Jacko

Not the article mentioned above, but recent UK mags article of Tiff Needells BMWs to buy now as they are going to appreciate in value.

^ What he said, less fuel, but less steering feels as well. There is actually a car magazine article (from memory it was a US mag, that didnt get 130s, but the guy was so amped about trying the 130s on the track he wrote an article on it), one was auto/manual and lci/pre lci, was interesting... and I cant find it anymore

Ive done 100,000+ km in my manual 130, its now at 250,000+ km... averages 8.5l/100 km and is on its 5th set of tyres by me (thats about 10k.. in tyres ) It has broken down a total of never times. Look after them, feed them good oil, and fix things before they break (like oil leaks and belts etc) and you'll be golden. LCIs have some have minor improvements (unloading alternators etc) for fuel economy, but its very minor, but also lost the hydraulic steering of the pre LCIs, so its not all win. LCI's have a better interior, but, again, its not major differences and if your dead set on the LCI interior its a straight swap to update (my 130s pre LCI with LCI interior). AFAIK all NZ new 130s are Msport, most Japanese imports are

Dunno if you have driven a regular E-LSD hard, they are awful. Like properly awful. Im sure Mclaren is in a different league due to hardware/software driving it, but in a 1/3 series its just crap, even on the road. If you're buying groceries E-LSD is fine, if your enjoying even a slighted spirited drive on a B road though its going to drive you crazy, particularly if it starts raining. Dash lights up like a christmas tree and nanny steps in and ends all fun. With E-LSD still enabled and a proper mechanical LSD (Quaife in my case) it is epiccally more tractive when grip drops off, and is 100000% more predictable when it does. Also nanny on the dash remains very quiet, whatever algorithm is controlling the E-LSD must compare wheel speed before axles speeds step in under the stability control, its possible to get much more sideways even with full nanny turned on (and without it sucking power away). To give you an idea of the difference in traction levels off the line, My 130 apparently did 0-100 in 6.3s when new, now my 130 which has 250,000km on a totally stock engine etc does 5.8s and would go lower if I was was being meaner to the clutch! If your serious about getting an LSD, Hit up Birds in the UK, its not cheap (cheaper than BMWNZ!) but they know their sh*t.

Made them both clean, at the same time.

I thought my broil king and casio G shock from 10 years ago was pretty cool. Now I feel inadequate.

Are the spring perch rubbers in properly? Lower shock mount in the control arm bolted in and not ripped in two?

Post 93(ish?) they changed the suspension geometry which reduced that tendency, I had a 95 SW20 for awhile, was well behaved.

MR2s are one of the things that popped up in my brain, even a "dull" non turbo SW20 (2nd gen) are quiet fun and very reliable 3SGE camry underneath. Bit long in the tooth, but.. MR-S (3rd gen) is also an option, would meet more modern safety standards, and are convertible which gets girl bonus cool points. 1st gen AW11s are very rare in any condition that would be worth buying, unless you're an absolute enthusiast (they're awesome fun though)

Safety a factor? I can think of a few but by modern standards they are death traps.

I got mine from Birds in the UK, has Kayne Barrie motorsport rebuild the diff with the LSD centre installed. Totally changes the character of the car for the better.

Awesome, E81s are very rare here, yours is the second Ive seen. UK/Singapore import? Step 1 with a 130 : LSD Edit - Singapore - https://www.mdecoder.com/decode/ve72044

Agreed, Haldex is terrible to drive "enthusiastically". might as well just be FWD and save the weight, at least then there isnt any misconceptions about understeer.

Well, maybe humanity has lost its way then

Got stuck behind a 2018 320 GT yesterday, after taking Rays S65 130 around the block. BMW have lost their way.

Agreed, his youtube channel was better than post clarkson "Top gear"

Bump. Getting dusty. Need to clean house before sale.

Offfffffeerrrss, surely half the E8/9xs out there have flogged out rear end bushes

Make me an offer... Going to sell house soon so need to clean up

Minizzle

NVH - No not really, the SMF caused way more (my guess anyway, I did it all at once ,but changing box fluid flavour stopped any gearlash chatter when the fluid got warm) Shift effort is the same, but its very very direct, nearly feels gated. I drove another manual car last month, and realised how much better the 130 shift is now. Definitely a good upgrade and its easy to do.