Ownership Verified: 1995 BMW M3 (US 3.0L), track day car

[rootrider]

lol.. which ones?

 

[rootrider]

drove the M3 to work in downtown Seattle this afternoon. Holy cow the ride is so much better. It's a huge improvement. The car actually feels like it has suspension now.. before it felt like it was rock hard, sometimes. The tires also feel like they are contacting the road a little better in turns, even though the camber & toe is similar to what it was before. I chock this up to an improvement in the damper's movement.

It'll probably be 2014 when the car is on track again.. but I'm looking forward to finally seeing what the Bilstein Sports are like.

 

[rootrider]

Did a lot of work yesterday.. replaced window trim, the driver's door seal, the hood cowl, and reinstalled some things I've had removed since the accident. I cleaned the car this morning.. best it's looked yet

 

[Redliner]

 

[nicjasno]

Seems to me that the accident is the best thing that could have happened

 

[rootrider]

Seems to me that the accident is the best thing that could have happened

don't know.. it cost me a lot of money and kept me from putting the car on track this summer so I could learn it better, and the car still isn't back to where it was (needs an underpanel still, and a better bumper). It's taken this long (about 6 months) to get the car back to this point

 

[rootrider]

more pics. First.. had the car aligned a week ago at the North Auburn Les Scwab. ...alignment pit.. good stuff.

then, this last Friday, I started in on replacing a few more bits.

new door handle covers/seals. Old..

big difference..

the cover off..

new..

replaced the window trim with better looking trim from a parts car. Old..

big difference..

new..

then, replaced the driver's side door seal with a better example I got from another parts car. Old..

new.. still damaged in the same place, but not as badly. And the door shuts a lot more soundly now.

replaced the hood cowl. Old..

big difference..

how it sat on Sunday after being washed. The car looks a lot more clean now.

 

[rootrider]

exhaust comparison.. old vs. new. Hopefully you can tell that the engine makes a nice noise, and the exhaust compliments it

 

[rootrider]

I received a printout of some dyno runs performed on the car when I bought it. I always thought that the peak numbers were a bit low (still do), and I have reproduced situations where the car appears to have a lot less power than it does at other times. So, after I installed the OBD2 mid-pipes and the AA cat-back, I figured a new dyno was in order.

I went back to the same place as the previous owner ran.. and got four pulls in. The peak power ended up being almost exactly the same, though more power is available throughout the lower RPM range now. Now.. I need to figure out why the power seems so low on a dyno. This car should probably be running between 230 - 245hp at the rear wheels. I think that power really does exist, but that there's an issue that results in lower output when starting from lower RPM's like on these pulls.

so... before (a little over 2 years ago):

after:

 

[WDWBen]

Ran on a DynoJet? They read pretty true. It's the Mustang Dynos that tend to break hearts.

 

[rootrider]

I'm not doubting the dyno at all. It's a well known and often used place.. and obviously the two dynos I have there are from the same place, with weather that wasn't too different.

I'm showing the dyno results to indicate a problem.. I'm not getting a response from my thread on bimmerforums though

 

[rootrider]

the car has been mostly sitting for the last year, mostly because I thought a wheel bearing was about to fail. I drive it once or twice a month. I replaced the battery a few months ago.. not very exciting. Last week I took the car into a shop to have the rear bearing replaced.. they replaced it and the sound we were hearing still existed. So they checked the diff fluid and it was full of metal bits. Fun..

so now I have this:

It's a rare US e36 3.38:1 LSD. My stock diff is 3:15:1, so this will be a nice increase in speed. This new one has 85k miles (my car has 197k miles). Hopefully I can get it on in a couple of weeks.

 

[rootrider]

sold this car yesterday.. sad day

 

[rootrider]

 

[DanRoM]

Never mind the car - you have deer in your driveway?

 

[Redliner]

The buyer took almost a year to go get it?

 

[rootrider]

The seller took almost a year to go get it?

nope.. just took me that long to put the video online

 

[rootrider]

Never mind the car - you have deer in your driveway?

so many.. so often.

 

[93Flareside]

Never mind the car - you have deer in your driveway?

deer are cool?

 

[Misrabelle]

Does this mean it'll be another year until updating the thread flair to reflect it's status?