What's a davintosh? Mostly just the random ramblings of a hopelessly distractible… Hey, what's that?

BMWotD — ‘88 M5 Race Car!

Filed under: BMW Of The Day, Cars!, Fun! — Tags: , — dave @ 10:15 pm 2010/03/14

Here’s something you don’t see every day:

m5_racecar_9

One of the Fastest M5’s in the country

1988 E28 M5 VIN# WBSDC9305J2791570 prod date 6/87

Just in time for the racing season. This Race Car needs nothing to be raced next weekend.

Top Speed Over 170 Mph

3.9 6 Cylinder w/ over 370 rear wheel horsepower

  • Weighs Just under 2500 LBs
  • All Receipt’s and Complete Build Sheets Fresh S38 Motorsports Engine only 1 Race
  • Comes With lots Spares
  • Comes AMB transponder and lap timer
  • 2 Rear Ends 3:91/3:73 Precision Engineering Built
  • 8 Fiske and 4 BBS Lightweight Wheels
  • Wolf 3D+4 Fully Programmable Engine Management
  • Ground Control Double Adjustable Shocks & Struts
  • Fully Adjustable Suspension Front And Rear
  • AP 6 Piston Calipers Front and AP Rear Calipers
  • Carbon Fiber Hood
  • Carbon Fiber Air Intake
  • Carbon Fiber Air Damn

This is A Completely Sorted Race Car, Campaigned in Scca and BMWCCA. Will pass all tech inspections. Holds Many Lap records and Many Overall Wins.

S38 b38 BMW Engine, Balanced and Blueprinted, Head match ported and polished. Stillen Crankshaft, ARP Bolts and Studs Throughout. Over 370 RWHP.

Has New FIA 6 Point Schroth Belts, Current Window Net, Momo Seat and Steering Wheel. Comes with Spares. Spare Carbon Fiber Air Damn, Spare Rotors w/Hats for Front and Rear. Back-up Master Cylinder, Hydroboost, Brake lines, Various Rate Coil Springs

Comes w/2 Sets Full wets and 1 Set Intermediate wets, 3 sets of slicks; 24 tires total.

The car is (was?) owned by David Daniels, and is pretty well known to people in the E28 community. For a non-turbo engine, it’s HP output is as high as I’ve ever seen in an E28. And stripped down to 2,500 pounds? Wow. The E28 is notoriously heavy and difficult to strip down for racing, but Daniels used a lot of carbon fiber & fiberglass to help keep the weight down. Here is a video of it going up against an E36 M3 (owned & driven by Brian Watts.) In the video, the M3 can outrun the M5 in the straights, but the M5 walks right on by in the corners. Tells a lot about the work that Daniels put into the chassis and suspension! And about the driver!

The car was up for sale on eBay, but the auction ended with the final bid at $21,100, and the reserve not met.

Pagani Zonda R

Filed under: Cars!, Cool Technology — dave @ 12:38 am

I think I have a new favorite car; the Pagani Zonda. And this awesome piece of marketing magic does a fantastic job of making me want one. Not that I ever will, but… Enjoy.

I had never really heard of this car before buying a copy of Ambrosia Software’s Redline for the kids last Christmas; the Zonda is one of the downloadable add-ons for the game, and it’s one of the fastest & best handling cars in the game. Kinda makes sense, since it’s essentially a street-legal Formula 1 race car.

Dingbat’s Beemer

Filed under: BMW Of The Day, Cars! — Tags: , , , — dave @ 10:52 pm 2010/03/04

A 1982 320i just came up for sale on eBay that just happens to have been previously owned by Jean Stapleton, aka Edith Bunker, aka Dingbat.

Looks like a nice car; very clean, and only 85,000 miles. Too bad it’s an automatic!

I couldn’t help but think of my favorite episode of All In The Family; Edith’s Accident (also known as “The Cling Peaches Incident”.)

“Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge.” Proverbs 14:7

It means, “Don’t waste your time arguing with an idiot.”

Stuck Door Locks On A BMW e32 ≠ Fun

Filed under: Cars!, Geek, Just Stuff — dave @ 11:28 pm 2010/02/27

First, a little background:
The door locks on my ‘88 BMW 735i (e32) have been something of an enigma to me; they worked, but they worked differently than other cars I’ve had. Even differently when compared to my ‘84 BMW 528e.

With the early BMW’s, locking the doors generally involves pushing down on the door lock knob before shutting the driver’s door or putting the key in the outside lock and turning it to the right; that locks all four doors, the trunk and the fuel filler door. To unlock them all, insert the key and turn it to the left. And the same trick works using the key in either front door or the trunk lock.

In the late ’80’s, BMW added a new feature known as the Deadbolt; it prevents the door from opening with anything but the key. To deadbolt the car you put the key in the door & turn it one notch farther to the right. I say ‘notch’ but there’s really no notch when you turn the lock; there’s no tactile, audible or visible indication that anything different has happened at all. The doors just appear to be locked. But they will not open unless you use a key to turn the lock, no matter what. Presumably, if I were sitting inside the car and someone turned the key to put the doors into deadlock mode, I’d be stuck in there until someone with a key unlocked the car from the outside. The lock knob will not move. No. Matter. What.

As with most well-intentioned systems like this, when everything is working properly, it works great and is a decent theft-deterrent… But throw two decades of use at a system that really has no prescribed maintenance schedule, and you have the potential for problems. And of course that’s what I’ve been dealing with. Story of my life.

Help! My Door Is Locked, And I Can’t Open It!
(more…)

My New Front Plate

Filed under: Cars!, Fun! — dave @ 11:56 pm 2010/02/24

I found the perfect accessory for the front bumper of my Rustoleum-painted BMW…

rustoleum_euro_plate_sm

There are a couple of sites that will make custom Euro plates, for not a lot of money; this one is especially cool because it’s got an interactive tool that lets you see what your plate will look like.

Who cares that the US Spec e28s don’t have provisions for the wide Euro plates; it’s an easy retrofit, and they still look right at home!
1st5er_Small

But it’s on the Euro bumpers that they really shine!
roy_w_m5

Photos borrowed from mye28.com buds SWattersSR and RoyW; Thanks!

What? You Don’t Believe Me?

Filed under: Cars!, Fun!, Just Stuff — dave @ 3:53 pm 2010/02/23

Have you ever approached an intersection in a car with your turn signal on, conspicuously reducing your speed, and have another motorist wait at the intersection to see if you actually turn before they make a move?

That happened to me on my way to lunch just now, and it kinda makes me laugh… A lady sat at the intersection down the road from work waiting to make her left turn, and didn’t move until she saw my front wheels rounding the corner. Not another car on the road for a quarter mile in either direction, my turn signal was on well ahead of my intended turn (and I know for a fact that it works), I was slowing well ahead of the intersection… Even if I was moving at the normal pace for traffic on that road, she would’ve had plenty of room to get up to speed ahead of me. Yet she sat there like she didn’t believe me.

Makes me wonder how many times I’ve done that same thing.

Perspective Is Everything

Filed under: Cars!, Fun! — dave @ 12:53 am 2010/01/31

Believe it or not, the images in this slideshow by Michael Paul Smith are just models in dioramas. Some of the dioramas have real backgrounds, but… Wow, are these shots realistic! And the artist says he used no Photoshop at all, just the camera and perspective. Enjoy!

BMWotD — 1985 Euro 635CSi

Filed under: BMW Of The Day, Cars! — dave @ 11:31 am 2010/01/17

I saw this car first in the Cars For Sale forum at MyE28.com, then it showed up on BringATrailer.com. I’ve always liked the BMW e24’s, built from 1976 through 1989; they are cool, sexy machines, and the form factor has aged well.

635-2
635-1

The e24 is an oddity in the BMW lineup because there were major changes in 1982 that should have deserved a change in the designation, but it remained the e24. The earlier cars were based on the e12 and the later ones on the e28. The later cars were slightly lighter and had higher engine output. 25-plus years out, the later cars are generally better buys because they are newer, if only by a few years, and are generally in better shape. I think the sheet metal is the same, but much under the skin is different.

635-3

This one is located in Ridgecrest, California, looks to be extremely clean, and has been converted from the original autotragic to a 5-speed; sweet. The seller has a great reputation on MyE28.com (that counts for a lot!); very unlikely that there are any unsorted issues on this car. And given the location — high desert area of southern CA — very likely that the air conditioning works! Priced at only $4,800, it’s a wonder it hasn’t sold yet.

635-4

VaroOOoom!

Filed under: Cars!, Favorite Things — dave @ 1:49 pm 2010/01/11

I love the sound coming from the tailpipe of this car. Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm!

I’ve heard that sound at the Fairgrounds when the Sports Car Club of Siouxland runs autocross races; a couple of guys run M3’s there, and they sound an awful lot like this… Probably the same motor with slightly different exhaust. They sound great at full throttle and on deceleration; much more, umm… civilized than the run-o’-the-mill small block Chevy. Not as sweet as a Ferrari, but still very nice.

1959 Corvette XP-87 Stingray

Filed under: Cars! — Tags: , , , — dave @ 3:46 pm 2010/01/09

Watching an old Elvis Presley movie right now — Clambake. Elvis plays a the son of a wealthy oil tycoon, and drives a sharp looking red roadster that turns out to be the 1959 Corvette XP-87 Stingray. What a gorgeous machine! Given that the car was built in ‘59, and the movie was released in ‘67 shows how well the design of the car aged.

xp-87_stingray_clambake_2
xp-87_stingray_clambake

The XP-87 was designed in ‘57 by Bill Mitchell and Gary Shinoda as an exercise in racing design, and was raced extensively the for a short time before being retired. It was then spiffed up and put on the show car circuit, and even used as a weekend driver by Bill Mitchell (after they added a passenger seat!) That’s what you call a fringe benefit!

The influence of this car’s design on the C2 Corvette is pretty obvious.

xp-87_stingray_3

I’ve always liked the looks of that model Corvette better than any of the others… Not sure what it is, but the coupe is one sharp car. I’d love to do a resto-mod of one someday. Someday.

1967_resto_mod_corvette_side

As nice as this one looks, I think I’d have to do it in red. That fits the C2 best.

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