In reply to OHSCrifle :
I sure have. It's on the list. Although when I was looking last year, I couldn't find a slicktop headliner to save my life! Which, a slicktop headliner isn't an absolute necessity, but it would eliminate the "dips" from the moonroof headliner, allowing for a bit more headroom without me bashing things with a hammer. Technically I fit right now with a helmet, but it's close and more headroom is never a bad thing.
Although after a fiasco the other day, I'm on the fence about how far I really want to take the car with track mods. I'm not sure if I'm interested in making a pointy end car, or if I would rather just have a car I can run in the occasional event or open lapping day, while still remaining streetable.
I spent about ~11 hours driving from the Denver metro area to Grand Junction and back the other day. We took the BMW, partially because mountain roads in a RWD car are fun and partially because of a fear of summer hail damage (the BMW is sadly the least shiny/most disposable car I currently own). Talk about a long, white knuckle drive there and back. We were supposed to be there for a multi-day event. It didn't work out. While driving up, we hit a torrential downpour that made visibility so poor, I almost had to pull over to the side of the road. The drive up (and back) took far longer than it should have.
When we arrived, the area had just taken a massive hail storm beating (which we somehow avoided). We waited in line (technically in the car) for hours and all of the staff at the event were ordered to shelter in place. The winds were so high that I wouldn't have wanted to be outside anyway. We eventually just left... we had a hotel room in the area, but when we checked the weather, it called for a flood warning early the next morning. FML. So, we decided we would just drive back home before the flooding started, to avoid getting stuck and unable to get back home...
Most of the way back it was raining, on unlit mountain roads in the middle of the night. I spent most of that drive wishing I had brought the AWD Mazda with its amazing LED headlights lol.
I had a lot of time to think about a few things and found many deficiencies in my 128i:
-The stock, 16 year old halogen headlights that are badly clouded were absolutely horrific on unlit roads in the rain in the middle of the night. I think I might have had better luck holding a flashlight out of the window while driving, or taping an 18th century lantern to the front of the car... with no rain, they were just fine, but with the rain and cloud cover, it was painful. The last time I had my vision checked (last year), my vision was slightly "better than perfect" (20/15 I believe), but that didn't seem to matter, as I could hardly see the lines in the road that night with the rain pouring down. Both my Mazda and my S2000 have wonderful headlights, but I just had to take the BMW... mistakes were made. This old girl could use some new headlights if I'm going to keep driving her on the street late at night.
-My stock suspension is pretty much shot. When I got back, I could pretty much compress the front left side of the car by hand. Going from the stiff sidewall run-flats to these Continentals really just made it more apparent. Around down, it's just fine, it's a little floppy/sloppy/floaty, but this is the first time I've been on an extended freeway trip in the BMW, averaging 70-80mph. Up to about 65-70mph, it's just fine. Beyond that (even on dry pavement), it felt floaty and disconcerting. Not so much during higher speed steady-state cornering, but during higher speed transitions (lane changes, switch backs, etc), the car felt floppy- taking a second or 2 to regain it's composure.
The stiffer sidewall tires were really masking how rolly the car actually feels. And that's even after I did the math (using the same GVWR vs tire load index as OEM's use) to properly set the cold tire pressure. I felt like they started to feel a bit stiffer towards the end of our trip, so maybe there was a bit of a break-in needed for the tires? But, it really highlighted a deficiency in the worn out OEM suspension. The car currently has 137k miles on it, but who knows if the OEM suspension has been on the whole time- given that the car came with aftermarket rear toe arms, despite me measuring the rear subframe and it appearing to be square and the toe arms having essentially the same length as stock arms, which leads me to believe it was likely lowered by the previous owner at some point. Discussed here: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/lets-talk-aftermarketoem-replica-subframes/257950/page1/
This long, painful experience reminded me of how much I grew tired of driving stiffly sprung cars across the state to compete in events regularly. I'm not sure I want to go back to that. Whereas just being able to run a fun event or 2 every once and a while sounds more appealing at this point.
I was planning on spending ~$3000 on a set of Ohlins, but after paying off the Mazda and spending cash on a few other things, that's a tough pill to swallow right about now. Given my recent suspension discoveries, I'm considering spending ~$1000 on a set of Bilstein B12's or something similar, to tighten up the suspension while still keeping the car streetable. If I get the competition bug later on, I can always swap them out for something more track focused. I'm also considering trying a cheap set of Whiteline rear subframe bushing inserts ($50), which are easy to install (much easier than full replacements) and might help take away some of the floaty feeling I'm not so fond of. Down the line, if they're not enough, I was looking pretty hard at a set of Rev Shift full aluminum "bushings", but that requires a full subframe removal...
It would mean I could end up throwing money away at parts I decide to upgrade even more down the line, but I'm considering a softer, cheaper setup that I can pick up right now... and if it's not enough next year, well, it is what it is.
