Heidi Diaries Part Trois: Bleeding blue in CO

[BleedsBlue]

The M5 is gone; long live the 540iT. A confluence of evolving priorities led to a desire to simplify my automotive endeavors and diversify my vehicular portfolio. Though in it's own right a very special, cool car, the 540iT (auto) known as Heidi appealed to me with greater utility (I was on the verge of an FZJ80 as 3rd car), parts commonality, and a better-sorted foundation than BK06091. The two cars were exchanged less than two weeks ago, making the both of us very silly happy little boys. And now I have a new friend, a super enthusiastic new M5 owner, who also happens to work at a BMW dealer...





As Corey once said, the car is crusty (all along the lower doors, per usual, and on a rear fender); but the clear coat and paint overall is a lot better than my M5, meaning a respray can be forestalled for at least another year or two. This is really the only problem with Heidi at this point, besides tiny niggles. The interior is very solid beyond needing a deep clean and some carpet cleaning, most everything works, and the drivetrain and suspension are all solid. With far less miles, the steering box is way fresher than the M5's--the suspension is definitely as tight as my fully refreshed M5 was, but slightly softer and with tighter steering.

I kept my M-Systems from the M5, partially because they were in slightly better shape than the ones from Heidi, but mainly because they have very new Michelin PSS. Nat (new BK06091 owner) and I swapped wheels in my parking lot, laughing at what the neighbors must be thinking (why are those idiots swapping identical wheels between cars?). I neglected cleaning the wheels for too long this winter (thankfully I left the Turbines in the closet), and the wheels accrued some nasty corrosion. Since they were bought in pairs and were all a variation of faded polish (bleh) and full of blemishes and rash anyway, I turned to a well-known 911 Fuchs tool: the grey Scotchbrite pad.





The corrosion came off nicely, and I love the brushed-metal finish the grey pad bestows. The markings on the full wheel picture are Throwing Star cover remnants I think, and tough to remove. The nice thing is the surface can be polished right back up if someone with poor taste so desires
The difference in a factory finish and my grey pad finish is noticeable in the top picture of both Heidi and BK06091 (there, the M5 has the grey pad M-Systems, and Heidi has factory-finish wheels).

I have a few minor parts on order, but nothing big, which is the point. I was getting vertigo staring down the frictionless slope of next steps for the M5; urgent respray (which would necessitate a total interior re-do), B&B, coil-overs, etc etc. Heidi is pretty solid as-is. I took a chance and went to Firestone for an A/C check, and $220 later I've got ice cold A/C! That was exciting, since no used car ever has really only needed a recharge!

Today was exciting, as my suspicion that the sunroof was leaking was confirmed SPECTACULARLY, on Ms. BleedsBlue's head. She's a trooper, but I felt awful. On arriving home I toweled her and Heidi off, and fearfully reached to depress the most dreadful of E34 touring buttons: the double sunroof switch.

It opened quickly and quietly, which was about 25% of the battle; I knew it could easily open and then become stuck open. Ignoring my probable fate, I got some super thin gauge steel wire (so thin I had to double up) and went to town on the offending sunroof drain (passenger front).

Lots of unmentionable detritus pulled out, and then pouring copious buckets of water into the sunroof channel resulted in the drains evacuating buckets out from under the car, a glorious sight. I'm not convinced, and I'll wait for the next rain to confirm the fix worked. But then, the moment of truth: I had to touch that button again. And behold, Heidi's a lady; the damn thing closed completely and silently.



Who named her Heidi, anyway? Michael? We don't refer to the car as such in the BleedsBlue household (so far just "wagon" or "swagon"), but it's catchy and though I won't name cars myself, I'll honor a well-earned car name.

If all goes well, this thread will be picture and roadtrip heavy, mod and repair light.

[chuddism]

I'm looking forward to this. I have a well known soft spot for crusty wagons. Long live Heidi!

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

[cddallara]

Yay!!!
Didn't know about the drain, sorry!!
By any chance were there wheel spacers involved in the rear wheels?
when I had a shop swap the m systems on, there were spacers that I didn't know about.
I'm supposed to get them back to the PO if they still exist?

[BleedsBlue]

Tomorrow I'm hoping to smog, title, and register Heidi in my name--some complications have arisen because of Nazifornia, but I think I've got it covered. In the meantime I'm falling hard for the car, though in a perfect world I'd also still have an M5

First tank of gas with lots of hooning, A/C, and some traffic netted 17.5mpg, ~0.6mpg worse than the M5 over the same driving cycles. I bet on road trips it'll do better than the M5 (I'd do 25mpg w/ no A/C), since the M60 barely lifts a finger to top steep uphills that would have had me down-shifting in the M5. Speaking of which, we just got back from a mountain joyride (though I'm milking it to avoid getting pulled over until the title/reg is handled), with a nice three hour hike bookend-ed by tight twisties. Heidi is running like a top.





I still need to remove that AAA sticker, and put some of my own on there. The dogger vastly prefers the touring to the sedan, and I'm sure the softer SLS ride helps. A better dog car was honestly 25% of the reason for trading cars, since we've been using our newest car for dog ferrying, and I'm tired of ruining a 2010 Mini. This beagle/shiba is a classic "tired dog = good dog", and after the hike, he passed out (clearly, lol):

Yay!!!
Didn't know about the drain, sorry!!
By any chance were there wheel spacers involved in the rear wheels?
when I had a shop swap the m systems on, there were spacers that I didn't know about.
I'm supposed to get them back to the PO if they still exist?

Texting you about the spacers. The minor drain clean job I did is holding up so far in a few torrential rainstorms! I can't believe how strong and in-shape this car is, man.

[93FIM5]

Looking good man! Also nice choice on dog blanket, I just pulled ours out of the M5 and put it on the couch lol.

Idas_Blanket by 93FIM5, on Flickr

[BleedsBlue]

Looking good man! Also nice choice on dog blanket, I just pulled ours out of the M5 and put it on the couch lol.

Hilarious--it must be a Texas thing, Ms. BleedsBlue (from TX) got me that thing 7 years ago and it migrated into dog duty somehow. Now he'll fight you if you try and take it.

[atl530i]

Looking forward to seeing what you do with this.

[eddycooper]

Great car and great pictures!

Why does it look like your third brake light is inside the rear windshield?

Does your car still have the original SLS? If so it is likely the factory sport+lowered+SLS shocks at the back, which I think is stock for the 540i wagons. Anyway, just note that they are different from standard SLS shocks and they're only available from BMW. I replaced mine a few years ago.

[AHenry014]

Great car and great pictures!

Why does it look like your third brake light is inside the rear windshield?

federalized euro/grey market cars will have afterthought add-on's like this.

[BleedsBlue]

Step 1 of the transfer is complete; Heidi just passed CO smog with flying colors. I stopped in at the DMV, but being the 31st (I'm assuming this is the reason) there are 900 MORE people than usual there. I'll try again later.

Great car and great pictures!

Why does it look like your third brake light is inside the rear windshield?

Does your car still have the original SLS? If so it is likely the factory sport+lowered+SLS shocks at the back, which I think is stock for the 540i wagons. Anyway, just note that they are different from standard SLS shocks and they're only available from BMW. I replaced mine a few years ago.

I appreciate the compliment Eddy, thanks man! And thank you for the heads-up about 540i-specific SLS. I really like a functioning SLS, but not to the extent that I'll pony up for replacement parts when it goes bad. Then I'm suddenly an SLS delete fan

The long-term plan with this car is coil-overs as part of an overall weight reduction plan, so when the rear bombas go boom, I'll be calling Ground Control.

federalized euro/grey market cars will have afterthought add-on's like this.

Yepper, Michael noted how shoddily the thing was attached in one of his threads. It's still a bit floppy but I'm not going to mess with it.

[BleedsBlue]

So before I arrived at the current, complicated plan to title this car in my name in CO (bonding, basically), I was considering driving it to California to meet up with Corey, and try and rush through several CA inspections and a re-titling in CA in Corey's name; this only made sense because Ms. BleedsBlue's sister was getting married within a few hours of where Corey lives.

Even though I came up with a better plan that didn't rely on the impossibly risky plan of driving a car 2400 miles and attempting to pass multiple CA inspections/re-title at the CA DMV within about a day, Ms. BleedsBlue and I realized we still wanted to roadtrip, saving $600 in flights (gas was half that) and almost $500 in a rental car in CA. And we decided we'd car-camp on the way to save another ~$50-100 each way. In Utah. In June. More on that later.

I'd put a few hundred miles on Heidi, obviously done my due diligence with a mechanical inspection, and felt confident of the car. On the way out of CO, the only hiccup was a quick stop to charge the a/c again (after a month); clearly, the leak is real

We'd need cold a/c, since the entirety of the drive through Utah was about 105-110F. Very pretty reefs, rocks; basically Tatooine. All photos taken by Ms. BleedsBlue, btw.



We camped at the Virgin River campsite, in the northwest tip of Arizona--my step-dad had just camped there while bringing his new-to-him Eurovan back from California. We arrived just after dark, and after setting up camp, it was 90F at 10:00p. We've never experienced this heat at night. The name of the game was "don't move or else sweat-drench".

Ms. BleedsBlue played around with long exposure shots; this was taken at 10:00p (tough to tell, but note the stars; the light is from our latern):



We still hadn't even seen our surroundings, arriving after dark; to the naked eye the canyon around us was just black. This one was exposed for 30sec.



We watched the moonrise eating gumbo and drinking a nondescript homebrew (not mine. Verdict: it tasted like beer), and hit the hay.



As is common while camping, we rose at sunrise (partially because it was now 81F and the coldest part of the day ) and as expected, the Virgin River canyon is gorgeous.



Oatmeal and coffee (and lots of water, dehydrated from the day before); then I packed us up so Ms. BleedsBlue could take pictures. Around 7a the sun peaked over the ridge, and it was 90F again. Time to make like Moses and get the flock out of there.



(She notes this one is over-exposed, but I like the angle. We were melting and didn't have time to re-shoot, lol)



- - - Updated - - -

Day 2: driving out of the Virgin River canyon was an epic sight.



Day 2 was uneventful; through Vegas, Barstow, etc. We made sandwiches using the hatch as shade in Mojave, at 117F. Unbearable. We forwent Bakersfield and the quickest route in favor of going through Santa Clarita, Ventura (I grew up there, partially), Santa Barbara; almost stopped at Barrel Works but ran out of time, and then made it to Cambria where the wedding was to take place. Nice little VRBO with a couple of Ms. BleedsBlue's and the groom's family members:



We had a blast for almost a week, whale-watching, fishing (7 guys caught 35lbs of cod AFTER cleaning, which fed 45 of us well), Hearst Castle, etc. The liquor at this wedding was incredible because the groom, now Ms. BleedsBlue's bro-in-law, is a craft beer guy; and his father owns a vineyard. So we had cases of the groom's father's 2012 Pinot at the wedding, a keg of Firestone, two small kegs of excellent homebrew, and a case of whale 750s I'd brought.

A keg of this stuff is no joke, at 7.5% ABV; we nearly killed it too despite it being a small wedding and so much other booze present. I took it back to Firestone in Heidi on our way back home.



The booze highlight was the groom's father's gift to the wedding party, though, a magnum worth... much. 2000 was a good year for Ridge, I'm told (watch Bottleshock)



Already depressed to be leaving, we packed up and decided to head through AZ and NM for cooler temps. Ms. BleedsBlue found the Brumos poster for me at an antique shop in Cambria:



No pictures from the way back, despite passing through Flagstaff, near Santa Fe, etc. We were booking it so I could get back to work.

Heidi didn't miss a beat, cruising at 80mph+ the entire trip westward, in 110F heat, a/c blasting and loaded with a couple hundred pounds. The temperature gauge never budged. We averaged 22mpg on the entirety of the trip, which I consider a triumph (two tons+, 3.46, much time over 80mph, elevation, etc etc). MPGs were a solid 2-4 higher when Ms. BleedsBlue was driving

It's a great car that has proven itself to me, and I hope to continue improving Heidi as funds allow. Urgent needs are rebuilding the wiper linkage and sourcing a radio.

I recently installed the Turbine covers in the M Systems (no caps), and definitely do not like the look. I'll try and grab pictures even though the Turbines will not be staying. I also bought some carriage bolts from Lowes for the factory roof rack, though I couldn't find any short enough. Good excuse to whip out the dremel and be super dangerous, hehe. I'm basically one of those guys that fabricate their own motorcycles, right? Sparks are the essence of coolness.

[93FIM5]

Fun looking trip man! Great pics!

-Greg

[Butler]

I love tourings so much! Nice car you got there. I love the E34 aesthetics and functionality all wrapped into one.

[cddallara]

The squirrel is the only one who can pull off turbines with no caps
Seriously though, Heidi would look great with them complete, imo.
That 'overexposed' shot through the bushes...
Glad to hear the trip went well!

[AHenry014]

i mounted my factory rack the exact same way, and i too had to trim mine down haha. well done, good read!

[Bimmerick]

A confluence of evolving priorities led to a desire to simplify my automotive endeavors and diversify my vehicular portfolio...

Love your car, but this type of language is simply unacceptable on a forum like this...

[AquilaBMW]

OMG! OMG! OMG! I can't believe I am just seeing this thread. My Dear Heidi has gone to CO!!!!! I am thrilled she found another good home. I almost got her back from Corey, but was like a day late. However, I am thrilled she is in good hands. Corey told me so and YAY! It is so!

Ummm..... yeah, I named her Heidi, thanks for keeping the name. Just one of my silly traditions. I am planning a road trip very, very soon - I am now so tempted to pay Heidi a visit on the way East. I will see if it is feasible.

Nice job so far and I am very happy you are enjoying Heidi.

[Tre0Tre34]

Thanks for sharing the trip!

Is that the section of I-15 that dips through the corner of Arizona? One of my favorite stretches of road to drive WAY too fast as there really isnt a shoulder for the cops to stop and check speed!

Looks like a great road trip.

[BleedsBlue]

I love tourings so much! Nice car you got there. I love the E34 aesthetics and functionality all wrapped into one.

Agreed w/ you, Nick. The only (and I mean ONLY) part I miss from the M5 is the S38. Which I know is 90% of the allure of that car, but... M5 Touring or clone there-of is currently the goal. This car is cosmetically and suspension-wise pretty close to a '95 M5 (BBK is in the near future), so a swap will be happening at some point. Not to denigrate the B40's torque, but it's just lifeless once you've lived with a rebuilt S38.

The squirrel is the only one who can pull off turbines with no caps
Seriously though, Heidi would look great with them complete, imo.
That 'overexposed' shot through the bushes...
Glad to hear the trip went well!

You pull those things off with aplomb, Corey! I think your color scheme is also crucial. Silver turbines would look like garbage on your car, I think. Also I like how you forwent installing the "fans" to sit the turbines deeper in the wheel. I did install my caps initially, but disliked the look so much I knew I had to sell 'em, and I wasn't going to drive around with them and risk losing one of those unobtanium caps to either accident/gravity, or theft.

Ze are already spoken for and I know I'll regret selling them, but in my opinion they belong on an early M5 sedan and I'm just not sure when I'll own one of those again...

i mounted my factory rack the exact same way, and i too had to trim mine down haha. well done, good read!

Cheers man, I really dig this factory rack. My Yakima snowboard/ski rack will bolt right up, though I need to pick up some new bike racks--going local (Rocky Mounts) with a nice fork-mount set-up that easily fits the long, narrow aero bars.

Love your car, but this type of language is simply unacceptable on a forum like this...

I was wondering if anyone would notice

OMG! OMG! OMG! I can't believe I am just seeing this thread. My Dear Heidi has gone to CO!!!!! I am thrilled she found another good home. I almost got her back from Corey, but was like a day late. However, I am thrilled she is in good hands. Corey told me so and YAY! It is so!

Ummm..... yeah, I named her Heidi, thanks for keeping the name. Just one of my silly traditions. I am planning a road trip very, very soon - I am now so tempted to pay Heidi a visit on the way East. I will see if it is feasible.

Nice job so far and I am very happy you are enjoying Heidi.

Dude! I was hoping you'd see this, Michael. I kept meaning to PM you, my bad

Good news for you or any other subsequent owner after myself is that Colorado doesn't honor salvage titles due to theft, so the title will be birthed anew as a clean title. Oh and also, I plan to completely restore the car, haha. It needs paint and some minor interior work (mainly headliner), and it'll become almost unavoidable to at least A) manual swap and potentially B) M5 swap. We'll see which comes first, powertrain swap or re-spray. Those that know me can probably guess which I'd prioritize...

Heidi as a name is sticking; it helps that my mom and little sister (very little, 14 years my junior, so about to turn 13) have an E46 touring and always name their cars (the E46 is 'Hecate').

Shoot me a PM if you plan to come through CO, I'm not far off I70 and will give you my cell. We should totally meet up! Not much will have changed with Heidi if you're coming soon, but stay posted on this thread

Thanks for sharing the trip!

Is that the section of I-15 that dips through the corner of Arizona? One of my favorite stretches of road to drive WAY too fast as there really isnt a shoulder for the cops to stop and check speed!

Looks like a great road trip.

Yep, that's the spot. I was cookin' it almost the entire drive west-ward, still can't believe we did 22mpg loaded up!

Meanwhile...

I took Heidi to Leadville, CO, this past weekend, to sleep in her () prior to a 4a wake-up for a company 14er summit. I wish the car was ~2-5" longer (and I'm just 6'), but I actually slept well on a fat REI car-camping pad.



The road to the trailhead was described to me as "very passable in a car," which translated to "borderline passable in an economy car with lots of ground clearance and fat-sidewall 15" tires".

This was the sketchiest road I've ever taken one of my E34s on, and I was very grateful for the P.O. (not sure which it was, maybe Carl?) who installed the E31 X-brace, which I'm sure helped take some of the rock scrapes and partially protected the oil pan. I didn't get a puncture either, which was my secondary concern behind the fear of gutting the oil pan (45 profile Michelin PSS inflated to 40psi? Totally off-road rock-crawl worthy, who'd have thunk).



I work for a software company and I'm one of the younger/more in shape (to state it lightly, lol) employees, so I loaded that Kuiu Ultra 65L pack you can see in the picture of the sleeping set-up to 30#, and had a great time summiting Mt. Sherman with co-workers. Call it early training for my early winter elk hunting trip, though the pack would be loaded up far more in that scenario (and I wouldn't have to climb 3k vertical). I also wore the Kuiu woven pants and had a few guys compliment them, including one who had to touch 'em LOL (Kuiu is online-only).

Sherman is one of the easiest 14ers and a great "starter" climb, and us faster hikers in the group hit summit around 8:30a after leaving the trailhead at 6:00a.

Looking east towards Leadville/Turqouise lake:



It is always important to hydrate, particularly at 14,036ft. I'm only a fan of Grapefruit Sculpin when it's fresh (this can had totally lost most of the flavor), and consider it a very middling/sessionable beer, but it was the last can I had on-hand. My company's name is Essette, btw.



Then the other night, the Turbine deal was sealed over some 'real' beer, made more enjoyable by my best buddy's gift of proper drinkware:

[UnrulyGrace]

Nice! I enjoyed a few Grapefruit Sculpins this weekend as well!

[BleedsBlue]

Nice! I enjoyed a few Grapefruit Sculpins this weekend as well!

My guess is being in CA, you get the fresher stuff. My main bone to pick with GF Sculpin, which is the same for every IPA ever, is how fast it drops off after a week or two. Still refreshing of course!


Bought some stuffs...
So July Cars and Coffee was great; I took Heidi and though I didn't stand around the car to talk about it (I never do, we like to roam and talk to others about their cars), I did see more than a few people stop and take a closer look. Particularly with M Systems, it's just not a loud car and to even BMW guys, it just looks like a US-spec wagon with bolt-ons.

But then I saw a local's F31 328i M Sport on a set of Fifteen52 Tarmacs. I've been oogling those wheels since Gymkhana Whatever Number, and have always appreciated the racy and unorthodox design. First I respect the company and their story, but I really dig their 'fearless' design (I guess you'd call it) on wheels like the Tarmac, taking the concavity/lip trend and going the polar opposite way. After expressing uncertainty over pictures, this was the first time Ms. BleedsBlue had gotten a peep at Tarmacs in person, and she dug 'em.

Then bada bing, bada boom, Fifteen52 had a buy three wheels, get one free sale over 4th of July! One free wheel? TWIST MY ARM. The discount was applied as a percentage off each wheel (obviously, you had to buy 4), so I saved about $300 on the set--and also made it a near wash from selling the Turbine covers. RIP Turbines, btw. If I ever end up with an early M5 again, I'll regret the sh1t out of selling those.



The wheels are mounted now, wrapped in fresh Michelin PSS, after a painstaking week of Discount Tire fumbling around the rear PSS in their warehouse

Pictures to come; the last few days, the sprinkler system bordering the parking spot where I park Heidi at my townhome has gone bonkers/haywire, dousing her every few minutes. Plus we've had typical Colorado afternoon storms, so long story short, it's been tough to keep 'er clean.

So far this car has been exactly what I needed, because it hasn't strictly *needed anything (which was the point). But I need bicycle mounts for it, and a radio; both done right were similar cost, but opportunity must be seized when it knocks

This is in the mail (image stolen from Sriufke himself):




Bike racks will have to wait, as will the inevitable bullet-nose stud conversion I like to do on all of my cars. The A/C is holding up well, and the only pressing issue is the wiper linkage. FML. One of these weekends (before winter, when I'll need wipers all the time), I'll just have to drink up and do the linkage.

Minor annoyances:
-Gauge cluster (specifically RPMs off), I think I need one from a V8 car and am guessing this one is from a 6
-HIDs triggering warnings (need to mod the LKM)
-Heatshield rattle at idle in D (need to get under and bang around)
-Garbage brake pads, not much bite AND dusty to boot (I have PFC pads and good fluid if I decide I can't wait for Greg's BBK)
-Why do BBS RS have so many farkin' bolts

[BleedsBlue]

Caturday was my first autocross with Heidi, and in fact my first autocross in a BMW (this was a BMWCCA event, which I much prefer to SCCA). I'm still a noob; I've done three total autocrosses prior, all in the 911, all on Continental DW tires. I've been getting progressively better, but needless to say the wagon is a slightly different learning curve than an air cooled 911.

I've done BMWCCA events in the 911, which was just meh, because all non-BMWs are classed in one big, fat Open class. PAX is based on your SCCA class still, but it's just wide open. In a BMW at this event, with 8 other drivers in my class, it was more inclusive and fun. I feel the SCCA events are more cut-throat, whereas at the BMWCCA ones it's more friendly (though just as competitive). Course design in this region, as on Saturday, is typically done by a multi-time national champ (in an E36 M3 sedan on 285s, in earlier years in STU, later in SM).

Showing up in a wagon is basically a win-win. Heidi was very popular, particularly once people realized it was a factory B40/Euro; and whether you're fast or not, just driving in a wagon makes you a winner in peoples' eyes, LOL.



The Fifteen52 Tarmacs were mounted with fresh Michelin PSS (well, rears were 100 miles old; fronts about 2,000), and to my surprise at an event where I assumed purists would frown, I got the most comments and questions about the wheels. They were very popular. Less than ideal for autocross, I had gone for a 17x8 front and 18x9.5 rear. Fifteen52's crazy sale only applied to in-stock, standard offset wheels, and there was nothing wider than the 17x8 in stock that would fit the front of an E34 with less than 20-25mm of spacer (the 17x8 is ET35, and I run a 15mm spacer). So with 235 front and 265 rear, I knew I would have a bit of push.

The results were nonetheless surprising to many, most of all myself for my first event in a totally new car:



Realistically, call this a 6th place out of 7, because the 7th and 9th place guys were at their first event ever (learning in an E39 M5 must have been a hoot!). Those guys drastically improved their times throughout the course of the day, but the other six drivers in my class are regulars that have been to the past few years' events. And I still suck; I was 75th/90 in PAX.

I just thought I'd be further off pace considering the E30s are ~2600lbs and the E46s are ~3400lbs; and the other five regular cars (one was co-driven) were actually set-up for this with dedicated 200TW tires in a square set-up, weight reduction, three pedals, coil-overs, etc etc. While ~3 seconds is an eternity on a 45 second course, I'm suddenly way too motivated to attend more events and tighten the nut behind Heidi's wheel, and then add some basic proven autocross upgrades to see if I can trophy in a class filled with E30s and E46s . I know there is at least one other touring poster here that has done so.

Tops on the upgrade list would be a matching 18x9.5 up front with my M5's GC camber plates, which I'm getting back when the new owner goes to coil-overs on that car. Then I could run at least a 265/35/18 square set-up, though at that point I should really consider an actual autocross tire as well (since I'd hate that much tire up front on the street). I'm sure I could use sway(s) as well, but I'm not sure yet if I'd want more front or rear--and there isn't much of an upgrade to throw on the rear of a touring. Maybe Racing Dynamics adjustables? The plates, 9.5J front wheels, and sway bars would only propel me (points-wise) to the middle of the BMW DS class, so I'd still have room for other upgrades.

Interestingly, the 3rd place 330i this event is also an automatic. When the trans holds gears and you don't have a drag start, the auto doesn't seem to cost too much time. That driver is also a novice instructor, however, so he can really move.

Anyway, if you've made it this far, here are some pictars. After a quick hand-wash with some summer beer Sunday, I got Ms. BleedsBlue to snap some quick photos of the new wheels on Heidi in our favorite next-door location.

The decision to run a "true", NSX-style stagger was in part due to wheel availability as mentioned above, and partly due to having fresh PSS in 17" in my possession (I hate selling tires). Also for the street, I maintain than an 8" wide front with about a 235 tire is the sweet spot.



Installed new OEM grill surrounds. I want to fill out the front fender more without adding spacer or wheel width, so eventually I'll sell these 17x8 ET35s and get some custom-offset Tarmacs. Once I have -2 camber again the gap will be even worse...



Needs clear corners bad.



I am at least very pleased with the rear fitment, especially considering there is room to spare with that ET22 9.5", 265-wrapped wheel (no spacer, fenders unrolled as of yet).

[mottati]

I bought a bmw / becker traffic pro from him maybe a year ago. I love that radio. Looks great, nav works surprisingly well. It plugs right into the bmw harness, uses the speed signal and knows when the car is in gear, really accurate considering the age. Only down side is 2002 is the newest nav map.

[Butler]

Looking good man!

[BleedsBlue]

I bought a bmw / becker traffic pro from him maybe a year ago. I love that radio. Looks great, nav works surprisingly well. It plugs right into the bmw harness, uses the speed signal and knows when the car is in gear, really accurate considering the age. Only down side is 2002 is the newest nav map.

Good to hear, Mike! I haven't heard anything back from him for more than a week after sending the payment, but I've bought from him before. Not sure what's going on there

Looking good man!

Cheers Nick!

Event photos are in (not my photos, and I can't tell who took them; thanks to the Rocky Mountain BMWCCA chapter for them!)