Cars We Drive!

He's just reviewing the camera on the phone, but FF to the 2:15 mark to hear some pretty nasty m5 exhaust clips. He has his subwoofer up some and the bass is distorting the microphone, but still some great sound out of that car.

[VIDEO][/VIDEO]

god that sounds so ******* gooooood!!!!!!!!!!!!

Was there an ice cream truck following you? Appropriate for a dentist... It does sound nice!



mike1445 said:

TBH I'm kind of surprised BMW doesnt have something like this still in production to go up against the A3 (and maybe the wrx sti?). Any purists feel free to flame the idea. Seems like it would be a great project though.

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Yeah they have the ///M135i coming out. Since it's got the n55 (n54?) in it, it'd be kissing the $45K-50K range even if it were sold in America. Americans would scoff at the idea of a hatchback costing that much. That's actually what a new GTi or Scirocco costs in USD everywhere else, but I digress...


Anyway, I dunno about that 318Ti project. I want a project car and don't have a garage (and I will probably just hand the thing to real garage to do with a laundry list) , so I can't buy a rustbucket to bring back to life, but I want something that transforms into something else entirely. It should be a clean base car but I don't want to buy a brand new car and throw money at it like some dudes do, that is boring. On the other hand, I'd have the keep this car forever probably (has no value here) or just enjoy it and then sell it to some lucky person later down the road for pennies.

It does look ugly, it's one of the ugliest BMW's ever made, but it fits that S52 with off the shelf stuff pretty much (and all the S52's here were the Euro ones with ITB's, and finding one at a scrappies shouldn't be a problem), the suspension can be an aftermarket MZ3 suspension of some sort, and overall I wouldn't have to buy a ton of **** for it to be relatively nice to drive.

This one looks like kind of interesting: (I could probably get these rims too, I think they're 5-series offset ACS type-2, were really popular in Japan in 18" but are just junkyard status now)



whiteslashasian said:

Sounds like a something of a 135 or even 1M on the cheap. Those 318's always looked a little...funny to me. Awesome color though.
Also, swapping the engine/****** should be no problem even though that one in particular has a slushbox?

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Thought about that already - seems all the Ti's sold here were automatic, so I don't have a choice really. In any case, I have (maybe unfounded) faith in these little Japanese BMW specialist shops to be able to perform any task given (they seem to know every nut and bolt about whatever car they claim to specialize in), and also, apart from the pedal box (from any E36?) and maybe the center console piece that surrounds the shift boot I'd have to get from the UK (RHD car) - all the other parts are going to be specific to the swap and come with it anyway - ******, clutch, flywheel, new driveshaft, hydraulics, linkage, etc. It'd probably just cost me a bit more than if I were swapping it into a manual car.

I had a mate a couple years back, who had a E36 compact M3, that thing was evil, it was a total sleeper, green and stock looking.

Browsing listings and stuff, I think one way I could tackle this is to actually get a 318Ti with most of what I want on it already (a livable color, M aero and trim, black leather interior) and do it in stages.
phase 1-2 (probably at once): modified suspension (MZ3 brakes too?) 5-series offset wheels of my choice in 17" like that one above
phase 3: buying a whole used 3.2L M3 (that is no longer platable without significant work) and then just dropping both cars and a box of spare parts off at a garage to do the swap, and then when the M3 is gutted I'll use the seats and maybe sell some of the valuable spares, sell what I can, send the rest to the scrapyard

drive it like that til I get bored with it. I don't really see much in a phase 4 that I'd need to do, or even could do. I think I might be able to do all of this around $10K too, that's pretty good for what it will be. It won't be worth that much to sell, but you can't get anything as fun for $10K. It's mainly about just getting that 3.2L in there and hooning around in the lightweight hatch. I kind of miss putting together cars like this, it's the Honda thing but 15 years later I guess.

My wife is hellbent on getting a 'normal' wagon now so I need my own little sidecar of ridiculousness to call my own

Tis are terrible.

There was a guy at one of the meets 8 years ago with an e36 m3 motor in it, nobody cared.

My buddy's mom had one too then she switched to a c230.



jet said:

Tis are terrible.
There was a guy at one of the meets 8 years ago with an e36 m3 motor in it, nobody cared.
My buddy's mom had one too then she switched to a c230.

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I'd take a 318ti over a C230....assuming you mean the Kompressor. I think they look horrendously bad.

So the GL lease is up in December and I really have to get serious about the next car. With floating two mortgages for a few years (although I hope to have the old house rented soon to help out) I want to turn my lease payments down this cycle. Thinking about that new SUV by Infiniti, the JX. http://www.infinitiusa.com/jx/

It's meh compared to my GL but way cheaper. I'd actually check out one of the QX, as it might be fugly but it has a great engine, but too close to the GL lease payments so I might as well stick with MB if I did that. The JX seems to have some nice electronics and bells and whistles so I might not be too disgruntled driving it for a few years. The new estate certainly helps me feel better over a diminished ride.



Piobaire said:

So the GL lease is up in December and I really have to get serious about the next car. With floating two mortgages for a few years (although I hope to have the old house rented soon to help out) I want to turn my lease payments down this cycle. Thinking about that new SUV by Infiniti, the JX. http://www.infinitiusa.com/jx/
It's meh compared to my GL but way cheaper. I'd actually check out one of the QX, as it might be fugly but it has a great engine, but too close to the GL lease payments so I might as well stick with MB if I did that. The JX seems to have some nice electronics and bells and whistles so I might not be too disgruntled driving it for a few years. The new estate certainly helps me feel better over a diminished ride.

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get a VW Touareg TDi. they're diesel and get like 700miles per tank. even the basic TDi models have a ton of features.

Larry, it's having to go to VW for service that will stop me from doing that. The luxury guys all come with complimentary loaners of a nice new same-brand car and their service departments are second to none. I need to be able to pull up when they first open, sign a few things, and drive away in 10 minutes in a nice service loaner. Otherwise, I'd probably lease a 4-runner.

Pio, Where do you live? I have almost never received a new car loaner from my MB dealer. If anything, they give me a loaner from Enterprise with a ream of paperwork to fill out... And I'm 6'4", they never fit!



Piobaire said:

Larry, it's having to go to VW for service that will stop me from doing that. The luxury guys all come with complimentary loaners of a nice new same-brand car and their service departments are second to none. I need to be able to pull up when they first open, sign a few things, and drive away in 10 minutes in a nice service loaner. Otherwise, I'd probably lease a 4-runner.

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do you get your car serviced that often? thats tough... like when you get used to flying business class...

the 4 runner is an awesome car though... plus you'd probably only need to get the 4 runner serviced once a year just for the free checkups.

LawrenceMD said:

Piobaire said:

Larry, it's having to go to VW for service that will stop me from doing that. The luxury guys all come with complimentary loaners of a nice new same-brand car and their service departments are second to none. I need to be able to pull up when they first open, sign a few things, and drive away in 10 minutes in a nice service loaner. Otherwise, I'd probably lease a 4-runner.

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do you get your car serviced that often? thats tough... like when you get used to flying business class...

the 4 runner is an awesome car though... plus you'd probably only need to get the 4 runner serviced once a year just for the free checkups.

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Yup, it's getting used to that which addicts you. All the local luxury dealers offer this, MB, Lexus, Rover, Infiniti, etc.

It's not that I need service often but when I do I don't want it to wreck my day. You have the three or four scheduled service appts. during the lease term and then once in a while something comes up. I think I've had this car in for its three scheduled and then two other times, so five times in the last 2.5 years. Each time out by 7:10 with a C-class or MLK loaner. Getting stuck in a C-class once in a while also reaffirms I never want out of an SUV for my daily driver.