##UPDATED:STUDIO PHOTOS## Showing off my heavy modded rosso corsa E46 coupe!

***UPDATED 24/12/2011: Did a studio photo shooting today, getting ready for the upcoming COTY!***


















***I have not done a proper shooting yet, most pictures that you see below are amateurly taken when my car was featured on local TV show***

***(Another) Professional Photo Shooting will be done after the project is 100% completed, I'll keep you guys posted***





















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Getting to know me and my ride (If you think there is already enough reading on this thread just skip this part)

I'm Chris from Bangkok, Thailand. I have spent countless hours reading threads after threads on this website, researching as much as I possibly could to make sure that my decision (to buy) would have been right. And I eventually bought my own 2002 pre-minor, imola red 318ci e46.

Thailand is the last place where car lovers want to be, we have the highest car import tax rates on earth. How high? If you talk about luxury cars and sport cars, the rate starts from somewhere around 300% (and unfortunately BMW fits in this category as well) so cars that cost 50k in the states could cost as high as 200k in Thailand. And you know the daily minimum wage in Thailand? US$6 !!!!! This absolutely makes no sense, we are a poor country, but we are among the unluckiest group of people on earth who need to pay unreasonably high to drive some good-looking cars.

This is why the decision to buy had been a difficult one, M3 E46 was priced around US$266,000 when new (so if you earned a minimum wage in Thailand and you wanted to drive an M3, it would take you approximately 121 years to buy one, given that you saved all the money that you earned without spending a cent), now the price of used M3 goes from somewhere around US$90,000 to US$130,000. 318 Ci was priced around US$133,000 when new (this almost doubled the price of 318i sedan due to the nasty tax thing), and now the pre-owned 318Ci goes from US$56,000 to US$63,000.

Because of such high prices, the number of cars available on the market is extremely limited, if you want to buy a Ci in my country, you will have to buy it right when you see it, or chances are that you will never be able to find it again no matter how much money you have in your pocket. This is very different from sedan, we have a pretty impressive amount of e46 sedan in Thailand due to much lower import taxes.

Spending this much on a considerably "old" car, what do you think I should want? Yes, I want her to look hot, I want her to be a head-turner, I want her to be unique and I want her to be remembered.

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Concept:
1) I wanted to "max out the e46 coupe", I didn't want my car to be one of those M3 wannabes (In fact, I have seen quite a number of cars in this forum that already look better than stock M3), so I'd go custom.

2) When I said "max out the e46 coupe" I didn't mean modding up to the point where it starts to hurt functionality. Afterall, this car must possess the quality of being my daily driver (although it is not). It mustn't be too hard to drive, ground clearance mustn't be too low.

3) I hate FRP (Fiberglass) parts, I don't like FRP parts when they get painted (they aren't as shiny as metal), I also don't like uneven space and lines commonly found in FRP parts. IMO, bodykits made by frp look so rounded, bloated.. well I can't explain in words, it's just not as sharp and detailed as metalworks. I am a kind of guy who demands perfection, including perfect looking and perfect fitting, so I say no to FRP or carbon parts. What can be made from steel will be made from steel.

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Budget:

Car: $56,000

Mods: $30,000 including everything:- Interior, Exterior, Engine, Labor

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Color:

Was Imola Red, Now "Rosso Scudesa" (Rosso Corsa + Rosso Scuderia). I bought 2 used Ferrari Fuel Doors in Rosso Corsa (Original Ferrari Color) and Rosso Scuderia (New Ferrari red which is brighter than the original rosso corsa). I took both of them to the body shop and told the guy "I want the color that is exactly in the middle between these two, but what's more important is that I want depth and wetness of the real Ferrari Color, so do whatever it takes to achieve that."

I am very satisfied with the result. The bodyshop lacquered after 2k paint to simulate the dept and of course the wetness of the real Ferrari Color. In direct sunlight the car looks so orangish, almost as orange as Rosso Scuderia, but at night, it looks so very red, but this is definitely not the same red that we all see everyday, it's so so indescriably deep. Its depth is comparable to Rosso Corsa but the tone itself is a little bit brighter.























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Front Hood:

Vorsteiner style front hood, but as I said earlier I don't like roundness of FRP or carbon fiber materials, so I chose a much harder route - to recreate Vorsteiner style front hood using the original hood. The reason why it is so hard to recreate one is because it's much more than just drilling the hood and installing the vents. Trunk lines will first have to be deleted and it's just the man and his tool (hammer, to be more specific) that did all this job. After that the new lines running from kidney grills to the upper corners of the hood (see below) are created.

Next step is to create a power bulge (the raised part of the hood), again there is no special tool or hi-tech machine here, just the man, the tool and the plan. After that the hood is drilled and the vents are installed (vents are custom-made from STEEL). The real challenge of this job is to minimize the use of body filler (too much body filler decreases strength, doesn't look good, increases weight), which means that after finishing the hammering task, everything must already be in near-perfect condition, leaving just a minor body-filling job to be done.

This job took almost one full week (40 Hours) for an experienced metal craftsman to complete, and it took additional four days for the body-filling job (not because it needs a lot of filler, but because the whole part of the hood needs to be filled, although the amount of filler applied onto the surface might be very thin)









































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Front Bumper:

This is perhaps the least-modded part of my car, the genuine M-tech front bumper already looked great. The bumper was extended in length using plastic welding technique to accommodate wider body. New lines have been created to match with the rest of the car. M Clubsport splitters were also added but later on removed because they didn't go well with the newly designed, custom-made side skirts. This is why the splitters were replaced by Arqray lip, however I was still not satisfied with the outcome, I wanted my bumper to look cleaner and sleeker, and therefore the overlapped area (between the bumper and the lip) was cut and the gap was filled, this gives an impression of a "single-piece-bumper" not "bumper with Acqray lip added". Lastly, Hamann style fog light covers were added.





























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Rear Bumper:

This is one of my personal favorite. I just can't believe that this is based on M-Tech rear bumper everytime I look at it. Like front bumper, the bumper was extended in length using plastic welding technique to support wider body. But here's the catch, people know that your car is widebodied only when they have something to compare. So I did a bit of research and found prior design body kit (I'm talking about a concept one here, their production one doesn't look that good IMO), I love the simulated-vent lines on their rear bumper, this does not only go very well with the rest of the car, but it also gives a better flow for the skirts and creates a better line-of-direction. So I borrowed their simulated-vent line idea, but taken it into the next level by drilling the bumper to create the real vents (thanks to wider body, you have enough estate to do virtually everything you could possibly think of with it). These vents give more aggression, masculinity and create a "comparison point" where people'd know that the car is widebodied right when they see it.

Rear Diffuser:

I don't know what you guys think but I love this soooo much. I didn't design this myself, it all came from the conversation on the dining table. As I worked very closely with the body shop we became good friends, I asked the body shop's owner "hey, look, we have been working together for months now, you know my taste, you know what I think, you know all my likes and dislikes, I don't like my current diffuser but I don't know why I don't like it. I don't like any M3 diffusers because I don't like the placement of the exhaust tips, it looks very understated. I don't know what I like. So please, design the diffuser that I would potentially like." Then I led him and his team do it without any interference. 2 Days later, my diffuser was completed (just metalworks) and I am so satisfied with the result, the placement of the exhuast tips is just right, the diffuser not only looks cool with all those aggression and musculinity, but it also gives a whole new character to my baby.































































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Skirts:

My car originally came with M-Tech skirt, then I bought an FRP Rieger skirt only to learn how much I hate fiberglass parts. I and body shop's owner did a lot of research on this, we both thought prior design skirts look nice, but for some reasons when they were made into production, they're not as remotely nice as their concept ones. So we kinda stick to their concept ones. The whole new steel skirts have been created from scratch, we paid very much attention on every curve and line to make sure that they are sharp, detailed, and will be visible once they get painted.











































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Widebody:

Having looked at most, if not all, widebody set-ups, I like standard M3 fenders the most. This is truly an art, I mean pulling the fenders too much and they will look ugly and out-proportion, pulling them too little you won't notice much difference from OEM set-up and your desired wheels probably won't fit. But most importantly, pulling them "incorrectly" will result in some weird, stupid looking fenders which is something irrecoverable.

Although I prefer M3 fenders, it still leaves something to be desired. IMO M3 fenders look great on the car, when we see the actual ones, however, when photographed; they sometimes look bland and uninteresting. I think this is caused by a smooth, curvy finish of the fenders themselves which makes it a bit hard to appreciate the lines and the depth, I believe these two factors are the aggression factors of any fenders.

Therefore, I asked the hammering guy to make a subtle change that produces big results, the subtle change that will make the fender design much bolder and more masculine, while retaining similar size, shape and OEM look. This is very challenging, imagine asking someone to "pull the fenders, make it bolder and more masculine, but keep everything else unchanged".So despite similar sized fenders (just a bit bigger), the lines are sharper on my customer fenders, the depth is more emphasized, making them look a bit more aggressive.

After I have got the fenders right, it's time for the (fender) grills. I know that most people here consider it a "sin" to install M3 grills on non-M. But I love these grills so much that I could do nothing but commit this sin. (But trust me I'll remove the M3 stickers and replace them with something else)















































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Trunk:

Like front hood, the trunk has been modified from the original OEM trunk. I thought this was going to be easy as I already had a csl style carbon fiber trunk so it can be easily copied. I was wrong. The CF trunk isn't quite in shape, look at it closely and you'll know that it is neither a replication of CSL nor vorsteiner trunk, it's a Taiwanese rendition of a CSL style trunk. So our first attempt ended up with something that didn't look right, after that we made a second attempt by trying to fix what we did and it also didn't work, it was so out-proportion. Finally, we did a bit more research, we printed out 50+ pictures of CSL trunks from every angle to make sure that the shape would be right, then we removed all the welded metal part and re-did everything once again. Results? pictures say it all....

















































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Rims:

The car came with 17" M Rims which looked very outdated. We all know that finding a good set of rims is not at all an easy task, so during the search period I first bought a set of replica BBS LM rims 19" F8.5 R9.5 (I hate anything replica, but for temporary use, it's passable). There are actually two reasons why the LM needed to be changed 1. Because they're replica 2. Because of wider, larger fenders demanding wider rims with lower offset. One month later I saw a picture of Ferrari F360 on Traffic Star rims with lips painted to match car color on a local car magazine and I didn't wait to ring Traffic Star Thailand and placed an order. I think this set of rims is the very right one for my car.



































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Misc:

Genuine M3 Side Mirrors, Genuine M3 Fender Grills, Genuine Vorsteiner Trunk Emblem, Genuine M Roof Ledge Moulding, ACS Roof Spoiler, Shark Fin Antenna, Black Chrome Kidney Grills, CCFL, HID Conversion Kit, Remote-on wiring loom, Smoked Corner Lights, Smoke Side Markers, Smoked LED Taillights, 84mm Stainless Steel Quad Tips, 80% Window Tint

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Interior:

Genuine Red Leather Seats & Door Panels

Birdeye wood trim

Lower part of the dashboard painted red to match seats and panels

Misc:

Genuine M3 Rearview Mirror, Genuine M Door Sills, Genuine M Steering Wheel, DVD Navigation Audio System with 6.5" Infinity speakers and MB Quart Amplifier, Keyless System, M Instrument Cluster, M Pedal Foot Rest, Chrome Instrument Cluster Rings, M Mats, Genuine leather shift and hand break boot with M (tri-color) stitching

































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Engine:

Already bought a half-cut of 540i e39 (M62 4.4 V8 Engine), will soon do an engine-swap

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jeeeeeez that guy is an artist. no joke.

You're a legend.


Hope you kept the LM's and are able to go lower.

Wow!!

some quality work out there. your car looks awesome!!

Crazy..

OMG! was that guy welding without eye protection?

Your car looks sick. I love that youre backing everything up with the engine swap. Keep it up! I want to see a video of the finished product

The best I have seen on this forum

You are the definition of "fanatic" Amazing vision and pursuit of perfection. Surprisingly you have shown excellent taste and, given what you are trying to achieve, admirable restraint. I have never liked black rims until now. Perfect for the car.

Kudos. I am awestruck.