A short road trip (picking up a new-to-me Touring)

[tammer]

I wandered into this forum a few months ago when my 900 turbo got totaled (hit and run while it was parked on the street), and I decided that an E34 touring would make a good daily driver. The Saab spoiled me for carrying capacity, and I've always been a BMW guy (2 E36s, 2 E28s in my past ... well, the E36 in my avatar is still around), so the touring seemed like the logical choice. Of course, I had to either buy a manual-converted car, or plan on doing the conversion myself. I've never owned a car with an auto and don't plan on doing so anytime soon (unless I get a tow rig for the race car).

After lots of looking around, I ended up working out a deal with flipwils for his M30/5-speed white car. On Saturday, I flew from Philly to the Twin Cities to pick it up. Adam picked me up at the airport in his "new" E39 540i-6 (very nice!), and we headed over to his heated garage (this is me looking jealous) to look over the touring, sign papers, and trade money for keys. The car was better than described in pretty much all respects, but given the quality of Adam's fleet in general that wasn't too surprising. The business being finished, we headed to a local restaurant for a couple of really good beers and a sandwich. A friend of mine at Minnesota law school and his wife came to hang out, as well.

A few hours later I was on the road to Chicago, where I caught up with an old friend over another beer and crashed for the night. In the morning, I picked up a set of BBS RX with very fresh Bridgestone S02 rubber (CL find that Adam pointed me to). Leaving Chicago was entertaining--it was snowing pretty heavily, and while my new car was wearing a fantastic set of Nokian snows, most other cars aren't ... on I-94 downtown, I saw the ass end of a Mercury Grand Marquis wiggle a little bit, 4 lanes over to my right and a little in front of me. I got on the binders after checking the rear view, and whaddya know ... that Mercury pulled a long, lazy spin across all 5 lanes of traffic, coming to rest with the driver door facing traffic and half in my (far left) lane and half in the lane to my right. As soon as I realized I had room, I gunned it around to the left and left that poor bastard behind. I don't think he got T-boned by anyone, but he was very lucky. I narrowly missed being collected as we were in a long underpass and there was precious little shoulder before the wall to my left. Code brown!

I then headed south toward Indy, and fortunately the snow cleared. I had lunch with my parents, then headed to Bloomington where I picked up another set of wheels (good thing it's a Touring!) from Denton--staggered Style 5s with E34 hub bore. NikosX gave me a short but crazy ride in his 540i ... a local friend of mine has the same motor and diff in his car, but it is NOTHING like as fast. Denton, Nic, it was cool meeting both of you. Sorry I couldn't hang around longer.

After visiting my GF's sister and bro-in-law in Bloomington, I headed towards Philly at 5 p.m. On the way, I started getting phone calls from various friends warning me of a big snowstorm that I'd be driving into. Sure enough, it started snowing around Harrisburg, and shortly after that it was a mess. Where PennDOT had plowed and salted, there was a mixed bag of slush, standing water, snow, and ice. Just nasty, and I was creeping along at 40-45 mph. Then I caught and passed the plows, and ... heaven! About 4" of fresh powder with just a few semi tracks. The Nokians loved this, and I was able to maintain a steady 55+ mph most of the way from there. I made it home at 4:20 a.m. All told, it was a 14.5-hour day of driving, and the total trip was 20.5 hours for 1340 miles. Not a bad way to get to know a new car! I beat Google's predicted time by 3+ hours, despite hitting 2 snow storms. :-)

Adam, thanks again. It's a blast, comfortable and quiet, and fast enough ... for now. ;-) Here she is, before we hit the storms and got really dirty:



Unfortunately, I didn't get a pic of the hatch with all the BBS goodness inside.

-tammer

[Mr Project]

Congrats! I know how great those 535 Tourings can be. Enjoy!

[nmp411]

Sounds like a good trip! Congrats!

[E34nication]

Congrats man. That looked like a great car.

[NikosX]

It was great meeting you. It would have been awesome if you could have stuck around for a while.

[attack eagle]

bienvenidos...

[tammer]

Thanks. Bloomington guys, I'll be back through sometime this summer. We'll have to get a beer if you're around.

Tech question--can everyone see the image in the first post? I could, now I can't, but opening it in a new tab works fine. Picasa is crappy for hot-linking.

-tammer

[E34nication]

I can't see it.

[free740il]

I can see it. I wish I could do something like this but being broke sucks.

[attack eagle]

negative...

go to photobucket, works the best of all of them and is still free.

pica as you said sucks and the other one (frog one) always opens in a new window... takes like 4 clicks to see the damn picture.

[tammer]

Will do on the Photobucket. I just need to get my own site set up already ... one more thing that always gets shoved down the to-do list. I wonder if those who can see it are logged in to Picasa already (via Google).

In the meantime, it's here: Just a dirty wagon in a snowy lot outside of Eau Claire, WI ;-)

Thanks for the feedback.
-tammer

[E34nication]

hmm... i should be logged into google and I don't see it...

[4500 RPM]

Tammer,

Was so great to meet you! I love your Touring, looks like it will be a fun, faithful ride for years to come! Hope the wheels work out, and like I said, if you get them refinished I want to see pics!

Sorry I had to run and sorry I didn't look under my dresser for the remaining center caps

Please let me know if you are in the area again, summer would work great. I would love to grab a few beers with you!

Denton

[flipwils11]

It was great meeting you. It would have been awesome if you could have stuck around for a while.

Niko, what'd you think of my (now ex) M30 Touring? Hopefully Tammer was driving it like he stole it.

[StealthBimmer]

congrats

[Elekta]

Welcome. Maiden voyages are the best. My first touring I drove back from Atlanta to Austin in one day. The M5T I drove from SF to Austin in 3 days. My 57 Chevy I drove from Boise to Austin in 3 days.

If I ever win a lottery or some stupid windfall to allow me to surf vintage vehicles, I will make a serious habit of flying out to pick up vehicles and then racing them home. It is practically my favorite thing to do...the solitude is exemplary and you really get to know your purchase intimately over the first 1000 miles. Glad you made it home without a hitch and welcome to touring heaven. You are so fortunate to know a touring as a manual first. It saves you a lot of time and money and kicks the enjoyment to the proper level at getgo.