Lurker, Soon-To-Be Coupe-R Builder

[bspaulsen]

Figured I'd do one of these at some point - y'all can call me Brandon (or bspaulsen).

I'm a mechanical engineer and I'm going to be building a track-only Coupe-R in the near future, contingent on my lady and I locking down our first house (mortgage rates right now, huh?). We're in SoCal, Los Angeles area. My current daily driver is a 2017 BMW M3; its dual-clutch automatic is my favorite thing on the planet, so I'm going to emulate it on my Coupe-R.

As for my build, I've got a running google doc with everything I want, derived from all my 5.0 Coyote research and all of the build guides here (Moroso oil pan, KRC, digi dash, etc). I'll flesh it all out a bit more when I finally pull the trigger once I have the garage space:

- Track-only Coupe-R with IRS front and rear suspension
- Gen 2 5.0 Coyote (I like the look of these more, favor the dress-up kits, and want to mate to a 6R80 (not 10R80 that the Gen 3 likes) [currently holding a quote for PBH to build me a complete Gen 2 5.0 with their upgraded 6R80]
- 6R80 automatic transmission with the electronic Lokar bump-shifter and steering column paddles to allow for manual-automatic gear control
- Going to keep the ducktail spoiler as opposed to the APR wing (ironically went to college five miles from the APR location!) but may rotate to the chassis-mounted spoiler at a later date if I need to balance out the downforce generated by that fantastic Coupe-R FFR splitter and canard setup.
- NiCopp brake and fuel lines
- AEM CD7 Digital Dash with standard analog supporting gauges
- Wilwoods on all four corners, undecided on which forged wheels I'll go with, as I want something a bit more meaty than the Halibrands.

Incredibly excited to get to the build, I'll make a build thread once I place the order. Until then, I'll continue snooping through all of your build threads; catch me refreshing the hotrod/coup/mk build threads each morning with my coffee. Great to meet you all, I look forward to the help you all will undoubtedly provide to a novice like me when I get to the gritty stuff.

[q4stix]

Sounds like a great plan! Keep posting as you go along so all of us can follow

[Logan]

Welcome Brandon!

I feel like the 6R80 isn’t quite the same performance as the dual-clutch in your M3, but I’m sure it will be an easier approach to getting a paddle-shiftable automatic transmission.

I had Deja Vu when I read your post, because I follow a thread on another forum where the OP specifically mentioned the BMW dual-clutch trans being his favorite also. He is building a pickup truck, and decided to just put that ACTUAL BMW trans in his build. Custom bellhousing or adapter plate for an existing bellhousing could allow you to do the same.... put the real deal BMW trans behind a Coyote. Straight to the source!

Exciting plans for your Coupe-R! Hurry up and place that order already.

[bspaulsen]

Hah, I'm secretly hoping that I can pick up the new GT500 5.2L Predator that comes stock with a DCT but it may be cost-prohibitive. Maybe after someone wraps one around a pole. Thanks for the responses, can't wait to start!