Herbmiester

I am fairly sure I have seen this car around Wellington in the past, but to be fair it was a long time ago. Looks pretty tasty.

The way I see it is Holden's (modern) have decent retained value while Euros lose value like nobody's business. I guess its all down to Jap imports.

Jason Camissa from Motor Trend is my favourite presenter, he loves his BMW's

I have heard worse.

Yeah I know cool and Kia dont go in the same sentence but just look at it; its a genuinely good looking car. It reminds me of a Maserati. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPi_eBQXXP0

E46 M3 should be there and leaving the CSL variant off the list is borderline criminal.

Yes I agree its feels good to change manually and that's the main thing that keeps it as an option on some cars.

The manual has been surpassed by the the DCT, it changes quicker and still gives the driver control. I am a bit nostalgic re the manual transmission but technology moves on and having driven a number of DCT boxes now I appreciate how good they are. The M5 promises to be a really good as it will finally break the 4 second barrier as its almost guaranteed to be 4WD. The new 550i will do it in under 4 which makes it theoretically faster than the outgoing M5.

Yes I agree very good looking car, but best of all BMW have realised that big horsepower needs 4WD.

Agree FCP Euro is my choice as well. That said buying out of england can be cheaper again if they remove the VAT and Parcelforce are cheaper by a mile than US freight companies.

I will admit I used to watch Top Gear, sure it was a load of bollocks and factually all over the place but they had fun in cool cars, they were funny, did stuff we would all like to do and the Stig lapping the track actually gave you some reference points. Well I now think the best Car media, and I use media as TV is no longer the sole option, is Motor Trend on Demand. Now for those that dont want to pay for the monthly fee you can just wait a month or so and it will be on You Tube but I have decided to pay the cash as I am not the most patient person in the world. Anyhow, what I like about it is that the presenters are pretty well informed, obviously they have some driving talent and they have a bit of BMW content on there. In the last year or so they had M4, M2 E30 Touring, M4 competition pack and M4 GTS. They have also had a run down of the M3 from E30 forward and some really interesting head to head match ups. Jason Camissa is the BMW guy and has an E30 touring that their test driver Randy Pobst lapped Willow Springs nearly as fast as a new 340i. There was also the infamous M4 vs Camaro shootout and the M4 vs M2 comparison. The latest head to Head involved the M3 comp pack vs the AlfA Guilia vs the Cadillac ATSv and the Merc AMG C63. Very interesting, on a track the ATSv the M4 and the Guilia all were within a second or less of each other. The ATSv was proclaimed as having the best Chassis but the Alfa was the pick. The M3 comp pack was reported as being a lot better than the original M3 and fixed most of the problems that plagued the non comp pack car. As a car guy I really like the show and there is quite a bit of other content including Roadkill which appeals to my DIY roots. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D87tO7VUs2I&list=PLA97180860447EE6A&index=10

Well done, keep it coming.

So Ron part of the original question on the thread asked "Is the absolute power produced (or torque) make any engine a performance one." Now what you have focussed on is your KW/L arguement, and for the umpteenth time Ron that was not the only part of the question! And as people other than me have demonstrated big cc engines that have horsepower ouputs above high revving small dipacement engines can be considered performance engines based on thier power alone! Whats also clear is that the only NA engines that meet the criteria are high reviing engines, which is fine because these engines are great in thier own right. The simple metric that meaures this is yet again power to weight. This drags on to 5 pages as much because you dont accept this. There is no derailment here, how could there be when the acual question is being answered. The reality Ron is that you have very pronounced likes and dislikes and your biases cloud your arguement. For me I like most engines and have owned big CC pusrod engines High revving 4 cyls, rotaries and of course the smooth BMW 6s, and its clear that a great chassis like an E36 would match up very well to an engine with 400plus horsepower, how I go about that is yet to be realised but whats clear is that its unlikely to be a NA engine unless the cc rating is above 5000

I have a 318is with a blown motor, have been thinking about an LS but also 2jzgte or even a Nissan RB a great chassis in need of the requisite amount of horsepower

E30 M3s have the cult following as much for thier rarity as anything else. The E36 is a very underated car and the chassis is very good, as a daily driver I would have an E36 over an E30.

So here's what I take from this thread. NA engines that make power at 7000 RPM or better are pretty much the only engines that get classified as performance engines.(By Ron) LS Engines (alloy)are not performance engines even though their light weight and size allow them to fit into small engine bays and give significant power to weight increases. The E36 is not an exciting chassis (even though Ron owns one) Torque is largely overlooked in this discussion but it's a real factor in street car performance and while turbo motors can emulate this level of torque they lack the linearity. Finally to dispel the rumour that pushrods dont rev read this. http://www.hotrod.com/articles/4-8l-crank-ls3-block-how-to-build-an-8000-rpm-ls-stroker/ no rocket science here just short stroke big bore basics. Now that in an E36 sounds like some fun. Over 100 HP per litre. And unlike some of the mythical motors Ron has put forward this one is a bread an butter build. Now I already know from posting this in the wrong area that's Ron's response is basically to abuse but the above build shows that by Ron's metric an LS can be a performance engine.

That colour is stunning.

Ron are you admitting engine weight is a factor, surely not.

Mazda RX8 with the Renesis 1308cc and 177kw =135 KW/L with no torque.....

So i have fitted the Style 350s with 225 and 255 rubber. The first thing I noticed was that the steering was a little more direct. The fronts that come on the 350's are Nitto Nt830's. the old tyres were Hankook Ventus 2's. I really dont know much about either tyre but the Nittos give decent feedback and seem to have some grip but I haven't pushed them to the limit to really see. Looking at the description I think they are more of a touring tyre. At the rear its hard to pick, Newish S001's vs new Re003's so far its a wash. I do have a slightly wider track at the front 8mm and less at the back 2mm. There is room to push the rears out another 10mm each side so will have a look at that in the new year. The bottom line is that the car feels more precise on 18s than 17's and the ride is slightly firmer but not anywhere near uncomfortable.

I have reread this thread a few times and what's patently obvious with the method used to calculate this is that it's all RPM dependent. If a NA engine makes power above 7000 RPM its got a chance of being a Performance engine based on the the stated criteria. Torque has been largely ignored. So Mazda wins the day with its Rotary engines it seems.

I also have been considering a M Factory LSD. I got on some forum somewhere and read a big thread on them. it was all very positive.

So my Konis have finally turned up in country and I hope to fit them along with Front M3 Control and control arms.(Stiffer bushings and a bit more camber.) I am tossing up whether to fit some aftermarket springs. I have used Eibach in the past and have been impressed. On the e92 the Eibach ProLine are progressive and will drop the ride height by about 13mm. From what I can gather the Eibach spring rates are similar to the BMW sport springs. Just wondering what others have done with their e92/90 suspension and has anyone fitted a bigger rear anti roll bar?

Fitted the style 350s to the E92, this time I had 255s on the back rather than 225s and the look very good. The Re003s have at least as much rear end grip as the 17 inch 255 s001s that were on there. Replaced the seat belt handover arms so now I don't have to reach all the way back to get the belt. The konis finally arrived in country so next up is suspension with M3 control/thrust arms up front and maybe some Eibach springs. Gave the E46 a thorough interior clean. It came up really well and I am so loathe to sell it now. Wife got a new job and may take the e46 as her company car but I might take the Ohlins road and track suspension out and sell it as she won't appreciate or use it.

E30 prices are just ridiculous, so glad I am an E36 fanboy.