Hello from snowy northwestern Pennsylvania

[Thedrflaminco]

Hello all,

Posting quickly to introduce myself. My wife and I purchased a 2019 midnight silver metallic "stealth" performance Model 3 in late August of last year, and I can truly say that this car is the best vehicle purchase we have made to date. I've been a car guy pretty much my whole life, and got my start with late 80's and early 90's Japanese "tuner" cars. We recently got rid of a heavily modified 2011 Mitsubishi Evolution X GSR before purchasing the Model 3.

I'm looking forward to learning as much as I can about this car, and hopefully modifying it a bit while I'm at it. Nice to meet you all!

Andrew

 

[jkoya]

Welcome to the Forums !!! The Mitsubishi Evos were cool cars...

 

[slimpilot]

Welcome. I real enjoy the car as well. Have taken 2 road trips (SR+), from Minnesota to the Carolina coast. No problems, an absolute joy. Leaving in 2 weeks for the same trip again.

 

[Served11]

Hi my name is tom from va. Trading in my 18 be Tiguan for a model y awd. . My bro has a 3 performance and x 90. Cheers

 

[Thedrflaminco]

Welcome to the Forums !!! The Mitsubishi Evos were cool cars...

Thanks! Yes they were, I loved my X.

 

[Thedrflaminco]

Welcome. I real enjoy the car as well. Have taken 2 road trips (SR+), from Minnesota to the Carolina coast. No problems, an absolute joy. Leaving in 2 weeks for the same trip again.

Thanks. Have a safe trip!

 

[Thedrflaminco]

Hi my name is tom from va. Trading in my 18 be Tiguan for a model y awd. . My bro has a 3 performance and x 90. Cheers

Nice to "meet" you Tom.

 

[jkoya]

Thanks! Yes they were, I loved my X.

I remember when the rivalry between the Evos and WRX STis were huge here on the west coast...

 

[Thedrflaminco]

I remember when the rivalry between the Evos and WRX STis were huge here on the west coast...

Oh yeah, I remember that well. I owned a 2006 STi before the evo. Loved the car, hated the transmission/differential issues.

 

[jkoya]

I drove a 2012 STi once and I did think the shifting wasn't as precise as other manual cars I've driven. What do you miss most - the Evo or the STi ?

 

[Thedrflaminco]

I drove a 2012 STi once and I did think the shifting wasn't as precise as other manual cars I've driven. What do you miss most - the Evo or the STi ?

Probably the Evo. I did a significant amount of engine work to it and ended up making close to 500 whp. It sounded great and shot flames on occasion, and just looked "mean". Interior felt a little cheap to me though. I'll post some pictures tonight if I remember.

 

[jkoya]

Probably the Evo. I did a significant amount of engine work to it and ended up making close to 500 whp. It sounded great and shot flames on occasion, and just looked "mean". Interior felt a little cheap to me though. I'll post some pictures tonight if I remember.

Thanks - can't wait to see the pics !

 

[Thedrflaminco]

Thanks - can't wait to see the pics !

These aren't the best, but here a few old ones I had on my phone. My style was clean and simple. Nothing flashy. I put my money under the hood rather than in exterior parts. Wish I had some more high res ones to share.

 

[jkoya]

Thanks for the pics. Very nice and a great job on the build !!

What mods do you have in mind for your Model 3 ?

 

[Thedrflaminco]

Thanks for the pics. Very nice and a great job on the build !!

What mods do you have in mind for your Model 3 ?

Thanks! As far as the model 3 goes, so far I have the factory 19" performance wheels, Xpel ppf on mirrors, front fenders, bumper, and hood, 20% ceramic on the side windows and 15% ceramic on the back window. Some miscellaneous things like screen protector and all weather mats on the inside. Ill be wrapping the center console in TeslaBros galaxy black eventually.

I'd like to lower the car, but have always ended up regretting lowering my previous vehicles. Also have thought adding a carbon front lip and rear spoiler (my car is a "stealth" performance model so it didn't come with a rear spoiler). Maybe somewhere down the line I'll have the brake calipers powder coated galaxy black as well. Any suggestions?

Sorry about the incoherentness of this post. Lots of ideas popped into my head while I was responding!

 

[jkoya]

I think you are better off without the OEM rear spoiler. When I got my Model 3 Performance (with PUP) in Dec 2018, they didn't have any of the rear spoilers in stock for about 6 months. When they did get them in stock, 14 of them were test fitted on my trunk lid over a period of about 3 months before I accepted one. Most of them had large gaps on the end and didn't fit correctly. After all that, they wouldn't install it because I have Xpel on the trunk lid. They just handed me the spoiler and it's just sitting in a spare bedroom with extra parts for my Acura NSX.

The only major thing I did was go from the larger OEM 20" wheels down to Titan7 TS-5 18" forged wheels. Saved 10.45 lbs per wheel with the swap. Made the change for pot hole protection while the roads near me are undergoing a 3.5 year HOV lane project.

I've seen lowered Model 3s and they look good, but I'm already close to scraping at a lot of places I go to.

 

[Thedrflaminco]

I think you are better off without the OEM rear spoiler. When I got my Model 3 Performance (with PUP) in Dec 2018, they didn't have any of the rear spoilers in stock for about 6 months. When they did get them in stock, 14 of them were test fitted on my trunk lid over a period of about 3 months before I accepted one. Most of them had large gaps on the end and didn't fit correctly. After all that, they wouldn't install it because I have Xpel on the trunk lid. They just handed me the spoiler and it's just sitting in a spare bedroom with extra parts for my Acura NSX.

The only major thing I did was go from the larger OEM 20" wheels down to Titan7 TS-5 18" forged wheels. Saved 10.45 lbs per wheel with the swap. Made the change for pot hole protection while the roads near me are undergoing a 3.5 year HOV lane project.

I've seen lowered Model 3s and they look good, but I'm already close to scraping at a lot of places I go to.

All good info. Thanks. I was worried about fitment issues of anything other than OEM parts, and for that exact reason I've held off on purchasing anything. I appreciate the insight.

I have a set of 18" wheels for my winter set up, and they are much lighter than the 19" sports the car came with, however the weight savings isn't very noticable due to the cold temperatures/time of year I use them. They have saved my wheels a few times now due to large pot holes caused by the freeze/thaw in my area. Fortunately this winter hasn't been too bad. Hoping it's one of the last we'll have to deal with, as I'm looking for employment opportunities in much warmer parts of the country. I'm having trouble posting pictures from my phone, but when I get it figured out I'll post a picture of my winter setup.

EDIT: Figured out the issue. Imagine below.

 

[jkoya]

I have a set of 18" wheels for my winter set up, and they are much lighter than the 19" sports the car came with, however the weight savings isn't very noticable due to the cold temperatures/time of year I use them. They have saved my wheels a few times now due to large pot holes caused by the freeze/thaw in my area. Fortunately this winter hasn't been too bad. Hoping it's one of the last we'll have to deal with, as I'm looking for employment opportunities in much warmer parts of the country. I'm having trouble posting pictures from my phone, but when I get it figured out I'll post a picture of my winter setup.

Very Nice - Your car looks great with your winter set up !!! Here is a pic of the first 11 OEM rear spoilers that had fitment issues. They were so bad, Mobile service said they wouldn't even attempt to install them.

 

[Thedrflaminco]

Very Nice - Your car looks great with your winter set up !!! Here is a pic of the first 11 OEM rear spoilers that had fitment issues. They were so bad, Mobile service said they wouldn't even attempt to install them.View attachment 518549

Thanks. I'm tossing around the idea of debadging the front and replacing the rear "T" emblem with the second generation Tesla performance emblem from Abstract Ocean.

Weird that all of those spoilers didn't fit, being that we're OEM. Did mobile service give you any reason why the fitment was so poor? Seems strange the factory would be producing parts that don't fit. Almost makes me want to gamble with buying an aftermarket one. Also, forgot to ask in an earlier post...let's see that NSX!

 

[jkoya]

Weird that all of those spoilers didn't fit, being that we're OEM. Did mobile service give you any reason why the fitment was so poor? Seems strange the factory would be producing parts that don't fit. Almost makes me want to gamble with buying an aftermarket one. Also, forgot to ask in an earlier post...let's see that NSX!

They had problems with the fitment of the rear spoilers for quite a while and there are two part numbers for them out there. There are a lot of threads of the OEM spoilers lifting at the edges because of fitment issues. Mobile tech said they wouldn't install a poor fitting one because carbon fiber is very rigid and will not conform to the shape of the trunk lid - causing the double stick tape to fail. I had my car upgraded to HW3 last week and there was a P3D test drive car and the spoiler was lifted at both ends.

I'm currently running without the front and rear "T" badges... From the rear, people have thought my car was a VW Jetta !