We have already been hard at work depimping the little sedan, removing altezza lights etc.. Once all of the preliminaries are taken care of he wants to do some suspension upgrades and an intake. The primary goal with the suspension is for the car to be lower, but handling and ride quality are very important as well. I have already checked out Turner and a few places and am just trying to get a feel for what other people are running and their impressions etc.. He has an $800 dollar budget for the suspension and intake. I, at first suggested the old billy sports and H&R chestnut , but after browsing, I see that there are a ton of options available to him that we do not have with our cars. The ones that caught my interest primarily were the H&R cup kits and the cheap (relatively) coilovers from Bav Auto. Does anyone have any experience with these? On the intake front, they all seem like a lot of money for a little bit of hardware. I could replicate most of the kits for less than a hundo, but all of the decent ones seem to be $200+, any advise here? Sorry for the long post, but I don't have much experience with this platform and don't want to suggest anything that would sour BMW ownership for him :).

[240zs30]

I have an 02' 330ci. It has Koni's with Ground Controls. Insane handling, and it's pretty low.The e46 is a very different car when it comes to tuning. You have to do research as things are obviously not cheap. Your friend should look into E46fanatics.com or something similar and look into what others have done.

GL.

[Jon325i]

Does this E46 have the factory sport package installed? If it does, you can simply swap out the springs to get a slightly lowered height along with a subtle rake for a nice aggressive stance. My bro used to have a '01 330i with the sport package on it and he simply installed some H&R springs and called it a day. Not a monumental change, but enough to feel a difference when cornering and visibly when looking at it while parked.

Just my $.02

Jon

[DCColegrove]

I couldn't recommend messing around with the intake, not much to be gained there.

[alpinaclone]

Thanks for the responses. The car is just a "plain" 4 door, no real options, no sport suspension. The car has about 80,000 miles on it, so I think with any kind of upgraded springs, shocks will be in order. The car is 99.8% street, though I am trying to get him to attend some autox. The intake, I think he wants more for sound and so it feels like he has done something of his own to this car. From what you are saying DC, I gather then that brand will not make to much difference and his goals will still be met. Does anyone have any experience with the bav auto coilovers, for the price, they seem tempting. Thanks again for the opinions.

[Jon325i]

I have to agree with DCColegrove - an intake probably won't do much for that car. Seeing your friend is a young strapping lad, keep him focused on just a few simple basics: spring/shock combo, some good dry season performance tires, and some seat time at the auto-x. Convince him its better to drive good than to sound good ;-)

Jon

[trashcop 80s 80s]

I have the factory sport suspension, and I found some used H&R sport springs on e46fanatics for $100. I installed those with the factory sport shocks and I am pleased. It handles great and looks perfect, but still drives easily as a DD.

[alpinaclone]

Thanks again for the input guys.