2005 BMW M3 ZCP: 29th Birthday Special #blogpost

Hey, CT! Tomorrow’s my 29th birthday and to celebrate it, I want to make a review on my 2005 M3 ZCP (Competition Package). Let’s get started!

Exterior

Alright, let’s get around the exterior first, shall we? So, the E46 M3…well, to this day I still can’t believe that the E46 is more than 10 years old! Time really flies, eh? Just look at it. It has a happy front fascia and the signature kidney grille. Never gets old. On the back, you have DAT ASS!! The beautiful E46 rear end that just…really good, I mean, it really is. Sure, it’s not as “screamy” as the CSL with the trunk lid, the bumpers, the carbon fiber roof, and the splitter but, it is a gorgeous car.

So, the Competition Package is a $4000 option that gives you the bigger brakes and quicker steering from the M3 CSL, plus tweaked suspension and the M Track Mode version of BMW’s Dynamic Stability Control. You also get 19-inch cross-spoke forged alloys all around, and a race-face steering wheel trimmed in Alcantara suede. Oh, and there’s a new color–Interlagos Blue–that’s only available with the ZCP option.

Under The Hood

You’ll find the legendary S54 naturally aspirated 3.2 liters I6 that makes 333 hp and 262 lb-ft torque. Doesn’t sound like a lot but, you don’t need a lot of horses to have fun, right? Yeah. This thing makes a sound that is….kind of like a fart can exhaust to be completely honest with you if you listen to it from the back of the car. I’m not saying that this car sounds like a riced Honda, no, hell no. I’m just saying that..it’s a little dirty how the whole thing started, I don’t even really know what you intended, thought that you are cute and you can make me jealou…OKAY, ENOUGH ELLIE GOULDINGS. Alright, where were we? Ah, yeah, the exhaust. Yeah, it’s not the best BMW exhaust notes ever (probably the worst out of all the M3 generations, in all honesty).

I apologize for the slight On My Mind error

Interior

Okay, so under the hood and on the outside, the not-a-CSL is very good. The inside? Well, to describe it with one sentence, I’ll go with “right in the middle between the regular M3 and the CSL”. It has the CSL’s aluminum trim (which BMW claims to be lightweight), the CSL’s alcantara-suede steering wheel and the CSL’s alcantara-suede dashboard but, it’s missing the CSL’s alcantara bucket seats so instead, the ZCP only has the regular M3 leather seats. But even though this doesn’t have the track-focused, butt-cramping, chest-hugging-to-death, incredibly uncomfortable CSL seats, these seats are very, very supportive yet not-hugging-you-to-death. You still got the radio and the navigation so I can enjoy some of Ellie’s finest songs. Speaking of the radio, the radio is a piece of crap, really clunky and laggy, and it’s a bit too complicated, and there’s no digital sound processing, the OEM stereo with H/K sound is horrible, and a really dull and uninformative navigation system.

The Drive

Around my area, the ZCP’s “revised” suspension is absolutely awful. Throw a few bumps into it, and the back end would start niggling like a psychotic Labrador–playful, but just one wrong move away from savaging you–and you suddenly wished the steering were less of an on/off switch. You need deep commitment and cojones the size of coconuts to extract the last tenth out of it. So, this is pretty much a W204 C63 Black Series in its day. Awful around a road, requires balls that are at least the size of an airplane turbine to drive. Give it a track, however, and it’ll eat it with no chill. You still need coconut sized balls to drive it but, it’s not as awful as on the roads of Rocklin. It’s equipped with the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires that were little more than race slicks with a couple of shallow grooves across their surface to keep the cops happy. The manual gearbox is very nice in this car but the SMG…hohoho….way better. I drove an SMG ZCP and I regret my decision to buy a manual one because, it is very smooth. Really smooth.

There it is, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you enjoy that small little review I made, it’s my first time doing this. I wish you a happy new year, and I’ll see you soon…