Scoop and all complete!

Hi there! thanks for dropping in again, you're probably wondering when the last post will be! Sorry but every dark, cold winter has to be endured and that means I'll find something that needs to be fixed or improved whether it needs doing or not :-) I must admit though my reserves of patience were nearing their end this year after my long list of "things 2 do" finally came to an end. However, after a few drives out under the wonderful clear blue sky and a coffee's or two at my favorite café it's all been worth it - now it's time to enjoy!

I drilled the bonnet and used a jig saw to cut out a hole slightly smaller than the air intake box.

Time for the nail biting, can I cut without destroying the paintwork?

Holes drilled and hole cut, will the scoop fit?

Inlet box ready with a rubber edge to fit up against the bonnet. Air filter goes through a hole in the side of the box to the MAF and intake manifold.

Battery strap in place and wires cleaned up. Windscreen washer bag has space too!

I'm happy that everything has fitted. I'm also very glad I used a normal car battery and not the Red Top.

I added a rubber U trim around the scoop to give it a nicer finish. The bolts worked well so I don't think the scoop will fly off at high speed, touch wood :-) 

I was expecting it to look too mean but it actually looks quite cool and matches very well.

A small job was to replace the BMW wheel centers, So far I found a set of black carbon fiber finish but after seeing what Taffy has done with his I'll see if I can get some custom ones done (HERE)

Also changed out the steering wheel to a slightly smaller 320mm MPH Toretto grey, no traces of BMW left, only the engine!

How does it perform now? After the initial fears that something was drastically wrong as it was running very rough, Taffy was right, after a few test drives the engine seemed to bed itself in and now it has a good source of cold air it goes amazingly well. There is no lag and even accelerating from low revs in 3rd or 4th it's very responsive. Starting in late autumn with the clutch upgrade and other improvements has definitely made it less stressful to get things finished. 

One last job (for the time being!) is to fix the soft top supports. The aluminium pipes look really bad when I don't have the soft top up, they lay on the rear boot cover scratched and sorry looking. 

I considered stainless steel but instead I'll clean then up, paint them black and attach them using chrome boat tonneau fittings. The idea is I can easily slip them on and off as well as split them in the middle so they pack away easily along with the soft top under the boot cover.

Beside the soft top, it's ready now to take full advantage of the spring and summer with a UK trip planned for July. Hope to see you for a track day!

Have a great summer and let's see what will be on the list of improvements for winter 2015!