[uucdigest] Tuesday, June 10 2003 Volume 03 : Number 6444
_________________________________________________________________ | | Search the ARCHIVES: | http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] | | Visit Richard Nott's Ultimate BMW Database: | http://www.bmwdatabase.com | | For all available Digest commands including unsubscribe/subscribe, | visit the BMW UUC Digest page: http://www.uucdigest.com | | Send SUBMISSIONS to [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Complaints? Send 'em to [EMAIL PROTECTED] if you must. | Technical Problems? Send 'em to [EMAIL PROTECTED] |__________________________________________________________________ In this BMW UUC Digest: RE: [uuc] question re: Driving School Re: [uuc] Survey - used lease car v. used "rental' car Re: [uuc] Re: Anyone up for a driver school? Re: [uuc] has your V1 ever.... [uuc] suggestions for best Jaguar climate control diagnostician in Dallas [uuc] Track driving with "someone else's car" [uuc] has your V1 ever.... Re: [uuc] question re: Driving School Re: [uuc] has your V1 ever.... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 12:13:36 -0400 From: "Zidlicky, Peter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: RE: [uuc] question re: Driving School Skip Barber is great ... at least the location at Lime Rock ... will depend on where you're located etc. It's even better if the friends and relatives join in as opposed to just sending him there solo ... definitely a memorable bonding experience. We've done the driving school with corporate clients for the past two years and its a terrific event ... differs from most other corporate events because you're actually all participating as opposed to watching a spectator sport of some kind. It's like a bunch of kids playing in a sandbox together. Also educational to see how different personalities actually perform behind the wheel ... who pushes the limit and who becomes timid. Peter - -----Original Message----- From: Alex Cagann [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2003 11:53 AM To: BMW List Subject: [uuc] question re: Driving School My friend is turning 30 next month. His gal wants to set up a group gift from all his friends/relatives. She wants to send him to a driving school. She was asking about Skip Barber and others. Does anyone have any recommendations regarding this? He does not have a track car, so the event would have to offer this as well. Alex Cagann http://www.autoconsortium.com This message is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you receive this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from all computers. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 12:16:14 -0400 From: Michael Lawrence <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [uuc] Survey - used lease car v. used "rental' car Another good story. This guy was busted by a pissed off X girlfriend whom he backed out on a trip to europe. New Orleans A local shop owner would go find a rental car to take parts off of to fix customer cars. He had about 5 different fake IDs to use for renting, so the companies never saw a trend or thought about most of his rentals always broke while he drove them. Typical situation A customer would bring in a crown victoria with a bad transmission. He would rent identical car, put the bad transmission in the rental car, but not install the good one in the customer car just yet, then tow it to a neighborhood street, call the rental company and claim it broke down on him. Here is the really good part. They would tow the car in, either refund him the money or give another car. Well he had a good transmission from the rental car but would not use it. Instead, he would go rent the same car a few weeks later that had the newly replaced transmission, take it out and then replace it with the orginal transmission that came out of that car to begin with. Therefore, he had a new or newly rebuilt transmission to put into the customers car, so they would not have short term problems and the rental company never noticed. The story was in the Times Picayune back in the mid 90s. He had done this about 200 times, thus saving $100,000's in parts for his shop. He did transmissions, engines, computers, AC compressors etc, only the big ticket items. None of the rental car companies had any clue until the X told the police about it. I think people were more shocked that the rental companies were soooo lacking in tracking that type of data than the idea someone would do that. I mean you would think if you rented a car 10 times, and it had a major failure 10 times, they would notice and start paying attention. Mike Would never buy a rental car either, buying a lease would be a hard stretch aswell, it would go thru a very thorough shop inpsection and then my own. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 12:17:28 -0400 From: Ed MacVaugh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [uuc] Re: Anyone up for a driver school? No they are not. If you can't roll down the side windows and swing your arm from "A" pillar to "C" pillar, it isn't a true coupe, it is a two door sedan. Robinson, Lee wrote: >Of course, Gary & I were talking about sedans.....the 2-door E36's are true >coupes & not sedans. > >Lee > ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 12:21:54 -0400 From: Michael Lawrence <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [uuc] has your V1 ever.... 1st, I assume you mean laser, no such thing as laser radar, 2 different things all together for this purpose. few things, just because you see him standing there aiming doesn't mean he is actually using it yet. 2nd, Unless he is actually aiming directly at you, there is not much chance of picking up the beam except in ideal situations. Laser warning generally only helps you to start finding a place to pull over to get the ticket, it doesn't give you enough warning if they are tracking you and laser by nature doesn't 'spread out' enough to be picked up when you are following someone. I have an older V1 with laser and feel it was a complete waste of money getting the laser detection. It does a great job picking up LED tail lights on newer vehicles, it might have given me a warning about actual laser gun cops ONCE or TWICE in 5 years. Now, that is not to say you could have a defective unit, as anything is possible, but if the radar function works, most likely they were just not clocking you. mike - ----- Original Message ----- From: "paul t" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2003 11:56 AM Subject: [uuc] has your V1 ever.... > has your V1 ever missed a laser radar? this happened > to me twice, on the same road, first time i thought it > might be a fluke, but it happened again just the other > day. > > i was going the speed limit (35mph) down a straight > stretch of road behind a couple of cars, no semis, we > were all nicely spaced apart, and noticed a cop on a > bike ahead, and since i wasn't speeding, i wasn't > worried. i looked to my V1 (version 1.7) to see what > gun he was shooting at us. so i wait, no warning yet.. > and as i get closer, no beeps, and closer, no beeps, > until i had passed him, and me seeing him shooting > what looks like a laser radar. now this is the second > time thats happened and it's starting to worry me. the > V1 must pickup something after the instant-on is > triggered 3-4x right? the first time that it happened > was practically the scenario. > > i know my laser works because i detect chevy blazers > well, and even sometimes the E46. i have my v1 > hardwired next to my rear view mirror. could this mean > that i need to upgrade to 1.8? would this is this the > laser that "Generation 3 laser warning" that > valentine1.com refers to? > > just carious if you guys have experienced the same > thing. > > > thanks, > paul > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM). > http://calendar.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2003 13:30:46 -0500 From: "Brian Collins" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [uuc] suggestions for best Jaguar climate control diagnostician in Dallas I have an 89 XJ-S that is blowing A/C up on the windshield, I have checked everything I can, I am out of ideas. Any Suggestions for a local guy in Dallas to trouble shoot this. I think I have narrowed it down, but don't know enough about jags under the dash to know how to remove various bits and test. Brian Collins ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 09:43:07 -0700 From: "Michael Andre" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [uuc] Track driving with "someone else's car" There are some very interesting options at a number of California tracks for renting a track car at very reasonable price. The only trick then is to link up with a commercial or club school that offers good instruction, which has already been detailed. At my last TT at Laguna Seca I met a guy who sells Caterham 7's. OK but not for me. The really good thing is that he also RENTS them at the track for an incredibly reasonable price, gas included. As I recall, he was renting the 90 hp version for $400 for the weekend, the 200 hp version for a lot more. 90 hp in a 1200 lb car for a novice driver is more than plenty. These guys were dangerous--spinning all over the place. But they had flown in from the rust coast and just showed up to drive. I have this guy's card somewhere at home if anyone is interested. Willow Springs usually has several cars available if you arrange ahead. Last winter there were four "celebrity" race Celicas from the Long Beach GP and even a couple of track-only Minis. Buttonwillow always has a number of Spec 7 (RX-7s) for sale but they can also be rented, ready to go. I am sure there are similar opportunities at Thunderhill and Sears. Shoot, when I spent my day at the Nuerburgring, I just drove my Avis rental car. But personally, I prefer to drive my own cars. Mike Andre ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 12:38:30 -0400 From: "Dorffer, Rich" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [uuc] has your V1 ever.... > has your V1 ever missed a laser radar? this happened > to me twice, on the same road, first time i thought it > might be a fluke, but it happened again just the other > day. I agree with Rob's comments and will add a few. I have been warned of laser even before I was the one being shot at so while the beam is tight, it can bounce off or reflect off stuff or pass through the car windshield in front of you enough to give a warning, just not nearly as much as radar. Also, how do you know he pulled the trigger? Most policemen have enough visual acuity and perception of speed (tongue slightly in cheek here...) to identify those intended speeders they plan to shoot with their laser. You mention that the cop was on a bike right? He was stopped correct? Otherwise, laser doesn't work properly unless the person is motionless. That is why you will often see the cop resting the laser gun on something when aiming. I joke about the visual acuity of cops as I fought a speeding ticket once (where I was nailed amongst a crowd of people doing various speeds...me about middle of the pack) and the cop blundered on the stand about setting up the radar so he and the prosecuting attorney choose to play the card that the cop was trained to judge speed in the academy within 1-2 mph. I rolled my eyes after this "testimony", asked how recently he had his "visual acuity and speed perception" tested by a third party and what were the results to which he responded "12 years ago at the academy" and the judge ended up letting me off. I was lucky this one time. Regards, Rich - wouldn't do without my V1 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 09:39:43 -0700 (PDT) From: Jason Knight <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [uuc] question re: Driving School My wife did the advanced race school at Road America with Skip Barber and thoroughly enjoyed it. Your friend probably wouldn't take this school, but I'm sure that the excellence of instruction and track carry over to all of their schools there. Unfortunately for her the school was cut short by 1/2 day as a result of 9.11 incident, and she got to stay in Wisconsin for a few more days than originally planned. My solution for getting back to CA was to buy an E46 M3 and drive it home. Sounded like a win-win situation to me... Jason - --- Alex Cagann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > My friend is turning 30 next month. His gal wants to > set up a group gift > from all his friends/relatives. She wants to send > him to a driving school. > She was asking about Skip Barber and others. Does > anyone have any > recommendations regarding this? He does not have a > track car, so the event > would have to offer this as well. > > Alex Cagann > http://www.autoconsortium.com > > ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 12:40:12 -0400 From: "Rob Levinson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [uuc] has your V1 ever.... - ---- Original Message ---- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [uuc] has your V1 ever.... >I have an older V1 with laser and feel it was a complete waste of >money >getting the laser detection. It does a great job picking up LED tail >lights >on newer vehicles, it might have given me a warning about actual >laser gun >cops ONCE or TWICE in 5 years. As I posted earlier, it is difficult to actually detect laser unless you are being targeted. My understanding is the lidar beam is only about 6 feet wide at the distance usually used for a reading. So if it is centered on your license plate (the most reflective point used for aiming), and your V1 is at the top of the windshield (where it should be), then it is probably outside the 3-foot radius. Lidar detection depends on the tremor in all humans' hands spraying the laser all over the place before getting a reading. I had a top-of-the-line Bel (745STi) unit for a brief period a few years ago. That thing never picked up any laser/IR except for the time I zapped it with my TV remote control at point-blank range to see if it actually worked. Bottom line: detecting lidar is substantially more difficult than detecting radar, and I would take a laser-detecting V1 over an identical V1 without the feature (hypothetically speaking as the V1 had other enhancements when the lidar feature was installed) just for the one time it might help. - - Rob two V1s, thinking about a third. ------------------------------ End of [uucdigest] V3 #6444 *************************** | | In memory of Michel Potheau - friend, enthusiast, founder of the BMW CCA. |________________________________________ | Please visit these UUC-approved BMW parts vendors/service providers: | (listed alphabetically) | | Autoscope-Motorsports - http://www.autoscope-motorsports.com | |==================================================== | | Koala MotorSport . 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