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#1. Re: heresy? - from Bryan Watts
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Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2000 01:13:55 -0400 From: "Bryan Watts" <wattba02@wfu.edu> Subject: Re: heresy? Sean writes: > so i ask... if you were rich enough and had enough garage space for as many > cars as you wanted. would you use your M3 to drive to work and to get > groceries and to move boxes? I respond...HECK YES. Although when you add into this equation the fact that I am 20, the picture becomes a little more clear. I can drive my race car around with 1000# and 1200# coilovers and not feel as if the ride is "too harsh." -Bryan Watts 95 M3- not much storage space, rides rough, who cares 92 325is- lots more storage space, seats one
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#2. Re: Driving/Racing Schools - from Bryan Watts
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Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2000 01:35:01 -0400 From: "Bryan Watts" <wattba02@wfu.edu> Subject: Re: Driving/Racing Schools John Payne wrote: > Hey Peter, check out http://panozracingschool.com They are located at Road > Atlanta and offer V8 powered panoz cars. They have 3 or 4 day courses > scheduled this summer. I have not attended but I talked with them last week > while in Atlanta....It sounds REALLY fun! I'll back up John's comments with some personal experience. I attended the Panoz school this fast spring. A GREAT experience as I head off into the land of SCCA and Club Racing. I would recommend this school to anyone who has done a few driving schools and wants to pursue driving in a competitive setting. This school offers excellent instruction as well as a great experience with instructors who are not only great drivers, but also great guys in general. It seems to me that the instructors I know at other big-time schools around the nation have the slightest bit of an ego problem that prevents them from interacting well with students. You'll be especially pleased if Johnny O'Connell is there as an instructor while you are there. He is a factory driver for Panoz LeMans cars and one of the strangest/funniest racing personalities you'll ever meet. Not to mention the fact that he is an amazing driver. Ask him where he starts braking on the backstraight of Road Atlanta coming down from 180+ mph into the sharp 90 degree turn 10A. Lets just say its past the 100 marker. To give you an idea, I was braking at about 480 in the Panoz car while doing about 125, and I was braking on the absolute threshold of lockup according to the nice sounds the tires were making (and the the occasional chirp of smoke as that threshold was overshot). The panoz cars aren't all that fast. Maybe not even as fast as a stock M3. But, they are harder to drive fast and more twitchy, as a race car should be. Plus they have cool little Pi electronic data systems in them. What really made the school for me was having the chance to finally be on track with my dad in an equal car. Lets just say that I logged the FT (fast time) for the school that weekend. Hence the reason I will be racing a K-Prepared 325 and he'll be racing a H-Prepared LTW, he won't have to ever worry about me being faster again :-) Good luck with your decision! -Bryan Watts 95 M3...faster than a Panoz school car 92 325is...slower than an H-Prepared LTW
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#3. Re: [E36M3] Center of gravity - from Jim Bassett
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Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 23:08:17 -0700 From: Jim Bassett <jimbassett@home.com> Subject: Re: [E36M3] Center of gravity At 12:12 AM 6/14/00 -0500, Jim Powell wrote: >Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 21:00:57 -0700 >From: Jim Powell <jsp98m3@home.com> >Subject: Re: [E36M3] Center of gravity > >Which side of the car facing up? It makes a difference :) You know, you'd think I'd learn not to be drinking and reading a JimP post at the same time. Nearly had soda all over the monitor! JimB
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#4. Road One High Performance Driving School - from Jim Powell
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Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 22:19:24 -0700 From: Jim Powell <jsp98m3@home.com> Subject: Road One High Performance Driving School Some of you may have seen a posting a couple of weeks back about openings in a small, private school being organized by Jordan D'Alessio at Buttonwillow. Buttonwillow is a great track near Bakersfield, north of LA about an hour or so. Well let me just say that I obviously went. And I had the best time I've ever had on a track. Jordan and friends, including Jeff Ireland of Ireland Engineering in Duarte CA, did a phenomenal job. I will do a complete writeup as soon as I download a few pictures I took and hopefully get some from Jordan's photographer buddy who took about 10 rolls of file all over the track. All I can say is that if Jordan ever puts on another of these events, I'm going without a doubt. I hope to see some posts from other list members who were there. Here's some highlights though... 20-30 cars in 2 run groups plus innstructor's cars. That's all! I went out on runs where there were only 3 cars on the track. Sometimes 9 of us total. No more trains. Instead of 4 runs a day with 20 cars each group, imagine 7-9 runs of 30 minutes at a time with 6-10 cars. Instructors for anyone that wanted them. Full safety crews ad corner workers. Catered lunch and dinner. Not subs, chips and a coke. Full dinners and dessert! Hotel included. Ice chests full of water and juice stationed all around the pits, included. I'm known as a finicky bastard who's tough to please and quick to criticize. This was a home run for track junkies. Jordan, if you see this, you did a damn fine job. Send me those pics, I have about 10 meg of webspace I want to use. Jim
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#5. Re: [E36M3] heresy? - from Sean Hester
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Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 23:30:23 PDT From: "Sean Hester" <seanh_race@hotmail.com> Subject: Re: [E36M3] heresy? >If I am lazy and not in a hurry I take the Explorer. I know a SUV >is a dirty word on this list, but it has the cushy ride, auto trans and all >the creature comforts I would want.. an SUV could be the saviour of my M3. once i get a dedicated track car, i'll need something to tow it with. and it'll probably be an SUV. so for times when i want to "drive" i'll take the M3. for times when i want to just "get somewhere" i'll take the SUV. i'll be curious to see if that solves my dilema. that difference between "driving" and "getting somewhere" is my main issue with the M3 these days. it's obviously better for "driving" then almost anything. but for "getting somewhere" it's not so good. i'm sure it better then alot of cars, but compared to the taurus i'm renting, it's WORSE. now... it used to be that i "drove" alot more. i'd take weekend drives to nowhere just to "drive". i'd "drive" to work zipping through traffic. i'd really pay attention to how the far felt and sounded and drove, etc... now i usually just want to get somewhere with as little effort as possible. and the M3 requires ALOT of effort compared to a taurus. these days i do all my "driving" at race tracks. either at schools or races. so 99% of the time i'm in my car it's just to "get somewhere". when i picked up my M3 from the dealer tonight, i "drove" it around. and it was great. i remembered why i love that car. BUT!!!!! i can't even remember the last time i "drove" it before tonight. (track events not included) so... since i'm getting a dedicated track car. and i don't "drive" much on the street anymore, i can think of many better cars that will "get me places" better then an M3. ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
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#6. Re: [E36M3] Re: heresy? - from Sean Hester
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Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 23:53:20 PDT From: "Sean Hester" <seanh_race@hotmail.com> Subject: Re: [E36M3] Re: heresy? > > so i ask... if you were rich enough and had enough garage space for as >many > > cars as you wanted. would you use your M3 to drive to work and to get > > groceries and to move boxes? > >I respond...HECK YES. Although when you add into this equation the fact >that I am 20, the picture becomes a little more clear. I can drive my race >car around with 1000# and 1200# coilovers and not feel as if the ride is >"too harsh." i think you've figured it out for me. this is the quote that make the light bulb go on for me. "I can drive my race car around..." racing (not track schools) has ruined M3s for me. i race real race cars. M3s pale in comparison. (way softer, way heavier, a veritable pig of a car compared to the 2000lb real race cars i drive) before i was a race car driver, i used to zip around in my stock M3 calling it a race car. now, when i zip around in my heavily modified M3, (trying to keep it up with my race cars but failing) i'm left thinking. this car is a slow, fragile, pig, and there's no cup holders to make up for it!!!! it all seems so clear now. there's only two options. 1. get a car that's much more "racy". weather it's to work on my M3 (get 1200# coilovers, remove a bunch of weight, supercharger, etc...) or get an even less practical car and give up all pretenses of compromise. 2. get a car that's not pretending to be a race car at all. the magic of "compromose" between a real car and a race car has been ruined by my racing. that's a shame. i liked my ignorant bliss better. ;-( >-Bryan Watts >95 M3- not much storage space, rides rough, who cares >92 325is- lots more storage space, seats one seats one? what does that mean? ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
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#7. Re: [E36M3] heresy? - from Donna Seeley
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Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 23:54:30 -0700 From: Donna Seeley <dseeley@infoasis.com> Subject: Re: [E36M3] heresy? > > Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 20:46:54 -0700 > From: Jim Bassett <jimbassett@home.com> > > At 05:42 PM 6/13/00 -0500, Sean Hester wrote: >>> About the only thing on your rental car list, Sean, that my car doesn't >>> have is an automatic tranny. Hey, clutchless M3s are great commuters! And I have AC and cupholders. >> >> i want one of those! an M3 that doesn't give me headaches when i hit >> potholes, one that has enough ground clearance to not hit every parking lot >> curb, one who's wide tires don't follow the road so much the wheel flies >> from my hands unless i'm gripping it hard enough. Maybe you wouldn't like mine with the A032s, then. :) I do have a set of SO-2 PP's in the basement that I don't like so much anymore... >> >> maybe if i remove those things i'll get closer to my goal. but i'll still >> have problems getting into my driveway without scraping the bottom > > Donna, care to share your technique with Sean? <giggle>. > > Cheers, > Jim Bassett > 1998 M3/4 > Y'know, I wasn't going to mention that, you dog... I did get into the driveway, it was the dip in front of the garage I...umm...slightly missed my timing on. Donna ------- 88 M3, track car 95 330isA, super-commuter, front lip re-installed by the Bassett hound. http://www.stopyoucold.com > >
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#8. Re: [E36M3] Floating Rotors and Crash Testing - from Sean Hester
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Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2000 00:28:39 PDT From: "Sean Hester" <seanh_race@hotmail.com> Subject: Re: [E36M3] Floating Rotors and Crash Testing >We just had our club meeting tonight at a dealer and the topic was the new >E39 M5. The dealer's shop foreman went through the technical highlights >with us and revealed a shocking fact that I'd like to throw out to the >digest for discussion. The issue surrounds the two-piece floating rotors >that many of us have installed on our E36 M3s. Apparently, the rotors did >not pass the front-end impact test coming to North America because the >discs >actually broke during a front-end collision. So, BMW has chosen to install >regular iron discs on all its M cars including the new M5 and the upcoming >E46 M3. The irony of course is that in 1995, the very limited edition >M540i >in Canada (540i Sport in the U.S.) had these floating rotors imported with >the cars. Has any other digesters out there heard about this? As a >result, >apparently the brake cooling ducts on the new M5s are also sealed off as >they provide no added benefits to the regular cast iron brake discs. i'm glad i know the reason now... >I can't believe that BMW would let an important part like the brake discs >be >prone to breakage during a front-end impact in the rest of the world why is the brake discs breaking during a front end collision a safety hazard? it might be a cost of repair problem (meaning a floating rotor car would cost more to fix then an iron rotor car) but i can't see it being less safe. i mean... after a collision (hard enough to break rotors) you're stopped. who cares if you have brakes at that point for the flat bed ride? >and that NA authorities are the only ones to discover this fact? US regulations are the strictest in the world. we disallow lots of things that the rest of the world uses willingly. M3 convertibles didn't pass US regs for a long time. lotus elises don't pass, mclaren F1s don't pass, the old vw bugs still made don't pass, that porsche bill gates wanted to bring here didn't pass. some companies (renault) don't even bother trying to make cars that pass US regs anymore. they sell plenty to europeans. and it's not just cars. how many people go to canada or europe to get drugs you can't get here? i'm not surprised that the US regs are the only ones that "discovered" this... ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
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#9. Re: Floating Rotors and Crash Testing - from Neil Maller
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Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2000 07:12:26 -0500 From: Neil Maller <neilmaller@worldnet.att.net> Subject: Re: Floating Rotors and Crash Testing On 6/14/00 0:42 E36M3 e36m3@bmwmpower.com wrote: >Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 23:42:40 EDT >From: "Roy Kao" <bimmerphile@hotmail.com> > >I can't believe that BMW would let an important part like the brake discs be >prone to breakage during a front-end impact in the rest of the world and >that NA authorities are the only ones to discover this fact? If the front end impact is hard enough to crack the brake rotor, that'd be the least of your worries. Neil 96 M3
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#10. RE: [E36M3] JTD Rear shock mount - from dave spragg
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Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2000 08:32:35 -0400 From: "dave spragg" <dave@spragg.com> Subject: RE: [E36M3] JTD Rear shock mount I did the same but used Ground Control's rear shock mounts. These mounts have one set of bushing that are simply flipped one way of the other for street or track use. I had torn the right one in 12-13K on my 99. I put them in in the street configuration and noticed a subtly firmer rear end and the loss of the occasional clunk that had begun. Interestingly when I took out the left one it wasn't torn one bit. Dave Spragg dave@spragg.com Natick, MA 99 Sharked M3 -----Original Message----- From: Junaidi Irwan [mailto:junaidi.irwan@usa.net] Sent: Tuesday, June 13, 2000 11:23 PM To: E36M3 Subject: [E36M3] JTD Rear shock mount Date: 13 Jun 00 22:19:07 CDT From: Junaidi Irwan <junaidi.irwan@usa.net> Subject: JTD Rear shock mount M3ers, I am sorry if this topic has been beaten to death, however I am at the point that I need to change the rear shock mount of my car. My car is using the H&R/Bilstein combo. It is making the infamous thumping/clunking noise when I make a turn. I ordered the JTD rear shock mounts from Turner Motorsport. It is supposed to come with 2 different kind of bushings: one for the street and one for the track. My question is, has anyone installed these mounts? What is the thing that I need to be aware of before installing the mounts? Will it affect the ride significantly? Will the shock mounts be making any noises? Thanks a lot beforehand for any responses - Junaidi - 95 M3 ____________________________________________________________________ Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.amexmail.com/?A=1 ************************************************************* List Commands UNSUBSCRIBE - (in subject line) unsubscribes you from the mailing list. *************************************************************