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GRA Weapon of the Week - gary's Ride January
15, 2007 |
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unrated, unedited
by gary
lee 
click me
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The
E36 is an OOOLLLDD CAR, first launched in 1990. That’s a whole
16 years ago. At that time, designed by Hans Luthe, the E36
was the most radical design direction for BMW, and was almost
rejected by the BMW board. It also signaled a departure from
the familiar 4 separate headlight design, incorporating everything
into 2 headlight "pods", a design used by all BMW's
today. Hans Luthe, unlike bangle, was obsessed with creating
a 'timeless' design. I suppose to a certain extent, he achieved
what he set out to do.
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2.8
litre M52 6 cyl.
makes about 193hp, and 280nm of torque at around 2700rpm i think.
Its an all alloy block, Vanos. avg fuel consumption, 8-10 liters
per 100km urban. 11-12 liters per 100km on highway.
manufacturers figures:
0-100km/h = 7.3secs(auto), top speed= 240km/h(auto)
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Right
Picture:
Engine is set way back in the engine bay, behind the front wheels,
keeping as much weight as central as possible. This helps
contribute to the 50/50 weight distribution. Driver
practically sits next to the gearbox. Power delivery is
silky smooth as expected of BMW 6 cyl engines. Driving with
the windows down, in 2nd, at 6000rpm, you can't even hear, or feel
the engine at all.
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It's
everything you would expect from a German car. The interior is all
black, although they came with white, gray and even tan leather in
Europe
.
Driving
wise, its pretty nimble although it doesn't feel that way and has
very direct steering that gives lots of feedback. Overall,
the car feels heavy, and solid because it "is" heavy and
really builds up a lot of momentum on the move. The steering
feels heavy, and the brake and accelerator pedal have quite a long
throw, totally opposite from how Japanese cars feel. All
this of course translates to very good highway behavior.
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Best
of all, the car has lots of grip and compliance on B roads. It
also gives the driver a lot of confidence, which explains why so
many people who own these cars drive at crazy speeds, even during
the rain (not a good idea). In the rain, this car is over-steer on
demand, but traction control quickly puts a stop to it (you can
switch is off 100% if you want)
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I
think that's what interesting about the E36, the design ages
well. still looks pretty modern even today.
Also, the car is still technologically advanced even by
today's standards although it was first designed in 1987 and
launched in 1990.
if
you look at the hole next to the fog light, it is actually a
working brake cooling duct. it channels air straight
to the front caliper and rotor.
Rear
legroom isn't bad, but its not great. Also, being rear wheel
drive, the huge transmission tunnel really eats into the
space. 3 series always had space problems and only
solved with the bigger E90 today. The e46 was only very
slightly bigger than the E36.
E36
was sold between 1990 till 1998. 8years, and become the top
selling car for BMW ever. The E46 was sold between
1998 till 2005 before being replaced by the E90. So we
can see, that BMW 3 series has quite a long product life
cycle, 7-8 years. In comparison, Japanese cars usually
last around 5 years.
the car isn't so low anymore as seen in the pictures. I've
raised the height.. coz I was scraping too many speed bumps,
and get super nervous when going down underground parking
lots. In the picture, it was running bilstein
springs and dampers. Right now, I'm running on
standard 328 springs, but still on bilsteins. -end-
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BBS
is not so common, but very popular because its
light.. the OEM spec BBS for BMW is common.
The most common design on the market is the ACS (schnitzer)
look, half of which are usually replicas.
btw, the RX like what I'm using is still available
brand new from BBS, at a very "reasonable"
price of RM8,000 for a set of 4.
They are only very hard to come by if you are
looking for 2nd hand at a more affordable price..
and in good condition. Even then, the RX design is
pretty rare.
BBS
RX, with free advertisement for BF Goodrich. I
have the BMW rim caps on, coz the original BBS ones
are missing. Need to buy new ones.
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