....the "other" 1M
Discussion
Well it was bound to happen sooner or later, my wife clipped the front offside wheel of my car and although the damage wasn't too bad (see below) it was still annoying me.
I'd also had a few chips taken out of the rear wheels as well, I think from when I drove it along a newly surfaced road and a few bits of rock / tarmac flicked up and hit the wheels. So I thought it was time to get them repaired.
You would not believe the problems I had trying to find someone to repair the wheels. Most places wanted me to send the wheels to them, which is very difficult as I needed three repaired. I also didn't want to leave the car anywhere as I needed it over Christmas.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I remembered in Evo Magazine that they used a company called Revive (http://www.revive-uk.com) to repair the wheels on their 1M long termer. So I called them up, gave the guy the details of my wheels and booked the car in. He had to order a special matt lacquer and of course the correct paint, but none of this was a problem.
The work took about 3 hours and involved the Revive guy filing down the damage, filling it with some form of filler, spraying over the area with the wheel colour and then applying the lacquer on top.
I will get some photos, but they just look like my wheels I've posted previously in this thread, they're perfect. The finish is incredible and you cannot see the area which has been repaired. Why oh why did so many firms refuse to do a mobile repair on my wheels is beyond me and I would 100% recommend Revive to anyone on here (they're national).
Happy days
I'd also had a few chips taken out of the rear wheels as well, I think from when I drove it along a newly surfaced road and a few bits of rock / tarmac flicked up and hit the wheels. So I thought it was time to get them repaired.
You would not believe the problems I had trying to find someone to repair the wheels. Most places wanted me to send the wheels to them, which is very difficult as I needed three repaired. I also didn't want to leave the car anywhere as I needed it over Christmas.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I remembered in Evo Magazine that they used a company called Revive (http://www.revive-uk.com) to repair the wheels on their 1M long termer. So I called them up, gave the guy the details of my wheels and booked the car in. He had to order a special matt lacquer and of course the correct paint, but none of this was a problem.
The work took about 3 hours and involved the Revive guy filing down the damage, filling it with some form of filler, spraying over the area with the wheel colour and then applying the lacquer on top.
I will get some photos, but they just look like my wheels I've posted previously in this thread, they're perfect. The finish is incredible and you cannot see the area which has been repaired. Why oh why did so many firms refuse to do a mobile repair on my wheels is beyond me and I would 100% recommend Revive to anyone on here (they're national).
Happy days
Seeing as this edition of the magazine went out of print last October, I thought I'd upload my review.
If anyone from BMW Car Magazine wants me to take this down, please say
For anyone struggling to read the text, if you right click on the image, copy the link and paste it into a new window, it'll give you the full screen image that is much easier to read.
If anyone from BMW Car Magazine wants me to take this down, please say
For anyone struggling to read the text, if you right click on the image, copy the link and paste it into a new window, it'll give you the full screen image that is much easier to read.
I thought I should probably post up a quick ownership update with the 1M.
I've now covered just under 11,000 miles and am still having a lot of fun with the car. Although it's been a long winter, the 1M continues to put a smile on my face. Most of it's use recently has been driving to the local station to get to work and ferrying the family about. We also moved house last month and I used it quite a bit to take rubbish to the dump (don't worry, everything was wrapped so no mess was left).
This general use has proven to me that the 1M is quite practical when you need it to be. Sure it's not going to have the capacity of a hatch-back, but it's surprising how much you can get in it when the seats are down.
Anyway, hopefully with the warmer months ahead of us, the clocks changing and hopefully some better weather, the 1M will start getting used a bit more for pleasure rather than being a work-horse.
To start with, I'm going to make a real effort to get along to some track-days this year. I only managed Brands last year and with the house move and work going on, just ran out of time and money to do anything after that.
In preparation for some track-days, I've decided to swap my brake pads over to something with a bit more bite. After reading various reviews, I've decided to add some Ferodo DS2500 pads to the front and rear. At the same time I'm going to have the brake fluid flushed and changed to something like the ATP (or ATE, I can't remember the exact name) that Ray West at Thruxton has recommended. Finally Ray is going to carry out some geometry changes to the car to set it up for "fast road use / occasional track work". A fellow 1M owner has already had this work done and mentioned that the rear end of the car feels more planted under full load with less nannying from the traction control.
The work is booked in for the 3rd May (the next available time I have off work), so I'll post up more when I've had it done.
For the meantime, I'll just have to look at my new pads haha!
I've now covered just under 11,000 miles and am still having a lot of fun with the car. Although it's been a long winter, the 1M continues to put a smile on my face. Most of it's use recently has been driving to the local station to get to work and ferrying the family about. We also moved house last month and I used it quite a bit to take rubbish to the dump (don't worry, everything was wrapped so no mess was left).
This general use has proven to me that the 1M is quite practical when you need it to be. Sure it's not going to have the capacity of a hatch-back, but it's surprising how much you can get in it when the seats are down.
Anyway, hopefully with the warmer months ahead of us, the clocks changing and hopefully some better weather, the 1M will start getting used a bit more for pleasure rather than being a work-horse.
To start with, I'm going to make a real effort to get along to some track-days this year. I only managed Brands last year and with the house move and work going on, just ran out of time and money to do anything after that.
In preparation for some track-days, I've decided to swap my brake pads over to something with a bit more bite. After reading various reviews, I've decided to add some Ferodo DS2500 pads to the front and rear. At the same time I'm going to have the brake fluid flushed and changed to something like the ATP (or ATE, I can't remember the exact name) that Ray West at Thruxton has recommended. Finally Ray is going to carry out some geometry changes to the car to set it up for "fast road use / occasional track work". A fellow 1M owner has already had this work done and mentioned that the rear end of the car feels more planted under full load with less nannying from the traction control.
The work is booked in for the 3rd May (the next available time I have off work), so I'll post up more when I've had it done.
For the meantime, I'll just have to look at my new pads haha!
I finally got around to driving down to see Ray West last Friday to have a few more bits done to the 1M. Ray kindly fitted my Ferodo DS2500 brake pads along with changing the brake fluid for something more “track” focussed. He also carried out his “fast road” geometry changes.
The results are quite profound. Firstly it’s fair to say that at the moment, the brakes don’t feel as sharp on the initial application, but as you depress the pedal, they are much more progressive. Ray did say that I’d probably need a good 500 miles to really bed them in. However, after a few hard braking applications on some empty roads over the weekend, they certainly feel a lot stronger. I couldn’t get the ABS to come on and you can feel the speed scrubbing off the car very quickly.
The geometry changes were also worth doing. The car now feels much more positive on turn in and just grips and grips. The other change that I’ve noticed is that the traction control doesn’t activate as much now, although Ray did want to reset the traction control settings as he thought it was still coming on more than expected. Unfortunately we couldn’t get it reset, so I’ll have to do that locally then pop back to Ray to refine. Having said that, it feels so much better than before and I can’t wait to get it on track.
Ray also had quite a few nice cars sitting outside, so I had a good look around them as they worked on my car
The results are quite profound. Firstly it’s fair to say that at the moment, the brakes don’t feel as sharp on the initial application, but as you depress the pedal, they are much more progressive. Ray did say that I’d probably need a good 500 miles to really bed them in. However, after a few hard braking applications on some empty roads over the weekend, they certainly feel a lot stronger. I couldn’t get the ABS to come on and you can feel the speed scrubbing off the car very quickly.
The geometry changes were also worth doing. The car now feels much more positive on turn in and just grips and grips. The other change that I’ve noticed is that the traction control doesn’t activate as much now, although Ray did want to reset the traction control settings as he thought it was still coming on more than expected. Unfortunately we couldn’t get it reset, so I’ll have to do that locally then pop back to Ray to refine. Having said that, it feels so much better than before and I can’t wait to get it on track.
Ray also had quite a few nice cars sitting outside, so I had a good look around them as they worked on my car
ChrisBuer said:
I finally got around to driving down to see Ray West last Friday to have a few more bits done to the 1M. Ray kindly fitted my Ferodo DS2500 brake pads along with changing the brake fluid for something more “track” focussed. He also carried out his “fast road” geometry changes.
The results are quite profound. Firstly it’s fair to say that at the moment, the brakes don’t feel as sharp on the initial application, but as you depress the pedal, they are much more progressive. Ray did say that I’d probably need a good 500 miles to really bed them in. However, after a few hard braking applications on some empty roads over the weekend, they certainly feel a lot stronger. I couldn’t get the ABS to come on and you can feel the speed scrubbing off the car very quickly.
The geometry changes were also worth doing. The car now feels much more positive on turn in and just grips and grips. The other change that I’ve noticed is that the traction control doesn’t activate as much now, although Ray did want to reset the traction control settings as he thought it was still coming on more than expected. Unfortunately we couldn’t get it reset, so I’ll have to do that locally then pop back to Ray to refine. Having said that, it feels so much better than before and I can’t wait to get it on track.
Ray also had quite a few nice cars sitting outside, so I had a good look around them as they worked on my car
Everything about this is the dogs bThe results are quite profound. Firstly it’s fair to say that at the moment, the brakes don’t feel as sharp on the initial application, but as you depress the pedal, they are much more progressive. Ray did say that I’d probably need a good 500 miles to really bed them in. However, after a few hard braking applications on some empty roads over the weekend, they certainly feel a lot stronger. I couldn’t get the ABS to come on and you can feel the speed scrubbing off the car very quickly.
The geometry changes were also worth doing. The car now feels much more positive on turn in and just grips and grips. The other change that I’ve noticed is that the traction control doesn’t activate as much now, although Ray did want to reset the traction control settings as he thought it was still coming on more than expected. Unfortunately we couldn’t get it reset, so I’ll have to do that locally then pop back to Ray to refine. Having said that, it feels so much better than before and I can’t wait to get it on track.
Ray also had quite a few nice cars sitting outside, so I had a good look around them as they worked on my car
ks 
Well I ended up selling this car and have now moved back to Lotus again. As an all-rounder the 1M was superb, but as I now have space at home for a second car, I've decided to get something a little less practical in the Lotus and a cheap little run-about to leave at the station car park every day.
The 1M was superb. It might be gone but it'll never be forgotten!
The 1M was superb. It might be gone but it'll never be forgotten!
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff