The M3 Touring arrived on the scene here in the UK earlier this year (2023). It’s been a much-anticipated car and one that the entire car market has been wanting for many years. With the G81 M3 Touring being BMW’s first production M Power car in a touring variety, it’s being demanded in high volumes and we at Carbonwurks are lucky to be among those who have managed to get their hands on one!

We ordered and put the specification together for this car in May 2022 as soon as the order book was open. We pretty much ticked every single box bar a couple and arguably, before we even got to work on making it our own, it’s one of the rarer spec’d cars out there.

The factory upgrade list is comprehensive and includes:

• M Pro Pack – Carbon Ceramic brakes & M Driver Pack (speed limit removal)
• Visibility Pack
• Comfort pack
• Carbon interior pack with M Carbon bucket seats
• Frozen pure grey paintwork
• Jet black 826M Forged alloy wheels
• Kyalami Orange and black bi-colour extended merino leather

This was already a good spec to start off with but here at Carbonwurks, we love to go not only a little bit further but leap and bounds further!

PHASE 1

The first thing on the upgrade list was the engine bay, not normally what most people look to first, but we had some pretty special parts for this beast. The air intake system we swapped out for the full carbon fibre Armaspeed kit which includes carbon fibre intake pipes and covers which was a great first start.

We swapped the plain black plastic engine, fuse box covers along with the cooling shroud with our carbon versions before adding the final touch with the Downstar burnt titanium fixing kit, the jewel in the crown! With this complete, the engine bay was a sight to behold and made closing the bonnet much harder to hide away the beauty beneath.

PHASE 2

Phase 2 was a relatively simple upgrade. The CSL versions cars (M3 & M4) from factory come with yellow DRL’s which give a more demonic look to the front end, this was an obvious upgrade to replicate so we changed the chip board on the DRL’s to switch from a white to a “Le Mans” style yellow light. Simple modification but highly effective!

PHASE 3

Phase 3 was all about the exterior carbon. We kept the factory carbon off the spec list (I think it’s quite obvious why..), so we went to work on upgrading the standard gloss black panels to what we know and do best. The M3T Stealth is now sporting all in carbon our – DTM front spoiler, front bumper ducts, DTM grilles, M Performance style side breather/vents, side skirt panels, door mirrors, M Performance style rear bumper spoilers, rear diffuser, rear diffuser surround and rear reflector covers. These give a big uplift to the exterior and give such a high end exotic look compared to the standard parts. Making the M3, well, even more of a proper M3!

PHASE 4

Moving to Phase 4 we focussed on stance. From factory the rear ride height sits nicely with minimal arch gap, the front however left a lot to be desired… We work with many different manufacturers of parts, this time around Eibach springs made a lot of sense to address the ride height issue at the front. A simple spring change dropped the car by around 25mm to give a more level look. Once lowered, those arches needed to be filled and putting on 16mm spacers (32mm per axle) both front and back gave it that missing aggression. The car now handles better with zero sacrifice (amazingly) to comfort.

PHASE 5

Phase 5 was the final step to this project before we went down the “protection” avenue. There are a few little additional features to the M3 that can be upgraded that most people wouldn’t think about. Some of these that we changed are the armrest we swapped out for the M Performance Alcantara version along with the carbon M Performance fuel cap cover. We also changed the centre console plastic trim (which now comes unbranded from factory), to another OEM part that shows it being an M3 Competition. The finishing touches!

PHASE 6

Phase 6 is getting into the protection stage. With the paintwork being a frozen matte grey, it was important to us to keep the paint in as good condition long term as possible and so opted for a full front end (including mirrors) Expel PPF. The good guys from Scudo Forte came down to professional apply the film giving peace of mind for future miles being put on the car.

PHASE 7

Last but not least is Phase 7 where we added further protection to the car in the way of a ceramic coating. From the factory the paintwork had no protection or sealant whatsoever, it was crying out for some attention! We cleaned and prepped the paintwork for ceramic coating and used a satin/matte safe coating from Gyeon and a finishing hydrophobic layer from Gtechniq.

7 phases, 2 weeks, over 1,000 videos and photos of the car combined and some tired staff, project complete!

The next question, what’s next for Carbonwurks. Watch this space!