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#1. Broken VANOS - from Paul Elliott
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Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 22:52:39 -0400 From: "Paul Elliott" <pelliott@rcn.com> Subject: Broken VANOS Juan, =20 >>My car seems to be down in power in the lower rev range=20 and the thing pings like it's on deathrow whenever I floor it (no pinging at medium gas...)<< That's your problem. Medium Gas! Dont you know by now, your car needs Premium Gas!!! =20 (sorry, couldnt resist...) =20 --------------------------------------------------------- Paul Elliott '99 White M3; < 30K miles; Dinan stage II sc kit; Rotex pads; Steiger = SS and Clutch Stop; Sound by Polk, Excelon, JLAudio
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#2. Re: Strictly in Seattle - from Miki Haraguchi
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Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 20:00:48 -0700 (PDT) From: Miki Haraguchi <mharaguchi@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Strictly in Seattle Strictly BMW is the exclusive tuner for my LTW. No one knows E36 track- and performance preparation better than Ron Newell and his crew. I will not trust my E36s with anyone else in the Greater Seattle Area. Miki 1997 328is LTW ________ From: Mdriver13@aol.com Subject: Strictly BMW in Seattle - are they good people? <snip> Anyone know if these guys are OK to do business with? __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices http://auctions.yahoo.com/
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#3. Re: Strictly BMW in Seattle - are they good people? - from B. Horne
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Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 20:05:26 -0700 From: "B. Horne" <brianbmw@worldnet.att.net> Subject: Re: Strictly BMW in Seattle - are they good people? Bob, Strictly BMW is 'THE' best source in the Seattle area for BMW service and knowledge about high-performance. The owner, Ron Newell, was ICSCC ITS champion last year in his E36 325, and is mounting an effort for a three race venture into World Challenge this year in the same car. They are the #1 Dinan dealer in the USA, and rank 5th out of all Dinan locations. Derek is a great source for Dinan information and races as well. Now, I am not exactly without bias here, as I race under the Strictly banner in my own E36 325, which Ron built along side his own. Currently we have 5 total cars under the Strictly banner racing locally; 3 E36s, and two E30s. Ron also works on other BMW race cars in the area (of which there are many). So in answer to your question, the Strictly BMW guys are indeed good people and are good BMW people as well. Spread the word! Their number is 425 747-6044, and their website is strictlybmw.com Brian Horne 1995 M3 1993 325is ITS Race Car >Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 21:44:24 EDT >From: Mdriver13@aol.com >Subject: Strictly BMW in Seattle - are they good people? > >To those in the Seattle area, > >Stopped by this place last week called Strictly BMW, while on a business >trip >to the Seattle area. I was interested in some Dinan parts. Small >place, >looked like a real speed racer type shop, and the guy I talked to >(Derek) >would even give me a CCA discount (though only to $35.00), but hey, at >least >it's something. Anyone know if these guys are OK to do business with? > >TIA, > >Bob Gill >97 ///M3 coupe >Philly Region SCCA >AS Champion 1997 & 2000 >#13 BSP 2001
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#4. RE: [E36M3] M3 for sale >> southern cars?? - from Tom Tice
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Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 23:17:19 -0400 From: "Tom Tice" <tetice@triad.rr.com> Subject: RE: [E36M3] M3 for sale >> southern cars?? > > Something you've never heard of is missing. Road salt. > Exactly, I thought I was getting a nearly southern car (Virginia) which turned out to actually be a mostly Detroit car. BMW's now have great corrosion protection so there is no real threat of rust but every time I go to unbolt something under the car I end up cussin' like a sailor due to the bolts being corroded in place! This car was less than 2 years old when I bought it but underneath looks far worse than my 10 year old E30 with 115K miles. Tom Tice '98 M3/4 - replacing those corroded bolts one at a time '99 540/6 - will never see salt!
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#5. Re: [E36M3] M3 for sale >> southern cars?? - from Ron Katona
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Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 23:24:14 -0400 From: "Ron Katona" <rkatona@bellatlantic.net> Subject: Re: [E36M3] M3 for sale >> southern cars?? Jim Powell wrote: > Something you've never heard of is missing. Road salt. Yes but... the Mississippi sun and humidity killed the paint and interior plastics on every car I saw when I lived down there that wasn't garaged or at least covered all day. And if you're near the coast there's plenty of salt air to corrode things - just not as quickly as road salt. A high desert is probably the best place to keep a car forever. Utah? North Pole? Here in DC we have road salt in winter, sweltering summers, giant potholes, and rain acidic enough to etch circuit boards. No wonder my car looks like crap. Technically it's a "Southern" car too although you'll never get anyone south of I-10 to admit it. -- Ron Katona '95 M3 - South of the Mason-Dixon Line
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#6. Re: [E36M3] M3 for sale >> southern cars?? - from Jim Powell
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Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 20:34:22 -0700 From: Jim Powell <jsp98m3@apexcone.com> Subject: Re: [E36M3] M3 for sale >> southern cars?? Its interseting to see older cars from the area of Palm Springs. Because of the winds and sand, it's not unusual to see cars with the hood sandblasted to bare metal and no rust. Spooky. Ron Katona wrote: > Jim Powell wrote: > > Something you've never heard of is missing. Road salt. > > Yes but... the Mississippi sun and humidity killed the paint and > interior plastics on every car I saw when I lived down there that wasn't > garaged or at least covered all day. And if you're near the coast > there's plenty of salt air to corrode things - just not as quickly as > road salt. A high desert is probably the best place to keep a car > forever. Utah? North Pole?
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#7. Toyo RA1 - what pressure? - from Rob
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Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 22:38:16 -0600 From: "Rob" <motor@cadvision.com> Subject: Toyo RA1 - what pressure? Anyone have a good baseline pressure for RA1's on an E36? Also, generally speaking, do they like more or less pressure than street tires? My buddy just put a set on his S2000 and we need a place to start. TIA, Rob
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#8. Re: [E36M3] M3 for sale >> southern cars?? - from Joe Dyer
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Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 22:00:35 -0700 From: "Joe Dyer" <joedyer@home.com> Subject: Re: [E36M3] M3 for sale >> southern cars?? Mike, You forgot the Sunday Blue Laws, the state owned liquor stores, the smoking allowed in all areas of restaurants, the cousins whose children are brothers and sisters. Ha Ha, I'm from the South, too. I find it even hard to believe there are cars down there that aren't from Detroit! Your message cracked me up! Joe ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mount, Mike" <JMMn@pge.com> To: "E36M3" <e36m3@bmw-m.net> Sent: Monday, May 14, 2001 6:54 PM Subject: [E36M3] M3 for sale >> southern cars?? | Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 18:45:41 -0700 | From: "Mount, Mike" <JMMn@pge.com> | Subject: M3 for sale >> southern cars?? | | | Gruppe, I've noticed several postings lately of M3's listed for sale | and described as a 'southern car.' I'm from the south also, (but now live | in lala land here in Ca.) and so being an ex-patriate I've wanted to know | what I'm missing (besides from the relaxed lifestyle, chiggers, sweetened | ice tea, mosquitos, pecan pie, ungodly heat and humidity, etc). | So why is a southen car different? Does it have a built-in gun | rack? Hooks on the bumpers so you can tie a buck off? Did they come with | 8-track tape decks? NRA membership? | I just don't get it. | Mike | '95 M3 | da kar is yeller, ya'all | | | ************************************************************* | List Commands | UNSUBSCRIBE - (in subject line) unsubscribes you from the mailing list. | DIR - sends a listing of files available in the list's GET directory. | GET filename1.ext,filename2.ext - sends the requested file(s). | | To issue a command/request to the server: | Send a message with the command you wish executed as the | subject of the message. | ************************************************************* | |
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#9. [OT] Re: In-Car Camera (long) - from Andrew E. Kalman
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Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 22:21:01 -0700 From: "Andrew E. Kalman" <aek@pumpkininc.com> Subject: [OT] Re: In-Car Camera (long) Hi all, as I thought this might be of interest to the group since I've received so many queries since posting the videos. Ron Buchalski asked me: >I haven't checked out your videos (I don't have a high bandwidth >connection), but I was wondering if you had done alot of research >prior to purchasing your camera, and if you could help me narrow >down my search for a camera. > >I've only owned one camcorder (Sony 8mm), so I haven't been looking >at the market for nearly twelve years. I see that there are VHS, >VHS-C, 8mm, Hi-8, Digital-8, and DV to now choose from, so my head >is spinning. > >I looked out on the Internet for a Buyer's Guide, but didn't find >anything very good. > >I'm primarily interested in a compact camcorder for use in the car, >that will have a long enough recording time that I don't need to >carry a tape for every hour of recording. I also want a camera that >has good video resolution, can handle high speed motion, and >probably some sort of stability control so the image won't be >bouncing too much. > >What do you suggest? Or, where can I go to read more about the >camcorders, technology, etc? There are a couple of issue here -- I'll try to address them, in no particular order. 1) If you plan on doing anything with a computer, you should be looking at systems that have FireWire (goes under other names, too) interfaces so that you can suck the video off the tape directly into the PC or Mac and avoid a generation loss. Most (all?) camcorders that have this are digital (Digital8, DV, etc.), though some (e.g. the high-end SONY Digital8 models) can also play back "legacy" Hi8 analog tapes, and transfer them over FireWire, too. I don't know the the record times for the digital units / tapes, though I think most of them are 1 hour per tape. Hi8 is two hours per tape, and can be extended to 4 hrs in LP mode (though I've never tried it). 2) VHS and VHS-C are probably too big, and more importantly, too low a resolution to consider. 8mm is barely acceptable, Hi8 isn't bad (arouind 400 lines), Digital-8 and DV are even better. I'd consider Hi8 as the minimum acceptable quality. 3) Image stabilzation may be a bad idea for in-car video -- take a look at The Laguna Seca "rear-view" video shot with a (SONY?) 8mm unit -- you can see the frame "floating" around as Sherman g-loads the camera through the turns. What you need instead is a rigidly-mounted camera, and I mean _RIGIDLY_. Unfortunately, tape mechanisms aren't too happy about being shaken all to hell while connected to a vibrating car. In fact, you're pretty much guaranteed that the tape transport will fail on short order if you do this. I have seen people using the tiny DV units (notably an "upright" JVC unit) on cars like Cobras and Boxters, and I've also read of many, many warranty repairs and returns for units used this way. In short, until camcorders are hard-disk or solid-state-memory-based, I don't think rigid camera mounts are the way to go if you don't consider your camcorder as a throw-away item. 4) One nice thing about _certain_ digital camcorders is "progressive scan" or non-interlaced scan. That yields a better image (and also allows for a host of additional still-shot features) and is desireable. 5) For me, the only solution was to get a separate, in-car camera ("camera head") and connect it to my camcorder, using the camcorder as a VTR (video tape recorder). There are a couple different units on the market, and they connect to your camcorder (or video Walkman) via video (composite or S) and audio connectors. At Bob Tunnell's suggestion / prodding I bought what seems to be one of the best units, the RaceCam http://www.racecam.com. This is designed by a racer (Craig Reinan) who's also a smart video guy. Not only does it have all sorts of trick internal calibrations to optimize image quality, but it also has a sort of moveable "screen" which reduces the brightness of the image through the windshield in order to equalize the inside and outside brightness and thus make the instruments more legible (see the Pikes Peak video -- you can see the tach and speedo when not blocked by my hands and the steering wheel). Plus, RaceCam's support is very good. The RaceCam costs as much as or more than a camcorder, and you still need a camcorder to use with the RaceCam. Although the RaceCam mount is pretty good, I chucked most of it in favor of an even more massive one that uses the RaceCam's clamp head (it's from a PanaVise vise) "on top of" a massive roll-bar clamp that looks and clamps down a lot like a connecting rod. 6) My equipment and video process is described below (sorry for the repeat, but many people must have missed my first post): The Thunderhill video was shot with a SONY TRV-82 Hi8 camcorder functioning as a simple VTR, with a RaceCam (http://www.racecam.com) RC200SVST camera connected via S-video. The engine mic is in the engine compartment where the battery "jump terminal" is located. The ambient mic is strapped to the cage behind my seat, and needs a better location and windscreeen. The SONY is in a foam-lined bag behind the passenger seat running of batteries, and there's a Radio Shack interference suppression filter between the RaceCam and the cigarette lighter (this made a big difference in mic noise / alternator noise pickup). The RaceCam is mounted rigidly to the cage, at about eye level for a passenger between the driver's and passenger's seats. I use a LANC remote (power and record functions) also made by Northeast Microelectronics to turn the SONY on and off and into and out of record. You'll note that by having a remote head that's rigidly mounted to the cage, there are no vibration issues whatsoever. Also, I need to have the RaceCam re-programmed to deal with this particular setup -- it expects more blackness at the top of the frame, and it's being fooled in making the dash darker than it needs to be. After I get back from the track, I process the video as follows: i) Suck it onto hard disk with Pinnacle's Studio DC10plus v1.06.4 at 640x480 and 3000KB/s data rate. By definition, the codec used is the DC10plus' MJPEG codec. Sound is 16bit/44kHz from start to finish, and I feed the camcorder's outputs through a Behringer MDX1400 compresser/limiter/gate/expander in order to limit the dynamic range and clean it up a bit. ii) I use AVSync to make sure audio and video are synch'd. iii) Then I use VirtualDub v1.04c to deinterlace, 2:1 reduce and crop the bottom eight lines off (my camcorder has an artifact down there), and use DC10plus MJPEG codec compression at 90% quality and 600KB/s target data rate (the actual rate is around 450KB/s). iv) Create a project in Studio, make the titles, effects and audio fades, then Make Movie @ 320x236 using Intel Indeo v4.4 codec, target data rate of 1200KB/s and 90% quality. v) Finally, use Xing MPEG encoder to create MPEG-1 output, "match source" option. All of this is done on a 533MHz Celeron (not Coppermine). More details on the system can be found on Pinnacle's website http://www.pinnaclesys.com in the DC10plus forums -- search for aekalman and look at my profile. If you have a digital camcorder and an iMac, for instance, this process may be much simpler, and more importantly, is a lot faster. 7) If you go the RaceCam (or other separate camera head) route, your camcorder will need video and audio _inputs_. I noticed that SONY has dropped these features from their Hi8 units, but it's still available on some Digital8 and DV units. A larger fraction of the older 8mm/Hi8 line had these inputs. The RaceCam has both composite (low-quality) and S-video (better, around 400 lines) quality outputs. The nice thing is that it will remain useable long after my camcorder expires -- I'll just buy another with S-video inputs. 8) My camcorder (working as only a VTR, and I use the screen to ensure that the RaceCam is positioned correctly) sits in a padded foam bag behind the passenger seat. It runs off an infoLithium battery (good for 4+ hours), and the RaceCam runs off the 12V receptacle, though I added a Radio Shack interference filter to the wiring and it eliminated alternator whine (this was a big improvement). A nice thing about having a camcorder with a decent screen is that you can review your tapes in the evening after the track closes ... 9) I haven't yet discovered the right place to put my second RaceCam mic -- the low-sensitivity one lives in the engine compartment, and the sound I'm getting is great. The high-sensitivity one will probably be linked to my helmet or something. 10) Note that the web videos are at (nominally) 320x240. The source on my hard disk is at 640x480, or 4 times the information (before compression). That uncompressed video looks awfully nice, and is a few grades better than the web videos. If your 8mm SONY has video inputs, you may want to consider the RaceCam. If not, I'd talk to other drivers who are running small DV units and find out their longer-term experiences with those -- maybe if it's small enough it won't mind the vibration, though it will likely have a very hard time dealing with the large differences ion interior and exterior brightness. I would consider a color viewfinder on a camcorder used for race videos to be wholly unnecessary. The bigger the LCD screen, the better, but also not too necessary. S-video and audio inputs would be a must. Unfortunately most of these features all come together towards the high end of the line. Video Walkmans or video recorders (essentially a mobile VCR) are fine, but without a screen you don't know for sure what you're recording or what you've recorded. Regards, -- ______________________________________ Andrew E. Kalman, Ph.D. aek@pumpkininc.com
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#10. Re: [E36M3] extending life of PF90 pads - from Rich Gay
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Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 00:39:49 -0500 From: Rich Gay <rich_gay@mac.com> Subject: Re: [E36M3] extending life of PF90 pads on 5/14/01 9:34 PM, Don Chaney at chaneydon@hotmail.com wrote: > I still have a fair amount of pad left, but the inside pad has worn > noticably more than the outside. Since the PF90s dont have clips I was > wondering if anyone has switched the inside and outside pad to get more wear > out of them. If so, what was the result? I'm not a brake expert (perhaps Neil will jump in here...) but I think this is a symptom of something not quite right with the caliper. You could probably swap the pads like you suggest, but I'd be concerned about the cause. > I called Porterfield and they are sold out of PF90s, which have been > discontinued. They are now recommending the PF97--anyone used these? > Different? Better? Interesting news. Sure hope the new compound is at least as good. - Rich