He must not have been going for it. With the mods you've listed you may have an extra 20hp, maybe not even that without tuning. An e46 m3 will go in excess of 180 when delimited, and Evo tops out in the mid 150's or so I've read. I've only had mine up to 140, but it just recently eclipsed 600 miles. I did several back to back runs on a desolate road to start breaking it in and beyond 120 the speed biulds at a slower pace and once you hit 140 it really slows. Now you have an extra 20hp with an exhaust, maybe, so I'm not sure how you are blowing by an m3 with such gusto. I think it is more likely that the guy/gal didn't have the cajones to stay in it, or he would have handed you your *** prison style

 

i agree with: didn't cajones to stay in it, or he would have handed you your *** prison style.

i agree with: Get a turbo upgrade and skip the JIC mani (upgraded turbo will come with a manifold... just make sure its a good kit that has tubular equal runner length headers, twin scroll split headers is up to you ported match is a must) btw you will get more gains from port matching everything.

i don't agree with: exhaust - by no means do you NEEDa 3 inch, esp. with stock turbo. Won't hurt to have it though, especially if you plan on a turbo upgrade in the future. Stock turbo will do just fine with a 2.75 inch downpipe setup though.
bigger is better and don't forget all the weight savings of getting a good turbo back. also consider eliminating your o2 housing.

keep the fuel upgrades in there cuz you know you wanna get a bigger turbo (for sources check out buschur's 20G kit for the dsms that is if you are going for road racing... if you can let it go just take the buschur kit and sack the hks piping and all that... it's just expensive.) if you wanna look into subtlties get turbo wrap kit and larger intercooler stuff like that, don't waste it on piping for a stock setup that may or may not fit correctly.

i agree with this: Real men have a lumpy idle.
but this is prolly better : 264/272 if you tend to drive daily.

reprog yer ecu or better yet get an AEM stand alone and 6 gauges (three on a-pillar three on dash) to tell you everything you need to know. :]

i agree with this: You will need arp head studs, and good retainers/springs.
good safety messure, you are running high profile cams.cam, warping stretching... it's all bad.

uhm... this: Will i **** M3 till 150mph after such light tuning?
your goal should actually be... after i take off my fuel cut and speed limiter and i'm putting 480 to the ground can i hang with a bone stock viper that is only putting 430 or so to the ground. nah i'm just sayin' that cuz that's what i wanna do. but it's a good question. makin' more horses doesn't matter that much at high speed when you're tryinna spank a car that is made for it. sigh... playing with the numbers i still can't figure out if higher rotational inertia of the viper and the high speed inertial affects would be beat by something that is making more power but has a bad drag coefficient and lots more drive train losses ect.

 

How bad is the drag coefficient for the Evo? It's limit is imposed by the ecu in the 150's somewhere. The car seems much more at ease in the high end then my old wrx. It's not as vault-like as my c32 but it does feel better than my z06 did (heresy I know). I'd be very curious to know what an EVO would do on the top end with 350-400whp. As for drivetrain friction there are many high end fast awd cars, 993/6TT, skyline, mucielago..etc, so why should it slow the Evo down??

 

Totally agree with this, he was just ahead of me then accelerated but I think I had a slight jump on him or he was not really on it. I did the same thing with a new NSX, I knew HE was trying hard because he bouched the rev liminter TWICE.

My EVO would run out of gear if he had some ***** for sure, when I was at 140 I think I was spinning 6800 rpms. Just pushing to much air, flying brick!

At my local race track I was racing with an E46 M3, I would be close coming into corners (my car was MUCH better under braking) and stay with him mid corner to exit. It is a very fast track (AMP) with some long straights, just could not keep up on the straights. I was trying so hard that I was overheating my tires and just started to fade (about 110 degrees that day). I was really impress at how stable he was and how easily he was able to power oversteer corners.

Winston

 

I think this is where the rear wing comes into play, my car feels stable at 100 then really stable 120 and higher. I have played with the adjustment on the rear wing and found at the highest dowforce the car was more stable at lower speeds but did not really have a place to check how such top speed would be directly affected.

Winston