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#1. Any suggestions for Driving School? - from John Craft
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Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 19:39:44 -0700 From: "John Craft" <john@elementri.com> Subject: Any suggestions for Driving School? I'm taking my M3 to Laguna/Seca next week. What parts or supplies should I consider taking (i.e., fan belts, plugs, etc.) Thanks, John Craft 95 - M3
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#2. Re: 330 Ragtop - from sburke
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Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 22:46:27 -0400 From: "sburke" <sburke@columbus.rr.com> Subject: Re: 330 Ragtop The 330 convertible is available. There's been one parked outside my office every day for the last couple of weeks. It's an auto, but I like the new wheels. M3 content: I still like the lines on my 98 E36 M3 sedan better than the new E46 shape. -------------------- 10 -------------------- >Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 22:12:47 EDT >From: JSDONE@aol.com >Subject: Re: [E36M3] E36M3 #443 > >You know, I've thought about the 330 ragtop, I think it's not available >untill next year.. Wonder If I will give up too much on the handling and the >brakes I really love...Regards, John -- Sean M. Burke Senior Network Engineer Gerbig, Snell, Weisheimer, and Assoc. Email: Sburke@columbus.rr.com
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#3. RE: [E36M3] Any suggestions for Driving School? - from MDadgar@handspring.com
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Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 20:09:45 -0700 From: MDadgar@handspring.com Subject: RE: [E36M3] Any suggestions for Driving School? John wrote: > I'm taking my M3 to Laguna/Seca next week. What parts or > supplies should I consider taking (i.e., fan belts, plugs, etc.) I'd take: - motor oil - drinking water (LOTS of it) - sunscreen - an EZ-Up, if you have one That's the basics. Chances are there will be any number of harcore track junkies there to help you if you need things like tools. If you're going to the BMW CCA GGC school, see you there. - Mark '95 M3 '97 528i 5-spd '88 M3, Hennarot ---- Mark Dadgar - Product Manager, Accessories (650) 230-5037 voice - (650) 230-2100 fax mdadgar@handspring.com - Handspring, Inc. "wide awake on the edge of the world" - Marillion Check out Visor at www.handspring.com!
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#4. Re: [E36M3] Re: 330 Ragtop - from GRCouture@aol.com
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Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 23:13:29 EDT From: GRCouture@aol.com Subject: Re: [E36M3] Re: 330 Ragtop In a message dated 8/17/00 10:58:45 PM Eastern Daylight Time, sburke@columbus.rr.com writes: << The 330 convertible is available. There's been one parked outside my office every day for the last couple of weeks. It's an auto, but I like the new wheels. M3 content: I still like the lines on my 98 E36 M3 sedan better than the new E46 shape. >> Not to brag - but my mom got the first one in New England! What a sweet car - the autostick feature is a blast. She got it 2 weeks ago - check it out! And yes, the wheels are definitely sweet. Gregg '99 M3
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#5. Re: [E36M3] Re: 330 Ragtop - from GRCouture@aol.com
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Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 23:27:45 EDT From: GRCouture@aol.com Subject: Re: [E36M3] Re: 330 Ragtop Whoops- meant to include a link to that last email. :) <A HREF="http://members.tripod.com/gcouture/mom330">http://members.tripod.com/ gcouture/mom330</A> In a message dated 8/17/00 11:18:57 PM Eastern Daylight Time, GRCouture@aol.com writes: << Not to brag - but my mom got the first one in New England! What a sweet car - the autostick feature is a blast. She got it 2 weeks ago - check it out! And yes, the wheels are definitely sweet. Gregg '99 M3 >>
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#6. Re: [E36M3] Looking at 320i race car, any thoughts? - from Andrew E. Kalman
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Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 21:28:27 -0700 From: "Andrew E. Kalman" <aek@netcom.com> Subject: Re: [E36M3] Looking at 320i race car, any thoughts? Re: >I'm considering a 1977 320i race car. This car was originally set up for >BMWCCA racing by Black Forest Tuning but has been used for round-abouts and >auto-x for the past year or so. The car has no fan, instead using an >electric unit. The interior is entirely stripped and a full cage has been >installed with bars to at least the rear shock towers, maybe the front also. >Any thoughts on this car and setup? Would this be a fun car to drive? Well, it will certainly be _interesting_ to drive ... by that I mean that its suspension is nowhere near as well-behaved as the M3, and I suspect that if you drive it like your M3, you will get into trouble very quickly. I have a '77 530i (same suspension design as the 320i), heavily modified, with 275 engine hp, and a Dinan Stage IV suspension, among others. It can be driven very fast, but as I approach the limit I have to be _very_ careful, as it is prone to get squirrely. The front and rear suspensions are very crude, the E28 5-series with its toe-correction bushing makes those cars much easier to drive at the limit. If you do go race the 320i, and reduce your lap times at a slow, steady pace, being methodical, I suspect you will learn a LOT, and end up being the much better driver, than if you started the same process with your E36 M3. IOW, if you can race a 320i, there's little you can't drive well. And if you don't crash it, it may even retain its value reasonably well. I'd say go for it! ______________________________________ Andrew E. Kalman, Ph.D. aek@netcom.com
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#7. RE: [E36M3] Any suggestions for Driving School? - from Jim Bassett
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Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 21:40:10 -0700 From: Jim Bassett <jimbassett@home.com> Subject: RE: [E36M3] Any suggestions for Driving School? At 10:18 PM 8/17/00 -0500, MDadgar@handspring.com wrote: >Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 20:09:45 -0700 >From: MDadgar@handspring.com >Subject: RE: [E36M3] Any suggestions for Driving School? > >John wrote: >> I'm taking my M3 to Laguna/Seca next week. What parts or >> supplies should I consider taking (i.e., fan belts, plugs, etc.) > >I'd take: > >- motor oil >- drinking water (LOTS of it) >- sunscreen >- an EZ-Up, if you have one > >That's the basics. Chances are there will be any number of harcore track >junkies there to help you if you need things like tools. Hmm, someone like myself? :-) Mark's listed the basics. I'd include a folding chair and a spare set of brake pads (depending on how much is left on your current set). Sounds like it's your first school, John? Bring along a "learning" frame of mind, and the most important thing will follow - HAVE FUN! :-) >If you're going to the BMW CCA GGC school, see you there. As will I. Cheers, Jim Bassett 1998 M3/4
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#8. Road and Track and overrev - from Marc.S.Edwards@QuestDiagnostics.com
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Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 23:17:08 -0700 From: Marc.S.Edwards@QuestDiagnostics.com Subject: Road and Track and overrev It was said: Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 18:49:38 -0500 From: "Steven Hazard" <98m3@mediaone.net> Subject: Re: overrevs You posted> a road and track article last month said that the problems associated with the overrevs was fixed when the engine was changed to the 3.2 liter model. anyone have any info on this? russel Russel and all.....As many of you are probably already aware the R&T article had several errors. One of the most glaring was the over rev problem....All E36M3's can be mis-shifted." Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 19:25:32 -0400 From: "Mike" <mike@strictly-german.com> Subject: Re: [E36M3] overrevs I dont know where they got that from. It has happened to the 3.2s just the same, Michael Lawrence mike@strictly-german.com www.strictly-german.com 706-658-2458 My input; The article did have a few errors. The article said that the overrev problem was corrected. Of course, any manual car can be overreved mechanically if you are cruising along at 120 mph in 4th and reach for 3d too soon, or second for some reason and the rear wheels drive the tranny which drives the engine beyond 7XXX RPM. What the author may have been intimating and confused about is the following: the author did say that the engine changed to a 3.2 liter for the 1997 model year. (Actually, the author said that "For model year 1996, the M3 coupe remained essentially unchanged.....for 1997....the revisions conisted of an engined bored and stroked even more, to 3.2 liters"). This is not correct, the 3.2 liter was available for the short run of 1996 model year M3s which were all 2 door coupes. The 1995 3.0 liter cars were built well into the end of 1995 perhaps anticipating that there wouldn't be a 1996 model year with the updated 3.2 l for some internal BMW reason such as OBDII or something else. Anyway, concurrent with what would normally have been the switch to a new model year in September/October of 1995, BMW made an in production upgrade to the valve retainers. Valve retainers that had more robust surface hardening were introduced into engine production thus decreasing by some small probability that a valve would be dropped by the valve retainer onto a piston, an expensive occurrence. So, the writer might have been thinking....new model year in October, updated valve retainers, maybe the 3.2 liter car, thus, elimination or decrease of the chance of dropping a valve (which some may equate with overrevving the engine), and hence the conclusion in the article. They were a year off and either the information source or the writer was confused. From the standpoint of the misunderstanding of the writer (or the person they were interviewing) this might be understandable. But, we know better, yes? There were no modifications to the car or the engine to make overrevs due to driver error mis-shifts less of a problem. It exists, it is driver error, and drivers of 3.0 and 3.2 liter cars are just as susceptible. Marc 1995 M3 LTW (with older valve retainers and hence with overrev problem just waiting to pounce)
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#9. Re: [E36M3] High Speed M5 Video - from Michael Ting
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Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 00:48:25 -0500 From: "Michael Ting" <lupin@purdue.edu> Subject: Re: [E36M3] High Speed M5 Video This is a follow up to the original thread. If you haven't seen it before, there is another video of British magazine Top Gear's test drive of the M5. Very nice, and very long. (40 Meg) http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Island/1888/ Michael Ting --------------------
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#10. RE: [E36M3] *sigh* more pulling - from Kit Wetzler
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Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 00:28:49 -0700 From: "Kit Wetzler" <kitwetzler@mindspring.com> Subject: RE: [E36M3] *sigh* more pulling > damn annoying. I know how you feel... Ok. I solved it. Turns out there is a pull in the front tires. I swapped them, so both are turning backwards, and the car isn't pulling much at all. I suspect that they have a mis-wound belt, which is prone to happen with Yokohama tires. The question is... am I going to put enough miles to wear out the fronts before it rains? Probably not, so that's a problem. (I think that they'll be fine except for in the wet... the grooves channel water into the center of the wheel, instead of out of it, with the tires rotating backwards) I'm going to drop by Wheel Works and see if they can help me out... -kit