Neal

Done it with my E36, just remove the glove box (piece of piss to do), you can then attach the RCAs, run the cable with remote turn on lead down the left hand side (fit them under the sill), route them under the seat and into the boot. Hey presto, i usaully suck at that stuff but managed fine

Yeah, this is the same route as the 94 E36 with factory badged sony changer

How much is shipping from the UK? and how long do I have to wait?

Not sure on shipping costs as our's was free , but it took 7 weeks for our contain from London to arrive in Tauranga and another week for it to arrive in Wellington when we moved back from London.

Not too sure, but the main reason for the rear is the seat belt mounting for the rear seats.

Yeah , no cutting of pannels within 300 mm of Seat belt mounts , according to ltsa. Done for everyones saftey.

was looking at this and was wondering if you can buy wide body front and rear guards, if so where from?

link

Must be someone how's copied the AC E36 M3 CLS arche's by now

http://www.ultimatebmw.co.uk/month.html

Used to have bad tram lining on my AC type 1's (16x8) running 225/50/16's with a Uniroyal performance tyre

I moved to Bridgestone Gii and then later gIII's which cured the tram lining / weaving under braking & downhill stability

.

This weekend I replaced the fronts with the new bridgestone re001 ( http://www.potenza-adrenalin.com/ ) these are the replacement for both the Giii and S02's. No tramling with these and seem good so far. The design looks like it will protect the rims (No as much as the lower profile older verson Giii)

In terms of tyre threads ..... Yep they do crop up , but there are always newer tyres on the market so these threads do need to crop up again. Maybe it's work a sticky thread on tyres with opinions that can change as the tyres do. I've seen this run well on motorcycle track day forums

Just remembered , 8 inch type 1's may require the rear arches to be rolled with anything wider than a 225 so check clearance if you go to a 235 (the 225/50/16 rear Uniroyal's used to rub sometimes )

Very nice with all the right options.

Hints .... If you hop out of the car and have left the windows down you can close the windows from the drivers door lock by turning the key anticlockwise for about 2 -3 seconds and hold it in that position. Any windows left open will close.

has anybody ever owned a suzuki vitara/escudo

looking at picking one up for the missus and just need info on them.

looked at one yesterday, a soft-top one but the zip on it was broken. how much would it be to fix the canopy?

any help will be appreciated

My wife was going to buy one of these a few year back , fortunately she took it for a test drive on the motorway which included a roundabout after the exit. After the thing nearly rolling and been extremely gutless she changed her mind and brought an E36 318I , She has since upgraded to a 328i and has never looked back. Make sure your wife give it a good test drive before buying, should be enough to change her mind.

As for bridge ported rotaries at 2 am .......... wait until your 40 + and one turns up outside your place at 2am ........ must be getting old.

I wonder if anyone can shed some light on this. I have recently read on the uk bimmersport sport site that the 323 and 325 e36 1996 model have exactly the same power. However the 323 they say is just restricded by the exhaust. Is this true and does anyone have any more information on this???

Secondly i'm trying to find a performance chip for my ecu. Trouble is i cannot seem to find one. Can anyone help me or is it better to just upgrade the ecu to a link of microtec ecu.

325i is 143 kw

323i is 120 something kw , I understand that the inlet manifold is also different. Schintzer used the older 325i one on the 323ti upgrades they used to do in the 1990's to restore some of the difference.

thats the hyabusa turbo, that thing is nuts, up to 110k in first gear.

Saw a "Busa" turbo in action late last year are the Carterton Sprints. The guy was running a lowish boost which resulted in 230 rear bhp.

Was having issues with the standard ECU so wasn't running to it's full potential. Still managed a flying quarter around the 290 km mark.

A standard non turbo one managed over 300km in the last sprints.

Cars

1, BMW E30 M3 (most successful touring car)

2, 930 Turbo , Porsche get serious

3, BMC Mini (ok .... I own a couple of these ,41 years of production)

4, Contach Lambo

5, Merc SLR

Bikes

1, MV Augusta

2, Britten V1000

3, Ducati 851 Best sounding L-twin

4, Yamaha R1 (1999) , First lightweight 1000cc road rocket

5, Buell Old iron meets motorgp

Redoing the back, almost done but got a whole lot of alternator whine...before I run 0 gauge from the battery I wanna try find another spot in the boot. At the moment I am using one of the top shock bolts as the earth...its sanded etc but still whinges.

ANyone?

Negative terminal on the battery would be the best earth , but I suspect your picking up the noise from else where

My e36 325i 192hp ,1240 kg ,77 hp per ltr , 155 hp per tonne (or are these e36's 1340 kgs can't remember)

Wifes e328i 193hp ,1240 kg ? 68 hp per ltr 155 hp per tonne

My 1330 cc turbo mini club car 660kg ( probably lighter )133.5hp @ 15 lbs 100 hp per ltr 197 hp per tonne

Second mini 1000cc 660cg 38hp 50 hp per ltr 50 hp per tonne

My Ducati 750 , 200 kg 130 hp, 130 hp per ltr 650 hp per tonne or 400 hp per tonne with rider

I am off to UK for a month in May. Also stopover in Singapore on way over and Kuala Lumpur on the way back. At this stage have 'side trips' to Ireland and Paris.

Has anybody got any suggestions of 'Must See' places to go while I'm over there?

Either 'Car related' or not - wifey not so interested in cars

Cheers!

I second Silverstone , and if no racing is on then I'd recommend the following

http://www.silverstone.co.uk/php/de_ferrari_exp.html

http://www.lastminute.com/lmn/pso/catalog/...RODID=361599784

I did this a couple years back in a 355 , I see they have changed it to a 360 now.

Otherwise I thought Edinborough in scottland well work a visit, as was the Imperial war Museum in London

The day tour of London is probably a good start.

Not much that I've done, still trying to figure out what previous owners have done as the engine numbers don't match up. I've got a pretty big carb in there.

I've just put in a half decent sound system (waiting on a sub to be delivered), upgraded grounds, upgraded wire from battery to fusebox and done a half assed job on the seats.

I'm not great at much else, but if anyone needs advice on sound systems in their cars just give me a buzz.. it's the one thing I'm good at

Pics tonight hopefully

Welcome and look forward to the pics, my first BMW was a E21 323i/6 . I'm still very fond of the E21's.

I can remember the E21 was a bit of a sound challenge with it's oval speaker layout and sealed metal speaker enclousers build into the rear deck , plus the boot was well sealed off as well. Will be interested to see how you've overlayed your sound gear. Cheers Neal

hey westy

did you cut out factorys or have one made i up i take it you have modedfied factorys now i know what im goin to need

did you run any spacers?

cheers P

PM Sent

No cutting required to fit Sony HSF 6.5's into the front. Metal speaker cutout needs a couple of mill adjustment to fit in baskets.

im going to run a fusion tube sub with built in amp for a little bass in my car plus i need the space but need to upgrade my car speakers big time

can someone please settle this and recomend what i should put in i understand that 5.5 an 4.5 are not to common so can i go bigger? ?

i have a e36 coupe , im wanting to upgrade asap

what is the best option

cheers

Pboy ,

I had a typo in my previous email , 5.25's will fit in the front without issues. The rear 4.5's are in a ported enclosure so I haven't done the maths to work out the rear enclosure volume / tuned frequency / Q factor and if a larger speaker will work in the enclosure .I suspect these are tuned in the 90 / 100 hz region which is a bit high for 5.25's and above.

I still run the 4.5 rear speaker as they are fine for rear fill and you don't run the problem of over running infinite baffle speakers sitting in the rear parcel street with the cones been overdriven with subs in boot. (The surrounds of the speaker cone will rip over time .... trust me)

I run the rears off the head unit and have the fader at the lowest level possible for the rears.

In terms of speakers check out this page from a different posting

http://www.bimmersport.co.nz/forums/index....15&start=15

Cheers

Neal

Showing my age (and maybe poor taste !)

I few I've been listing to lately

New Order , Every things gone grey , Blue Monday

Cure, A forest

Grand Master Flash & the Furious Five, Jam on it

Bill Idol, White Wedding, Sweet 16

Pink Floyd , The Wall

Inner City, Good life

Sylvester , Rock the box

Fad gadget, (Elmo style 80's band)

The Clash , London's calling

The House sound of Chicargo

Marginal Era , This heaven (Old theme to Radio with Pics)

The Chills

Kind of embarrassing , Still have a couple of hundred 12 inch 45's from DJ'ing in the 80's that hit the turntable from time to time. Still have the old BVL mixer as well.

Does anyone know what sort of connection the kr-U660 (std in the e36) uses to connect to the CD changer? I believe these are a Sony model so do they use an Ai-net or Din connection? Any help would be great.

Uses Sony Bus system cable , Also has RCA Front and Rear out. Brilliant tuner too, will pick up fringe radio stations that modern decks won't.

I have recently purchased a parts car, it is a pre F/L m20b25 and i have noticed the following things which differ from other pre F/L's i have seen in the past:

factory battery in the boot?

Cloth recaro interior

full on board computer (where clock usually goes)

Has someone opted for these additions from new or is this quite common for some 325i? i have yet to check if it has long distance fuel tanks (possibly SA model???) i also noticed a different BMW steering wheel more of a racey look, quite different from my original BMW wheel. After smoking up the rear wheels i am delighted in the fact that it has an LSD, could this be an iS model????

Some earlier E30 323i's had these as options and dog leg gearbox

hey i got some 6by9s for my e30 nand they real dont work for me. not what i wanted at all. what should i replace them with?

I don't thing I can ever remember hearing a good sound 9 x 6. These are only good for shear volume.

Go for front two way speakers. 5 1/4 will fit straight in. I'd suggest speakers with detachable tweeters. Mount the tweeters on the dash up against the windscreen.

Go have a listen to as many speakers as you can , don't buy unless you've happy with the sound.

If you going to a car stereo company take a selection of your fav music. Get the store to select a head unit that has all its sound enhancements turned off and is running flat bass and treble. . Get the store to turn off any subs in the system and have a listen to the speakers only with your music. That way you'll here what the speaker actually sound like

Select speakers in your price range.

Listen carefully to the tracks you’ve selected. Ask yourself, does the treble sound ok, is it too harsh, is it too smooth, are the vocals clear, does the speaker convey the music well for its price.

In terms of speakers bands I'd recommend having a listen to entry price models from the following brands. (These are some brands that I've listened to)

Boston Acoustics

Phoenix Gold.

Sony XSH series (XSH series are embarrassingly good for the price)

Rockford Fosgate

JL audio

Focal

In terms of bass in a BMW, because of the factory speaker size you'll need to add a sub to fill in the bottom end base.

For an entry level system I'd spend more on the fronts than the Bass as your ears are less sensitive to lower frequency distortion. You can get reasonable sounding bass from a 10 inch sub mounted in a sealed enclosure. (Don't run too smaller enclosure otherwise it will sound boomy)

cheers

Neal

has anyone got any pictures of information about the JPS 325? i like it, but have no info/pics or anything and would love to know more

also, anyone got pics from my car at the track? or video? andy you gonna post taupo up?

thanks fullas

My mother put together a photo album of pictures recently that my late father took of the earlier Wellington Street Races. (Mobil 500 / Nissan Mobile 500) It has a number of pictures of BMW's which include cars that Richards /Billington drove and also included what I think was the Black JPS e30. Dad worked for the harbour board at the time so had access to most areas of the track including the pits so there's lots of good photos.

I'll see if I can scan the negatives and post them here.

Hi Charles28

Alpina paved the way for this.

Google Alpina B8. Alpina made around 220 E36 based V8 Coupes. They ended up being 4.6 L engines.

I saw one of these on the M1 around London last year.

Pistonheads.com has one for sale so you can get the general jist of it.

I believe that the issue with RHD versions is the exshaust manifold does no allow for RHD steering . Maybe that's just a case of getting custom manifolds done. I'd love to do this conversion my self at some stage if it's possible.

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/184790.htm (link to B8 for as long as it lasts)

nice spotting on the bimmerfest - thats a mint condition one.

the 333i was only one spec - the turbo i think was not a factory option... i stand to be corrected.

The 333i turbo was feature in either top car or bmw car in the 1990's (unfortunantly I threw my copies out) , Wasn't a factory option.

The Alpina B6 and Hartage H35s are similar in may respects but both use the 3.5 rather than the 3.3 big six.

When i was living in London last year these cars were selling for the 5 -6500 pound mark , about the price of a tidy e30 m3. A mint 325i sport would have been about 4000 pounds tops at the time.

My fav e30 based big six is the Hartge M3 H36 which was an M3 with the 3.5 M5 engine in it .

I think there is a silver 333i in Wellington, I'm sure I saw one a few years back getting serviced at Shelly's. Good luck with finding one

Edit, BMW Car May 1997 feature a standard and turbo'd 333i

Specs

Euro Spec 3210cc inline 6

Getrag 265 CR dog leg gearbox

25 % locking LSD

1256 kg

0-60 7.3 sec

Vmax 143 MPH

Aplina 7jx16 rims

Blisten Dampers

Sports Exhaust

197 bhp @ 5500

210lb @4300

You'd think that they would have blown up the place or the car outside or something ........what an anti climax

3Pedals is right.

I have an e36 325i manual and a e36 328i auto. Both are standard apart from the 325i which had the Cat removed NZ new in 94

To move the 325i along it needs about 4000 -4500 before any real acceleration happens and most of it's power is in the 5000 - 6000 range. Max power is close to redline so needs plenty of revs.

The 328i develops it's power/torque far earlier and although both engines have similar HP the 328i feels quite a bit quicker and needs far less revs to do it. I think this is the best part about this engine. Also for my commute the 328i will get another 30-50kms per tank over the older 325i engine. Last week it managed 630km to reserve light on a trip.

Either way the price difference between 323 & 328 aren't great. Although NZ new 325i are easier to get as manuals and normal have a higher level of interior trim. Possibly hard to get these days with low KM's.

The auto 328i will out accelrate the 325i manaal from standstill or any speed (as proven by my wife).

Anyone ever done 6.5s in the front?

Yep, you need to take out the factory speaker sound deadening which gives more than enough volume for a 6.5 they will give a lot more mid bass and run to lower frequencies than 5.25's. In my wife’s car I run the Sub crossover at 63 Hz which give a good up front sound image. I'm not able to do this in my car as the 5.5's bass roll off quite quickly so need to use 80 hz which does pull the sound image back a bit

You'll need to lightly knock back the metal edge of the existing holes a wee bit and the 6.5s will slip in.

Also check the panel that covers the underside of the Dash on each side as this can move down and sit against the top of the speaker rubber surround. You can either push it up a bit or trim about 10 -12 mill off it.

Surprisingly the factory covers still fit over the speakers without the speaker hitting them on bass excursions

.I'd check out front splits as this might not the same for all.