It’s taken a little longer than we thought it would, but as they say..."Perfection takes time" and we are happy to report the our BMW Z4 has finished the first part of the build journey with the guys over at Emerald M3D in Norfolk, who have finally finished doing what they need to do with the ECU Tuning, for now at least, so it’s on to the next phase and that involves heading to good friend Craig Taylor at Dynotorque so he can start working his magic, and the first bit of magic will be to remove the stock BMW 2.5ltr M54B heart and replace with a much larger one, in the form of a LS3 V8.
Whilst we have been waiting with eager anticipation, we decided to get with our buddies at AG Wheels factory and discuss designs, size and finish, and as per usual in any VAD build, we will be fitting 2 different designs, with 2 different finishes, its standard practise and its something we have always done and enjoy doing, let’s face it you never see that both sides at the same time, it works well and it's always a great talking point, so with the AG input from Tu and Yuya, the wheel designs were chosen, with the AGL 23 from the AG Luxury lineup, and the F422 from the AG Wheels lineup, we were looking to build the all new VAD LMS, at one point as it would really suit this build, but as this is a collaboration build with lots of various companies being involved, we wanted to show our appreciation to the Avant Garde factory, by running their two brands on this particular build, and looking at the 2 designs in all of their glory, were so glad we did.
13X19 AG Luxury AGL23 Matte Black Centre, Gloss Black outer rim & Inner Barrel, Spec 2 Concave Profile, with exposed Black Hardware
The finish and profile we made the ultimate decision on, with a little help from Tu with one of the finishes, the AGL 23 we decided to play it a little safe, it’s a classic race look design and we were always going to run with a matte & gloss black finish, with black hardware, as the base car will be staying white, with black carbon details, this was always going to be the look we wanted on the one side of this build, so that particular design in black finish was cemented and put into production.
The AG F422 idea came about from seeing the design in F522 disguise on Rilbers Audi A4 wide body Avant, the build and the wheels really caught our eye as it’s a wheel design that was new and fresh and really stood out, especially in the concave specification 3 profile that was built for Rilbers A4, or as some call it the floating spoke, this design has been at the forefront of our mind since we decided to move forward with the build, but we knew the spec 3 was not possible with our wheel specification, so we had a choice of the spec 1 or the spec 2 concave profiles, with the later being chosen, especially with the race look we wanted to achieve, now it was time to decide on the finish.
13X19 AG Wheels F422 Matte Brushed Monaco Bronze Centre, with Gloss brushed outer rim & Inner Barrel, Spec 2 Concave Profile, with exposed Bronze Hardware
A couple of weeks earlier Tu sent us a sample of the all new Monaco Bronze finish they had just introduced to the AG range and it took our breath away, this was just the colour we had in mind, it was first seen on the awesome McLaren that MC Customs built for one of their clients, it’s a real show stopping finish, so we hit the green light and decided on a brushed matt centre with gloss inner barrel and outer lip, with exposed bronze hardware, now to look at some decent rubber.
We will keep you posted on the developments over the next few weeks as the build takes shape, now its heading back to Dynotorque, things should progress very quickly.
For more details on the AG Wheels line up, or on the up and coming GT3 V8 build, email the team, they will be more than happy to assist.