The 2021+ BMW G80 M3 is a truly brilliant car. It's got performance, comfort & tuneability at a great price point. If you want to go fast, the G80 M3 is the perfect modern base with a huge aftermarket offering for big power! We proved this when we took our Individual Mexico Blue G80 M3 xDrive to 1,034 bhp and beat a Tesla Model S Plaid & a Ferrari SF90 over the quarter mile.
For the last couple of years, our G80 has been running a Pure Stage 2+ hybrid turbo setup with some upgraded engine hardware and a built transmission by Pure Drivetrain Solutions. The setup has honestly been perfect - running over 1,000bhp with absolutely no issues to report. Towards the end of last year, we put out an owner’s review video that emphasised how easy and inexpensive it is to use the car on a daily basis - no different to a standard G80 M3, really.
Despite it being the perfect G80 in our opinion, it was time for a new chapter. We just completed our R44 x Tom Wrigley Performance single turbo conversion, utilizing a Precision 6870 making slightly more power and a heap more torque (125 Nm more at the wheels).
The truth is, a single turbo kit completely changes the character of the car. The power delivery is more dramatic, the sound is intoxicating and the car becomes much more of an event to drive. In this post, we’re giving you a detailed breakdown of the setup as well as all the other mods we’ve done to this G80 M3 (as we’ve also added quite a few new carbon goodies).
Single Turbo Setup
As mentioned, the car’s running the R44 Performance x Tom Wrigley Performance S58 single turbo kit. This was actually the first kit to also fit right-hand drive vehicles as we are based in the UK and all the US companies forgot about us :( The turbo itself is a Precision 6870 that spools up nice and fast for a big single. There’s no escaping the lag but it certainly makes things more dramatic and still delivers the same amount of power as the previous setup. We had this turbo polished which makes it pop in the engine bay.
Supporting modifications we installed that aren’t included in the kit itself consisted of a Precision Raceworks port injection kit (a kit that also works with the OEM fuel rail & a great upgrade for Stage 2 cars), a KLM billet catch can, a Funk Motorsport turbo blanket to keep everything cool and Motiv Reflex - the ultimate solution for integrating things like flex-fuel and port injection.
Engine Modifications
As mentioned earlier, the engine did get some upgraded hardware from Tom Wrigley Performance. At 850whp, you don’t have to go crazy and we just stuck with some TWP drop-in forged rods and upgraded ARP head studs. The transmission, however, went stage 2 by Pure Drivetrain Solutions as the stock ZF HP76 does start to slip when pushing over 800 bhp. In terms of cooling, we’re running the full CSF cooling package with the inlet manifold paint-matched in Mexico Blue. Having a big single turbo means things get HOT under the hood and managing the heat is essential for reliability. One great thing about CSF is they include integrated rock guards on any exposed radiators - something BMW could learn from with their cheap plastic items completely open to road debris.
All software is by Tom Wrigley Performance and Mike Ball - the best of the best for BMW tuning in the UK.
New Cosmetic Engine Bay Upgrades
Since the initial build of this car in 2023, so many more aftermarket accessories have come to the market and it was time the G80 got a spruce up. The stock engine bay leaves a lot to be desired with plastic covers and engine caps. We fitted the long-overdue Goldenwrench Supply BLACKLINE S58 engine cap set in silver. These billet items stick securely over the factory-engineered plastic pieces, taking minutes to install. They just give the engine bay a more quality feel - especially when sitting next to the Eventuri gloss carbon fibre engine cover and CarbonBay gloss carbon ECU cover. Look closely and you’ll also notice the gloss carbon front shroud by MHC LDN - far lighter than the OEM metal version. The final engine bay mod - unfortunately now discontinued - is the Motech aluminium strut brace. This was a really great-value and high-quality piece and it’s a shame it’s no longer available.
Exterior
The exterior of the car hasn’t changed drastically since our last build update. The main change is that we swapped the SP1 front lip for MHC LDN’s newer SP2 which features more aggressive corners and comes as a 3-piece. This construction has brought the production cost down in comparison to the SP1 so it’s a great alternative if you’re looking to save some cash.
Being the global distributor, we run MHC carbon on all our cars to showcase the quality and durability. We’ve put tens of thousands of miles on these components all over the world and we’ve seen G80 customers with over 60,000 miles on their original MHC SP1 front lip, still looking factory fresh. Most carbon would have yellowed or faded but MHC’s expensive clearcoat just seems to last forever. We also recently replaced the OEM gloss black side skirts and rear corners with MHC carbon upgrades and then fitted the rest of the G80 low line kit to the bottom of those pieces.
The car looks very aggressive, assisted by the GT carbon grille and twin fin ducts - not to mention the yellow DRLs and OLED rear lights. For the spoiler, we fitted a carbon version of the OEM spoiler which is a bit more subtle but the DF1 LED diffuser adds a lot of presence.
Suspension
Suspension-wise, we’ve changed nothing. We’re still running a KW H.A.S kit, which has been perfect for this car's intended purpose—a big power street car. Coilovers are a bit of a compromise, and when company owner Rhys puts his girlfriend in there, he doesn’t want her being shaken about too much on London roads. The H.A.S kit still has great adjustability and allows you to retain the factory electronic damper control for the different drive modes.
Brakes
For brakes, we’re still rocking the trusty EBC 2-piece floating discs with RPX pads at the front and Bluestuff at the rear + some MOTUL 600 brake fluid which is more heat resistant than OEM. We’d prefer to run RPXs at the rear as well but at the time, EBC didn’t offer this.
Exhaust
Other than the new 2-1 downpipe supplied with the single-turbo kit, the exhaust remains the same - just a single midpipe cat-back system from Grail in Germany. And… no burbles mapped in.
Other modifications
There are plenty of small modifications on the interior including some SHFT carbon pieces, a set of JQ Werks magnetic paddles, a SHFT alcantara wheel and more. We recently put some Vossens on the car to replace the gold/bronze 827Ms we were running previously. For the full list of modifications, check out this page.
We’re curious, do you think we made the right decision switching from hybrid twins to a big single? Let us know!
