cainchapman

Girls are like cars. No matter what you think, you are never really in control. Costs me a lot less to run my cars than my women. The smell of burning rubber is better with the car though. Gus is the KING! Whatever he says goes. Well him and Tim, always seem to have a good supply.

I didn't like A539's on my Blown Commodore. The Pirelli P6000 are not really a performance tyre either. P Zero Rosso's yes. Yokohama A008R are the ducks guts on a light car (E30 is) and great in everything except standing water. They wear quickly (note the R), so the A008 are good for general use. I don't know if you can still get them. But they do come in sizes suitable for an E30. Look at the tyres that the Porsche guys are using. As they consume loads of them, they are normally well priced if you can find someone who supplies the race guys.

M50/M50TU Straight 6 DOHC 24V/Straight 6 DOHC 24V with Single VANOS. 1989-1998. 136kg 299lbs Used in E36 320i/325i, E34/39 520i/525i, Variation of this was used in the Early US E36 M3 2.0 (150bhp), 2.5 (192bhp), 3.0 (240bhp) Sometimes referred to as S50US. Engine shares more common parts with M50 than Euro S50, but is a motorsport engine.

Stroll down to Technical books in Newmarket and look for the 3 series book. It lists all the chassis numbers by year for the variants.

See if you can get the "Green stripe" windscreen. The extra tint at the top of the screen hides the ugly mounting of the mirror to the window, that all newer BMW's have. I'd have hidden the Ronan Keating CD!

The 540iS was completely debadged and has remained that way. Even though it has all the M5 performance bits in the suspension. It still isn't an M5 (not that there was one outside of Europe in 95) At least with the older cars, BMW was actually doing something to improve the performance of the cars. A new motorsport has not much more than spoilers on it and the seem to be a BMW equivalent of a Holden Equipe (now not saying it's like a Holden), but they tart it up, to sell it off as a run-out. Tell your septic tank to look at an English website, even the BMW club of GB. Point him towards an E30 320iS if you want to see the strange variants of BMW's that do exist. i.e. It's an M325 body & suspension, with a detuned M3 motor!

Don't want to trade up to a 540is? Then I could join the boys on the track.

Outside of China, you guys also have the craziest cyclists too! It must be hard to ride your bike in Clogs though. Sorry Marcel. It's a great place Holland. Had loads of fun there. :thumb:

McMillans do a great job of looking after our car too. They definitely make money out of me, but they always squeeze the car in and do it swiftly. So, their service department keeps me coming back and probably will get another sale out of me. :thumb:

I don't know about that Grant. There are only a few people "qualified" to fix a Ferrari, however, they are no more techo than a new BMW. The injection in the Testarossa was like a truck diesel system. You need some special tools for diagnostics, but even Conti's took a year to fix a fault in the 348. It is the pure arrogance of them, that I dislike. It doesn't matter who you are, you should be given the courtesy of a response (even if it is one you don't want to hear). They just ignored my requests for a service date (didn't need to be urgent) and yet, they couldn't do it. :rambo: Stuff them, the guys at Lambo are dead keen to sell us the next car. It is a shame, as the new Ferrari's and Maserati's are brilliant.

I guess they have to be more responsive as they actually have competition in these brands. They are not getting an order for another Maserati or Ferrari from me.

Don't buy a car from Conti's. There service department is crap. It took me 3 visits in a week to get a date to service our 348tb. We had 3 other people with Ferrari's down in CHC who also wanted their cars looked at. So, if they don't look after us, and we've spent well over a million dollars on cars with them. How will they look after you, if you buy an Alfa or a Jeep? :banghead:

Gerry recommended Arrow in Patiki rd.

It looks great Tim. Did you dyno it before? That will answer the performance question.

Happy Birthday. I'll have one for you tonight. :beer:

I'd disagree with the bang for your buck comment. Compare the time of my 540is 14.75 down the 1/4 mile to a new Ford GTP (290kW) of 14.40. Guess which one is cheaper.

Sweet looking car Martyn. Shame about the football team. I'll look forward to seeing it sometime.

Nice cars and they go well too. Paul's one was only 2 seconds slower than the 540iS through the Slalom at Taupo 2 years ago. I was amazed at how well the aircraft carrier sized car went. Super touring cars. I still believe the 5 is the best car for all round capabilities. Brent is right, Holden and Ford are only catching up 10 years later. My work Falcon is a piece of sh*t. Wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding. Tha't why I'd like to take it to the drags to see just how slow it is. Feels like 16.5 secs.

Yes, I believe that is true. I can't name a race team that made this mod to their group N race cars. But it is meant to improve the engine. I am led to believe that it is more about the peak flow capability of the manifold. As always, any gain in one point will generally mean a loss elsewhere. i.e. you may get more peak horsepower, but lose some torque in the mid range. I'll make some call to see if I have got the story straight.

I won't be making it down. I've only just come home from 2 weeks away. Enjoy yourselves. Always some nice cars down there.

F1 is the business. Get up close to an F1 car and you will see that there is no better form of car and then try to take a photo of one at full speed. I agree on the Bike GP, Valentino is the Mike of bikes. It's just a shame that we will never see him in F1 cars. That would be phenomenal. Ferrari should give their motors to Minardi. They deserve a hand and they are Italian too (in essence)

6th gear is the answer Paul. 2000 rpm is about 110kph. So you cruise at a fast idle. I would have thought Martyyn's car would have been equivalent to ours on the open road.

E34 540is 1995 Manual 9.6l/100km on the open road 12.5-13.5l/km around town.

Cheers Emma. I'll let you know if I'm working at the Dunedin Street race this year (or have I missed it). It was a month after the NZGP last year. Who knows, not me. Only time I ever come down there.

Yes, on a rolling road. I don't know that they read lower than Dynapak (hydraulic) dynos. They (rolling road) just have greater inertial mass and don't give such accurate and responsive readings. Next time I'm at Meremere, I'm going to keep accelerating and see what I can get on the runoff. Yes, if we can find somewhere safe enough. I'd love to see if the limiter is fitted to my car too. In theory, I should be changing out of 5th gear at 235kph. I'll go to the next Pukekohe meet and see what we can squeeze out there, but it's slower now than when the old GP circuit was being run. I've hit 270kph in Tess then. The new bends bugger up your approach to the straight now. :banghead: