rxsumo

To answer some questions.... Where do you get AVGAS. Try your local aero club, or alternately there is usually a Gas Station around a circuit that will supply the stuff. At Taupo, its the BP Service Station a couple of km around the corner from the Track. At Manfeild its the Mobil Station outside of the entrance to the track. At Petrol Station prices it aint cheap. You can buy it directly from the Fuel Depot, (in drums), but the cheapest way to buy it is in a 205lt (44 gallon) drum, and you will need a dangerous goods licence to transport it, and a dangerous goods store to store it in this quantity (check with your insurance company...most only allow you to have 20lt in storage) You cannot legally use AVGAS in any quantity on the road legally, and as a result you will typically sign a form that you wont use a vehicle on the road with the stuff. You wont be able to rock up and put AVGAS from the Service Station directly in the car, you will need to take jerry cans, because of the last reason. Rally cars use AVGAS on the road, because of a loophole, that says that you can have trace elements of leaded fuel in your exhaust emissions. In theory the rally car is filled at the start of the special stage with enough AVGAS to complete the stage, and then are filled with normal pump gas for the touring section (Yeah Right!) Whats the effect on your car. DONT use it if you have any emission controls on the car. The lead will kill catalytic convertors, and will kill non-lead O2 sensors. If you have removed the Cat, make sure you have changed the O2 sensor. I havent had to replace an exhaust yet though using AVGAS, and I've used it on multiple cars, with factory and non-factory exhaust systems. I would suggest that unless you have a turbo car, or one of the high compression engine variants that really want 100 Octane fuel the benefits may be non existant The other good side effect is that if your car has carby's then it might run smoother, as the fuel weight of the high octane pump gas is suited for fuel injection and not carby's, the AVGAS is probably a bit heavier (not too sure) If you are going to use it on your car and put the car into storage, make sure that the car is run on pump gas prior to parking it up. AVGAS is hydroscopic (absorbs water), and will cause corrosion within you fuel system if left for a month or so, and I have seen large deposit buildup in carby float bowls from sitting AVGAS.

I can confirm that option 560 is in actual fact Rear Seat reading lights The sensor by the sunroof switch is an additional IR reciever. The alarm works as soon as the Deadlocks are engaged, and I think it can be engaged by using the trip computer keypad. SO you dont actually need the Fob. Dont get too hopeful on the range of the fob....its not that good

The Alarm is probably Infra-Red...ours is....means a trip to Shellys with around $300. Paul is that the total extent of the build sheet, I thought our cars were identical, and if so it should have listed also 464 Ski Bag 570 Extra Battery in boot 415 Rear sunblind ...manual 291 Big wheel option Havent got the build sheet for ours, but I've got the dealers sales manual that lists all options for E34s (when they were first released)

These was a set of those wheels sold in Auckland off trade-me about 3 months ago....sold for $1200 with tyres...should have brought them....Same guy had some 16 inch 528 rims that I got for a couple hundred

There has been a couple of "B10"s for sale of late, I think both of them were auto's.One of them seemed like a E34 that had some Alpina tags, and not much more....

Theres another little hitch for importing the car into NZ....its LHD..... Is it a twin turbo or the standard B10, the twin turbo is just about the coolest "sleeper" around, the standard B10 would actually have less BHP than a stock 540 While the mileage is low the car is pretty pricey.....in the UK these start at around 10K....which would me you would land the car in NZ for less than $40K For the twin turbo, they cant be registered as they are LHD and the cars wouldnt convert over too easily given the location of the turbos...damn the Germans and their silly steering columns...who needs em anyway...just use the throttle

Silly Question , but did you ring the Shell Technical line, and report the problem? These guys keep a check on the petrol going into the service stations, and will respond to an issue. might get you meths dollars back

and thens theres the story of the fresh Jap import SUV, that Caltex Jville repainted cos of the chemical damage caused by the cleaning fluids a couple or three years agoI'd rather drive a dirty car than have a Car Wash "clean" my car.

My E34 came out with Factory Security, although the remote unit was missing when I brought the car. The remote is a infra-red unit, so your aftermarket remotes wont work. BMW charged me around $300 for a replacement unit (and that doesnt include the key!). The E34 unit only does the same as normal key operation....lock....deadlock....and close windows and sunroof. The key part screws to the rotating blade unit

I guessing that you have either cut down springs or springs that arent designed for the car. I assuming that the springs can move around when the car is jacked up Probably the cheapest option is to get some standard springs or alternately get a correct set of lowered springs for the car. The only other way is to limit the travel on the strut....and that is a strip down of the strut or new strut territory...expensive

This is getting a bit of topic but here's the response from BMW on 535iS specifically my car but...."Your car was original purchased through the "tourist delivery" scheme by Mr G Smith of Palmerston North on 05/04/1990. The model designation of "S" was a NZ marketing term only, as the car was assembled as an ordinary 535i, with various added options including M-Technic suspension, seats, and sports kit. There are no factory modifications to the engine. Yours faithfully, G.J.R. Wenzlick Warranty Administration BMW Group New Zealand" I'm guessing that they are very special because they are virtually "fully loaded" from the options book, and are probably unique that they were all factory spec'd like that. If you brought a British iS, you would have paid extra for the seats, the big wheels, the full body kit, the climate air, the premium sound etc etc. From my reckoning (and my dealer sales book), the only options these manual cars are missing is the heated seats, factory cellphone, ASC (I'm not too sure if this was an auto only option), and an electric sunvisor. They cant run the tilting rear seats because of the ski bag..... I think you will find that an E34 M535 does exist for the British market but it only was around in '88 and maybe '89 until they introduced the iS. On the M5's an associate of mine brought one 3 or 4 years ago for around the low twentys mark...about the time the dealer had my car on the yard at $22K.

yeah but the problem with RHD, is the steering gear mucks up optimum exhaust/turbo pipeworkbut I have a LHD E23 manual 7er sitting in the backyard....there could be a project in that......

I assume by performance, to compare apples with apples, we are talking potential cars in the prices range and stock performance figures (non LHD...no specials...Alpina etc) Quickest 3 series...... E30 325.......131 MPH, 0-60 7.4 Quickest 5 Series E34 535........141 MPH, 0-60 7.4 The E12 535 will do the 0-60 sprint in 7.1 but finding one of them here would be like trying to find hens teeth Source of data Total BMW Data file ah...... as the 5 series will out run the 3 series and the 0-60 is the same....perhaps we should be sporting and call it a draw Now if you have 30K or so to spend and could import a LHD car...shall we mention the E34 B10 Twin Turbo....... as for a M535, I suspect you actually want a NZ new 535i manual. I think the M535 was only released in NZ in '88, my car which is a manual 535 was marketed later as a 535iS, but BMW say these were standard 535s with a large option list. BMW say they never sold any 535iS's in NZ....it was only a marketing thing. The British M535 from my understanding is a less optioned car than the NZ 535 Manual. The NZ car would seem to be a combination of the M535 and the 535SE.

The V1 seems to work just fine for me. However I would take the time to read the NZ Driver Magazine article on Radar Detectors and it might change you ideas if you intend relying on a detector to save your licence. Most of the American reviews on radar detectors generally dont factor on the use of NZ style Ka Band (NZ Speed Cameras and Stalker in car units) Police radar units, so information from Car and Driver and Road and Track shouldnt be taken as factual in NZ conditions. NZ Driver also tested on road rather than Test Tracks. Its real easy to say that one detector will pick up radar at 1.8 km and the next at 1.7km, but from my experience on the road, you very rarely get a situation when you have a section of road that long and you get lucky enough that the cop random blasts all the cars in front of you so that you have warning. The new Stalker units in my experience have a very narrow beam and as a result if the cop is around a corner from you, you will be very lucky to get any indication even though he is zapping a car less than a kilometre away. However that said V1 is very good on Speed Cameras, and on mobile units that have their Radars switched on (not instant on). Article's I have read would tend to indicate that the Lazer Jammers also are fairly effective. Some of the American Domestic Detectors wont pickup Speed Cameras because of their anti false alarm circuits (V1 not affected), I have an Escort for about 2 weeks and gave it back, as I cruised past 2 speed cameras without a single beep. And some information on non Laser Jammers...... To my knowledge there are no jammers that will work with the new Stalker mobile units. I did some research a few years back and actually purchased an Interceptor jammer, these units worked (just) with the Hawk Police Radar, and worked down to about 50 feet. However these units worked by recognising a Police Radar signal, replicating it and before the Police Radar could work out that the signal had been returned and calculating your terminal speed, screwed the signal up so that the Hawk couldnt calculate your speed. The Jammer needed 10-12 milliseconds, to get the signal organised, the Hawk needed 15 milliseconds to get a lock...hence sometimes a "quick" Hawk would beat the jammer. The builders of the Interceptor reckoned that you would need miltary style jammer (and a lead lined suit), to get a jammer to work in under 10 milliseconds....I think the Stalker locks in 5 or so milliseconds...hence you wont find a jammer to block conventional Radar. Hopefully this has been a little useful..... Oh and the reason I speed...... Quite often I go away with a trailer, comes with competing at car shows, and sprint meetings. Up until very recently I had a 80kmh speed limit on the open road....I'm guessing that most of you law abiding citizens really get pissed off with following a trailer at 80kmh for miles on end, with not enough passing lanes and quite often the traffic sequences mean you might get stuck behind me for 5 to 10km. I'm fairly considerate and will keep as left as possible, and allow people to pass where I can but I dont see any reason that I would have to pull over and stop every 5 kms just to let people pass...its not my stupid rule! So I take the easy route and stick between 95-100 to keep within the traffic flow, and keep harmony on the roads, unfortunately the Traffic Taxation department dont quite see it that way, they see a revenue opportunity(at a 80kmh limits that 15-20kmh over....bingo!)....so I take precautions.

Depends where the lock control is situated....at least one of the German Euros...either Merc or BMW....can be opened by a very flexible hand going under the inner guard and removing a relay!....I know the E34's is inside the rear seat cavity...so not quite as easy.As already mentioned one of the advantages of the rollback is that with a slippery deck you can drag a car thats locked onto the deck...otherwise thats what wheels dollies are for. One of the trucks they use in the UK for plucking illegally parked cars is a side loader....again you can pick the car up without having to open it I'm guessing its easier for the company to moved a locked car...saves on the claims about the stolen jackets, stereo's etc later....

Depends really on how you want to do it, and how fast you want to achieve the look. If you want a 535 manual then the base car is probably a minimum of 10K, a hunt around Trade-Me will probably get you a 535 Auto for a few grand less than that. If you want name brand wheels then Trade-Me could be a good start, of late there was a set of the Alpina B10 Twin Turbo rims....9 and 10 inch wide? rims that sold for around $1100, I brought a good set of Racing Dynamic's 17 x 8 and 90% Bridgestones from one of the local performance shops here for $1600. You could check with one of the second hand wheel importers unless you really want to go new. Not too sure on the Body Kits for E.34....if you get an NZ New Manual, chances it will have the M-Tech Body Kit fitted as Standard. One comment, I would make if you are looking at E.34 535, they are thirsty to run, mine typically does around 14-16 MPG around town averages no more than 20MPG on a trip, and with the race car on the trailer does betwee 14-18 MPG. The manuals are a bastard around town, really heavy clutch and the torque makes the driveline shunting unpleasant....much happier on the open road. Our one is used for touring rather than a daily.

Nissan lent/gave the cops 200SX's and 300ZX's, no doubt as a deal for buying Maxima's for patrol cars.Since in the past the cops have brought lots of Falcons for patrol cars no doubt there would be a deal done by Ford. While the Big Fords may be expensive for joe public, the Government/Police buy price was something like a third to half of the normal retail

ah close.....Apparently the speed camera van that operates out of Blenheim, is an old shape Mitsi , full of rust and looks like a backpackers wagon, curtains and all, broken down on the side of the road. Apparently is one of the best earning speed cameras around.... The same area also uses a WRX

No I'm not a towieMy wife's father built PCT's (and most of their old tow trucks!) and some of HCT's rollbacks (from photos of the Aussie rollbacks, he's fairly clever when it comes to engineering....good kiwi bloke), so I've got a wee bit of knowledge on them

Rollback is the sliding deck tow truck. Like PCT and HCT use. Deck rolls off the end of the chassis. Deck moves off the chassis to give around a 11 degree entry angle. Makes it easy to load completely destroyed cars (like Brock's Commodore, at one of the street races ) The deck is usually flat plate....ie slippery, that way you can pick up a locked car modern car (with deadlocks) with no damage, and you dont need to open the car. Only problem is they dont work for carpark snatching....not enough room to operate the truck....other reason for dollies...cant open the car...need the dollies to move a vehicle with locked wheels!

I think you will find in Wellington, Collins, Porirua City Towing, and Harbour City Towing have dollies on their trucks....only required with Auto's or 4WD when you cant get the axles to free wheel.A lot of the towing is done with Rollbacks....less damage than this style of tow truck. The company's are more likely to use the dollies, cos it saves on Insurance claims later

One of the disadvantages to a LSD is the increased oversteer at the limit. To Quote the 535 Owners Handbook section on the multi disc LSD "A car also tends to spin round on its vertical axis (centre of gravity) when the power output is high or when load reversals occur on surfaces with a varying degree of grip. A good deal of skill is required to control such skidding or spinning, particularly when driving in a highly enthusiastic manner" See the Germans do have a sense of humour...closet drifters?

AMI is good if you have few things insured with them. They insured my race car at a better rate than the ones quoted above. If you are running a race car you might want to think about 3rd party cover for the car. Sounds silly huh....... Picture this....race car cruising on the back of your trailer on the way home. Draw bar problems means trailer goes walkie off the back of the car, race car then breaks free and trashes a house...new 7 series..(feel free to insert your own worst nightmare here). No worries the damage will be covered by your car insurance because of the trailer provision braaaap The insurance will cover the damage caused by the trailer...but not by the car sitting on the deck..... Hasnt actually happened to me but I'm rather glad I spoke to the insurance company before finding out the hard way....

One of the main reasons for running locked diffs is weight. A LSD unit for something that has huge torque....V8s and big boost turbo cars.... has the disadvantage of additional, weight 30KG+ over the weight of a locked diff. In the case of race cars the concept of a locked diff, doesnt make much difference, they are a bit harder on rear tyres than LSD/open diffs, and you end up driving the car like a go kart. The locked diff is the reason that the rears of the Super cars are put on wheel dollys when they are moved around the pits.