Hey guys,
In the tradition of long-winded posts, and being inspired by some of the recent greats of DIY/review (you know who you are), I figured I would give it a go. I've got a decent sized list of mods that I someday hope to get fully flushed out, but given that I'm not immortal nor am I printing money... well, I had to prioritize. I thought about the aspects of the car, thought about what I loved and what I would love more of, and I realized one important thing about myself...
I am a turbo whore. I love the
whoosh of a well-spooled turbocharger. Every first mod on every car that I've had (that has been turbocharged) has been an intake to accentuate that noise - why break with tradition!
That being said, I did some research on the forums and also put my google-foo to work. I've read the tales of what might yet come from one well-known manufacturer here, as well as the performance claims from another lesser-known one, but ultimately it was ARMA that I decided to go with. Partly because they were great to deal with over email, but also because the couple photos I saw of the installed result seemed on-point with what I was expecting to get out of an intake on the M4. Here's an important point I think is worth making (and this is not a jab at anyone in particular): an intake on this car, without tuning or whatever else, is meant for two things... to be good looking, and to sound nice. This may be debated, but I don't want to get into that; I'm merely giving you my state of mind in the selection and how I'll approach reviewing it.
Big props to
Snipe4real for all his hard assistance (and beer!) during this install. Thanks to ARMA for the customer service and working with me to make my install a reality. I also want to apologize in advance for some of the photos I'll put up here, a couple are a bit blurry. We didn't have the best lighting situation, and sometimes the pictures were a little rushed.
For those with no time, the TL;DR is this:
- Instructions could be a lot better
- It looks pretty fantastic
- It sounds pretty fantastic
LETS GET ON WITH IT
What you need:- A buddy
- Some beers
- Good lighting
- Torx set
- Torque wrench
- 10/13mm socket
- Some patience
How long did this take us:
end to end it was about 2 hours, might have been a little more, but that also includes the time we spent going "HUH?" with the instructions at first. I think this could be done in under an hour with an enterprising hand.
PACKAGING & INSTRUCTIONS
The packaging was pretty good! The product ships from Taiwan, and actually arrived to me within 4 business days of finalizing the order. I have to give major props to ARMA here, because I've definitely had longer shipping times from domestic car performance companies.
Inside, everything was wrapped quite nicely. Not wrapped in microfiber a la IND, but well placed and protected none-the-less. We inspected all the pieces for any scratching, but it all seemed top notch. We couldn't help from going "wow" and "this piece looks great" each time we pulled something out of the protective wrapping.
We got everything laid out on the floor and took a quick inventory. Now, I don't have a photo of the instructions they provide, but let's just say that they aren't the most clear. You get a listing of all the parts you should receive, to include the screws and whatnot, as well as the instructions themselves in the form of some black and white photos (ARMA provides a digital color version on request, but didn't ship a color one in the box for some reason). There was a brief moment where I thought "wait, does the kit not come with all these loose nuts and bolts they have on here?" before realizing that everything came pre-attached to the pieces where they belong. Denoting each item on the instruction list is good for double-checking, but that's all it is there for (no additional pieces required - except for maybe zip ties, will get to that later).
In the couple threads here on the product, I know people have asked about weave comparison. I don't know really much about the actual production of CF components, so I'll let others be the judge as far as technical bits go - but as far as looks, we felt they were pretty spot on with the existing stock brace.