Best Mods Contest!!!

[F.R.J.T.]

i've searched a lot what is the best performance mods for my STOCK 325ci 5speed.

best performance mods are: (big ones)
1 save up for an M
2 swap 330 engine
3 supercharger
4 header+full exhausts

they all cost a lot :( i'd say save up for an M is the best choice there.
i have many friends spent a lot of money heavily mod their non-m, eventually go for the M.

but for now i still got other minor performance mods to go:
1 intake
2 software
3 exhausts
4 suspension
5 3.46 diff.
6 pulley
7 lightweight flywheel
8 SSK
9 BBK

out of these mods, for any single one fitted on the car, most people found the most noticeable one is the 3.46 diff, followed by intake and exhausts(maybe for the sound) and software. i am not saying suspension, SSK, pulley flywheel and BBK are bad mods.and combo of them is definitely the best. intake+software+diff+exhaust is the most popular combo, with them you can feel your car day and night

My Question IS WHICH SINGLE ONE of them is the best mod, best bang the money there for my STOCK 325ci 5 speed.
OR, you can make an order of them, say, which > which > which > which

[Chaos]

There's not much in the intake v exhaust debate. To get the maximum benefit you need to do both - more air coming in and more air going out, both have sound 'benefits', so people seem to do the intake first because it's easier and cheaper. The 346 diff kicks the ass out of both of them though. Nick will tell you his 330 was a different car after he did it and it's a very very popular trick on the bike circuit (I don't think I EVER had a new bike and didn't change the sprocket setup in the first week, and I've had a LOT of bikes ;)), and everything points to this being the most kick-up-the-ass you'll get for a single mod. It's not cheap though, which may bring the intake back into the equation, but air-flow mods (or most other ones for that matter) don't provide the sort of end-effect that this does.

I almost got far enough to do this with my 325, but decided to go the M route for reasons which you highlighted - the extra I spent got me a whole better platform to start on and frankly I wouldn't have got near the package I have now if I'd spent the difference on the 325. Although I had further modding plans that have been somewhat curtailed for the short term, I've still got a lot more car than I had. That said, if you're keeping your 325 for a while then you sound like you're pretty much where I was at with mine before I decided to sell it, and my next mod was to look at a diff upgrade, so that's what my opinion is: Diff, then intake+re-map, exhaust, then maybe a fine-tune of the re-map to squeeze the last out of it.

PS: Don't ever swap your 325 engine for a 330, the gain is minimal and the hit you'll take on the value of the car will be massive. If you want to go down the 'same car, more grunt' route, SC is the way to go...