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#1. Cruising down the highway at 2,500 RPM in 6th doing 70 - from Wayne Miller
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Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 23:32:47 -0500 From: "Wayne Miller" <m3@waynemiller.com> Subject: Cruising down the highway at 2,500 RPM in 6th doing 70 Well, here it goes - I picked up my car today and had a chance to drive it around a bit. The major changes were adding a lightweight flywheel (from TC Kline Racing) and a Euro 6-speed. I must also note that my JTD Tranny Brace did not fit with the 6 speed so that was replaced with UUC Tranny Bushings and Tranny Mount Enforcers (this does play a part in the story). In short, the car is AMAZING! The acceleration in first and second is considerably greater than before. Your head just snaps back as the car just goes like stink. I attribute this to the lightweight flywheel. Cruising on the highway, it was the first time that I was ever bothered by the wind noise in my car. I have been so used to the revving engine and vibrating car (due to the JTD brace) that wind noise was rarely noticed before. I would say that from 5th, the gear lever naturally levitates to 4th rather than 6th but it doesn't take much effort to find 6th. There is also the requisite drop in acceleration when you are in 6th and floor it at 60 MPH (or 70). I tended to do the 1-3-5 shift around town with the 5-speed but I tried it with 1-3-6 and found that 6th was just too low for lugging around town at 35MPH. Now as far as the ring & pinion, I am torn. FORGET about putting a 3.73 - the car would be undrivable in 1st and 2nd. My next choice was a 3.46. I think that even that may be to high. I also found out that it was going to cost me $1,250 for the 3.46+the rebuild with the higher limited slip so I started to wonder. The Quaife differential is about the same $1,300 or so but I don't know what the final drive is yet - I will call them tomorrow. Every article and message that I have read all say how great they are with the one downside being cost. If it is going to cost me the same as a rebuilt stock one, why not go with the better system? Does anyone have experience with one? I am very interested at this point. I now have a JTD tranny brace available for sale. I want to make it clear that your car WILL vibrate CONSIDERABLY more than you think due to this modification but I had it on for over a year and loved every vibration. It made the car feel like a race car and some people would not like that. I did. I also never missed a shift with it. If it fit with the 6-speed, I would have kept it but there would have been too much cutting, grinding, etc. to make it worth the effort. It lists for $339 - make me an offer. If anyone is in the NYC area and wants to experience my car for themselves, let me know. -Wayne '99 M3/2 6-Speed, Sharked, Eurosport Intake, and MANY other fun things.
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#2. Tires Growing At Speed - from LoweSeaton@aol.com
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Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 23:45:22 EST From: LoweSeaton@aol.com Subject: Tires Growing At Speed > Assuming that the tire did "grow" 2%, the speed would in fact be 160.3 mph. > 2% growth could even be caused by heating of the air inside the tire, > couldn't it? Ron - I'd bet dollars to donuts that high performance Z rated tires don't grow more than 0.00001% at 160 mph. The steel belts in the tire tread prevent any growth. You are thinking of Top Fuel drag racing slicks. Those tires are weird. You watch them do burn outs and the tires must increase 12 inches in diameter. Modern steel belted radial tires are very well made. The old bias ply tires probably did expand with speed. Hence they weren't very good for high speed usage. The last thing you want is a tire constantly expanding and contracting. It will self destruct very quickly. Not what you want. A little trivia. Tire wear used to indicate whether a tire was overinflated or underinflated. Overinflated - you got more wear in the center. Underinflated - more wear on both shoulders. This does not apply to modern steel belted radial tires. The steel belts keep the tread virtually flat no matter what air pressure. Put 60 psi in the tire and the tread will still be flat. Lowell Seaton '95 M3 Dallas, Texas
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#3. Re: max speed - from Andy Chi
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Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 21:00:13 -0800 (PST) From: Andy Chi <m3flyer@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: max speed 155 to 160 sounds about right, here's a story that I would like to share: I have a friend, let's just call him "Butthead," who has a 98 M3 sans limiter. One time, he was doing about 110 on the I-5 north bound on his way to see his then gf. A CHP cruiser decided to whip around from I-5 south bound and give chase (keep in mind this was after he passed like, three CHP cruisers on the south bound I-5 who didn't bother turning around to give chase). Seeing that there weren't a whole lot of cars, CHP+M3= 2 cars up the stretch, "Butthead" decided to redline the car in 5th. Lost line of sight of the CHP in no time, one Mississippi, two Mississippi, ... ten Mississippi, slow downed to 70, ducked in between two trucks on the right lane. A short while later the CHP, now with code 3 siren blaring, came whooshing by him none the wiser... Not quite as impressive as the J'A'P story, but I thought it might help the max speed debate... BTW, this only works when you have no front plate. Andy 98 M3 black/black __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/
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#4. Fw: M3 Rear Speakers - from jeff stowe
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Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 21:40:00 -0800 From: jeff stowe <jrstowe@pacbell.net> Subject: Fw: M3 Rear Speakers > I went with a set of subwoofers from JL Audio which are specifically designed to fit > in an E36. I am definitely not an audiophile but they sound great to me. I have a > perfectly good set of stock rear speakers from my 98 sedan that are free to a good > home. I would just need to be reimbursed for shipping or meet me in the bay area for > handoff. jeff 98 M3/4 93 M5
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#5. Re: [E36M3] Are you running short springs in the back? - from Greg Cernosek
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Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 00:17:47 -0600 From: "Greg Cernosek" <gcernosek@inetx.com> Subject: Re: [E36M3] Are you running short springs in the back? Group, Here is an e-mail from Jay at Ground Control. He asked me to forward this to the list. Greg -----Original Message----- From: TFRM3@aol.com [mailto:TFRM3@aol.com] Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2001 6:59 PM To: gcernosek@inetx.com Cc: jsp98m3@apexcone.com Subject: little springs Please Forward to e36 m3 Suzy list! OK, before this gets out of hand let me explain spring droop, tension, etc. The primary reason that any spring on any car is not under tension in droop is a monetary reason. Plain and simple, it costs too much to custom assemble a different shock for every different ride height. It can be done, but it costs a lot, is a hassle, and takes up precious time. It is quite normal (because of availability) to use short springs with stock droop shocks, which leads to reduced tension when the car is on a lift. Having said all that, this is not a problem in practical use because the spring DOES NOT come loose driving around the track. There are many things that keep the spring in the car, not the least of which is upward tension from the sway bar, which is being pushed upward by the outside wheel. Perhaps in a situation where both wheels would theoretically be launched in the air long enough to allow the springs to drop loose, you need to look at how long you would be in the air to let the suspension drop. Figure that your suspension is compressed as you hit a huge bump, and you start flying. You probably need to be doing at least 60 mph to launch a car, probably while going off the track. An educated (based on shock velocity data acq) guess is that it will take about one second MINIMUM for the shock to move 5 inches. At 60 mph, you will travel 88 feet. If you're lucky, you will land back on another part of the track! There is more argument regarding the value of a tender spring (as opposed to a helper spring which has a nominal rate of zero pounds). What I have proven is that, done correctly, double springs with double rates can often handle better than single springs. What myself, and many others have not been able to do is to attribute this improvement to "pushing the inside tire into ground for more grip". In fact, I can usually prove this additional force is either inconsequential or is a smaller force than with single rate springs. An e36 is a good example, with so much friction the rear bushings, of a situation where the extension force of the soft tender spring is less than the upward torsional force of all those little bushings, so the spring couldn't push the suspension down anyway. Ha you say, I have bearings! The force is still minimal compared to the unsprung weight. Figure the extension force of an almost extended tender spring is about 50-60 lb. Hey..... what if we increase the unsprung weight and it pushes the tire into ground and we have more lateral grip, and then we win, and then the trophy girl gets in a fight with her loser boyfriend, and she goes to the bar with us and ..... So it seems that double springs work well when everything is just right, by allowing different rates for different style bumps, and it seems that pushing the tire into the ground doesn't have much effect, at least on paper. (Don't remind me, I know we don't race paper. Or shock dynos. Or calculators. Or laptops) You will note that double springs are now illegal for SCCA I.T. classes, mostly because of us messing around and beating people who write letters.( I like to think.) P.S. the reason that preassembled (cookie cutter) kits from Germany have little springs that keep tension is to pass TUV inspection for the home market. Same goes for Japan. P.P.S. The ha I have bearings comment is non volatile. From Jay Morris 1969 Schwinn Sting-Ray Deluxe 1968 Schwinn Junior Sting-Ray 1970 Schwinn Fair Lady Sting-Ray 1969 Schwinn Apple Krate
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#6. Re: [E36M3] Tires Growing At Speed - from Andrew E. Kalman
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Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 23:49:38 -0700 From: "Andrew E. Kalman" <aek@pumpkininc.com> Subject: Re: [E36M3] Tires Growing At Speed Re: > Put 60 psi in the tire and the tread will still be >flat. Here's my little corollary: Put 50psi in your tires when the car's in storage, take it to Laguna Seca, do your first warmup lap and feel it a little loose going into Turn 3, do another warmup lap and feel it funny coming down the Corkscrew, and then realize in the middle of Turn 9 that the reason why things feel squirrely is because you forgot to bleed the tires down that morning. Slow down NOW, take the Turn 11 exit, pull into the paddock, get out the digital tire pressure gauge, only to find that it reads "Hi". Bleed the ferociously hot air out of each tire until you can actually get a reading on the gauge, and set them to 38psi all around. Consider this session over. Chastise yourself for being in a hurry that morning and skipping your normal once-over check ... Drive all weekend on same tires, properly inflated, and realize what incredible progress has been made in tires in the past 40 years. The Michelin X radial, then the Pirelli P7, made all of this possible on street tires. -- ______________________________________ Andrew E. Kalman, Ph.D. aek@pumpkininc.com
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#7. 18" OZ Monte Carlo's for sale on ebay - from Brent91NSX@aol.com
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Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 03:06:41 EST From: Brent91NSX@aol.com Subject: 18" OZ Monte Carlo's for sale on ebay After enjoying these for the past several months, I have decided to part with them and purchase a set of M Contours. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=561311516 Here is the link to the ebay auction. Thanks, Brent Parks
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#8. Re: Work in Progress - from Brent91NSX@aol.com
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Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 04:19:32 EST From: Brent91NSX@aol.com Subject: Re: Work in Progress One way to get a digital reading of the speed would be to use the test function of the OBC. Hit the 1000 and the 10 together simultaneously then use the 1 to go up to #8. That gives you the k/mh speed reading instantaneously. You can then take max speed and convert it to mph. Just my thoughts, Brent Parks
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#9. Re:torque rotation - from Neil Maller
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Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 09:23:50 -0500 From: Neil Maller <neil.maller@gte.net> Subject: Re:torque rotation on 2/15/01 7:17 PM, WCRoswell@aol.com wrote: >> Year? Mileage? Tires? > 98 M3/4 5-sp 23K michelin MXXX on front original, Toyo Proxys on rear (they > really suck) Sounds as if you just answered your own question. Neil 96 M3
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#10. Max Speed - from lee.leslie@firstunion.com
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Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 10:05:00 -0500 From: lee.leslie@firstunion.com Subject: Max Speed I have to disagree with you hypothetically if the car is doing 60 @ 2K, then it will do 120 @ 4K, (assuming you are in the same gear.. also if you are doing an actual 59 @ and indicated 60, then you WILL be doing 118 @ an indicated 120.. these things are directly related.. if a speed is off 2% @ 60, then it is off 2% at 120.. FWIW according to my gps, my '97 M3/4 w/ dinan software is doing 73.5 @ an indicated 75mph, and at an indicated 150MPH, it is an actual 147mph.. & suprizingly enough, if you hit reset on the computers avg mph, it will be VERY close to true speed... >Max speed is NOT an Algebraic relationship between speedometer and >RPMs.
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#11. More Random Notes - from Wayne Miller
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Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 10:12:13 -0500 From: "Wayne Miller" <m3@waynemiller.com> Subject: More Random Notes In driving to work this morning, I came up with some more tidbits that I didn't mention yesterday. - The engine is spinning 600 RPM less at 70 MPH - Don put Amsoil (?) fluid in the transmission and it is notchey when cold but very smooth once it warms up - There is no chatter due to the lightweight flywheel - The drivability doesn't seem to be affected - I still can't get over the acceleration - Anybody need a used 5-speed with 25,000 miles? What are they worth? -Wayne