BMW e46 M3 + Carbon Airbox VS Europes Alps & Nurburgring **LOUD**

So after years of wanting to complete a Euro road trip it finally came together in September 2018!
The car performed perfectly covering 1,900 miles in 5 days exploring France, Italy, Switzerland & Germany. A full run down of the locations will be added to the description shortly so stay tuned.

[@HallaghanH]

I loved it when you waved at a fellow BMW driver. BMW companionship is the best :D

[@Luke_lw]

Been waiting for this upload!! Great video please keep uploading content of this car!!

[@stoneautomotive]

Thanks, it will be limited over the winter on the e46 as she will be in hibernation 😴

[@brenmizer123]

Awesome Road Trip!,, Took me back to my years with my 02 M3 bought new and replaced with the E92 M3 in late 09.. Lovely music thru the Alps and on the Ring courtesy of your Carbon Box. Sadly I never had that Aural Set up, but yours sounds wonderful.. Thanks for the Trip!!!!

[@stoneautomotive]

Glad you enjoyed the video, itching to get the e46 back over to Europe again this year and complete a part 2 Euro trip around northern Spain 😎 The carbon airbox is fantastic, camera doesn’t do it enough justice really! Owning an e46 M3 new would have been awesome, such a game charger of a car back then & even now 👌

[@brenmizer123]

Hope things on the World stage reopen so your Trip to Spain is possible. If so, I’ll definitely be following those Screams of Delight!!!! (Not only from your Air Box but you’re Girl Friend as well)Lol!!!!

[@brenmizer123]

Yes, I was fortunate to have owned both the E46 and the E92 from new!! I had logged 155 k miles in 7 years on my Carbon Black/Imola Red coupe before selling it to a Friend. In 2016, I got an M4 with DCT and last Summer a’20 M2 C (6 sp). Although both S55’s have Superior Torque, in no way do they provide the Music of the Normally Aspirated examples!!!!!

[@stoneautomotive]

She’s a very good little passenger normally bless her, looking back I was probably pushing it a little bit through those mountain passes 🙈 she’s a little speed demon with her M240i. Nice collection of M-cars you’ve had 👌 still haven’t driven an M2C - know what you mean about the good old NA sound track, something that has failed to move across with modern boosted cars

[@pedrorivera9779]

Great Video! Enjoyed every bit of it!

[@stoneautomotive]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed 😁

[@aristidisandriotis5948]

Amazing video !

[@stoneautomotive]

Thanks 😎

[@dgod7888]

Amazing induction sound!

[@stoneautomotive]

Indeed, sounds even better in person 😎

[@TDS981]

Nice video. S54 sounds lovely

[@stoneautomotive]

Thank you

[@MaxPaws]

Awesome job driving The Ring!

[@stoneautomotive]

👍

[@stacymitchell6453]

That airbox, wow. Must get down to the Alps sometime.

[@stoneautomotive]

The carbon air box really does sound spine tingling good 👌

[@LozzyTheTransporter]

M3 induction noise is 👌🏻

[@JacK-yr8ri]

Looks like an aweome trip, thinking of doing similiar in my m240 next year.

[@stoneautomotive]

You won't regret it 😎

[@Dddddddd348]

Takes me back! Last year i drove Europe and all through the alps. Sadly missed the ring though! it was in my previous car a s2000. Will have to do it again in the m3!

[@stoneautomotive]

The S2000 would have been great, one of the best gearboxes around and that v-tec scream 😍

[@Dddddddd348]

@@stoneautomotive ye it was a little over weight though and boiled over going up the stelvio pass! It did love to scream though! i miss the gearbox so much! but im currently waiting on my car to come back with a new coolerworx manual shifter! no more smg sadly. Best road in the world davos to stelvio!

[@ScubaAlpineDriver]

Amazing scenery and that soundddddd. to die for. What setup did you use for the bumper cam. external mic or some sort of casing as I can't hear any wind noise?

[@stoneautomotive]

It sounds even better in person 😎 strangely the camera (hero 4) is mounted in the lower grill of the bumper with the open case and no additional microphone, same camera mounted on the outside window or roof suffered terrible wind noise.. if check out my instagram you can see it mounted on bumper in the Furka pass, only addition was a lime green lanyard in case the mount failed

[@Kortec_Racing]

Your living my dream sie

[@stoneautomotive]

Well hopefully you can enjoy the journey from the comfort of your own home through my channel 😊

[@Qadi90]

hey, love your ride. Did you do anything with the exhaust? it sounds perfect the way it is! thnx for letting us know.

[@stoneautomotive]

Hi, completely standard UK/ Europe exhaust system - it’s all about the carbon intake for me 😎

[@ConnorSimpson007]

That is literally perfection to me. The dream car. Dream weather dream country and roads. I am a very jealous man

[@stoneautomotive]

Indeed it was Connor, itching to book another road trip and try out even more great roads across the UK & Europe! Plenty of pictures from the trip on Instagram - stone_automotive

[@ConnorSimpson007]

@@stoneautomotive the fact you have the car in my perfect spec aswell makes me more jealous. And in that case i might have to get instagram just to have a nosy at those photos

[@chrisg4rr377]

Nice trip

[@stoneautomotive]

Thanks, already started planning the next trip 😎

[@tobiasljosnes6749]

looks like a great trip, hope you have a better microphone and some sun glasses for the next tour

[@stoneautomotive]

Agreed 👍

[@ijwhiteman]

Hi, Any chance you can update the description to includes the locations? We are planning a trip in our M3 this year or early next. Thanks in advance 👍

[@stoneautomotive]

Sadly it’s a few years ago now! I headed towards Sainte Foy ski resort and then on the Val d’isere ski resort, the pass over the top of Val was fantastic 👌👌👌 Tons of good driving roads round there you won’t be disappointed 😎

[@ijwhiteman]

@@stoneautomotive that no problem at all. Thank you for the pointers anyway. We will add them to our growing list. Thank you 🙏

[@deanwilson4554]

How much was it too do your full CSL rep. I’m starting one in Australia here. Parts are a scandalous price out here.

[@stoneautomotive]

The entire build including buying the car is not far off £20,000, still half the price of a CSL plus I have done things like the boot floor reinforcement and big brake kit etc if you wanted to do just the styling then you would be looking at a lot less

[@thomrichards5186]

Looks like you replaced the original nav/infotainment screen? Can you tell me what you chose to put in there?

[@stoneautomotive]

The previous owner installed one of the android units, simply search E46 android on eBay and plenty will come up (not sure what versions in mine) works ok, some times slow but Bluetooth music streaming and later sat nav is a nice touch 👌

[@thomrichards5186]

Stone Automotive thanks mate. I’ve been looking at the Alpine ones with apple CarPlay. They have made one custom for the E46 dash so looks like a good option 👌🏼

[@stoneautomotive]

I have seen those and imagine the hardware will be much better than the Chinese android unit I have for sound quality but the Alpine one sadly doesn’t look oem where’s the android does look 99.9% like the original (OCD problems lol) I’ve heard the new generation android units have much better operating software

[@stubbk3]

really want to do this trip.. just worried my 150k mile 330ci might not play nice , 2020 is the year to do it though

[@stoneautomotive]

Just get it booked or you’ll never do it! I was worried mine was going to have some form of break down (she is an old car now) but just made sure I had good break down cover in place 👍

[@METABOLIC631]

How comfortable were those seats?

[@stoneautomotive]

Superb! Covering almost 750 miles in one day with no complaints 👌

[@VusaMoyo]

Theres a little bit of a rattle I'd say above 2K rpm upwards. Is that normal?

[@stoneautomotive]

The GoPro mount I was using had some issues with the interior shots - budget KZbinr 🙈

[@stoneautomotive]

Ps check out the North Coast 500 video 👍

[@raffipanular771]

How is the performance of the smg on e46 m3?

[@stoneautomotive]

I personally love it - traction off + S6 mode never fails to put a smile on my face 😁 It is a little crap with daily driving or round town etc but the CSL gearbox software makes a big improvement to every aspect of the SMG 👍

[@davidjeanlouis2]

how much fuel did you spend??

[@stoneautomotive]

Roughly £600-£700 from memory, Switzerland was pricey for fuel but at least the e46 can manage 30-35mpg on the motorway easily enough

[@RotrexfezST]

👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻

[@stoneautomotive]

👌

[@babis89]

What brand airbox?

[@chrisg4rr377]

Geoff steel racing. It's in a earlier vid

[@TheEdicola]

did u already have 4.1 fitted ?

[@stoneautomotive]

Not on the Euro Trip (this video) sadly - felt the need for shorter 2nd gear on some of the hair pins! Itching to get back to Europe in the e46 but doesn’t look likely any time soon 😩

[@TheEdicola]

@@stoneautomotive do u reccomend 4.1? and why ?

[@stoneautomotive]

The performance & feel of the shorter gearbox ratio for me makes it worth while especially the in gear torque - makes getting it side ways on the power much easier too! The down side is obviously the cost but my best mate had this one with the Z4M version 2 diff installed so just needed to swap the backing plate/mount for it to bolt right into the e46 rear sub-frame! Very happy with how the car has come along, covid-19 is not letting me enjoy it at the moment though 😩

[@gianniarduini3644]

Definitely need a 6mt

[@stoneautomotive]

SMG is part of the e46 M3 charm 😬 if BMW made gearboxes like a Honda Type R it would have 100% been done.. must say the 4.1 diff I now have fitted would have been awesome for this trip looking back

[@davidjeanlouis2]

I love when gear downgrade rave

[@swansmeister]

Yep, on to another one of your vids. I just drove those roads 1.5 month ago ;-) stayed at apex for 2 days. I know some nice roads around this area to drive and nice spots to check out the ring. Hope one day we can meet over there, that would be sick!!!

[@stoneautomotive]

Nice! Would like to stay at Apex too 😎 Hoping to get back over to the ring a few time next year, just love the place 👌 shall post up when I’m out so don’t be a stranger if you see me 👍 Hopefully you’ve seen how the videos have improved going way back into the old stuff 😅

[@swansmeister]

@@stoneautomotive Brother, definitely let me know, I'll come over there 4 sure. Only a 3h drive for me and I go there multiple times a year. I also stayed at the lindner freienpark there, even cooler than apex, it's this kinda village with different typa houses, 3 stages each more expensive but realy still all affordable and one house fits 8 people so devided by 8 it's like 40euro per night or even a bit less. That village is like a scene from fast and the furious, gtr's, gt3, m3 ect parked in front all the houses, get woken up at 8.30 am by all the cars leaving for the ring so sick. Talking about it got me all fired up. I should email you some pics of when I stayed there. Did a 8.38btg back than with my build TT there :D (N/A 3.2 8n). So yeah definitely let me know when you planning to go, stalker alleeeeeeeert haha. About the difference in production quality, yeah it's way better now, we live and we learn but I like all your vids realy, still going trough them and watched the best ones multiple times.

[@stoneautomotive]

@@swansmeister impressive time that 😎 only managed a 9:52 but taking it easier than a Uk track with the ring repair bills you hear! The place we stayed at with the bikes in August was mega, will go back there again for the service and exceptionally parking (important part that for me 😅) Shall be over next year fingers crossed, sadly not 3 hours away for me 😅

[@swansmeister]

@@stoneautomotive The Lindner freierpark has carports on every house ;-) and more than enough parking space, everybody also has mad respectr for eachother and eachothers vehicles so pretty awesome. Yeah thought it would be a lot further for you and you also have to take a ferry probably no. About the btg time, yes very good time but that was going almost at the limit, if not the limit for that car, only 297hp and 381nm but with a 12:1 compresion rate hah. Anyway no matter where you stay, do let me know and I will be there, feel a bit like I am pushing myself on to you tho but don't worry I wont rape you or anything. And don't worry I wont bring my fastest car with me :p

[@stoneautomotive]

@@swansmeister 😅