Scouse Express

.....and one from the Liverpool Police Force.

Ahhhh, those were the days!

Jim.

nai_in_av

Looking at the 1999 through 2003 model, can't afford one of the new shape V10 ones. Any idea's on why the UK spec model has 400bhp yet the US one is only 394bhp?

Had been looking at SUV's, but I don't like 99% of them, and it would only be useful a couple months (at most) in the year because of winter and mountain roads. The other half already has an SUV, so I looked at the S4 and M3, then realized the M3 would not be so good because we have 2 kids (well 1 now, and another in Feb) and so looked at the M5. Fingers crossed I can start looking to buy sometime next year

BritGuyTN

Completely agree, up until I bought the avalanche , I'd never bought a new car - but it worked out OK because its for business and there is still a big deduction for gas guzzlers over 6000 lbs GWR on top of all the other deductions

the new M3 looks excellent. Although the wife wants a a 325i cab, the problem is that she wants a stick. which as you can imagine finding one is like looking for rocking horse shit.

The M3 cab obviously has a lot more 6-speed variants about and the price delta is not that much, its just i'm a bit leery about her driving a car with that much power with a light rear end. I don;t worry when shes driving mine, having a big lump of metal over the rear axle really helps traction with the type of driving she does.

Rushman

If you go for a 3 series then don't touch the sequential shift or auto, they are apparently a weak link, especially if you decide to tune it at a later date.

I've got a manual 330ci and have looked at a few manual M3's, they are about. As for her driving with all that power and a light rear end...don't sweat it. The E46 is an unbelievably well balanced car and I thrash mine like a ginger step child and havent lost the rear end yet.....plus the fact that the E46 has "Dynamic Stability Control DSC" that cuts the power when it feels the vehicle start losing rear wheel traction in conjunction with rear suspension loads, therefore it's virtually impossible to lose the rear end. The beauty is that they are also very mild mannered until you stand on the loud pedal, then all hell lets loose and the clutch pedal isn't hard at all. She'll handle it fine.

I supercharged my 330 and it's more powerful than a standard M3 and wouldn't have any worries letting Mrs.R take it for a spin.....and she's a nutter in a motor, a right Penelope pitstop.

Rushman

US smog emissions. Same make European models usually have a bit more power because the US emissions laws (especially California) strangle the motors. Also could be due to the US and Europe having slightly different ways of rating horsepower.

Which makes me laugh somewhat because the tractor trailer motors here are far more polluting than the European specifications currently being enforced, and they allow them to park up and leave the motors idling all night to keep the drivers warm instead of using diesel powered "night heaters which only use about a cup full of diesel in 8 hours.

But what do those weird Europeans know?

BritGuyTN

Crikey. how much power did you get out of supercharger? 80 bhp?

I have actually driven the SMG gear box (in a 325) and thought it was a bit of a laugh, but probably not for long-term use.

I think some of my fear for her is that when I had my 320 I had a couple of 'incidents', one coming off a roundabout where I did a 360 and ended up looking like a right nonce in front of a load of people at the bus stop opposite and once on black ice where I was driving at 70mph in a straight line and all of a sudden did a 720 degree spin and ended up drivers side against the cash barrier...

I told the 'trouble' to widen her horizons, we've had the local stealership come up with 2 manual 325 cabs in about nine months... one red with red interior and one silver one wit lots of miles (wife hates silver for some reason), so maybe a 330 is on the cards....

Rushman

I've got 340 horsepower at the rear wheels but only until they finish developing the stage 2 kit which will be released in April, then I'll have over 400.

Suprised you managed to get your 320 to do 70MPH. I had an E39 320 cabrio before coming here and it was as slow as a woman paying for dinner. The 330 as standard is a nice motor....just don't get one with one of those bloody awful "Kreme" interiors that every car on the North American continent seems to be blessed with.

If you do get a 330ci it's worth finding one with the optional sport package. Its got leather and stiffer sports suspension for very little more money used.

BritGuyTN

My 320i got up to 137mph thank you very much! (redline in 5th) on the M6 coming home from blackpool one holiday weekend. that car was very nippy up to about 50, after that you had to have some patience. the 325 at the time I bought the 320 was a shit ton more in insurance.

are you talking about the the tan interior? that is minging, I really think it should be a non-option on german cars, leave it to jags and other posh english cars...

how much was the stage one FI kit?

Rushman

Stage 1 was $4,700....BMW's are notoriously expensive to tune. Theres a Turbo kit just been developed on the market to get an E46 M3 up to 750 crank BHP with 600 at the wheels and its.............$16,000 for the kit and $2,500 to have it fitted.....and that the SALE price..the MSRP is $21,000.


Shhh but my 330 has seen 165mph and had abit more in it.

Dogbyte

Driving Licence and Insurance, please Sir

Ray

I drove a turbo Bmw 333 a few year ago .quite nice ........

BritGuyTN

Actually the first sppeding conviciton i've ever had was about 6 weeks ago.

for doing 93 in a 70

the state trooper was a right twat about it. He was about 19 just out of twat academy.... I was half tempted to tell him that if I had floored it I would have been 3 counties along before he managed to put his donut down....

Dogbyte

First lesson,Look in your rear view mirror,second, look up(helicopter) third,speak nicely,fourth,dont do it on the same road,fifth,there are a lot of them about and they are all the same nowaday,say no more!! watch out cos if he sees you again,he might hold a grudge. none of this, well, we all did it, dont do it again nowadays.

tonrob

Possibly the most offensive thread I've seen yet. Anyone care to lower the tone still further?

Ray

You don't look hard enough!!!!!!!!!