The BMW UUC Digest Volume 2 : Issue 771 : "text" Format Messages in this Issue: Re: BMW Certified Question E36 questions / track car questions Re: E36 questions / track car questions Re: E36 questions / track car questions Re: E36 questions / track car questions Costco towels. Re: BMW Independent Repair on the SF Peninsula Re: BMW Independent Repair on the SF Peninsula Re: Costco towels Re: Track car options Re: Track car options Re: Track car options Re: Track car options
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 23:14:34 -0400 From: Brian Daley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: bmwuucdigest@uucdigest.com Subject: Re: BMW Certified Question Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Rich, Given the smiley I'm going to assume that was meant to be read with a joking tone and respond accordingly. No, I didn't charge my mother for the work. My usual rate for plumbing, electrical work, landscaping, painting, etc. is mom's home cooking. I guess it sounded bad the way I worded it. Perhaps it would have sounded better if I had phrased it this way: "I'm not in a position to buy $800 of parts for her so while she was writing me a check for the parts she offered to share some of the savings with me and still saved $1000." Considering I saved her at least $1300 and spent an entire weekend working on her car I was inclined to accept. She knows what it would have cost to have the dealer do the work and she asked what I thought was fair so I came up with a number, thus "fair compensation for my time." I was trying to point out that the $1000 savings wasn't because she was paying nothing for parts or labor. She paid for the parts, and gave me something for my labor and still came out $1000 ahead. You could try charging your wife for fixing her car, but if your marriage is typical whatever she paid you would still be *her* money after she gave it to you... :-) Brian Rich Dorffer wrote: >>-----Original Message----- >>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Brian Daley >> >><snipped> >>It's not just BMW dealers either. I just saved my mother almost >>$1000 on a brake job and new struts on her Toyota by buying the >>parts and doing the work myself. That's her net savings after I >>took fair compensation for my time, and also includes a number of >>parts the dealer would not have replaced at the estimated price >>I'm basing her savings on. >> >> > >Wow, you charge your mom for work down on her car? Did she charge you for >giving birth to you?!? > >:-) > >I need to start charging for more of my work... I have a bunch of stuff >planned for my wife's Accord...hey honey...break out your checkbook... > >Later, > >Rich > > ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 23:22:22 -0500 From: "Matt Evans" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <bmwuucdigest@uucdigest.com> Subject: E36 questions / track car questions Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> I want a budget track car. I've been tracking my E28 M5 at HPDEs and have really really enjoyed it. I am at the point with this vehicle that I am not going to get any faster without sticky tires or negative front camber, and I've started buying budget tires and slowing down so I'm not evaporating street tires in a weekend. Finally, I do not want to start looking for additional 10ths on a rare car that I happen to dearly love. So, I've been looking at a wide variety of things, and recently an E36 325i auto sedan became available. However, this particular model is a 92, so it has a non-vanos motor. I see that the majority of engine upgrades for M50 cars are for vanos engines. Is that accurate? Can I put a vanos cam in a non-vanos engine ? My understanding is that auto->manual swaps are not especially tricky on the E36, and in fact might be a good starting point since you get a faster rear end. No ECU / coding changes are necessary, correct ? When I say budget, I really, really mean it. This particular e36 sedan has an asking price of $2800 and it runs and all that stuff. That's on the high side of my budget for car acquisition, since I know that eventually I'll replace the seats, the brakes, all suspension components, all rubber components, etc, so I don't want to pay for good examples of any of those things - I just want the car safe enough to drive home for me to make a proper assessment of it while I have it stripped/gutted. Some very smart people are going to tell me "just buy an already built track car. It's cheaper" Yeah. I know. My wife has said "I understand it will be more money in the long run, but I'm ok with that.. As long as the initial cost is low and the incremental costs are moderate and can be spaced out" What I am ideally after is something that is lighter than E28 M5, $1000 or less, runs under its own power, has good glass and structural metal, and is based on a platform where new bodyshells are easy to come by (so when I stuff the thing, I move the go fast bits that survived over to a new roller and keep driving). It has to be RWD and I really, really want it to be a bmw but I'd bend on that if I had to :) Bonus - the car easily slots into club racing or SCCA or NASA or something along those lines a few years from now. Any thoughts on my ramble? Thanks, Matt ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 05:14:29 -0700 (PDT) From: Carlos Lopez <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Matt Evans <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, bmwuucdigest@uucdigest.com Subject: Re: E36 questions / track car questions Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --- Matt Evans <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Any thoughts on my ramble? Jay H. posted a '93 325is that needs nothing to be a daily driver/track car and it was $4,900. You really can't get much cheaper than that unless you go E30 and then you end up putting in so much money on maintenance that again it goes beyond the $5K mark. I'm sure a cheap ($2800) E36 is going to cost you more than the $5K once you replace everything that it'll need to make it track worthy. Carlos. ____________________________________________________ Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 10:30:06 -0400 From: "Ken Arutunian" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: bmwuucdigest@uucdigest.com Subject: Re: E36 questions / track car questions Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Matt, I went around and around with this same issue recently. IMHO, the closer you are to a "rolling chassis" type car...the more you end up spending!!! It would pay you to search for a car that already has Bilsteins as an example...since they can be valved and utilize the springs of your choice. IIRC, I think you can send the struts/shocks to Bilstein and for $50 per unit they will valve to spec! Try to find a car that someone has already set up to run at the track. Chances are, they've done the bushings, sways and other things to make the car track worthy. It might not be a front runner in the beginning, but that's what setting up a budget is all about. Jon Siccardi took the time to talk to me about the pros and cons of building a ready made racer vs. building a custom racer. The conclusion that I made is that there are things you want and things you might not necessarily want on cars that have been *fully* prepped for track usage. One main consideration is the rollcage! That is a big time expense and you want it done right the FIRST time. So, when you purchase a ready made racer...you might end up spending money for things you didn't want or need to further improve. Back to the initial purchase, I would humbly recommend that you purchase as much car as you can possibly afford. Spend a lot of fricken money on a cage so when you do *ball it up* your safety is not compromised!!! Your chasis is really not meant to be a "disposable" item. I hope that makes some sense. Here's what I did to start the process of building a D-Mod club racer. I considered the e30 vs e36. Decided I'd build the e36. Then did a comparison of the 93-95 325is vs. '95 M3 vs. '96-97 328is. I decided to spend more money up front for the e36m3...why???? Well, the car has takeoffs that can help recoup some money spent in acquiring the car. By the time I spent money for the 325 or 328...I'd end up having the same money or more to get the car up to M3 specs! So, I now have a car that gives me some options to sell parts and reduce my cost. The engine is worth quite a bit of money. I've not decided if I will detune the 3.0 to get me to the 2980cc limitation of D-Mod or sell the 3.0 and purchase and build a 2.8. I'm trying to do a cost comparison on that process as well. My budget for acquiring a car went from spending as little up front as I possibly could (2000-4500), I ended up spending $8000 for a '95 M3! But again, I think I've got at least $4000 in take offs (including selling the engine)...which gives me a really good chassis from which to build a race car. The aesthetics were very important to me...the M3 fits that bill. Well, I'm sure I'm leaving off a lot to consider. But, hopefully I have helped shed a little light on this process. Oh yeah, auto tranny conversions can get quite costly. Find a car with a manual trans! Good luck in your quest! Ken Arutunian >From: "Matt Evans" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: <bmwuucdigest@uucdigest.com> >Subject: [UUC] E36 questions / track car questions >Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 23:22:22 -0500 > >I want a budget track car. > >I've been tracking my E28 M5 at HPDEs and have really really enjoyed it. I >am at the point with this vehicle that I am not going to get any faster >without sticky tires or negative front camber, and I've started buying >budget tires and slowing down so I'm not evaporating street tires in a >weekend. Finally, I do not want to start looking for additional 10ths on a >rare car that I happen to dearly love. > >So, I've been looking at a wide variety of things, and recently an E36 325i >auto sedan became available. > >SNIP > > > > > >Search the ARCHIVES:http://www.mail-archive.com/bmwuucdigest@uucdigest.com > > >__________________________________________________________________________ >In memory of Michel Potheau - friend, enthusiast, founder of the BMW CCA. > >UUC Motorwerks - BMW Performance Fine-tuning and home of the Ultimate >Short Shifter - accept no substitutes! >908-874-9092 . http://www.uucmotorwerks.com _________________________________________________________________ Dont just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 10:12:26 -0700 From: Brian Ghidinelli <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Matt Evans <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: bmwuucdigest@uucdigest.com Subject: Re: E36 questions / track car questions Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Matt Evans wrote: > What I am ideally after is something that is lighter than E28 M5, $1000 or > less, runs under its own power, has good glass and structural metal, and is > based on a platform where new bodyshells are easy to come by (so when I > stuff the thing, I move the go fast bits that survived over to a new roller > and keep driving). It has to be RWD and I really, really want it to be a > bmw but I'd bend on that if I had to :) > > Bonus - the car easily slots into club racing or SCCA or NASA or something > along those lines a few years from now. Spec E30 or Spec Miata. Not as fast as an ///M car but cheaper to acquire and run. Plus, having other drivers in similarly prepared cars gives you a wealth of available feedback on how you as a driver are doing when you're hunting for 10ths. Both can be built in stages over time for (relatively speaking) not much money. Cheers, Brian -- Brian Ghidinelli > http://www.MotorsportReg.com MotorsportReg.com processes online registration and payment for your track, autocross and social events ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 07:57:21 -0400 From: "Richard Sperry" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <bmwuucdigest@uucdigest.com> Subject: Costco towels. Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> I would only use them for cleaning windows. There is a very big difference in microfiber towels. The ones from Costco will leave a lot of scratchs on your paint. I detail, and KNOW. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 06:40:47 -0700 From: Brad Houser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'test'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "'Raza Uddin'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: bmwuucdigest@uucdigest.com Subject: Re: BMW Independent Repair on the SF Peninsula Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Anyone been to Ray's Ultimate in Santa Clara? It is near work, and if he is good, I will try him. Brad H ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 09:58:29 -0700 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: bmwuucdigest@uucdigest.com Subject: Re: BMW Independent Repair on the SF Peninsula Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> I'll second Joe's recommendation and add that Ramone at Bavarian Motorsports is very knowledgeable about every model and can handle any repair or upgrade work as far as I can tell. He's also a great supporter of the Club's local events and autocrosses a 750iL. Also, TC Design is just around the corner and fun to see what's happening there and daydream. -Kevin ---------------------------------------------------------------- This e-mail communication is confidential and is intended only for the individual(s) or entity named above and others who have been specifically authorized to receive it. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not read, copy, use or disclose the contents of this communication to others. Please notify the sender that you have received this e-mail in error by replying to the e-mail. Please then delete the e-mail and any copies of it. Thank you. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 07:41:29 -0700 From: "T WALROD" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "bmw digest" <bmwuucdigest@uucdigest.com> Subject: Re: Costco towels Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Broken record here - found a new use for them as drying cloths. They absorb an amazing amount of water after I squeegee the cars. No contest with cotton towels or chamois I have used. Apartment cleaner is singing their praises for wall, window, and bathroom cleaning (share them w/ your wife or use them yerself). I've been passing them out to friends and relatives - at $8/20 buy them before Costco discontinues them. I bought an extra batch to stick with my Y2K MREs - bet I use the rags first. Tom (bought a frontally challenged '89 325iC for no good reason) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 10:35:19 -0500 From: "Marc Plante" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: bmwuucdigest@uucdigest.com Subject: Re: Track car options Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Don't buy an auto for track use. You'll hate yourself in the morning... Another Data Point I sold my 1993 E36 325i with 220k on it last June for $3500. The car had a very clean interior (I had the driver's seat out for the last 4 yrs replaced by a recaro SRD), a VERY clean body w/M3 nose, New brakes, BLSS w/ERC, new wheel bearings, control arms, radiator, preventative clutch at 140k (throwout bearing was tired though functional. Pressure plate was fine). a Koni H&R OE suspension a B&B triflow exhaust, and I left in a set of aftermarket a/d/s front speakers and stealthboxes driven by an Eclipse 4 ch amp ( got too lazy to put the stock bits back in...stooopid!). I was asking $4k for the car with BBS RZ wheels in very good shape and sold it for $3500 w/o wheels (buyer supplied his own. The car had a very small headgasket leak (not even fluid on the garage floor), and I figured it would be needing reasonably significant engine work given the miles on the motor (I'm an NCC instructor, and the car had 65 track days and some auto-X usage. It sold to an employee of Bimmerworld. James at Bimmerworld heard a little bit of a tick on the motor and dropped in a new one (race teams can do that). Turns out, a slight miss shift some time in the car's life had kissed one of the valves, leaving it a little noisy. Short of a race team that could just drop in a motor, someone bying my car would have had to do a head gasket and valve job to get the car solid for the track. Overall, I'd budget $5k-7k to buy and update something track worthy. More if you want to be "competitive." LOTS more if you want to race (that's an exponential equation, I believe). Your dollars will go further with an E30 than an E36, though the E36 is more car. Your decision also depends on your track ego. Are you going to be OK working hard to keep up with E36M3s in DEs? or do you want more power to keep up more readily? E30s and E36 2.5s will keep up in most instances (short of the Glen which is very wide-open) , though they need to be fairly modified or aggressively driven to keep up. Also realize that as you work your way up the food chain, Not only purchase price, but replacement parts cost a lot more. I got rotors for my 325 for about $40 Ea, the floating rotors for the M3s cost double that + (I believe. I'm still on my first set of rotors). brake pads, tires, all consumables tend to cost more. Finally, if you plan to commute to tracks and don't want to trailer, a 4 DR E36 gives you a lot of hauling capacity, and you can get the tires in the back seat very easily. I was able to go on road trips to CAN from VA with my 325, hauling everything in the car. An E30 won't be that accomodating. (Yeah, Woody, I know...it CAN be done). There are lots of other points that people will raise. HTH, Marc Plante 1997 E36 M3/4 66k 2005 "Child" (on order) Vienna, VA > --- Matt Evans <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Any thoughts on my ramble? > ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 08:39:23 -0700 From: "Marco Romani" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <bmwuucdigest@uucdigest.com> Subject: Re: Track car options Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> buy an old beater truck and a shifter kart. Marco that's what I would do knowing what I know now ;-) -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Marc Plante Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2005 8:35 AM To: bmwuucdigest@uucdigest.com Subject: Re: [UUC] Track car options Don't buy an auto for track use. You'll hate yourself in the morning... Another Data Point I sold my 1993 E36 325i with 220k on it last June for $3500. The car had a very clean interior (I had the driver's seat out for the last 4 yrs replaced by a recaro SRD), a VERY clean body w/M3 nose, New brakes, BLSS w/ERC, new wheel bearings, control arms, radiator, preventative clutch at 140k (throwout bearing was tired though functional. Pressure plate was fine). a Koni H&R OE suspension a B&B triflow exhaust, and I left in a set of aftermarket a/d/s front speakers and stealthboxes driven by an Eclipse 4 ch amp ( got too lazy to put the stock bits back in...stooopid!). I was asking $4k for the car with BBS RZ wheels in very good shape and sold it for $3500 w/o wheels (buyer supplied his own. The car had a very small headgasket leak (not even fluid on the garage floor), and I figured it would be needing reasonably significant engine work given the miles on the motor (I'm an NCC instructor, and the car had 65 track days and some auto-X usage. It sold to an employee of Bimmerworld. James at Bimmerworld heard a little bit of a tick on the motor and dropped in a new one (race teams can do that). Turns out, a slight miss shift some time in the car's life had kissed one of the valves, leaving it a little noisy. Short of a race team that could just drop in a motor, someone bying my car would have had to do a head gasket and valve job to get the car solid for the track. Overall, I'd budget $5k-7k to buy and update something track worthy. More if you want to be "competitive." LOTS more if you want to race (that's an exponential equation, I believe). Your dollars will go further with an E30 than an E36, though the E36 is more car. Your decision also depends on your track ego. Are you going to be OK working hard to keep up with E36M3s in DEs? or do you want more power to keep up more readily? E30s and E36 2.5s will keep up in most instances (short of the Glen which is very wide-open) , though they need to be fairly modified or aggressively driven to keep up. Also realize that as you work your way up the food chain, Not only purchase price, but replacement parts cost a lot more. I got rotors for my 325 for about $40 Ea, the floating rotors for the M3s cost double that + (I believe. I'm still on my first set of rotors). brake pads, tires, all consumables tend to cost more. Finally, if you plan to commute to tracks and don't want to trailer, a 4 DR E36 gives you a lot of hauling capacity, and you can get the tires in the back seat very easily. I was able to go on road trips to CAN from VA with my 325, hauling everything in the car. An E30 won't be that accomodating. (Yeah, Woody, I know...it CAN be done). There are lots of other points that people will raise. HTH, Marc Plante 1997 E36 M3/4 66k 2005 "Child" (on order) Vienna, VA > --- Matt Evans <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Any thoughts on my ramble? > Search the ARCHIVES:http://www.mail-archive.com/bmwuucdigest@uucdigest.com __________________________________________________________________________ In memory of Michel Potheau - friend, enthusiast, founder of the BMW CCA. UUC Motorwerks - BMW Performance Fine-tuning and home of the Ultimate Short Shifter - accept no substitutes! 908-874-9092 . http://www.uucmotorwerks.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 11:46:07 -0400 From: "Gary Derian" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Marco Romani" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <bmwuucdigest@uucdigest.com> Subject: Re: Track car options Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> With a 5x8 trailer, you don't even need the truck, or a garage. An E30 can tow a shifter kart in its trailer anywhere you want to go. Gary [broken record] Derian > buy an old beater truck and a shifter kart. > > Marco > that's what I would do knowing what I know now ;-) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 08:53:07 -0700 From: "Marco Romani" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <bmwuucdigest@uucdigest.com> Subject: Re: Track car options Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> true - but I like beater trucks ;-) Marco -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Gary Derian Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2005 8:46 AM To: Marco Romani; bmwuucdigest@uucdigest.com Subject: Re: [UUC] Track car options With a 5x8 trailer, you don't even need the truck, or a garage. An E30 can tow a shifter kart in its trailer anywhere you want to go. Gary [broken record] Derian > buy an old beater truck and a shifter kart. > > Marco > that's what I would do knowing what I know now ;-) Search the ARCHIVES:http://www.mail-archive.com/bmwuucdigest@uucdigest.com __________________________________________________________________________ In memory of Michel Potheau - friend, enthusiast, founder of the BMW CCA. UUC Motorwerks - BMW Performance Fine-tuning and home of the Ultimate Short Shifter - accept no substitutes! 908-874-9092 . http://www.uucmotorwerks.com ------------------------------ End of [bmwuucdigest] digest(13 messages) **********
