cainchapman

Conrod, "Speed Kills, play it safe. Drive a Ford!" Sorry, I know the UK (Cossie & Shelby) Fords don't really fall under that category, but on the whole. Fords are sh*t. I prefer one of Bert (Kev's) Mazda's!

Those wheels look OK. Not much else does though.

Yes, it's a real Tiger. Awesome fun. Thanks for the skinny white guy. I haven't been called skinny for ages! Conrod, do you still have the Cossie powered wagon too?

Bummer Carl. I hope you weren't keeping your Porn back-ups there.

Me, on the right. Andrew and Sparkle, you are no chance!

It's not a spider.

Well done, my favourite track. Some interesting lines you are taking there. What times did you do? Obviously using the long track (minus the dipper) there as you are at the hairpin. 2:05-2:10 is my guess. Nice looking car too.

2-3 car lengths over a 0-100 run is quite a bit. From experience, I can tell you that a 2-3 car length lead as I change into 3rd (100kph approx) on the drag strip is being beaten by 2 secs at the other end. The Scooby ran a 12.6. (N.B. *sic, I haven't been beaten by a Honda yet) 40kW sounds very do-able. As you can get 200+kW from an S42 if you chuck enough money at it. Conrod is right, for 2 grand, you are not much chance at all.

In the wet, mine will spin the tyres from 2nd to 3rd also Paul. TC catches the slide quickly. Not much you can do about, outside of getting wets (and then having them wear quickly). I can vouch for the Yoko A048R as a dry tyre, very good for anything up to standing water (ask Milan about our drive to Vilagrads in the wet). It was pouring and we still managed most corners ay 100kph. Noisy though, sounds like a 747 taking off at speed, at 200kph the noise is deafening.

As had been said before, you get what you pay for. I'm with Conrod & 3Pedals on this. It is like buying a $200 helmet (or worse, a 2nd hand one) and being surprised when you die. "Cheap & Nasty", that saying is not a coincidence. There is a massive difference between it and "Value for Money" Fit some Crossply's if you want tyres to last forever. I can buy reasonable tyres (not for track work) for about $250 each for the 540iS. I'm sure if you look hard enough you will be able to buy a quality tyre for a good price.

Leather is best! Easy to clean and comfortable. I get bagged for suggesting it, but an Alfa 164QV from around 95 may be about the same price. Awesome cars much more performance than an E34 525, and they have heated front and rear seats (which I did love in Christchurch over winter). Torque steers like a bastard at low speed, but was only a few seconds slower around Ruapuna than the 540iS. About 1:55 on the full track.

I'm with Conrod on that car. It is definitely an acquired taste. It may have power, but it doesn't have class.

No problem Paul. I won't take offence. They came with the car, why put something heavier on it? If it was good enough for the M5... easy to clean too. The 17x8 on the front and 17x9 on the rear is a great combination on the E34, obviously you end up with staggered sizes though. Mine are 235/45/17 on 17x8 all round. I think that the 17x9 is a 255/40/17. Brent can correct me as he has this on one of his E34's.

Check the signature. Turbine II's

No disrespect, but it is the DUNLOP Targa rally. So Jim has no choice but to use Dunlop tyres. I believe it may be the best of that range. A bit like asking Steve Jobs what the best computer is, and hearing "Apple Mac". I personally think the grippiest tyre (outside of a slick) is the Yokohama A048R. Pirelli P7000 last a long time, quiet, but not performance orientated.

That engine won't be allowed. It needs to be an E30 six or four cylinder. And no motors with an S designation. i.e the S42.

Welcome. Have fun. Nice pair of cars the family has.

Well, you might be right. A red Morris Minor doesn't get pulled over often. I can say that I was pulled over 5 times in 7 days in my Red X-U1. I'm not saying what the reason for the phenomena is, just regurgitating the Statistic.

It made the Herald the other day too. No wonder it takes them so long to get to call outs if they drive like that. I hope they charged him with "Careless use".

Red cars are pulled over twice as often as any other colour, so of course they are found to be speeding more often.

Christchurch doesn't have traffic! Rush hour happens 6 times a day and lasts about 10 minutes each time 0750-0800, 0820-0830, 0850-0900 and the same in the arvo from about 1600 onward. I've just come back from a week-end and had no trouble with traffic in the 348. Got some in car footage from the new 3G phone. Bloody good fun. It depends how you drive, I guess. No trouble in the 540 either in Auckland. Just general dickheads driving, I don't think it's intentional because I drive a BMW. They are just knobs, driving with their eyes closed and using the Force.

Not true on the SMG front. The E36 M3's came out with SMG and the change pattern was backwards. The E36 M3 3.2 has an awesome motor. I've never driven one, but was massively impressed on the dyno run at Bellars. A couple of kW more than our car and 100Nm less, but the torque curve was as flat as the V8. I'd love one.

Very nice! Good to see another 5 series. Starting to really love those E28's.

What a dick! I'm confused, how do you hit a tree dead centre (that's easy) and then hit a power pole in front of it in reverse? As the rear panel damage is from the rear, not the front. There must have been a doughnut shop nearby with the number of cops that showed up.

No, you are missing the point. There are plenty of 8 series, not many CSi. Ci are like E30's, everybody has one.