Burn the clock by IND
#22
E92 M3 Atlantis is Complete and in LA!
One the roll bar is complete, Fall Line places their plaque on the roll bar as a signature of their amazing work.
IND laid a coat of beautiful Atlantis Metallic paint on the car’s roll bar to integrate the piece into the car’s interior. Because Nelson’s vision for this car was originally inspired by both the M3 GTS and IND’s original Atlantis project, we knew that the Atlantis roll bar would be a perfect unifying point between both of these sources of inspiration.
To compete with Nelson’s exotic collection, we knew that we had to achieve something truly special in the car’s interior, and knew of no better starting point than Ericsson’s amazing Carbon Fiber door panels. Time was of course the enemy once again, because after contacting Ericsson we learned that not only had the panels never actually been made for a car outside of Ericsson’s own facility, they were to take about 8 weeks to build and import. After several conversations that included a fair amount of begging and pleading, IND was able to successfully import the panels in a matter of two weeks! Because the panels had never been sent outside of Ericsson’s own facility, fitting these panels to the car would be a true challenge. Our expert technician worked for nearly a week to create the perfect piece!
IND knew that only one set of seats would be right enough to continue the GTS theme- the BMW Performance seats. We contacted one of our connections in Germany to import the seats for us, along with hide after hide of BMW’s original leather (something we were told repeatedly was impossible to get). To match the all leather headliner and dash, the seats were painstakingly disassembled and completely reupholstered in leather. The seats were completed in four days, a nearly impossible feat! IND refinished the plastic seat belt pass through pieces in gloss black for an absolutely original look.
By far the biggest challenge of the project was this, a completely one off carbon fiber rear interior section. IND once again worked with our amazing composites manufacturer, and gave him his most ambitious task yet- build a piece that will completely cover the rear area left bare by installing the roll bar, match everything to the Ericsson door panels, and do it all in just one week. The entire staff worked through each night and the weekend to complete our project, and the result was even more impressive than anyone at IND could have possibly envisioned! The full carbon fiber interior treatment gives the car a fighting chance against Nelson’s amazing supercars.
The completed view of our “IND GTS” interior treatment.
Smaller details like the reupholstered shift and ebrake boots with M tri color stitching surround the leather wrapped gauge holder that contains oil temp, water temp, and oil pressure gauges by Stack. Monitoring this engine’s vitals will be critical, as the car will see it’s fair share of track use.
No other wheel will have suited this project more perfectly than BBS’ FI. The wheels were completely unavailable during the planning of this project, and to my knowledge, this is still the only set of BBS FI wheels in the United States as of today. The volcanic eruption of April made importing these wheels an even greater adventure, forcing IND to have our shipping contact in Germany personally pick the wheels up at BBS’ facility, drive them to the airport, and personally ensure the set got loaded on an airline flight. Seeing the wheels safely in our hands was truly thrilling!
Finally, after the key components for the car had been installed, IND was able to fly the chief software engineer for ESS Tuning to Chicago to program the car’s already incredible double clutch transmission, and dyno test the car. The M3 spun the dyno rollers with a fearsome bellow from the Akrapovic exhaust, and produced 522 horsepower at the wheels with just 6.5psi of boost from ESS’ supercharger kit!
When the car pulled into IND’s facility for it’s final cleaning and inspection prior to departure for BimmerFest, all of us at IND could collectively feel the specter of time lift, and our tensions eased. The job was done, and we no longer had to fear time’s looming presence, at least until our next project began.
Despite my best efforts, this text is very limited in it’s description of this amazing car. Please see it for yourself at the IND booth at BimmerFest, Saturday May 22nd, 2010.
#26
Best. M3. Ever.
Wow, that's just incredible! What an insane project! To get it done in such a short time with so many custom and one-off parts being used is truly a testament to what IND is capable of. Great work, guys!
Wow, that's just incredible! What an insane project! To get it done in such a short time with so many custom and one-off parts being used is truly a testament to what IND is capable of. Great work, guys!