The carbon fiber front splitters I purchased are identical to the M3 Competition Package Carbon Fiber Front Splitters found in BMW’s Performance Parts catalog (part # 51112160271) which retail for a whopping $400 each. You need both a driver side and passenger side. That’s $800! Say it with me now – one, two, three: Nope. Nope. Nope.
Now I’m not one to skimp on quality but for a part that has zero performance impact, acquiring “knock-off” carbon fiber front splitters sounds like the way to go. One might ask why even bother installing such a part to begin with, and to that I say, “Have you seen them? WOULD YA JUST LOOK AT IT!?”
You already know carbon fiber is one of the lightest and strongest materials used in race cars and production vehicles. The E92 M3’s roof is carbon fiber to help keep the center of gravity low. And if carbon fiber is a new topic to you, you may hear mentions of the ‘weave’. The weave is essentially the pattern of the carbon fiber material when it’s laid down. By far the most common weave is 2×2, or twill. It has an overlapped appearance and the resulting pattern flows at an angle. The second most popular weave is the 1×1. It looks like a checkerboard and is just what you’ll find when looking at the carbon fiber roof of the latest M3, M5 and M6 sport coupes and sedans.
Mismatching carbon fiber parts by the weave pattern was never the intention, and in all honesty, I didn’t even think about the weave design until after the package arrived. Come to find out, BMW’s own Competition Package carbon fiber front splitters have a 1×1 weave that doesn’t even match their own roof! I know, odd that they’d do such a thing. But on the bright side, nobody is going to be able to tell since the next closest carbon fiber part on the car is six feet away. I suspect a BMW engineer said the same thing.
Unboxing
The unboxing was fairly exciting, I must say. The package was neatly wrapped and for the most part undamaged. There was an ever so small hairline crack on the edges of one of the splitters but nobody will ever notice. The weave was indeed 2×2 twill as I suspected and the splitters are carbon fiber over fiberglass. There is a nice clear coat that shines well at all angles but when you look on the underside you’ll find a sharp line where the carbon fiber ends and black paint begins. In comparison, the real BMW part is pure carbon fiber all the way through. It’s obviously a way to cut cost and I’m perfectly fine with it. Go ahead, watch the unboxing video below. We won’t go anywhere.
Installation and Fitment
Final Thoughts
The bottom line is that for the money these carbon fiber front splitters are molded about as well as can be expected. It’s unfortunate that the supplied hardware is – THERE IS NO SUPPLIED HARDWARE! You re-use a single screw to keep these in place. And while they won’t fall off, they don’t sit tight to the bumper.
If you put a little time into the installation I think they’ll look every bit as good as the factory BMW Performance Part at a quarter of the price. These things are going to be hanging at the most vulnerable part of your car. You have to expect these things to take some hits and get nicked up or possibly cracked. And if they do, so be it. I know I won’t be crying over $800.
At the beginning of this article I stated that I purchased these carbon fiber splitters on eBay, and I did. But the same seller is also on Amazon so regardless of your preference, if you use the link below to purchase you’ll be helping us keep this site running. Just throwing it out there!
Link to purchase on Amazon (same eBay seller I used):
Bonus Images
