2011 E90 M3 Competition

After hunting for M3’s as a replacement for my Alfa Romeo Giulia Ti Nero Edition, I found one for sale in Avon, MA that was marked up to about $42,000 in July 2023. I planned a weekend to go up & test drive that M3, a manual F87 M2 N55 with M Performance parts all over it & a F80 M3 DCT Individual Tanzanite Blue/Amaro Brown Extended. Due to last-second schedule changes, I only got to drive the F80/F87 back to back, skipping out on the E90 at a separate dealer…

Flash forward to December 2023 (about 6 months later), the used car market cooled down tremendously. Officially planning on selling the Alfa regardless of having a replacement or not, I found the same E90 M3 still sitting at the same dealer in Avon for the past few months again - with a significant discount from its July ‘23 price of course. This time I went to test drive it and was impressed enough with how it drove that I set up a PPI from a trusted mechanic to give it a once-over and check the health of the car.

I bought and drove the car home December 17, 2023 from Avon, MA back to RI with about 90,000 miles on it. Came mainly stock besides a K&N air filter & Magnaflow Axleback Exhaust. A good friend of mine drove me up in his modified GTI and we took the day to get photos, drive around in the M3 & get some food. Photos below.

Instagram: cliff_m3

Took some pictures with some friends while at Black Falcon Pier in Boston, MA.

First time working on the car myself: signed up to do valve cover gaskets, oil separator gaskets & screws, valve cover screws & grommets, both serpentine belts, spark plugs, air filter cleaning, upper radiator hose, coolant change, oil change, SLON VANOS covers, timing cover gaskets, spark plug tubes, oil filter housing gasket, front sway bar bushings, sway bar links & front control arms.

Took the car on vacation for the 4th of July to Weirs Beach/Laconia, NH.

Welcome to the forums! All it took was one ride in cliffs E90 M3 in December 2022 and that began my 10 month hunt to pick up a E9x M3 for myself. Pictured is my delivery day in July 2023 of my 2013 E92 M3 that Cliff drove me to pick up.

Funny enough we learned that both of our cars were delivered new to the same BMW dealer (New Country BMW in Hartford CT)

Took the E90 on a weekend morning to give my good friend a ride up to Boston, MA. He picked up his '13 E92 M3 Jerez/Black-Fox Red Two Tone DCT car.

First real mods to the car: Evolve DCT Paddles & Rennline Magnetic Phone Mount. Evolve Paddles are a great product. They feel good, have a great anodized finish, came packaged properly & install wasnt bad at all. The larger paddles were something I missed from the Alfa Romeo...

Phone mount serves its purpose but a tad too low to the center console with my Google Pixel 7 Pro having a charger cord sticking out under it. Overall good product - would buy again.

Went to a local car meet with some friends.

Again getting lunch and pictures with some friends in Newport, RI.

Weekend in CT at Lime Rock Park, sitting on track for MFEST.

Finally got around to selling the Magnaflow Axleback exhaust that came with purchase of the car. Sounded okay up top, droned A LOT between 1500-3500rpms. Drone was my main reason for canning the system. Put on a stock E92 system for the meantime. Looking to get into an MPE w/ test pipes.

Replaced the interior lights and trunk light due to cheaper lights or factory yellow lights installed. Old lights flickered or didn't come on. Fixed with Ziza bulbs in a quick 10 min install.

Picked up another front subframe with shocks, hubs calipers, brakes, etc. Cleaned up the hubs with a glass bead blaster. Hoping to amass some extra parts for later on!

This is the car as it sits to date. The roofbox and racks were from a friend who I gave the racks to originally for his E92. Also had a rare 60 degree day in RI in the middle of February so I took the opportunity to wash both the M3 and F150 daily.

Congrats!

beautiful! love the car - E90 version of mine, gotta appreciate the silverstone.

Cant go wrong with a clean e90!! Nice car

Love the color man! Great looking car

Welcome onboard, car looks stunning!

bipp wrote

beautiful! love the car - E90 version of mine, gotta appreciate the silverstone.

The silverstone ZCP coupe is such a clean looking car - modern classic & thank you!

Awesome choice and welcome. The F87 N55 OG 6MT is probably my favorite of the modern F/G series M cars but still not as special as the E9x.

DanMpower wrote

Awesome choice and welcome. The F87 N55 OG 6MT is probably my favorite of the modern F/G series M cars but still not as special as the E9x.

Thank you! The OG M2 is definitely a great package all around - just wasn't quite was I was looking for. Great exhaust, style, drivetrain - just lacked a little bit of special edge the E9X has, exactly.