Neal

A friend and colleague of mine for many years comes around for dinner and turns up in a X6M. He's been around performance cars, raced Mini's , owned the quickest Jap turbo car that I've driven , had HSV's and recently traded a 550i. I'm looking forward to going for a ride. He suggests we go for a ride and I leave the front door to find he's in the passenger seat. I tentatively hop into the drivers seat and start the engine. First impression is that this is somewhere between a SUV and a Saloon car. The twin turbo starts and settles into a nice super smooth rythm, not what I'd expect from something that makes 550 hp. I have a rather steep driveway which requires caution. Reversing up in my M3 normally gets a chirp from the tyres as one side will momentary spin. Yet with the x6m nothing. Just like reversing the wifes auto 328i. Am I in a diesel X6 ? We drive through the local suburb which couldn't have been easier , it has the manners of a 1.6 Civic with just a slight hint of the 300 kw twin turbo V8 in auto mode. I could believe how easy it was to drive considering the torque available to right foot. We get to the open road with from near where I live. A zealous 80 kmh speed limit imposed lately because of a few idoits couldn't drive and crashed on corners. The owner says try the "M" button on the steering wheel. He also adds that this adds "M" button another 110kw to the 300 already on tap. Thats another 160kw on top of my M3's 250kw odd. I push the pedal down and the transmission pops down a couple of cogs. The twin turbos + V8 spools up and I'm left grinning ear to ear. The acceleration is more like a linear push back like a 747 on take off. It's A lot quicker than the e46 M3 yet a lot smoother. There aren't the no power pauses that you get with the M3 SMG, the acceleration is steady thoughout. The turbos are that good that have no perceivable lag. The gear changes are super smooth but it justs F's off thru the sequnece of corners and I'm not believing the flat cornering or traveling 30% faster than you think your doing. I get to a local roundabout with an 100 kmh exit. I see a S14 drift rep in the rear vision mirror on the exit and floor the pedal. The S14 squats at the rear for a couple of gear changes but gives up the ghoast as it quickly gets smaller in the X6M mirrors. The X6m is very quick ! yet very stable and gets it's power down quickly and in a striaght line. The M3 would be fighting with traction at the rear if trying similar. In cornering you know that your in a heavy vehicle , yet compared to the M3 it's bloody good. The brakes are also subpurb which make sense as the dics fill the gaps in the 20 inch rims. The suspension in M mode is taught with only a slight hint of body roll. Fav bits is the heads up display of rev counter / road speed. Shows green/yellow/red zones and road speed. Your eyes don't need to leave the road. Engine wise with a twinn turbo V8 it doesn't mater too much if your doing 3000 or 5000 rpm. Put your foot down and there is more safe overtaking than you'll ever need. In BMW fashion it's very linear but with the X6M it delivers the power in a far smoother manner than my e46 M3. There is just a lot more of it everywhere. Getting home I remind myself that this is a $200k plus car. After a 30km loop I'm left very impressed. I get to my driveway and park the car. I can't believe how refined and well mannered it is (before that M" button is depressed) These X6's are 4wd yet handle closer to a RWD. It had ever extra you could want with auto closing doors, heated seats , electronic everything and the best standard sound system I've heard in a vechile. If I'm sucessful in "big Wednesday" I'll be dropping the Lambo and Q7 and getting a XM6. You wouldn't need both !

Sorry Anndy for the wrong steer. Meach

btw spoke to an old mac fan, suggested this site maybe of use http://www.drdos.net/ Around the time that this MAC came out I had a job as an operator , the system took up a large room and had 4Meg memory & 1.6 gig of disk. I understand that the buy price was around $4 million for the hardware.

Think this has been discussed before. Check out the formual holden series single seaters before you bag the engine. Watched one break the manfield outright lap record a number of years back. Not a serious amount of engine mods to do so either.

Don't has any Dospro diskettes , but I do have backup floppies from an Se / Se30 circa 1988. Pop an email up on the NZ computer society , I'm sure a few of the older members will be able to help.

All were factory BMW options , my old one had sports steering wheel & factory recaro's. Dog leg and LSD where options as where Aplina style wheels. There would be bugger all E21's anywhere in this configuration. Body kit is 1980's period Zender kit , just looked at an old zender broucher. If I didn't have 6 vehicles in the garage I'd be tempted.

You can always upgrade all the capictors with the same value with good entry level Hifi / Audiophile grade ones, especially if in the audio path. http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-X-ELNA-STARGET-2200uF-16V

Got my last couple of sets for the e36's from the dealer. Paid abput $120 from memory

Scott , just wondering what you do to maintain the finish ? That was a spectacular transition.

You could try and copy an old hartge or remus otherwise check out the link below. http://www.supersprint.com/en/prod-298-684..._m5_286_hp.aspx

while you are doing this if the mirror is auto dimmer type I'd look at replacing the glass rather than modify the exisiting one. There is a good chance that the current one will fail at some point and start leaking an acid like substance. The newer ones use better technology.

Been to Silvertone, circuit is in the middle of nowhere. (and driven the short circuit in a 355) My pick would be Monaco if you are going to the northern hemisphere. Sound of the F1 bouncing of the city would be amazing. Hear good things about Singapore as well from colleagues.

This vid bumps my fav wheel add from ADV

Was it the car condition or the SMG ? If it was the SMG it takes a few months to get used after the fine level of gear control that manual drivers develop over time.

http://www.ebay.de/itm/bmw-navigation-syst...=item1e6ae61cab note, radio tuner is older bm24 module so would pay to google it to make sure it works here.

pm sent

Eye candy in the motorcar form

Would be good to get one. Mine's in jap. Could I send you some virtual beers in the form of a deposit in you BC and money for postage ?

Any more shots of the E30 M3 ? Must be getting old .... I do mean the M3 Great to see so many iconic cars in such great condition. Went to the British car day in Wellington on the weekend. While not a concours event there would have been a number of contenders.

if the car has a tv it can be changed via the "set" menu. if not maybe navcoder software can do this ?

Some very narrow roads at the start there. Some great driving skills. Cheers for that did you see the 635 hillclimb run link on the refer ?

My old man would be turning in his grave if he new that the race was no longer. He put so much time into the use of the waterfront side of the race when it was under harbour board ownership.

The Race promoter company had cash flow issues and suppliers weren't getting paid in a timely manner. I’m not sure is this was poor money management or if the event provided marginal cashflow for the promoter. The company folded and people were left out of pocket (Excluding the entertainment and accommodation industries) Shop keepers where also complaining on loss of sales during race weekend as were a few local residence about the noise & road closures which put further pressure on future events The Wellington City Council weren't prepared to front the waterfront race financially and where hopping that the entertainment and accommodation trades would help finance the race. The council looked for another promoter for it to continue. They were however happy to assist where needed for roadwork’s and the like. The race used to bring $4 million in 1990 dollars into the Wellington economy on race weekends and the event was televised in many countries which were great advertising for Wellington.

There where some very dodgy practises going on around the time. There where a number of Mk1 RX7's cut in half and brought in under "parts" and welded back together in the late 80's only to be sold to unsuspecting car buyers. They where also selling for a premuim. I came across one at a large well known import dealer when looking for 12A Turbo Cosmos Coupe as was keen on the idea of a rotory tubro , fortunately brought a E21 323i instead and haven't looked back since. Import duty on secondhand cars ended up dropping to align with used parts

Managed to check the filter by accident when replacing the hedgehog looking resistor which was causing eratic blower function on the e36 328. By the condition of the filter BMW servicing had replaced it recently which is good considering the 1 to 1.5 hours per day spent in rush hour traffic. If you want to try being a contortionist try swaping the E36 hedgehog resistor thats on the passenger side up behind the console . Something best replaced by someone in there teens or early 20's. I'll never complain about doing up driveshaft CV' bolts on a old school mini again