All Posts Tagged With: "BMW"

There was a very good criticism of my methods used to show how the Pontiac G8 didn’t stand up to the BMW when using a M5 ( something more in the same class as the G8 ).

Just in case the commenter comes back and finds his comment deleted, I did not intentionally delete the comment just because it was critical of something I wrote. In fact I have never deleted a legit comment on this blog, even the ones calling me a douchebag/fag/tard/etc. I was flipping through the “New comments” pane hitting ‘Mark as spam’ on all the spammers and accidentally the whole legit comment

What the comment said was basically that comparing a 2005 M5 to a brand new car isn’t the proper way to “reset the bar”, and that the Pontiac G8 in the commercial versus the 550 is actually the G8 GT, not the G8 GXP.

While this does change the atmosphere of the G8 v/s BMW 550 argument, it still doesn’t come out in Pontiac’s favor.

The G8 GT *is* better priced, nearly $20k cheaper. And the 0-60/quarter mile numbers are in a dead heat with a BMW 550. However, Pontiac still has just wasted a colossal amount of money trying to go after a market that has no interest in its products.

A person shopping for a $45k-$55k luxury car is not going to cross shop for a $35k-$45k sports car and vice versa. The BMW 550 ( and 5 series in general minus the M5 ) is not even sports minded, and has never been regarded as “sporty”. The 5 series was to fill the gap between sports racer 3 series types and 7 series executive types. What came out was a luxury saloon that would respond at the gas pedal.

Even resetting the argument back to G8 GT versus 550 in terms of engineering puts the BMW miles ahead of the G8 GT.

The GT has the same huge engine with the same absurd power loss. Instead of the 6.2L ‘vette engine that the GXP got, the GT has a 6L that can only push out ~310hp to the wheels versus the 550’s 4.8L that is pushing out ~325 at the wheels. Honestly if they want to declare this as an engineering victory, that 6L behemoth should be running all over the smaller 4.8L in the BMW.

Instead you get performance numbers that are equal, and in most cases slightly in favor of the 550 ( 5.1 0-60 for the BMW versus 5.3 for the GT ).

And in the number that counts, skidpad rating, the 550 pulls around 0.03-0.04 more g than the GT.

But all these numbers mean nothing. The cold hard fact is that Pontiac shoved money into the G8 and an advertising program that went after a superior car and car company, and was promptly skewered in the market. The G8 was one of the worst selling investments in Pontiac history, and production has been cut by 97% as Pontiac starts to pull out the lifeboats. The G8, much like Pontiac, makes a lotta noise, and brings nothing to back it up.

I have the last of my exterior upgrades coming next week for the BMW. The only things left are repair items, which consist of replacing the rear bumper ( cracked in one place and has a blemish where someone backed into it ), pull the dents out of the driver side, and have it re-sprayed to remove all the scratches.

When I first got this car two years ago it had a cracked turn signal lens, one lens was yellow and the other clear, the hood didn’t fit right, it had just been in an accident where the whole front was ripped off, the exhaust tip had fallen off, the intake manifold piping was shredded and dumping dust and bad air into the engine, it misfired and would quit when stopping at red lights or putting the transmission into reverse, and it smelled like old Chinese food.

After this last batch of upgrades, basically everything is as I want it to be, at least 100% on the outside. I still need to fix the carpet where it is stained, and I would like to take out the trim and replace it with carbon fiber or at least OEM replacements.

So to cap on the exterior upgrades, after next week the car will have the following mods on the outside:

• 6000Kelvin HID Lighting Upgrade
• Clear Euro Turn Signal Lenses
• InvisiLite Silver Turn Signal Bulbs
• Clear Euro Sidemarkers
• M3 Sport Trim
• M3 LED Clear Rear Taillights
• Debadged trunk lid
• Carbon Fiber roundels
• BavAuto Windshield sticker
• Carbon/Kevlar Track Brakes
• Staggered Tires: 225/45-17 on the front, 245/40-17 on the rear

Next post, Christmas pictures of Kinder Eggs and such!

I’m kicking myself for not getting pictures and a video of this, but eh.

Last night I did the Seafoam engine treatment to the BMW. I had seen a lot of guys on the E46 forums talking about it and how it restored their car to nearly brand-new.

The Seafoam cost about $7 at AutoZone, and the worst thing you had to worry about was hydro-locking your engine if you poured it in too fast.

The instructions are pretty simple. What I did was turn the engine on for about 15 minutes to warm it up ( at least out of the blue section on the dash ). Then I went under the hood and disconnected the brake booster line.

If you plan on doing this to your car, make sure you use the brake booster line or something that you KNOW for a fact feeds into all the cylinders.

I had my neighbor keep the RPMs at 1,000-1,500 while I let the booster hose slowly suck up around half of the Seafoam.

This is very important: Don’t let your engine suck in the Seafoam too fast. You’ll hydro-lock the engine, and that is not pretty.

We switched the car off, reattached the booster line, and let the car sit for 15 minutes on the dot. I then hopped inside, moved it back where the exhaust was facing away from the apartments, and let ‘er rip.

What happened immediately was a loud “FOOOOOOOM” out of the exhaust, followed by thick white smoke. I held the engine at 5,500 – 6,200 RPMs for five minutes, until the smoke wasn’t so thick.

We then let the car idle for ten more minutes, until the smoke stopped coming out of the exhaust.

Basically, the entire apartment complex looked like it was under a layer of fog. The smoke poured out steadily the entire time, and smelt god-awful.

Because of the computer and stuff in it, the car naturally freaked out and threw every engine code in the book, along with throwing the transmission into “Limp” mode. A couple of restarts cleared the codes and transmission.

This morning I went out, started my morning commute, and couldn’t even recognize the car. It jumps off the line like a beast, doesn’t have even the slightest hint of rough idle, and has that good ole Bavarian growl back.

Best $7 evar. While I didn’t get a video, here is a video of someone else doing the treatment to their 330ci: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzQGCCXC6a0

To be honest, I had about twice as much smoke, but then again I had 70,800 miles on my engine.

I got my shipment from BavAuto today: New front suspension bushings, new cabin air filter, more 5w-30 oil ( I have a leak somewhere :/ ), new serpentine belt ( mine’s cracked :/ ), a new coolant level sender, and of course new shiny carbon fiber style hood & trunk emblems. Oh and a giant BavAuto windshield sticker to show some love.

The haters are rejoicing and filling up forums with BMW bashing.

Buuuuuuuut. There’s always a but

An American “muscle” car with 430hp barely beating a car with 100 less horsepower, and posting ‘ring times with cars in the 250hp – 350hp range isn’t very flattering. ( Before you ask about the weight, the Camaro SS is 350lbs heavier than the E46 M3 )

Put against the new 2008 BMW M3 with the same horsepower and weight, the Camaro is 15 seconds behind. Don’t assign the ’sports car’ mantle to the Camaro just yet

The Ring times for reference.

My sister dropped her nice Core Duo laptop a few months back and busted the screen. She picked up a new laptop, and gave me the shell of her old one, so I pulled the screen off and installed Ubuntu 8.04 Server with SVN on it. Run’s like a charm!

Some more updates and pictures on the full article.
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