...that the Corrado is going to be moving across the country. I know I told some of you after I said I was going to sell it that I wasn't. But there are two reasons that she is being sold:
1.) The fellow that is buying it has offered me a stupid amount of money for the car. Much more than I paid for it, and not even a little bit, a LOT more.
2.) Good friend of mine is selling a E36 325is, for stupid, stupid cheap. Cheap enough to allow me to buy it, fix it up, and still finish the bike. Most of you say, 'But Steve, I thought you were tired of cars?' Yea, it's true, but good lord, have you ever heard a M50 mill at full song? I drove this car, and was just amazed, I miss my inline 6, I would like another. And it's beat looking enough that I won't feel bad about painting it satin black, and driving the balls off of it. And it has had a hefty amount of work(timing chains, re-built tranny/diff, etc. etc.) at 100k, and it sits around 161k now. Drives tight, looks like crap, my kinda car. And it will still allow me to finish the Cafe bike, finally, which makes it good in my book.
So that is all. Car may or may not be gone by the end of next week. I'll be sad to see it go, but I am still happy that I got to own one, but it was from a time when I didn't know anything about cars, and the world 'reliability' wasn't in my vocabulary, and now, well, the 'R' word is important.
I am not sure how a BMW is gonna have that "R" word......If you want the "r" word why dont you buy another toyota, or dare i say it but a Honda???
All i can say is i drove the honda to sebring and Jon and I both beat on the car and I know i drove the balls off that thing and I drove it home and to work on monday.
The common misconception of the E36's is that they are unreliable and expensive to repair.
The thing is, they do have what I would call 'stupid' failures. See, when I worked at Dodge, there would be 80 broken Caravans, all with different problems. Thus being ****ing stupid.
M50, replace the water pump. Put new timing tensioners in every 115k miles and replace the sub frame bushings often. Now when the same thing breaks over and over again, somebody gets the great idea of making that part better.
M50 comes with a plastic water pump impeller. It fails... Turner Motorsports sells water pumps with METAL impellers. WOW!!!!
Sub frame (cough) urethane
..and for the timing.. come on, 115k miles. Eat my ass if you are worried. Yeah, there is some things in the interior that fall apart, BUT it wont make you stranded on the side of the road waiting for AAA.
__________________
“Faster, faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death...”
– Hunter Thompson
I was thinking about getting an e36. I like em. They're definately capable cars. Just look at how many you see on the track.
They are undoubtably capable cars. I'm pretty excited about it in general, RWD again, which is a plus. The interior is shot on this one, so it also gives me a chance to do some interior work, I'm pretty stoked on that, basically get to redo the entire inside in what ever fabric I dam well please. Microfiber anyone?
Alright, the 325 is in my possession at the moment. It's my friend's car, and he is on vacation, and since the Rado will be shipping out Thursday, and the deposit gets here today, I needed a set of wheels, and Chris(BMW) was gracious enough to just let me get the keys and drive it and just pay him later.
Few things:
It's almost liberating to be driving a car that isn't a rolling piece of history(Corrado), and is a little ragged around the edges. Jump in it, drive it hard, something that just flat out worried me in the Rado.
This engine is teh sexors. I'll bring it out to the meet on Thursday night, you guys(few of you) can hear it. It really needs ALOT of interior work, but the a/c is kickin, the stereo works(sub/amp included), all the gauges and such work proper, driveline is heaven sent, it just looks like a wild pack of wolverines lived in it for a bit.
You CANNOT feel the a/c kick on. This is a big deal for me, since the only car I've had that had a/c that wasn't a 4 cylinder was the Q. Corrado, Miata, AW11, GTi, when that compressor clutch engaged, it was like putting up a sail. The 3 series, whatever you are doing, you don't even know if it's engaged, disengaged, doing a jig, doesn't matter, torque ftw!
Easy to drive. Torque off of idle, power up top. And pedals I can heel-toe with barefeet(floor mounted gas pedal). Never knew it'd be such a change from a top mount.
I am not saying this is the best damn thing since sliced bread, but you've got to hand it to BMW, they really did build one hell of a car. I am thoroughly impressed, I can see why Ian is/was so obsessed with these things. We'll see how it goes in the long run, but I'm liking this sled. Not because it's pretty, or clean(it's not, believe me), but it's what is under her skirt that counts on this one. I'll probably sell it in 6 months once I piss off enough other BMW owners with what I'm going to do to this thing.
Check, I think you've done stuff like this before, what would you suggest?
Steve
I just did my headliner and it ended up falling down. I used this stuff that said headliner glue from autozone. I hear the 3m 90 works really good. They sell it at discount but its like 15 bucks a can. I'd say use 2 cans and really soak it with glue.
I might actually come out there thursday so I could check out the new whip.
