BMW and M Power Owners

Krisali · 14 Feb 2016 at 13:07

Hello all

I've never owned a RWD car before and have just bought a 325i convertible M-Sport. Could anyone suggest some good tyres for general use? I do around 6-8k annually. Many Thanks!

Dis86 · 14 Feb 2016 at 13:13

Krisali said:
Hello all

I've never owned a RWD car before and have just bought a 325i convertible M-Sport. Could anyone suggest some good tyres for general use? I do around 6-8k annually. Many Thanks!

Have a look at the tyre thread on here. There are plenty of good suggestions and places to get them for the best prices.

Vita · 14 Feb 2016 at 15:19

Tempted to get oem chrome with black slats grille as the matt I have on have been stone chipped. Replaced the power steering reservoir o ring no more leaks. Now just waiting for the oil filter housing gasket so I can replace that. Not loosing oil at a massive rate but the stains are becoming annoying.

mrk · 14 Feb 2016 at 17:20

Stick to oem grilles. 30 quid odd on ECP, each of course.

Rybo89 · 14 Feb 2016 at 17:48

Tyres ordered. Ones on now have full tread and ok handling wise but they say 'Eco' on them. That bugs me

Gone with F1A3 on the front and 2s back (3's not released for the back yet). Awesome prices these days aswell.

panthro · 14 Feb 2016 at 21:17

mrk said:
DRZ relentless acceleration is what I really like, although I only have a manual box, the acceleration feels never ending from 2000rpm to 8000, and then there's the noise. I've driven cars that are louder and/or quicker, but the S54 combines many of the good things of all of them into one. It's also quite funny watching your passenger's head lob back and forth into the headrest through each gear change

I imagine your Z4 is the same in this regard

It's a totally different feeling of power delivery because of the amount of torque the N54 has from low down.

Vipernet · 14 Feb 2016 at 23:20

Anyone tried these guys for clutches?

http://www.clutch-specialists.co.uk

Thinking of getting an uprated clutch and flywheel for my e61 530d. Would allow me to stick a bigger intercooler on it and get a bit more power.

jonclark · 15 Feb 2016 at 11:32

Gaygle said:
This is totally and easily possible - but you'd have to ditch the run flats.

Yeah ATS wanted £800 for 4 runflats. I went to Blackcircles and got 4 Goodyears for £500 fitted - the local garage said they actually make a loss on the fitting, but I guess they hope you'll use them for other car maintenance jobs.

DRZ · 15 Feb 2016 at 15:58

A quick follow-up pic of the Z4 - I'll probably wait until someone better with a camera takes some before I post up a "full set"

mrk · 15 Feb 2016 at 16:11

Looks great :cool:

Car and Driver say the exhaust has a metallic rasp to it when pushing on, is that true? If so then that is rather neat. Need more raspy exhausts these days as opposed to muffled farts

Didn't realise these were 300HP/335 (for the S) :eek:

crinkleshoes · 15 Feb 2016 at 17:04

mrk said:
Looks great Car and Driver say the exhaust has a metallic rasp to it when pushing on, is that true? If so then that is rather neat. Need more raspy exhausts these days as opposed to muffled farts

Didn't realise these were 300HP/335 (for the S)

The iS is 340bhp and there are inexpensive chip mods to get them over 400... nice engine

It was either a 2011 iS or the Boxster S.

mrk · 15 Feb 2016 at 17:39

335 according to specs? Or is that the usual BMW conservative figure? Anyways! I'd pick the Z4 over the Boxster all day long. Just looks like a proper masculine roadster to me!

panthro · 15 Feb 2016 at 17:55

crinkleshoes said:
The iS is 340bhp and there are inexpensive chip mods to get them over 400... nice engine

It was either a 2011 iS or the Boxster S.

The iS has the same engine map as the 1M :cool:

crinkleshoes · 15 Feb 2016 at 17:58

mrk said:
335 according to specs? Or is that the usual BMW conservative figure? Anyways! I'd pick the Z4 over the Boxster all day long. Just looks like a proper masculine roadster to me!

Bought for feel, not looks + NA goodness. Although I happen to think the Porsche is prettier

Been driving a FR beemer for years, fancied something different... the Z4 was close after shrugging off an M3... but the Boxster won for the awesome engine and I fancied MR for a change after many FR cars.

badgeruk · 15 Feb 2016 at 17:58

Very nice, would love one of these if they only did an M version

crinkleshoes · 15 Feb 2016 at 18:02

badgeruk said:
Very nice, would love one of these if they only did an M version

Mmmmmmmm... Z4 with E92 4.0 V8... yes please!

hurfdurf · 15 Feb 2016 at 18:06

Far more of a GT than sports car according to what I have read, its a shame they didn't do a proper M version but then, the Z4M is already a fat heavy thing in comparison to most enjoyable sports cars.

[TW]Fox · 15 Feb 2016 at 18:14

badgeruk said:
Very nice, would love one of these if they only did an M version

The SDrive 35iS has exactly the same engine as the 1M Coupe if that helps.

mbmbmb · 15 Feb 2016 at 18:25

DRZ said:
A quick follow-up pic of the Z4 - I'll probably wait until someone better with a camera takes some before I post up a "full set"

Did they change the grill? As I thought silver was an iS only part?

DRZ · 15 Feb 2016 at 18:35

hurfdurf said:
Far more of a GT than sports car according to what I have read, its a shame they didn't do a proper M version but then, the Z4M is already a fat heavy thing in comparison to most enjoyable sports cars.

The usual internet opinions and so on - they handle absolutely fine all things considered, especially if you're used to the layout.

I'd say it has significant handling advantages over a stock mk2 MX-5 and after I did all the suspension work to mine (horizontal wishbones, adjustable dampers, geo set-up "just right" etc), I reckon the MX-5 marginally edges it due to the massive weight advantage the MX-5 had.

Hope that comparison helps you place where it is on the "sports car or not" spectrum.

As for M car or not, sure people will always want to feel like they are in the halo model but I'm sat here after having owned a fair few fairly high performance machines and I honestly think somewhere between 300-400bhp is the sweet spot, depending on car/weight/gearbox and how the engine makes the torque. More than that is nuts on the road, you can't seriously expect to use that power to any great extent without risking prison or death. I don't doubt that the M division could have made an E89 Z4M into a handling car rather than chasing after high power but obviously beyond the iS they didn't think it was worth it.

For those saying Boxster - if only a) I could get past the looks and b) I could afford a PDK version I might have gone Boxster/Cayman. I wanted to like the Cayman S, I really did but I just couldn't do it. I've never liked the Porsche looks and unless they do something completely different I don't think I ever will.