Just bought an M6 Gran Coupe
Discussion
bmw507 said:
cerb4.5lee said:
It’s the San Marino Blue with Silverstone leather!!!Not long until Monday evening pics
Stever said:
I took two petrolhead mates to the NEC last weekend and they were both amazed at how mine dispatched the miles so effortlessly and in great comfort.
As a GT it is truly excellent
100%As a GT it is truly excellent
I think its the surfeit of power that just makes journeys so effortless.
(With the added bonus of it doing the best impression of a sports car of anything big/comfortable that I've ever driven)
bmw507 said:
Hi Guys,
Purchased my BMW M6 Gran Coupe yesterday, as it was brought from a private seller their is no warranty.
The car is on a 16 plate, can anybody recommend any warranty companies? I have been quoted £1800 per year from BMW insured warranties.
Thats probably about right if it had no warranty. When you extend or have an existing warranty its much cheaper. Purchased my BMW M6 Gran Coupe yesterday, as it was brought from a private seller their is no warranty.
The car is on a 16 plate, can anybody recommend any warranty companies? I have been quoted £1800 per year from BMW insured warranties.
Finally got my winter wheels and tyres on the car!
What an epic task it was!! (apologies for the long winded post, but thought it might help others considering doing similar)
I’m in the position where I now have to do some regular big journeys in the M6GC, and these journeys are essential (and not journeys that could be put off/postponed if the weather was inclement), so winter tyres are essential here in the West Highlands of Scotland.
I considered downsizing to 19”s but I wasn’t entirely sure whether they’d fit over the M brakes and didn’t want to take the risk, so I stuck with 20”s in the factory-issue 265/35/20 and 295/30/20 sizes.
The first struggle was finding decent winter tyres (with good reviews) in the appropriate sizes – not easy. Especially hard to find matching tyres in the different (front to rear) sizes.
Finally found Continental Conti Winter Contact TS 860 S on Camskill (£618.60 for 2x rears, £470.50 for the 2xfronts).
The next bit was buying the wheels (as I’ll be swapping back onto summers in spring, and then back again next winter, so a second set of wheels made sense.)
I initially ordered Vossen VFS-1 from https://www.wheelbasealloys.com/ for £2,744 but shortly after placing the order (which said they were in stock) I got an email saying they were out of stock and would take months to come in ).
So I opted for ISPIRI FFR1 instead, again from Wheelbase for £1,494 (quite a bit cheaper than the Vossen and equally as nice IMHO)
Wheelbase alloys were very good to deal with, and their orders have a fitment guarantee….but if you read the small print, you have to test fit them to your vehicle BEFORE putting the tyres on. Not ideal, as you’ll only properly be able to check wheel/tyre fitment (1) with tyres in place and (2) the ability to turn the steering to check lock-to-lock.
Next hurdle – TMPS valves. Each wheel on the M6GC has its individual TMPS valve with its own code that send pressure and temperature information to the car’s computer. Without this functionality, the vehicle would fail an MOT. I also really like the ability to know your tyre temperatures on a vehicle as powerful as the M6 GC.
As I’d be swapping wheels on and off, it would be a nightmare having to reconfigure the computer every 6 months, so I needed to get my existing valves ‘cloned’. Fortunately, Kwik Fit offer such a service (https://www.kwik-fit.com/tyres/information/tpms), but charge heftily for the privilege at £271.84.
As is the norm these days, very few tyre garages will fit customers own supplied tyres (even brand new with labels on), and this included the Kwik Fit branch who were supplying the valves, but wouldn’t fit the tyres for me.
I was happy to pay whatever the cost was for their time and resources, but most garages flat refuse these days (even though this particular job is technically easier than a normal tyre change job, as there was no stripping or disposal of any old tyres). Anyway, managed to find a local indy that was up for doing it.
So after getting the tyres, wheels & valves assembled and fitted to the car, on getting home I noticed things didn’t look quite right, and upon further examination I spotted they’d fitted the two wider rear wheels on one side of the car (and the two narrower fronts on the other side).
Weirdly, despite this they’d somehow managed to get the tyres correct (265 on the front, 295 on the rear).
So had to go back to the tyre place, and the guy’s response was that ‘no-one told him the fronts and rears wheels were different sizes’ (the boxes had the sizes on them, and even the boxes themselves were slightly different sizes). I asked him how he’d managed to get the tyres in the right places, and he said it was luck!!
I think his reaction was more out of embarrassment, as he’s a good guy otherwise, and he sorted it fairly quickly (although not an easy task, as the position-specific valves also had to be swapped over. What a ball-ache).
Anyway, all's well that ends well, and there was another bonus still to come:
Interestingly, the new wheels are actually quite a bit lighter than the standard wheels, saving an impressive 11.8Kg in total.
The full wheel/tyre assembly of the standard (433M wheels) as weighed is:
Front 27.3Kg
Rear 28.5Kg
The new wheels/tyres are:
Front 23.9Kg
Rear 26Kg
So, in summary, it was an epic journey but well worth it, as the day after they were fitted, this happened - actual snow!!
What an epic task it was!! (apologies for the long winded post, but thought it might help others considering doing similar)
I’m in the position where I now have to do some regular big journeys in the M6GC, and these journeys are essential (and not journeys that could be put off/postponed if the weather was inclement), so winter tyres are essential here in the West Highlands of Scotland.
I considered downsizing to 19”s but I wasn’t entirely sure whether they’d fit over the M brakes and didn’t want to take the risk, so I stuck with 20”s in the factory-issue 265/35/20 and 295/30/20 sizes.
The first struggle was finding decent winter tyres (with good reviews) in the appropriate sizes – not easy. Especially hard to find matching tyres in the different (front to rear) sizes.
Finally found Continental Conti Winter Contact TS 860 S on Camskill (£618.60 for 2x rears, £470.50 for the 2xfronts).
The next bit was buying the wheels (as I’ll be swapping back onto summers in spring, and then back again next winter, so a second set of wheels made sense.)
I initially ordered Vossen VFS-1 from https://www.wheelbasealloys.com/ for £2,744 but shortly after placing the order (which said they were in stock) I got an email saying they were out of stock and would take months to come in ).
So I opted for ISPIRI FFR1 instead, again from Wheelbase for £1,494 (quite a bit cheaper than the Vossen and equally as nice IMHO)
Wheelbase alloys were very good to deal with, and their orders have a fitment guarantee….but if you read the small print, you have to test fit them to your vehicle BEFORE putting the tyres on. Not ideal, as you’ll only properly be able to check wheel/tyre fitment (1) with tyres in place and (2) the ability to turn the steering to check lock-to-lock.
Next hurdle – TMPS valves. Each wheel on the M6GC has its individual TMPS valve with its own code that send pressure and temperature information to the car’s computer. Without this functionality, the vehicle would fail an MOT. I also really like the ability to know your tyre temperatures on a vehicle as powerful as the M6 GC.
As I’d be swapping wheels on and off, it would be a nightmare having to reconfigure the computer every 6 months, so I needed to get my existing valves ‘cloned’. Fortunately, Kwik Fit offer such a service (https://www.kwik-fit.com/tyres/information/tpms), but charge heftily for the privilege at £271.84.
As is the norm these days, very few tyre garages will fit customers own supplied tyres (even brand new with labels on), and this included the Kwik Fit branch who were supplying the valves, but wouldn’t fit the tyres for me.
I was happy to pay whatever the cost was for their time and resources, but most garages flat refuse these days (even though this particular job is technically easier than a normal tyre change job, as there was no stripping or disposal of any old tyres). Anyway, managed to find a local indy that was up for doing it.
So after getting the tyres, wheels & valves assembled and fitted to the car, on getting home I noticed things didn’t look quite right, and upon further examination I spotted they’d fitted the two wider rear wheels on one side of the car (and the two narrower fronts on the other side).
Weirdly, despite this they’d somehow managed to get the tyres correct (265 on the front, 295 on the rear).
So had to go back to the tyre place, and the guy’s response was that ‘no-one told him the fronts and rears wheels were different sizes’ (the boxes had the sizes on them, and even the boxes themselves were slightly different sizes). I asked him how he’d managed to get the tyres in the right places, and he said it was luck!!
I think his reaction was more out of embarrassment, as he’s a good guy otherwise, and he sorted it fairly quickly (although not an easy task, as the position-specific valves also had to be swapped over. What a ball-ache).
Anyway, all's well that ends well, and there was another bonus still to come:
Interestingly, the new wheels are actually quite a bit lighter than the standard wheels, saving an impressive 11.8Kg in total.
The full wheel/tyre assembly of the standard (433M wheels) as weighed is:
Front 27.3Kg
Rear 28.5Kg
The new wheels/tyres are:
Front 23.9Kg
Rear 26Kg
So, in summary, it was an epic journey but well worth it, as the day after they were fitted, this happened - actual snow!!
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