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Unless I'm missing something, you had the hottest 3-Series on street tires out there that day (not counting M3s).
So, is it true that only four M3s in "BS" beat your average, only one M3 in "CS" beat your average and only one Z4 2.5i in "DS" beat your average?
Said another way did you beat the following folks?
15 of 19 in B-Street (mostly M3s)
6 of 7 in C-Street (M3s, 330Ci and Cooper Ss)
11 of 12 in D-Street (Z3s, Z4s, Coopers, 330s and the like)
First of 12 in E-Street (lots of fairly stock BMW stuff)
Wow, I'm truly impressed. I'll see if I can make it out to cheer you on this Saturday. ;-)
Best Regards,
Shipo
regards,
kyfdx
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Regarding the BMWs with the higher limiter, BMW's web site is unspecific as to the speed rating of the all-season tires mounted on the non-SP cars. That said, according to the TireRack.com web site, there are three different All-Season tires that fit the new E60 530i and have a speed rating of 149 or better. The three are:
Michelin Pilot Sport A/S ("W" rating)
Bridgestone Potenza RE92 ("V" rating)
Goodyear Eagle RS-A (both "V" and "W" ratings)
Best Regards,
Shipo
1. You say: Never overrev the engine. Do you mean to say do not go beyond the redline?
2. what do you mean when you say "Never lug the engine"
Pardon my ingnorance on these things.
I have a 2001 325 Ci with about 51,000 miles on it with the stock Michelin MXV4 Plus tires on it. They have held up pretty well but it's definitely time for a replacement set of tires.
My question is, what you you recommend for replacement tires? Or should I just go with the OEM Mics? The two things that I would like to improve upon with these tires is a bit better snow traction, and a lil better road noise (e.g. a bit quieter).
Any help and thoughts are greatly apprecated.
Thanks in advance.
Price: Continental ContiExtremeContact.
All around best: Michelin Pilot Sport A/S.
For noise, soft ride, good all around traction:
Bridgestone Turanza LS-V.
If you aren't a real aggressive driver and are more concerned with winter traction and good ride, low noise, and long tread life, I'd pick the Turanzas.
regards,
kyfdx
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- Overreving: When driving at 65 mph, don't downshift from 5th to 2nd or 1st. (If you do, watch what happens to the tach.)
- Lugging: Don't start your car in 4th or 5th gear, or try to slowyly creep up a steep hill in 4th or 5th gear.
Hey dude, where are these tracks? How much it costs to get to run your car in a track like these? You know of any one the lone star state, aside from the TX speedway? Would like to try the opportunity to flog my ZHP for some laps. Hey, maybe there's a way to safely reach that 155 mph nirvana. Or should we just take C&D's word for it?
http://www.bmwcca.org/links/lnkfset.shtml
Best Regards,
Shipo
1) In general, you're more likely to overrev when accelerating, especially in the lower gears where it revs up very quickly. However, there are automatic safeguards that will prevent this. On a manual trans, there is a fuel cutoff at redline. With an automatic, I assume that even when in manual mode it will force a shift if you rev it too high (someone with a Selectronic can verify this?). In the olden days, you could overrev to the point where the valves would "float" (i.e., not close all the way), and this would lead to all sorts of nasty consequences.
2) If you ever shift into too high a gear and feel the car sort of "bucking" when you let out the clutch -- that's lugging! The most common way that you'll do this, especially when learning, is to take off from a light in 3rd gear when you thought you had it in 1st, or to miss the gate and accidentally shift from 1st to 4th.
Your only worry with the manual is hitting a lower gear when trying to upshift. (i.e.: shifting into 1st, when you meant to upshift into 3rd). Otherwise, lugging would be the thing to avoid. Let the transmission do its job. Downshift when you need more power.
regards,
kyfdx
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Redline starts at 6,000 RPMs. Fuel cutoff is at ~6,700 RPMs.
regards,
kyfdx
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The Membership Agreement, the Rules of the Road and the blurb under the post box all very clearly explain that links to other automotive message boards may not be posted. If you have any questions, feel free to email me and we'll straighten them out.
Regarding posting pictures ... click on the Owners Club link at the top of this page and check the first post of the Photo Gallery discussion. That explains what you need to know.
Have fun!
I had a '77 Cobra II (no jokes), that I tried to start when it was 25 below zero. The throttle linkage froze wide open, and when it cranked up, it immediately redlined.. About three seconds before I shut it off. Didn't really matter.. that car was a piece of crap anyway.
regards,
kyfdx
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Complaints centering around needlessly complex I-Drive functions, indirect handling and butt-ugly (literally) styling.
In Consumer Reports, it's much the same story: poor reliability and I-Drive madness topping the list.
Best Regards,
Shipo
But it's not based on performance. It's the usual lame stuff car mags do to come off as unbiased.
Complaints centering around needlessly complex I-Drive functions,
That one makes me rolls my eyes every time I see it. Car mag writers must be flat out idiots. I drove my bro-in-laws 745i and within a few minutes of tinkering I could get to whatever I needed quickly and without hesitation. Anytime I see this criticism I know the rest of the review isn't worth salt.
indirect handling
Heard many complaints about the active stuff at slow speeds but not heard anyone say it's odd at fast speeds. I gotta drive one...
and butt-ugly (literally) styling.
Don't care about styling. It's the least important thing to me when buying a car.
Mag reviews...useless. And I felt this way BEFORE owning a bimmer too.
Heard many complaints about the active stuff at slow speeds but not heard anyone say it's odd at fast speeds. I gotta drive one...”
Fast speeds? Countless! Even the std steering w/ fixed ratio, which isn't as bad, isn't as communicative as before, at least compare to the ones w/ rack & pinion. Of course, the old 540i's steering w/o rack & pinion was numb enough.
Since I eliminate cars over 180" long, I don't keep most of the related articles.
I might be able to live with the "butt" of the E60, but I cannot get past those terrible eyebrows. What were they thinking?
Then again, I'm prone to wearing torn jeans, old t-shirts and in general offering enough of a juxtaposition that someone has the gall to ask at least once a month if my 330i is actually my car.
I went one step further, even my well-maintained '90 Protege has un-repaired dents & missing wheel covers.
Each time I used to park my car, whether it was the '90 Protege LX, '93 Camry SE or '98 Corolla LE, near the Mexican border, the parking attendant always asked for "$5" in English whether my stereo was on or not. But if I happened to leave on a Spanish station w/ the language broadcasted, then the attendant would ask me for the $5 in Spanish, since he probably couldn't see my face from where he was standing anyway.
After I restored the '84 Jetta coupe, which doesn't got a radio, I decided to give it a try to see how well it drives down there. Eventhough the Mexican-market Mexican-buit old Jetta(Atlantic) is a 4-dr, that attendant would ask me for the $5 in Spanish.
The funny part is how I came back northbound by the check point at night. The border patrol officer, who usually waves my notchback vehicles to go through, couldn't tell by the front view of the car that my Jetta is a made-in-WestGermany coupe. So he wanted me to stop. & just before I stopped, he probably saw me wearing a pair of nerdy glasses, so he decided to let me through.
I just went over to the 5-Series board and queried "tire noise" and got 72 hits, and over on the "Tires, tires, tires" board the same query generated 172 responses.
Regarding your question about rotating your 330i SP tires; I don't think it's possible because I suspect that you have unidirectional tires.
Looking at this problem from a different angle, I suspect that if those of us who drive SP equipped cars were to drive them closer to the edge more of the time and on nice winding roads at that, the tires would wear more evenly. Failing that, at least they would wear out faster so that we wouldn't have to put up with the noise as long. :-/ Maybe you should take a few driving courses and start racing, after all, why should Paul Newman be the only septuagenarian out there on the track. ;-)
Best Regards,
Shipo
Thanks for the answer on my tire noise. Guess I will just tune up the radio and forget the noise.
Do you have the SP or is it running on All-Season tires?
Have you had the brakes done recently?
If not, how many miles are on the brakes?
How hard do you drive?
How loud is the noise when you do hear it?
Is the noise louder turning in one direction versus the other?
Can you detect any extra wear near the outer edges or shoulders of any one tire?
As for "Cupping", it's kind of hard to describe; kind of like someone took a shallow spoon and scooped away a portion of your tread at regular intervals all of the way around the tire, typically at or near the shoulder of the tire. When it gets bad enough, your tires generate a woop-woop-woop kind of noise as you are driving along. I looked for a picture on the internet; however, I was unable to find one that obviously illustrated the phenomena.
Best Regards,
Shipo
Hey, how about those racing lessons?
Best Regards,
Shipo
As Shipo says.. performance tires tend to get noisy after just a little wear.. Also, your rear tires are going to wear faster than the fronts, and it is likely that your right rear will wear faster than your left rear. I took off my summer tires right after I bought my car in December with 8300 miles, and you could already tell the wear differences (non-staggered, 325i Sport package).
If you are fairly happy with your tires.. (not withstanding the noise), then you can replace just the rear tires and possibly get another 10K-15K miles out of the fronts. But, most people tend to want a whole new set, once the rears wear out.
regards,
kyfdx
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A friend of mine recently tried something that seems to make sense, which I will try after my new set of tires starts getting noisy. As shipo mentioned, the tires are typically unidirectional, and so you can't just rotate the wheels between the left and right sides. However, you could have the tire shop dismount the tires and remount them with the exact same orientation on the opposite side of the car. In other words, picture the tire "sliding" from the left side over to the right side, without changing directions. Now, what was previously the inner edge of the tire, with cupping, is on the outside edge! There will likely still be some noise, but because the outside edge doesn't have as much of the weight during low-speed driving, you should notice some improvement.
Consider the following picture:
Best Regards,
Shipo
Ya lost me. What does that have to do with a car?
As AAA's annual survey points out, depreciation and insurance are the two most expensive costs to operate your car. And don't forget gasoline. Cost of tires doesn't even come close.
If you can afford to buy your BMW and afford to put tankfuls of premium unleaded in it, you can afford to buy a new set of tires after 20-30 miles.
What did the Eagles say? Get over it?
I've been purchasing new sets of tires after 12K and 14K miles of wear, but buying a new set of tires every 20-30 miles seems a bit excessive. ;>)
shipo: Excellent point regarding asymmetrical tires! My friend must have had a symmetrical tread pattern on his tires.
Even if you are Warren Buffett, maintenance costs matter. Whether I can afford a 3-series or a 7-series, every dollar spent on the car could be used for something else.
regards,
kyfdx
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cotmc... 20-30=20,000-30,000. I forgot the "k".
kyfdx... How much have you spent on insurance? What do you think your depreciation has been? There are a lot of great tires that are less expensive than the Pilot Sports. They are great tires, but when I did a price/useable performance comparison with my former 540i6, I went with less expensive ContiSportContact 2s. Choosing a different tire could've saved you as much as $250 or more, just on the summer tires. Bet you could've spent a lot less on the winter tires, too, and still had a great tire.
blueguydotcom... How many miles a year are you driving? Does your cost include snow tires, too? Snow tires should last 2-3 seasons.
Best thing you can do tire-wise is an annual 4-wheel alignment and balance.
BMW might want to do the same so no one can say they are surprise about how the car treats tires.
I put 15k miles on my car in one year. Those are just replacing the stock tires. no winter/snow tires. I recently swapped back tires and that was over 500 clams. Fronts will run into the mid 400s and I need them too...just haven't bought them yet as I rarely drive the car now.
As for gas...good lord. I've probably spent $1500 this year over 15k miles. Yep, every 10 miles is a buck.