gjm

Change of plans. Oh boy. Miss doesn't currently harbour any long-term plans for driving stick. She'd learn in an automatic if I'd let her, but I'm insisting she learns to drive a manual first - she can do what she likes after that, As such, I'm not going to pile blood, sweat, tears and money into sorting this car in a way I'd describe as 'properly'. The temptation is to put it back together and go from there, but if it was subsequently sold then the new owner would probably be stripping it again. So, it's for sale. I'll sort a proper posting for that.

I'll always try to buy parts here if I can, but it does have to be competitive. I'll happily pay a little over the odds for something for the convenience of having it quickly (if it is fairly local) but even locally sourced parts can cost more and take longer to ship than something from overseas. And that's before we factor in the price of the item. I use Paul at MillAnd for a lot of new parts, and go genuine BMW for many others. Some will come from overseas (but not the final stage 'hedgehog' resistor - Chinese crap!) I hope I've developed a good relationship with suppliers. Paul, and BMW, are able to supply most things. However, there are many less satisfactory examples. I was recently looking for a replacement brake caliper for another car. Used, here, $230, after negotiating down by $60 or so. Same item, shipped from the US, just under $160 delivered to my door in 3 days. I offered the local supplier the opportunity to come down further on their price but they weren't interested. That's fair. It's their business, and I will go back to them again in the future, because they're not always too expensive. But if local suppliers can't or won't match price on a used part, from a parts car, which is on the shelf (and in this case unlikely to go anywhere very soon!) then what chance do those suppliers stand? I do buy parts from Germany because I know people there, get very good deals, and know they'll have stuff on the shelf. Over here, it is likely not practical for dealers to keep the same range of products (as Jeevan said), because the customer base is a tiny fraction of what there is in Europe. A little lateral thinking can pay dividends - there's a lot of good engineering and fabrication work done here, and so long as you want quality but aren't hung up on originality, that can be a real benefit. [Edit]: Just checked brakes pads suitable for those calipers. under $50 delivered from Germany for ATE parts; unknown manufacturer on the shelf locally - nearly $80. If the prices are at least close I'll go local. Support local business. But...

I have friends living in Wanganui - they love it there. We've visited a couple of times and really enjoyed it. I know a lot of people have a contrary perception, and our feelings are based on good weather and suchlike. We liked Stratford and Plymouth too, Stratford particularly. Hopefully someone is intimately familiar with the area and can recommend places to live.

Accelerating hard inside me, then diving into a gap in front of me that was suitable for following the car in front at around 105km/h, but not to put another car into, and then standing on the brakes (this last bit really got to me), forcing me to brake hard Following far too closely Cutting off a lorry to get to the Pukekohe exit Accelerating hard (from 100+) on to the slip road, then having to brake hard (and sounding the horn) at the another car who also decided, a little late, to use that exit... What might be funny is that the two cars in front of me were both Holden saloons, one silver and one black, both had more antennae than you'd normally expect to find on most cars, and both appeared to have discreet additional lighting. Nice car. Dumb driving on a busy, fast road. Hopefully a one-off.

Dark blue E60 (I think) 535i driving up Bombay Hills from the SH2 interchange, before getting off at Pukekohe. Three letters, two numbers rego. Don't know if the owner is on here, but if you are - mate, you need to check your driving. Your exhibition this morning was exactly what gets BMW drivers a bad name.

Were wagons (estate cars, Tourings) issued with these a standard equipment when new? Somewhere there is a huge stockpile of covers and roller blinds for our cars, For whatever reason, they just don't seem to get left with the car when it is sold.

How did I miss that...? QUBE, on 09 Mar 2016 - 7:16 PM, said: i dont think they will be 8" wide. probably 7" or max 7.5". offset probably around the 35-38 mark id say? Ta.

Hans - price...? Are they 17x8, and what is the offset?

This one has been put to bed. Following my writing an extensive diatribe on what happened, accompanied by pictures and annotated diagrams, the insurance company have replied: "Thank you for sending through your statement and diagram along with the images. We will not be holding you liable for the damages to our clients vehicle," Given they'd already said that I doubt they'd have had much luck had they changed their mind.

Slight circumstantial, to be fair, but we now know who did it since the spunkbubbling cockwomble told several people in the pub. He drives a white and carbon fibre (look) Skyline R34, and has regularly boasted of the speeds he has 'achieved' along the road outside our house (and other people's houses, obviously). Police aren't interested since they've not caught him. Must've been fast, since all that was heard was "Meeeooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww......................"

A M5 followed by a M-badged 535d. In fairness, the 535d has an option list as long as your arm, including lots of M-sport stuff.

It pays to be careful. I was told, many years ago, that a 205 tyre on an 8" rim was optimal. That was in the old days before you got quite so many variations in profile, but the idea was that the sidewall was an effective continuation of the rim. And it... Well, it just fitted nicely. I know from experience that one manufacturer's stated tyre width isn't necessarily quite the same as another. We're on to our third set of 215/45-17s and the current ones - Hankooks - look to be slightly narrower than others. They have a more aesthetically pleasing look on the 7" rim, while Michelins seemed to have pronounced sidewall bulge. I didn't buy them because they look good, but that is a happy accident. If a stretched tyre is more effective when cornering, it suggests the owner doesn't have their camber set up correctly. Stance is another case where I admire the effort and engineering that can go into it, but it's certainly not for me.

I like the paintwork! So, today, the 320d was washed and driven to Mt Wellington so I could have coffee and talk car stuff for a couple of hours. The Merc 500SE - I investigated a graunching brake noise from the front o/s. Turns out that when the PO had some brake work done for the WoF, he was done too. The inside piston has seized solid in the caliper. I can rebuild, of course, but it'll most likely need new seals and possibly pistons which I can get, but they're 2-3 weeks away. There were two manufacturers used for the calipers: ATE, and Bendix (Bosch). Everyone carries ATE parts, so guess which I have? I can get a s/h caliper from the local Merc parts specialist, but even that is ~$250++, and I could buy a whole 500SEL parts car for that. I really don't have space for a SEL. I've got a lovely pair of 4-pot ATE calipers that could suit, if the mounting holes lined up. Sometimes you're a pigeon, sometimes you're a statue. Today I feel I have been both.

Cuz... Cuz... (Isn't that the same as brother/sister/wife/father in some parts of the US?) Cuz I might wanna actually drive it? Because it's there to be done, I guess. I do the same. I dare say some of the things I do would seem equally pointless to those who put a lot of time and effort into stance and the like.

Sounds like a Porsche 911! Take an ill-handling car that'd kill a driver not on top of his game, and spend years making it work! A triumph of stubborness over physics. Take the two most significant (in weight terms) parts of a car, hang them over or behind the back axle, and then make it go 'round corners. I really admire the technical capability of a lot of newly-developed cars, 911s included. I wonder though how we'll get on with repairing them in 20-30 years time? That said, many main franchised dealers seem to struggle to look after any car more than 20 years old anyway. The brute force approach does have this to be said for it - it'll probably be repairable down the line. Smaller engines making big and economical power are remarkable, and while electronically and computer controlled everything giving infinite variability is great use of technology, is it actually robust? That sense of strength is a contributing factor to character. Maybe I'm a dinosaur. Maybe young people today think 4-pot screamers have character too.

Why? I suppose it is a 'look', but is there any technical reason why anyone would want to stretch a tyre on to a rim that is too wide for the tyre? I've commented on someone who has 16x9 rims who wishes to fit a 195/45 or 205/50 tyre. The lower profile although narrower tyre could be legitimately fitted to an 8" rim but the 205/50 isn't typically designed for fitting to anything wider than 7". OK - that's your (grand)dad's view of the world, but it's my engineering view, too. I know some tyres are now designed for that stretch 'look.' As I said... Why? Is there any possible benefit to doing this, or is this just another performance-impacting mod that's done for looks? There's even a website for those keen to do this - www.tyrestretch.com. There are some examples on there where the bead on the rim is simply not used! Here's a 105/70 on a 6" rim:

Yup. It's an excellent starting point, and no mistake.

Use? No idea. Fun, definitely. It's as much a case of doing it because it's there and I believe I can as anything else. I want it to be road legal and have long since cast off any thoughts of avoiding certs and the like - that's going to be needed. Just one thing though... It'll not be like skintkarter's Gp5 E21! I don't have the skills to produce a build like that.

It's a BAD thing. Some of you will know of the near financial destitution we've encountered as a result of paying for operations for our cat after he was hit by a speeding car outside our home. It's a nice, long straight piece of road with good visibility, but also with a number of small children and many animals living on either side. The incident happened in very early January, the first weekend (incurring even more expense), and he is only now returning to his normal self. Gerard is much better now, recovering from several operations. He had a jaw broken in three places, broken nose, broken mandible, collapsed lung, the other lung at least half-full of fluid, and when we found him, blood coming from mouth, nose, ears and eyes. His claws had been ripped from his paws where we can only assume he was trying to stop sliding on the road. He's had wires inserted in his jaws to hold them together, but the blood supply through his jaw did not resume in time so he subsequently had to a piece of jaw and one of his lower canines removed. Not everyone likes cats. Fair enough. And let's be dispassionate about this one cat - we could have bought dozens of pedigree kittens for what it has cost. (We don't want dozens of kittens, so no thanks, before anyone asks. ) However, this could have been any other animal, or a child. Or an adult. We're all in a hurry sometime, but arriving late is better than not arriving at all. Or causing someone else to not arrive. On a lighter note, I've spent some of the intervening time coming up with a way to sort this issue. Speed bumps. Yes. I know, cars zoom between them, braking hard at at the last second to ease over the bump, then burning rubber on their way to the next one. Still, it's worked in trials. https://youtu.be/vuunB0XGQPs

The evolution of BMW is a predictable thing. Mercedes went through something similar in the mid-90s when the accountants took over. Great cars up until then, with a reputation all-but destroyed by cost-cutting measures, 'economic' engineering and a massive drop in actual quality. The hewn from rock feeling old Mercedes had was lost, starting with the rust-prone W210. Some of that has been regained, but it'll be a long time before Mercedes are actually known for it again. Newer BMWs, and newer cars generally, just don't grab my attention. Aside from the fact I'll struggle to work on them, there's monumental amounts of technology in them just waiting to go wrong (in my opinion). That tech isn't even used to it's limits - look at cars like the Koenigseggs now being produced... Even they are combining known working solutions, but to far greater effect. BMW are about making money, of course. Sadly it seems (to me) that has become a predominant reason for manufacturing cars, rather than something they work toward as a result of the cars they have made. Makes economic sense, but ensures the amount of soul involved will be tiny, if it exists at all.

T'other way about. The M12 and M13 engines were based on the M10. There were a lot of differences, and the older they get the more powerful they were. In reality, I doubt anyone really knows exactly what power they made, but it was a lot. It's safe to say the F1 qualifying engines were making well over 1200hp at their height, although reports of 1500 may be enthusiastic. The race engines were typically 6-900hp depending on when and the circuit. I don't yet know if it will happen. There are a couple of ideas I have that need verifying for actual viability rather than satisfying any 'be realistic' type issues. If it happens, it will be ludicrous. Maybe not Koenigsegg One:1 ludicrous, but you get the idea.

I don't think anyone has ever considered mentioning common sense when talking about me! You're right. It is pointless. There are other ways of achieving the same thing, several of them being from Honda, but that's not the point. I know you know what I mean! Cost is an issue. I reckon the top end - cam, rockers, valves, springs, etc would cost around $3500. Forged titanium H-beam conrods: another $3500. I can get a 2.7 stroker crank, but that's almost a mortgage away! All these parts are rated solid and reliable beyond 10000rpm. Let's have a chat about your M10 some time.

It's Friday evening, dark outside, too many flying bitey things in the garage when the lights are on, and for a variety of reasons I have time on my hands and no alcohol to help pass it. So, I've started doing a teensy tiny little bit of planning for what I would like to do with an E30 coupe shell. I made the decision a while ago to stick with a 4-pot engine. Lighter than many 6-pots, and more room to work. And fewer cylinders means fewer expensive parts required. And that's as far as it got. In the interests of moving things along, I've since decided to go with an M10. It's original. It's a nice, simple, strong and reliable engine. (Yeah, I know, I'm missing a trick with the opportunity of some of the later engines but I'll live with it.) Admittedly, this decision was influenced by exchanging some emails with a friend in Denmark, who has a friend in Sweden, who has done some silly things with M10s. (And that's without getting into the whole M12 and other variants discussion.) Most recently, he's been developing some top end parts. Roller rockers maintaining better geometry than stock, but weighing more than 5g less. Each. That's over 40g saved from just the twiddly bits in the top. This guy has been testing the rockers, too. He's set up a kit to test cams, rockers valves and springs. Pre-warm oil (of course) and see how long it takes for them to break. It's no fun doing these things at normal engine speeds especially when that's not where they're likely to be used, so how about winding the whole thing up to 10000rpm, walking away and and leaving it for several hours? Subsequent measurements show no measurable wear. An accidental spin to over 15000rpm didn't break anything, but that wasn't sustained. So, this seems like a good idea. Just need a crank, block rods and similar that can do that, too. And a gearbox. And...

Imported from...? Anywhere hot and humid will mean the headlining will be sagging soon, if not already.

Coulda bought my 16s for that sorta money, and they've got near-new Michelins on them! I s'pose when you've got a fancy motor, it has to look all proper-like, even if it's only standing in the driveway... Saw some Style 97s earlier today. I could be persuaded to have those on the 320d in place of the 73s...