Pistonheads made me do it: Birds B3-40i
Discussion
In August 2019, for family duties I purchased a 2018 BMW F31 340i. High spec M-Sport Shadow edition, panoramic roof, HUD, HK stereo etc. M-Sport suspension and brakes.
The criteria were relatively simple in choosing - the car needed to be:
- reliable
- £30k budget
- either new or low mileage second hand
- estate, but no need for a 5 series / A6 size as with two kids, a roofbox can add what we need
- petrol, 300+ BHP
- RWD
Within those criteria I could only really think of the C43/63, or the 340i. The C63, a bit too expensive unless I went for older cards. C43, didn't excite me too much. Left me with the 340i which I drove, and loved. Coming from an E61 530i it was familiar, very refined and loved the engine and gearbox.
Fast forward 18 months and Pistonheads publishes this: https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-features/bmw-m...
and from that, my mind was made up. The key downside to the standard 340i is the suspension and the diff, in my view. It wasn't capable of properly delivering the full 320bhp in the lower gears, even in the dry - on bumpy roads, full throttle in 3rd gear was a bit of a rollercoaster of TC lights and bouncing at the rear. It's perfectly fine to be honest but doesn't have the behaviour of a performance car.
Last week:
For the package, you get 430bhp, proper suspension and a Quaife LSD.
Early days, I've done about 100 miles in it so far. But it's waaaay faster. More turbo lag probably but much much quicker than standard. But the remap is not the real revelation - the suspension has entirely changed the nature of the car, for the better. It's still perfectly useable as a daily driver with kids (it went to the zoo this weekend on its normal duties) but the set-up is so much more taught and well controlled. Steering feels better too. The LSD - I've not had a chance to really see the difference but early impressions are that it's much more planted in accelerating on bumpy roads, even with the extra 110bhp.
Will give further updates when I've done a little more driving but early impressions are very positive indeed.
The criteria were relatively simple in choosing - the car needed to be:
- reliable
- £30k budget
- either new or low mileage second hand
- estate, but no need for a 5 series / A6 size as with two kids, a roofbox can add what we need
- petrol, 300+ BHP
- RWD
Within those criteria I could only really think of the C43/63, or the 340i. The C63, a bit too expensive unless I went for older cards. C43, didn't excite me too much. Left me with the 340i which I drove, and loved. Coming from an E61 530i it was familiar, very refined and loved the engine and gearbox.
Fast forward 18 months and Pistonheads publishes this: https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-features/bmw-m...
and from that, my mind was made up. The key downside to the standard 340i is the suspension and the diff, in my view. It wasn't capable of properly delivering the full 320bhp in the lower gears, even in the dry - on bumpy roads, full throttle in 3rd gear was a bit of a rollercoaster of TC lights and bouncing at the rear. It's perfectly fine to be honest but doesn't have the behaviour of a performance car.
Last week:
For the package, you get 430bhp, proper suspension and a Quaife LSD.
Early days, I've done about 100 miles in it so far. But it's waaaay faster. More turbo lag probably but much much quicker than standard. But the remap is not the real revelation - the suspension has entirely changed the nature of the car, for the better. It's still perfectly useable as a daily driver with kids (it went to the zoo this weekend on its normal duties) but the set-up is so much more taught and well controlled. Steering feels better too. The LSD - I've not had a chance to really see the difference but early impressions are that it's much more planted in accelerating on bumpy roads, even with the extra 110bhp.
Will give further updates when I've done a little more driving but early impressions are very positive indeed.
Pistonheader101 said:
Very nice, have a sweet spot for these 340i tourings.
Do you know if you can get the mppsk exhaust?
You can, for the non-PPF cars. Mine is a PPF car - think they switched over to PPF some time in late 2018 (mine is September 2018 build). The PPF makes them much quieter, which is a downside but I've had the exhaust straight-through'd by PCW Exhausts and the exhaust valve stays open at all times which makes it reasonably vocal. It pops and crackles on downshifts but it isn't anywhere near anti-socially loud, which I like. Do you know if you can get the mppsk exhaust?
paradigital said:
The only thing that concerns me about kits like this is resale value of the car when I come to sell.
Would love something like the Birds kit on my 440i, but not at the detriment of being able to sell the car later!
I thought pretty long and hard about that. I agree it's probably the only downside. Would love something like the Birds kit on my 440i, but not at the detriment of being able to sell the car later!
Where I got to is that (a) life is too short to worry about how much my depreciating asset will sell for, and not make it the best it can be; and (b) I'm planning on keeping it for a long time. It's basically the first "new car" I've ever owned (1,200 miles when I got it) and, barring any major change in financial circumstances I can't see that I'd want to replace it with anything else, so resale is pretty moot for me.
Having said all that, it is one of the reasons that I went to Birds really - there are a ton of places that will put Bilsteins and a remap on, but I think having the full package from somewhere respected like Birds is about the best possible thing to do.
Note, the remap is reversible of course. And the suspension - when I drove home, I wondered what the hell the horrible noise was from the back until I realised they'd put the old parts in the boot... so if I really need to I can change it back to virtually stock, save for the diff of course (with appropriate disclosures of course!).
I have birds suspension on my M140i and it really is transformational. Even after 3 years of it you don’t get ‘bored’ of how impressive it is at doing it all. Wait till we have some wet and greasy weather and you’ll soon notice the difference with the lsd in place.
Stunning car, must be ballistic with a map. look forward to your updates.
Stunning car, must be ballistic with a map. look forward to your updates.
The Birds kit is expensive, but so worth it. So much so I bought it twice when Birds did their last run for the E90 platform. I now have a spare set of their dampers to rebuild and use when the need arises. Saying that the rear ones were still okay after 100,000 miles.
The car loses the hard edge on our now awful roads, and still can be hustled very well. The replacement for me E91 330i will be either a 140/340i with the Birds kit fitted again.
The car loses the hard edge on our now awful roads, and still can be hustled very well. The replacement for me E91 330i will be either a 140/340i with the Birds kit fitted again.
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