....on a private road of course, up to 140mph he matched my speed almost exactly - although his car seemed a little less stable than the Scoob.

Mind you I had turned the boost down from 1.5bar to 0.9bar as I was running my new turbo in

Trout

 

 

Trout

I didnt think your 3 Series had a Turbo

Jonathan

 

Chins,

yeah - I was referring to the air-con gas pressure. It is a bugger if the pressure falls - the cars gets at least a degree warmer - which in this weather is shocking

Trout

 

Would this private road be on your new yorkshire estate

 

P20,

yeah, car is so quick now it gets to 140mph, just in the length of my drive - mind you the field is a bit bumpy with the Sti suspension

Trout

 

LOL

 

M3 Alpina = 3.0 litres of power, 0-60 5.4 seconds and top speed of 165, think it probably would keep up !

 

...so are you officially a Northern Trout then?

Must have another beer night in Leeds sometime...

 

Not quite - will be swimming upstream in September

Trout

 

M3 Alpina??? - no such car Iam affraid.

The current 3 series Alpina is the B3 (3.3ltr) and is based on the 330ci, very subtle looking car but very quick, not M3 quick by some way but a fast car. Also has auto gearbox with SMG like paddles on the steering wheel, very rare and underated car. But they cost as much as an M3, the Alpina B10 5 series cost more than the M5 but is slower!.

The New B10 V8s However.........monster baby!!

I would have thought a Scooby would leave the Alp?!!?!?!

 

Heres the current spec of Aplina B3

I know of a certain BMW 330 Automatic that will leave a new M3, its developing 400BHP, it has had alot of cash spent on it from new

 

Let me explain:

on average it rains for 280 days of the year, so unless you are loaded & can afford a rear wheel spinner & a 4w/d, that means if you own a 300+ bhp BMW, you will be able to use that power about 2 in 7 days of the week....the other 5 days you can admire it's great looks parked on the drive, or stay under 3000rpm on the wet roads
once youv'e tasted 4 w/d & turbo it must be sooo difficult to go back to rwd or fwd normally aspirated.

**Important Disclaimer - UNLESS YOU TRACK**

shunty

 

My BMW is superb in the wet - best traction control I have ever experienced. You can slide the back out - but just so far - really entertaining to drive.

It is just different to the Scoob

Trout

 

My BMW is not superb in the wet, its horrible!!!

I darnt race a bloody Escort when the roads are wet!!, Ive already gone through about 12 pares of pants!!!

Got the slide technique down now though!!

Very easy to put sideways when dry, never mind the wet!. Does feel sure footed at speed (straight line) but cornering is a scary affair when taken at speed. Not nice to look out your side window and see the back of your car there!!!

 

cant see how alpina sell any cars if they are dearer and slower than the in house M cars.

 

Alpina cars are a different car to the M cars, they are more refined and more individual as there as less of them. People buy them as they are a rare beastie and have an auto box whilst being quick! (AMG style with Merc)

I read somewhere that the M5 is a monster car to drive, the Alpina B10 delievers the power in a different way and whilst still being fast, its not as raw as the M5.

Every Alpina has a plaque inside with its build number, making it more exclusive than M cars as they are everywhere now. Just MHO.

How many M cars do you seen in a week??
How many Alpina's do you see in a month??

Alpina's hold there money better than the M cars aswel, the residuals are far better as its more of a sellers market as there are so few of them around. Sytners BMW are the UK Alpina outlet, they have some awesome Alpina there.

[Edited by TomM - 8/21/2002 10:55:50 AM]

 

My ma has a 4WD Alpina B3. Slow POS.

As someone said, it's more exclusive but since there's less of them, and you get an automatic, but it's EVEN SLOWER than an M3 or M5!

 

Alpina cars are not primarily about speed, check out there site they do alot to the standard car to make it an Alpina. I would love one!!

 

I can see this become another 15 pager []

 

I actually have always liked the alpina models & some of the really old style bm's like the 2002ti etc.
I have never actually owned a BMW for some reason, but I especially like the old 635csi for instance, on looks alone.

Trout - lol, 30k+ to slide round the roundabouts....do you flick the "ghost car mode" switch on so you don't hit the other cars in the other lane

TomM - a BMW owner who is honest....can't be right

I can just imagine if we were all in the pub discussing this, it would be "shunty's fell over, quick...all pile on"

oh & corner

shunty

[Edited by shunty - 8/21/2002 11:22:27 AM]

 

Who are Haartge and Schnitzer (sp?)? Similar to Alpina?

 

Well,

Hartge, AC Scnitzer, Alpina, etc etc are all BMW tuners in their own right, Hartge are a company that make monster cars from M cars like thier recent 3 series H50 - an M5 V8 in an M3 body, all for 80k!!!

Alpina and ACS have a working relationship with BMW that stretches back years, so much so that if you buy an Alpina car new it still has the warranty and is sold off BMW forcourts, same with ACS, they are fully BMW approved and BMW sell thier stuff from thier dealers and support them once sold.

All these companies make monsterous BMWs but to my knowledge only Alpina produced cars are actually available new from BMW, they have them in thier brochures.

All of these companies do masses of aftermarket styling/performance mods for BMW, so if you see a BMW with an AC Scnitzer badge then 9/10 it isnt a real ACS car, but just styled with ACS bits or a maybe a strut brace etc etc. If you see an Alapina then the real ones are very easy to spot as they are fully badged up, the Hartge cars can be either just styling or engine mods but all 3 are not cheap!!!

If you see what looks like an M3 with lots of bonnet vents then I would move over, thats the H50 and is one seriously fast car!!. Hartge also do an M3 Compact, the new M3 engine shoehorned into the new comact - interesting little car......for £45000!!!!

Alpina is the daddy for me, ACS more racing orientated and Hartge juse make monster BMWs. Its the same as the big tuners for the Jap cars, which Iam sure there are plenty of.

 

Thx Tom. And last question, why do i see the "M" badge on various Beemers, which aren't M3's, M5's etc? What does that denote? Were they sold like that, or have "M" parts and a badge just been added later?

 

You can specifiy various M options. Like M-Sport suspension, which is lowered and uprated. Also some interior options like sport seats, leather steering wheel and wot not are badged 'M'.

Old 5 series 535 was an M car, but not in the same league as M5 in those days.

Paul

 

They are not sold like that unless at the buyers request although I still dont think BMW would do it. They are pretty strict on the issue of the badges and you cant buy one without having the car there or the chassis number, its the same for all the M bits like steering wheels and gear *****, no chassis number or car then no sale!!

There are hundreds of places that now sell them unfortuantly so people stick a body kit on thier car and call it a an M320 or a Motorsport318is - its like people sticking a prodrive badge on a car that hasnt been touched by prodrive in a way.

I saw a brand new 325ci convertible with the motorsport kit which looked really nice untill I saw the back and hew had this cheap nasty ///M badge on it!! - why ????

I persoanlly think it looks cack but each to thier own, the funniest ones are the M3 replicas with one little pea shooter exhaust!, ahh, that will be a 316i then!!!

To my knowledge, BMW havnt sold the M badge on non M cars since the old E30 325i Motorsport, and they were stopped in about 1991!

Iam thinking of taking the badges off mine!, would make things more fun although the exhaust kind of gives it away!!

 

I've always wanted the Racing Dynamics 3 Series Compact.

I think it was a 5 litre V12 or something they shoe-horned in there. Yeah!

 

Cool. Biggest BMW peeve for me is non-M3 owners who have M3 XXX number plates. That's just massive personal insecurity, IMO...!

 

Watched the Apocalypse Clarkson video last night for the first time in ages, Richard Burns in the E36 M3 Evo was V impressive, Big oversteer out of the hairpin (Long Marston?), with one hand on the wheel, all the while taking the p155 to camera. Most Excellent
I'd forgotten how human he was at Mitsubishi, before the Prodrive PR machine got hold of him

 

Yes the E36 M3 was not a performance car at all, compared to the new E46.
Clarkson has always hated BMW's, but had to admit the new M3 is a 'fantastic car', and 'I eat my words'.
Hopefully I get to drives my friends new M3 tomorrow. :-)