A side effect of turbocharging a motor is more of an engine bay's worst enemy-heat. When turbos spool up to over 100,000 rpm, they (and the some of the connected piping) will glow red-hot. Heat naturally travels upward, and because of where Project M3's turbocharger is situated, all that heat goes up against the underside of the nifty carbon-fiber hood, trapping it there.
I contacted Active Autowerke to see what could be done about dissipating some of this smoldering heat. AA led me to Patritti Design, a company specializing in louver fabrication. Patritti Design had designed the louver that went on an M3-powered, AA-turbocharged 318ti driven by Catesby Jones that had great success in the One Lap of America race in 2000. I asked Patritti Design to send the same one. Then Project M3 went to custom fabricator Jeff Toberg of DJ Exotic Imports. Since Jeff had done a nice job with the trunklid featured last month, I didn't hesitate to call him again. He looked at the louver, looked at me and said, "You really want to put this on and put paint over that nice carbon-fiber finish?"
"Do I have a choice?" I asked him. Jeff pointed to the hood and said, "I've got a guy who can actually mold this design from the carbon-fiber hood itself rather than cutting a large hole and molding in the louver that way. This way you get the louver and keep the carbon-fiber finish!" That sounded like a splendid idea.
The MA Shaw carbon-fiber hood went to custom fabricator Lucio Serrano, owner of L&S Custom Products, which specializes in carbon-fiber and fiberglass spoilers and wing fabrication, along with fiberglass repair. Lucio's shop had custom sport wings ranging from Porsche to Mitsubishi Lancer Evo applications.
Lucio cut into Project M3's hood, heated the appropriate sections and precisely folded down each strip to make it look similar to the one sent from Patritti Design. In the end, I didn't have to have the pretty carbon-fiber hood painted black, and I got the same functionality.
With the M3 is packing so much heat under the hood, it was time to upgrade the aerodynamics to keep it more firmly planted on the ground during high-speed cornering. With the functionality and success of the O.E. BMW GT wing on M3 race cars, I desired a similar design on Project M3. Although there are a few other knock-offs of the M3 GT wing out there, I decided to have MA Shaw's wing installed because of the fit and finish and because it weighs but 9.5 lb.
According to Mike Shaw, owner of MA Shaw, every single wing is handmade and compression-molded using composite materials to maintain strength and rigidity, and add minimal weight to the car. The wing features removable blocks for street use, lowering the overall wing height by over 6 in. This feature is the same as on the original BMW GT unit and is popular among BMW owners who use their cars for street and track. On such a black car, however, I didn't see the need to remove the blocks. The look is much more subtle when compared to what it would look like on a white or yellow M3. Heck, if my conservative fiance from Kansas can handle it, almost anyone can. But I'm after functionality here, and with so much torque coming out of high-speed turns, keeping that rear end more stable is my primary concern.
Adding a wing as aggressive as MA Shaw's will give your car a tremendous amount of downforce the faster you go. But as the speeds climb, the car will encounter heavier understeer as well from the firmly planted rear end lifting the front. Consequently, next up was balancing the car with more downforce in the front by way of a splitter.