MDifficult’s E82 1M Coupe & Ariel Atom 3
Discussion
bencollins4 said:
Looks like fun! Should imagine you would have to drive the Z3M fairly hard to keep up with you in the 1M!
Cheers, it certainly was - absolutely glorious morning!To be honest, neither of us is daft enough to drive these anywhere close to their limits on the roads. We like to ‘make progress’ but well within the bounds of what’s sensible. Despite the lack of other people at that time of the morning, we still came across a deer and even a lamb wandering around on the roads. I’ve no interest in hurting myself, someone else, the car, or (God forbid!) a baby lamb
That said, the delta’s not nearly as much as you might think between the two when you press on. MrTouring’s Z3M is plenty quick, plus it’s absolutely tiny. The real edge I have is the instant torque for any overtakes, but otherwise they’re a great match for each other. His edge is the noise - his new exhaust is epic. I did 90% of those miles with the window down listening to the two straight sixes
Another awesome set of photos from what I have no doubt was an entertaining morning!
It’s great getting out with like minded people with some lovely motors, going out for a drive in convoy or a group is always fun and you don’t even need to go flat out to enjoy it either. As you said the odd occasion where the loud pedal is needed for overtakes etc is great but certainly not required 50% of the time .
Every time I see your cars it makes me want them lol.. my M fleet dream unfortunately is getting further and further away as prices are rocketing up for all of them just lately! Glad I managed to get into my E92 when I did..
It’s great getting out with like minded people with some lovely motors, going out for a drive in convoy or a group is always fun and you don’t even need to go flat out to enjoy it either. As you said the odd occasion where the loud pedal is needed for overtakes etc is great but certainly not required 50% of the time .
Every time I see your cars it makes me want them lol.. my M fleet dream unfortunately is getting further and further away as prices are rocketing up for all of them just lately! Glad I managed to get into my E92 when I did..
MrTouring said:
bencollins4 said:
Looks like fun! Should imagine you would have to drive the Z3M fairly hard to keep up with you in the 1M!
Is there another way to drive lol! We also found the clownshoe’s natural habitat!
I agree with MDifficult - the 1M isn't really a car to be driven flat-out on a public road. Not too often any way 😂.
Enjoy your cars chaps - peak 'M' for me!
There's rare, and then there's really, REALLY rare
Spent yesterday afternoon down at C&M during national 'bring your Valencia Orange 1M to the pub day'. Unbelievably there was actually a fourth VO car in the carpark but he left before we could get this photo figured out - we had to wait for a few folk to leave before there were enough consecutive spaces to get these shots together.
There was a lot of commonality in the owners, with everyone having purchased their car in the last 18 months. In fact, we discovered that two of the owners had both been trying to buy the same car at one point last year. Also, one of the guys had sold his GP2 to buy this, which is a pretty uncanny coincidence
Lots of other amazing cars to look at yesterday, but I'll leave the pictures to the photographers of Instagram who'll have done a far better job than I ever could. Personal highlight was a Bandit-spec Trans-Am with the owner resplendent in blue jeans, red shirt, cowboy hat and moustache - absolutely bloody brilliant. Honourable mention for the chap in the blue Ferrari 360 who was letting kids get in and rev the engine - pretty sure that would have made my whole year as an 8 year old.
Spent yesterday afternoon down at C&M during national 'bring your Valencia Orange 1M to the pub day'. Unbelievably there was actually a fourth VO car in the carpark but he left before we could get this photo figured out - we had to wait for a few folk to leave before there were enough consecutive spaces to get these shots together.
There was a lot of commonality in the owners, with everyone having purchased their car in the last 18 months. In fact, we discovered that two of the owners had both been trying to buy the same car at one point last year. Also, one of the guys had sold his GP2 to buy this, which is a pretty uncanny coincidence
Lots of other amazing cars to look at yesterday, but I'll leave the pictures to the photographers of Instagram who'll have done a far better job than I ever could. Personal highlight was a Bandit-spec Trans-Am with the owner resplendent in blue jeans, red shirt, cowboy hat and moustache - absolutely bloody brilliant. Honourable mention for the chap in the blue Ferrari 360 who was letting kids get in and rev the engine - pretty sure that would have made my whole year as an 8 year old.
Back to the idiot-mobile!
When I bought YAY, one of its charming 'original features' was a honking great dent just behind the passenger door. I swore to myself it didn't matter. It's a track car - dents aren't important.
But... I just couldn't live with it. It had to go, so I made a call to a local guy Marcthedentman.com and he said he'd give it his best shot but due to the location, there was a good chance there's be some residual creasing. That's better than a dent so he got to work and the result is...
....well I'll be b@ggered if I can see any residual issues - looks flawless!
With the lack of interior making things easier, Marc kindly sorted out a small trolly dent into the bargain. Top guy, really friendly and highly-recommended.
When I bought YAY, one of its charming 'original features' was a honking great dent just behind the passenger door. I swore to myself it didn't matter. It's a track car - dents aren't important.
But... I just couldn't live with it. It had to go, so I made a call to a local guy Marcthedentman.com and he said he'd give it his best shot but due to the location, there was a good chance there's be some residual creasing. That's better than a dent so he got to work and the result is...
....well I'll be b@ggered if I can see any residual issues - looks flawless!
With the lack of interior making things easier, Marc kindly sorted out a small trolly dent into the bargain. Top guy, really friendly and highly-recommended.
Seriously, I have no idea how these people with big car collections do it. Don't get me wrong, having three cars is a proper self-inflicted first-world-problem but sometimes it can be real work.
This time, it's back to the M5. The two year brake fluid change bonged up the other week so it was time to book it in with BMW. Checking online I realised that they were hawking for business by offering a 20% discount on servicing so, with only 1,500 or so miles until the oil service, decided to book it in for the lot.
(Not looking too bad for 86,000 miles eh?)
Took the car down to BMW this morning and with my @rsehole doing the usual pre-scan-pucker, gingerly handed over the key to be scanned. The result...
Brake Fluid
Major Oil Service
Diff Oil Service
Vehicle Inspection
Oooooffff. 20% discount or not, it's gonna be another wallet-lightener.
On the plus side, the hire car was at least something nice - brand spanking new 320d Touring. Very, very nice on the outside:
...and the inside makes my M5 feel like something from the dark ages!..
Mechanically, it felt like a fantastic thing to drive. I can see why people say a 320d Touring is all the car you'd ever really need. Quiet, comfortable, quick enough, smooth, spacious, economical and the iDrive/Dash/Nav is, on the face of it, bloody brilliant.
That said though, couple of things I didn't like..
- If it's a screen, why can't I have the option of some dials. Round dials. The two semi-circular curves for Revs and Speed are really stupidly hard to read with half an eye. You have to really LOOK which seems totally stupid.
- Why is everything all over the place? Speed over here, speed limit over there, clock here, temp over there, gear down there, it's like someone loaded all the things you need into a shotgun and just fired them into the screen. It's a bloody mess.
- I was interested to know how many miles the car had done as it seemed brand new. Could I find an odometer? Could I f*ck. How can there not be an odometer on the bloody dash??
- There's lots of useful energy-saving info on the dash, like it tells you that there's a roundabout coming up so it might be good to lift off the gas. It suggests gears. It shows you how much fuel you're using (or saving) versus the average. And more. And more. But seriously if you're looking down at all that it's no wonder the damn thing needs auto-brakes to stop you crashing into the car in front.
- A number of the buttons for iDrive have changed from proper buttons to haptic ones. Really don't know why because it feels cheap. Cheap, cheap cheap. One of the best features of BMWs is that they've got the good sense to keep proper buttons almost everywhere else, so why do this?
But there's cool stuff too. Put it in eco and the entire UI of the car takes on a nice blue hint. Put it in sport and everything gets a little more red. Looks amazing, super-slick, but does mean everyone in the car is totally clear on when you're taking it easy and when you're preparing to clog it!
Only had it for the day... but can heartily recommend. Great car.
As for the M5... thankfully the service team didn't find anything in addition to the long list of standard service items - so I bent over, lubed up, and took it like a man. Fingers crossed that's it for another two years
Epilogue
Get home from picking up the car. Oh, what's that on the doormat? Oh good - my multi-car insurance renewal...
"Motherf&cker!!"
This time, it's back to the M5. The two year brake fluid change bonged up the other week so it was time to book it in with BMW. Checking online I realised that they were hawking for business by offering a 20% discount on servicing so, with only 1,500 or so miles until the oil service, decided to book it in for the lot.
(Not looking too bad for 86,000 miles eh?)
Took the car down to BMW this morning and with my @rsehole doing the usual pre-scan-pucker, gingerly handed over the key to be scanned. The result...
Brake Fluid
Major Oil Service
Diff Oil Service
Vehicle Inspection
Oooooffff. 20% discount or not, it's gonna be another wallet-lightener.
On the plus side, the hire car was at least something nice - brand spanking new 320d Touring. Very, very nice on the outside:
...and the inside makes my M5 feel like something from the dark ages!..
Mechanically, it felt like a fantastic thing to drive. I can see why people say a 320d Touring is all the car you'd ever really need. Quiet, comfortable, quick enough, smooth, spacious, economical and the iDrive/Dash/Nav is, on the face of it, bloody brilliant.
That said though, couple of things I didn't like..
- If it's a screen, why can't I have the option of some dials. Round dials. The two semi-circular curves for Revs and Speed are really stupidly hard to read with half an eye. You have to really LOOK which seems totally stupid.
- Why is everything all over the place? Speed over here, speed limit over there, clock here, temp over there, gear down there, it's like someone loaded all the things you need into a shotgun and just fired them into the screen. It's a bloody mess.
- I was interested to know how many miles the car had done as it seemed brand new. Could I find an odometer? Could I f*ck. How can there not be an odometer on the bloody dash??
- There's lots of useful energy-saving info on the dash, like it tells you that there's a roundabout coming up so it might be good to lift off the gas. It suggests gears. It shows you how much fuel you're using (or saving) versus the average. And more. And more. But seriously if you're looking down at all that it's no wonder the damn thing needs auto-brakes to stop you crashing into the car in front.
- A number of the buttons for iDrive have changed from proper buttons to haptic ones. Really don't know why because it feels cheap. Cheap, cheap cheap. One of the best features of BMWs is that they've got the good sense to keep proper buttons almost everywhere else, so why do this?
But there's cool stuff too. Put it in eco and the entire UI of the car takes on a nice blue hint. Put it in sport and everything gets a little more red. Looks amazing, super-slick, but does mean everyone in the car is totally clear on when you're taking it easy and when you're preparing to clog it!
Only had it for the day... but can heartily recommend. Great car.
As for the M5... thankfully the service team didn't find anything in addition to the long list of standard service items - so I bent over, lubed up, and took it like a man. Fingers crossed that's it for another two years
Epilogue
Get home from picking up the car. Oh, what's that on the doormat? Oh good - my multi-car insurance renewal...
"Motherf&cker!!"
outnumbered said:
I've got an oil service due on the CSL soon, so interesting to know Cooper are doing a discount at the moment.
Nice review on the 320, our newest BMW is 11 years old so all this new tech is a bit mind boggling.
I think it’s a short offer - you have to have it booked in and completed by 18th (or maybe 28th?) of June. Probably trying to drum up service work since cars are doing a lot less mileage at the moment. But, worth asking - don’t ask don’t get! Nice review on the 320, our newest BMW is 11 years old so all this new tech is a bit mind boggling.
As for the 320d, I was so impressed that I started pricing one up on the configurator to the spec of the hire car as I thought it might be a good replacement for the M5 at some point. Gave up when just the basics was £42k. I know we live in an age of £60k hot hatches but £42k for a boggo derv 3 series with nice paint, nice wheels and a fancy dashboard feels bonkers
Maybe a lightly-used one in a few years.
matt21 said:
Great update as always!
Just got my CSL serviced at Wollaston Northampton for £182. They did the big service on my M6 for £749 after a bit of haggling. Not bad for M cars
Cheers - glad it was interesting! That service on your CSL is a great price - well done and yeah, my bill wasn’t too far off your M6 one.Just got my CSL serviced at Wollaston Northampton for £182. They did the big service on my M6 for £749 after a bit of haggling. Not bad for M cars
I’m keeping everything crossed now. Brakes all done, tyres all done, servicing all done, injectors done and yellow grommet done. Apart from a wheel refurb and potentially a battery at some point soon, I hope it’ll stay a happy camper for a while as it’s getting more regular use again.
Might be a good time to chop it in, but can’t think of anything I fancy for what little it’s worth.
BMW’s digital dash is horrible; I hate the shape and the colours. It seems far less resolved than those of the competition.
How did you find the driving nannies? I had a new one series a few weeks ago and the lane departure system did my head in especially because you had to kill it every time you started the car. It’s flash the speed up too if you crept over the limit.
The new interiors do feel very well put together though.
How did you find the driving nannies? I had a new one series a few weeks ago and the lane departure system did my head in especially because you had to kill it every time you started the car. It’s flash the speed up too if you crept over the limit.
The new interiors do feel very well put together though.
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