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Enjoy: http://www.snopes2.com/
caution: enter at your own risk ;-)
Easyrider300M
sdmike - congrats on the caliper painting; bet it looks great!
Anyone bought the billet grill yet? I would love to have one but need to know how it fits, quality, etc. Let me know
A serious word here. The D/FW area has suffered the loss of 16 teenagers in car crashes this year, with speeding being the main cause. I try to set a good example when the kids are riding with me, saving my exuberance for solo efforts.
Silver
M
;-)
The problem is that I didn't get a chance to run 0-60 times before I installed it so the only numbers I can compare my runs tonight with are from the magazines.
Here's some quick specs on my M.
Year - 1999
Non-PHP
49,500 miles
89 Octain gasoline
Gas tank almost full
Traction Control On
K&N Air Filter
Tornado Air installed
Outside Temp 75 degrees
Color - Platinum (in case that makes a difference)
Accordning to Motortrend, their '99 300M went from 0-60 in 7.9 seconds. The best I could do was 8.75 seconds. I used a stop watch and started it when I floored the gas pedal and stopped it when I hit 60. Pretty scientific, heh? The terrain was relatively flat.
Here's the characteristics of what happened.
I put the tranny in Autostick. From a complete stop I floored it. The tires did a little squeal but the engine seemed sluggish from 0 - 2000 RPMs. However, once I hit 2000 it seemed like the engine said "This guy is serious" and it quickly went to around 6,000 before I shifted into 2nd gear. About 2 seconds later I hit the 60 MPH mark and stopped the clock.
Like I said, the best time I could get was 8.75. I assume the tire squeal and sluggishnesh up to the 2000 RPM mark is the reason for the slower time. So how do these magazines get the times under 8 seconds? Maybe I'm doing something wrong and there's a way to stop the squealing and sluggishness. You tell me.
Next week, I'll take the Tornado out and do some more runs. Heck, maybe it will be worse and the Tornado actually does do something.
On a side note, it does seem that I'm getting a little better gas milage according to the overhead computer, but it's too early to offically tell. One thing's for sure, though. The 300M may not be the fastest car around, but it sure looks damn good.
"Repair rattle in lt side of dash area; Fuse cover is broken; Ordered trim"
So you are right with what you found. I didn't see a basketball size hole though. Guess I need to check again. Maybe they used the broken one for now. Or I might need new glasses :-) Thanks again for checking that.
Here is a picture of the leftover parts (remember, the two pieces on the left are gone). http://www.ritchiefamily.com/car/woodtrim/36-leftovers.jpg
Pat, I hope you can leave this post up. The $10 only covers the shipment of an oversized box. I have no plans to make money at this.
I'd have to disagree.
The low beam hood prevents light from radiating directly from the lamp towards oncoming drivers, since it can't be controlled. The contour of the reflector and the prism effect of some headlight lenses decide what the pattern will be.
The Special doesn't use a hood, but instead uses a metal mask in front of the reflector with the desired pattern cut out. The actual slot is approx. ½" high x 3¼ wide, and is placed between the lampamp.
I agree with almost all you say. I am saying that if you prevent the light from reaching the reflecting serface, the light will not be projected out. Case in point is the 300M's fog lamps. They have to top mask only to restrict the light above a certian height I am thinking on the same level. The 300m bulb's cap is not restrictive enough as it is for the HID's but this could be changed. I have a couple of assemblys to play around with and will try it.
The LHS projector 9006 lamps have the same mask that the 300M's HID has so the lamp conversion should do just fine on them.
If push comes to shove I will incorperate them into my 300M (I have a couple of them laying around here.
I'm going to cover all the topics I read about regarding HID lights.
Temperature: I don't know what a Halogen (55watt) bulb would do, but I was playing with the light pattern of the HID using paper in place of the metal "mask" located inside the lamp assembly. The paper started to smoke and smolder.
The crisp projected beam pattern is created by the "bulb", "mask", reflector, lens, and the position of all the above. I took a HID assembly apart and found if you moved the lens toward or away from the "bulb", the projection went fuzzy. It works the same as an office overhead projector. It needs to be focused. Using the stock reflector, but different lens had the same effect, fuzzy.
LHS retrofit: The projector assembly for the LHS makes a regular "splash" beam pattern like the standard 300M does. So it is the same as installing a HID lamp inside the standard 300M housing.
standard retrofit: This is the same as installing a 100Watt or higher halogen. It's the same (crudy in my opinion) "splash" pattern whether you use a HID lamp or standard.
Just because it's a projector, doesn't mean it's a Euro beam pattern. Same for DOT sealed beams. I have euro 4"x6" housings in my cars. They take an H4 bulb.
The H4 bulb itself has a shade or shroud covering half of the low beam element. The shade is inside the glass. This gives a sharp cuttoff. The lens of the housing gives the 45* flare to illuminate roadsigns to the right of the vehicle.
Standard 9006 etc bulbs, do not have this shade which means they will cause glare for oncoming cars. DOT spec makes no sense in my mind. Take for example the original headlights on the '93 Intrepid. They were so bad they offered a voluntary recall. Yet DOT approved them originally.
The 300M has one of the most efficient non-HID headlights I have seen. My last car was a Lincoln MarkVIII and that had one of the worst headlight efficiency I have seen--little slits which barely lit up the road. The M has large very bright headlights and the styling is a bonus.
I have to say, now that my tranny has schooled itself again (since I disconnected the battery to install the K&N Charger) I definitely can tell the difference in performance with the duals and charger. I had driven my '99 M for more than 31K miles before making these mods so I was very familiar with the way it performed. I felt a slight difference with the K&N stock replacement filter, a little more with the duals, then with adding the charger, even more. I definitely feel more torque when giving it the gas. I haven't tried timing it from 0-60 yet officially, but just by counting off seconds using the one-one thousand method, it's definitely not much more than 7 secs. (I haven't tried it w/o the traction control yet and my rear tires are a little worn). Just a few days after installing the duals I put it in autostick and floored it and let it shift at redline....it got all the way to 90 in 2nd before it hit 6500 rpms. I think prior to that it shifted around 85mph.
Next step are the Bosch plugs which my father is going to put in for me this weekend.
http://www.ritchiefamily.com/car/calipers/
All of my car stuff:
http://www.ritchiefamily.com/300m.htm
One key to caliper painting is to make sure the calipers are completely free of dirt and oil. The G2 kit includes brake cleaner spray (that you shouldn't get on any painted or rubber components), but you should still use a wire brush and a rag to clean it as much as possible. Any residue, especially oil, makes it difficult for the paint to stick and will require more coats. I could really tell the difference on the calipers I cleaned well and the ones I did a half-assed job on.
http://community.webshots.com/user/brendalf
As for the blurry pattern I kind of like it over the deffinate cut off.
Although I've had no experience with this particular device, I can't help but wonder how it can improve flow.
From a purely logical standpoint, you're introducing an obstruction into a passageway that was engineered and sized for a specific maximum flow.
Any object inserted, no matter what shape, will reduce the cross sectional area.
M
By the way heard anything on the lights yet?
Just last week, there was an FBI warning in the paper that in the area, 4 middle eastern men driving a white Ford Excursion and pulling a black trailor had been enquiring about a fuel refinery plant and buying a casket. This is one very strange combination, and sure doesn't sound too good. I guess you just have to keep a watchful eye.
Happy M'ing!! I just can't wait to see the first 300N disguised test mules in spy photos, let alone the actual car. I hope it doesn't get too cold and German-like, and that they actually give it some power and not just good numbers. Greatly improved quiet, built in from the beginning would be great too!
Brought my car in for routine service this morning (I'm at 39K...had the tranny fluid changed at 30K, but decided now was the time to change the differential fluid as well...) and wore both the shirt and hat...got many looks and compliments from the folks at the dealership!