Wow...

[jsbowden]

I've burned up over one hundred hours of vacation over the course of the last six months. Good thing I start earning four weeks per annum as of next week, I haven't had less than two weeks vacation sitting there doing nothing in several years now. I'm down to thirty one hours of vacation and twenty four hours of sick leave. Woe is me; whatever shall I do?

robeli and I took a BMW convertable out for a test drive the weekend before last. After taking a test drive, she says she's a majority of the way to being convinced. Excellent.

And yes dear, of course I know you're reading this.

All I can say is holy shit. It drove wonderfully; stuck to the road like it was superglued down, has a nice responsive 235bhp 3.0L inline 6 for an engine, and a 6 speed manual tranny mated up to 18"F/18.5"R low profile tires with big GIANT ventilated rotors on all four (ABS of course) that stop like it was free and corner like being on rails. I'm in lust.

Oh yeah, and the roof disappears at the touch of a button. We had to test drive the M3, as they didn't have any 330ci models with the Performance option and the manual tranny (the engine in the M3 has slightly more power than the straight 330(c)i w/Perf. pkg (and the dual exhaust on the M3 is a little more throaty sounding, but I prefer quieter anyway...the 330i is 225, w/perf is 235, I think the M3 might be 240 or 245 (I was wrong, it's 333bhp), but it's not much different), but not enough that it'll make any real world difference). Anyone who'd buy that car with an automatic transmission deserves to be taken out back and shot.

All the other shit that BMW throws on a car is just icing. There are better performing cars out there, but not with 4 seats and a roof that retracts.

If money didn't matter and I didn't need room for a carseat, I'd hunt down a 1989 930 (911s haven't been 911s internally since the 70s, it's a marketing number these days) Turbo Carrera conv. and ask that nice Mr. Ruf to work his magic. I'd kill for a 911 chassis that did 206mph. and still managed to be street legal, and that's what Ruf does to Porsches.

I love this disc, but I'd make one change to make it really ideal; I'd drop "Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word" and put "Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters" on it instead.

Comments

[montoya.livejournal.com]

The M3 is souped up in a whole lot of ways beyond just the engine. I'd expect the 330 to be similar, but definitely not as sporty.

Also, pfft to the manual fetishism. Modern automatics are great, and if you're not blowing out your clutch on purpose, the performance difference is negligible. The only reason to get an automatic is if you like the psychology of doing something with your right hand while driving.

[larabeaton.livejournal.com]

The only reason to get an automatic is if you like the psychology of doing something with your right hand while driving.

Strike that, reverse it.

Personally, I prefer to drive a manual. I feel more in control, and mroe connected to the driving, and I get better gas mileage, too.

Shifty types.

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

In the Caravan, I know the stick is an option, but I wouldn't consider putting it in there unless you go all crazy and get the Grand Caravan with the V10 and the 4WD option. And only maybe even then. For the most part, the minivan is a great vehicle, but it's not exactly something you take out to Skyline Drive for fun.

When I drive for fun, I want a stick. I want to be able to park the tranny in 3rd and wind it up around the curves and let the engine limit the speed on the downside of the hills. It's about control, and you don't get that with an automatic; it shifts when it wants to. It lets gravity accelerate you when you're doing just fine, thanks. It makes you wait when you floor it halfway through a curve while it decides to shift, and then takes its time to get around to doing it.

Screw that.

The final drive in the 6spd is also nice and high so it gets better mileage out of the 3.3L on the highway than the 2.5L in the 325 (which doesn't even have the 6spd. tranny as an option).

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

The performance package with the 330 puts the same suspension, transmission, steering and tires on the car as the M3. The M3 is a little more souped up engine wise (dual exhaust, a few extra horsepower, different front/rear apron, some other cosmetic changes, and about 15k extra on the price).

[carpone.livejournal.com]

The only reason to get an automatic is if you like the psychology of doing something with your right hand while driving.

If I lived in a time when I could actually drive on the roads, I'd drive a manual transmission in a heartbeat. I don't know about you, but I crawl through stop-and-go traffic 5 days a week. Dealing with a clutch for all that bullshit when you don't have to -- why?

I'm sure I'll get lambasted for this as well, but I like using my free hand for a cell phone when I need it.

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

I've adjusted my schedule such that I don't actually spend that much time just sitting in traffic. Yeah, it means I get to work a little before 7am, but I leave at 3, so I generally get on the road then just as things start to backup, and while I may have to slow down, I'm rarely just sitting.

[carpone.livejournal.com]

On a related note..

"The average U.S. motorist spends 46 hours each year or nearly two full days stuck in rush-hour traffic jams."

http://news1.iwon.com/odd/article/id/425790|oddlyenough|09-07-2004::14:29|reuters.html

Fucking time murderers. I want those two days back!

[chelona.livejournal.com]

I LOVED our Z3. Miss it to this day.

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

When they put the first automatic "transmission" in a ferrari, they hooked Enzo's corpse up to a generator, so that his spinning in his grave could be useful, and light up the factory with his name on it. For performance driving, the only option is manual transmission. You can have automatic in minivans and SUVs and such, but if you get a convertable with an automatic, you might as well put on a pink gingham dress, and a sun bonet.

[montoya.livejournal.com]

Yeah, like those Formula 1 drivers who use those pussy-ass automatics. Those guys don't know shit about performance.

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

Those are pseudo automatics. VW called it the automatic stick shift back in 68, and mercifully, not very many were made of that particular type. The concept is the same, though the technology is much better now; it may lack a clutch, but the driver still shifts up and down manually.

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

Lots of cars offer some variant of that now. Some of them even work well. The version in our hyundai is pretty lame, since it only shifts when it wants to, and your input is an advisory to the transmission computer, not an actual control.
"hello tranny? please shift now?"
"hey driver, get bent, my book says third gear now, no way I'm going to second."
"please? see I'm going a little slower"
"well, wait a second, hmm, ok."

[corruptedjasper.livejournal.com]

You ought to hear Jeremy Clarkson (presenter of Britain's top automobile TV program, not least because they Make Things Go Fast and Blow Things Up and Destroy Things[1]) complain about "flappy-paddle" gear shift. I only heard him be happy with one of those things once, I think that might have been the Aston Martin DB9. All the others, be they Porsches, Ferraris, or what have you, allegedly have too much delay from actuating the switch to the actual gearchange (something the F1 cars do not have).


[1] There was the doubleparter in which they tried to prove that Toyota pickup trucks were indestructible, as evidenced by the fact of them turning up in every bit of footage from wartorn third world countries. The things was driven down stairways, ran down a wall or two, left on the beach as the tide came in (it was eventually found by a fisherman a ways over), incinerated, and left on the top of a 28 story flat as it was being explosively demolished. The chassis broke in half, such that the thing was held together by bodypanels and the driveshaft.. but the engine still went.

This is one of their less crazy stunts.

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a formula1 clutchless paddle shifter is pretty much the same thing as the automatic transission in a stock BMW. Even though the transmission in the F1 costs more than the entire BMW. F1 shifters don't have a clutch, but they are not automatics by a long shot.

[corruptedjasper.livejournal.com]

For consumer cars, though, who can't afford to spend that, an automatic's a very good basis for flappy-paddle gearshift. More so than a manual. All the flappy-paddles that actuate a manual box have a ranging from a bit long to way too long wait to actually shift over, but an (electronically controlled) automatic can do it much more quickly when it gets the right signals. Plus, it becomes trivial to have *both* automatic mode as well as flappy paddle.

Sounds like the wave of the future to me.

[et-alii.livejournal.com]

For purposes of comparison, apples to apples, but from the same store. You cannot compare the hand-picked, seconds-off-the-tree, no-wax-encrusted apple with the generic Wal-mart super-stored, hauled around from Oklahoma-to-Texas-via-Vermont, spat-on-by-baccy-chewing-heavily-moustachioed-eighty year-old-hispanic-grandmothers-apple. If anyone can prove to me that the automatic transmission used in Formula 1 racing is within the same decile of performace for a Hyundai, I swear I'll sell my car and buy a Hyundai.

[johan-g.livejournal.com]

I love this disc, but I'd make one change to make it really ideal; I'd drop "Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word" and put "Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters" on it instead.

It doesn't have "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters"? Well, that's a damn shame. I'd rank that one in the top five of EJ.

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

Elton John: Greatest Hits 1970 - 2002

CD One:

01: Your Song
02: Levon
03: Tiny Dancer
04: Rocket Man (I think It's Going to be a Long, Long Time)
05: Honky Cat
06: Crocodile Rock
07: Daniel
08: Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting
09: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
10: Candle in the Wind
11: Bennie and the Jets
12: Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me
13: The Bitch is Back
14: Philadelphia Freedom
15: Someone Saved My Life Tonight
16: Island Girl
17: Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word

auto vs manual

[warpedpuppy.livejournal.com]

so does anyone ever notice that the HP advertised for vehicles is always produced at or above 6000 rpm? do any automatics go up to 6K before the shift? I don't think so.... touch and go traffic is the only reason to have an automatic.

and the M3 produces roughy 100 bhp per liter, the best ratio around right now, if I remember

/drives 350Z Touring - 287 hp at 6200 rpm

Re: auto vs manual

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

Snow. I know an expert can get more out of a clutch in the snow, but less then expert and the auto does better in the snow. Can you get traction control with a clutch? We have traction control on the hyundai, and I had to turn the traction control off in order to lose traction in the snow.

Yeah, my del sol would be pathetic with an automatic shifting out just before the power band hits.

Re: auto vs manual

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

Yes, you can. I bought my Saturn in April 97, and it's a manual with TCS. It almost never activates in snow, snow actually gives decent traction (once it ices over, that's a whole other story). The most common time for it to activate for me is in the rain after having sat through a red light. Those painted stop bars give almost no traction at all when wet.

Re: auto vs manual

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

Kewlio. The hyundai is the first car I've owned that's had it.

Yeah, I end up breaking traction in the honda on paint more often than I like.

Re: auto vs manual

[corruptedjasper.livejournal.com]

There are some (unmodified) cars around with up to 125 bhp/l, but none of them is in the pricerange of the M3 TTBOMK. If you go really specialistic or modified, you can get more, though. An F1 car engine does about 800 bhp out of 3 liter, IIRC (or is it 3.5, now? Anyway.). 'Course, *it* does do that at something like 12000 rpm and with an engine life to rebuilding of approximately one race.

Re: auto vs manual

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

Speed=money, how fast do you want to go?