Car Talk Thread

System

This thread is an open discussion on cars. Take some shots of your cars and post them up! Anything goes here, so don't be too upset if you get burned.

*edit: It's mostly me that gets burned so don't worry too much.

David_S85

nandysso wrote:

*cough*

Great car. Had the same model and year in dolphin grey, But......

what does this have to do with photography?????

wholenewlight

David_S85 wrote:

what does this have to do with photography?????

Wide angle thread - anything goes. . .

DoctorIt

You should be happy you didn't win that auction. e30 325's with "homegrown" AC shnitzer badges on them are money pits. You have good taste, but do your homework young man, there are better bimmers out there.

Mitchell

DoctorIt wrote:

You should be happy you didn't win that auction. e30 325's with "homegrown" AC shnitzer badges on them are money pits. You have good taste, but do your homework young man, there are better bimmers out there.

Erik,
Let's here your BMW recommendations!

DoctorIt

Mitchell wrote:

Erik,
Let's here your BMW recommendations!

e30 M3. If you have the means, I highly recommend you pick one of these up. If you can get the "lightweight", you're in for a real treat.

Mitchell

I drive a 2000 740IL. Love the old body style!

Looking at an M5. I need more room than the 3 series offers.

DoctorIt

Mitchell wrote:

I drive a 2000 740IL. Love the old body style!

Looking at an M5. I need more room than the 3 series offers.

Ah well, yes of course, the e39 M5 is also quite a treat. Again, while the e60 is an amazing machine, I think I'd prefer the previous generation, a little less computerized seems to suit my driving style. I had the privilege of doing "competitive benchmarking" on the e39 vehicle. This one was actually brought in from the EU because it wasn't yet available in the US.



I love this car. LOVE this car. The most fun you can have with 3 (full-sized) friends (in a car). When pushed to the limit, the steering gearbox did give some weird feedback - something the 525 or 530 w/rack-pinion never would - but that lovely 8 cylinder is worth the extra space under the hood.

Get one.


Why did I leave that job again?

wxwax

Eric, the bimmer expert. How about that? Very cool, you are now a database for me.

DoctorIt

wxwax wrote:

Eric, the bimmer expert. How about that? Very cool, you are now a database for me.

I have a new handle. thanks.

Stormdancing

David_S85 wrote:

Great car. Had the same model and year in dolphin grey, But......

what does this have to do with photography?????

Hmmm maybe Andyson should starting using some of the ole man's camera equipment to get some good shots to sell and then he could buy the car he wants. Hmmmmmm

System

DoctorIt wrote:

e30 M3. If you have the means, I highly recommend you pick one of these up. If you can get the "lightweight", you're in for a real treat.

Ahem... There was no e30 m3 LTW. I think you're thinking of the Evo I, II, III. The first LTW m3 was the e36

System

I prefere the e30's. of course the e30 m3 would be great but a decent one will cost you 15k. a 1989 325is would be ideal for me

Mike Lane

ahh middies and their cars...

DoctorIt

nandysso wrote:

I prefere the e30's. of course the e30 m3 would be great but a decent one will cost you 15k. a 1989 325is would be ideal for me

really? then how come I nearly bought one for 12k 4 years ago? I admit, I haven't peroused the market, but either most of the remaining "decent" examples have been turned into scrap, or your standards of decent are much higher than mine.

and yes, i misspoke on the LTW (I confess, I always confuse the crap out of the e# designations and I had an image of a silver e36 LTW in my head as I wrote that - but I never forget the ones I've driven ). I am impressed grasshopper, you've done your homework.

The e30 m3 (red) I got to spend some time in wasn't even an Evo, and man was it fun! It belonged to one of the techs that worked in my department, and on a couple weekends we'd take it out on the skidpad and low-speed handling course. Another co-worker had a 99 e36 which we used to bring on the other handling course at the Florida test track. Yup, them were the days.

Have you experienced the sights and sounds of a new M5 yet? Wow! As computer-geeked out as that car is, that V10 is an extremely visceral experience.

Oh, your dad will like this one, you might be wondering why I didn't buy that car 4 years ago. I got my priorities straight and went back to school instead. I miss the hot cars, but I've been having a great time extending life as "kid".

BTW, where's dugmar? he's our resident dgrin bimmer expert... his stories can put mine to shame. Check out his smugmug site.

JamesJWeg

Yeah, great cars, I have had many 198X BMW's, I love them, am trying to fix my 89 750IL, great car. I really love the 325is but I have a habit of turning them into scrap steel, sadly I have done it more than once. This baby was my first 325is, one of two 1987 325is's that I had, both red, I endedup throwing a dumptruck 48.5 feet down the road with it, nearly killed me.



If you notice in this shot the stearing wheel is bent, my head did that. My knees tore apart the panel under the dash, I still have daily knee pain from that one.


The crazy thing was that the impact actually moved the entire rear axle carrier, warped the whole car.


My 750IL before I blew out the tranny guts @ >135mph



I miss them both, but still have the 750 and am looking to have it back on the road this year. If you think the e30's can be a money pit don't ever buy and hot rod a 7 series, I spent about $500-$1000/month in repair work on that beast, but it is nice to be able to dust 90% of the cars on the road. I prolly wouldn't have spent so much on repair if I didn't hit 140mph-150mph at least once every day.

James.

Andy

JamesJWeg wrote:

Yeah, great cars,

James - did you teach my son how to drive??? :uhoh



black ice, Friday night. Ugh.

Mitchell

Growing up in New York (Spring Valley) made me realize how poorly BMW's handled in the snow and ice. Something about all that power in the RWD cars made them spin or fishtail routinely.

Now that I live in Florida, I can drive my BMW with no worries about snow handling!:):

ivar

JamesJWeg wrote:

I really love the 325is but I have a habit of turning them into scrap steel, sadly I have done it more than once.

JamesJWeg wrote:

...if I didn't hit 140mph-150mph at least once every day.

Does anyone else see a connection here?

System

DoctorIt wrote:

really? then how come I nearly bought one for 12k 4 years ago? I admit, I haven't peroused the market, but either most of the remaining "decent" examples have been turned into scrap, or your standards of decent are much higher than mine.

and yes, i misspoke on the LTW (I confess, I always confuse the crap out of the e# designations and I had an image of a silver e36 LTW in my head as I wrote that - but I never forget the ones I've driven ). I am impressed grasshopper, you've done your homework.

The e30 m3 (red) I got to spend some time in wasn't even an Evo, and man was it fun! It belonged to one of the techs that worked in my department, and on a couple weekends we'd take it out on the skidpad and low-speed handling course. Another co-worker had a 99 e36 which we used to bring on the other handling course at the Florida test track. Yup, them were the days.

Have you experienced the sights and sounds of a new M5 yet? Wow! As computer-geeked out as that car is, that V10 is an extremely visceral experience.

Oh, your dad will like this one, you might be wondering why I didn't buy that car 4 years ago. I got my priorities straight and went back to school instead. I miss the hot cars, but I've been having a great time extending life as "kid".

BTW, where's dugmar? he's our resident dgrin bimmer expert... his stories can put mine to shame. Check out his smugmug site.

Yeah the market is insane now. a bottom of the barell e30 m3 will run you 10-12k. a decent clean 325i/is will cost you at least 5k. My friend just bought a 1989 325i with 77kmi for 5k:D

About a month ago my friend told me his mom got an M5 and I didnt believe him. Then i heard it coming from behind me in our small town and I knew exactly what it was.

And yes, I did crash another e30. Product of black ice:cry. I'm so screwed!

DoctorIt

nandysso wrote:

And yes, I did crash another e30. Product of black ice:cry. I'm so screwed!

sorry dude, that really sucks.

on a positive take though. this is the perfect excuse to milk dad for some really sweet advanced driver training. I must say, much better than the sweet cars I got to drive in my last job was all the training I got. Ol' Henry probably spent about 50k on me for training. I went to Bob Bondurant's Grand Prix school, and it was amazing the amount I learned, even after several hours of in-house training on our subjective evaluators course. A trip like this could be as pricey as that car you want, but the lessons you will learn there are invaluable.

makes for a cool father/son experience. There were 3 such pairs there when I took the course.

DoctorIt

Also helps younger drivers get it out of their system out on the track, where it's safe. To my own astonishment, after my first trip to a track, I realized what an idiot I was for trying to drive in a "spirited manner" on public roads.

*BTW, yes, I realize black ice is beyond the control of most, and doesn't mean you were driving too fast - the bent up car just makes me think of these things, so don't get offended, k?

System

DoctorIt wrote:

Also helps younger drivers get it out of their system out on the track, where it's safe. To my own astonishment, after my first trip to a track, I realized what an idiot I was for trying to drive in a "spirited manner" on public roads.

*BTW, yes, I realize black ice is beyond the control of most, and doesn't mean you were driving too fast - the bent up car just makes me think of these things, so don't get offended, k?

No offense take. We were acually only going 30-40 in a 55mph!

Yeah my dad has the drivins skizzles with his misery van

This spring our chapter of the BMWCCA is hosting some driving school practice that I'll be in. We also do drag racing, autox, and track events.

Andy

nandysso wrote:

Yeah my dad has the drivins skizzles with his misery van

My lease is up on the Misery Van in May. Now that some of my kids are grown up, I'm thinking of getting this:



Pretty cool, huh?

4labs

Beautiful, Nothing like driving with the top down.

DoctorIt

Andy wrote:

My lease is up on the Misery Van in May. Now that some of my kids are grown up, I'm thinking of getting this:



Pretty cool, huh?

I approve. I haven't driven one, but PapaIt let me have a "pretend drive" in the first 6 (non-convertible, though) they rolled into his showroom. Very, very nice car.

Myself, I'm keen on this upcoming model:

System

Andy wrote:

My lease is up on the Misery Van in May. Now that some of my kids are grown up, I'm thinking of getting this:



Pretty cool, huh?

drool

DoctorIt wrote:

I approve. I haven't driven one, but PapaIt let me have a "pretend drive" in the first 6 (non-convertible, though) they rolled into his showroom. Very, very nice car.

Myself, I'm keen on this upcoming model:

I like the e36/7 m coups better

DoctorIt

nandysso wrote:

I like the e36/7 m coups better

You are SO right.



(mine, for a day)

System

it's probably one of the best autox cars. add FI to it and its a supercar.

I also like the m roadster but not as good for autox

DoctorIt

the roadster lacks the mean look too, and the extra weight does indeed make it slower.

System

DoctorIt wrote:

the roadster lacks the mean look too, and the extra weight does indeed make it slower.

Yeah definately

my ideal garage would be: 1998 m coupe SC (track), 1988 3235ix (winter), 1989 325is (DD)