The brakes on my M Roadster were working properly and the pads had plenty of life left, but I wasn’t overly happy with how well the car stopped. Since I was investing so much time and money to upgrade and overhaul the car’s suspension and drivetrain, it would be a shame to not improve the breaking as well. Luckily this decision was an easy one, because quality replacement brake components are fairly inexpensive. I replaced all four discs with Meyle OEM replacements and chose to use Akebono brake pads front and rear. The Akebono’s create very little brake dust, but have good grip and don’t wear too quickly.

With 75K miles on the odometer, the original clutch still felt good on the M Roadster and could probably last at least another 25K miles. But since I’m overhauling the car and I needed to change the seals on the transmission, I might as well go the extra step and replace the clutch as well. The cost of a clutch service at the dealer or even an independent mechanic can easily exceed $1,500, especially once you consider all of the other work you should perform while you’re in there. But if you can perform the service yourself, you’re only paying for the parts, which are actually not that expensive.

The suspension of my 2000 M Roadster is completely stock and needs to be replaced. The shocks have outlived their usefulness, giving the car a bouncing feeling over rough roads and feeling loose in the corners. To best address overhauling the suspension, you need to tackle a few areas. On the front end, replace the struts with new units, replace the springs with shorter and stiffer units to improve handling, replace the control arms, control arm bushings and tie rods to tighten up the steering feel and lastly, replace the sway bar links to make sure the car feels tight in the corners.

Not soon after I sold my Imola Red DINAN M Roadster, a few of my friends started asking me about my next car purchase. I had just sold my car after two years of ownership and countless hours of restoration and service work and I started questioning why I put it up for sale in the first place. I had really enjoyed owning, restoring and driving my M Roadster, but the time had come to let go of the little red roadster, even if I was selling it for less than what I had invested in it. I was ready to focus on other non- car related projects.