BMW 540 estate

[Adnic69]

I came off a roundabout following a 540 onto a duel carrige way. I was expecting him to pull over and me blast past. It turned out that he floored it so i folloed suit. He was pulling away, not that fast but fast enough.
Mine is a 1995 4.0 chim.

Is this normal????

[tahiti450]

BMW 540 estate at a guess about 1700-1800 Kg ish. (E36 M3 cab is 1600kg). Drag coefficient rather worse than Chim, so if Chim 400 (1060Kg) pushing out a genuine 210bhp at flywheel, that would mean the BM would need over 350 BHP to out drag you. Not sure what the BM V8 develops but not quite that much I would guess. So my guesstimate, this is odd, are you down on power?

[wizzpig]

Hmmmmmmmm, by all rights you should have pasted him.

[parrot of doom]

What gear were you in?

[2 Smokin Barrels]

parrot of doom said:

What gear were you in?

Lead pants & boots by the sound of things

[tacoma]

tahiti450 said:

BMW 540 estate at a guess about 1700-1800 Kg ish. (E36 M3 cab is 1600kg). Drag coefficient rather worse than Chim, so if Chim 400 (1060Kg) pushing out a genuine 210bhp at flywheel, that would mean the BM would need over 350 BHP to out drag you. Not sure what the BM V8 develops but not quite that much I would guess. So my guesstimate, this is odd, are you down on power?

Probably the mosst awesome reply I have ever read, please tell me you looked this up somewhere!! If not, may I be your humble apprentice Master?

Wouldn't it be great to have a light that came on on the dash to say, don't do it!!!

m

[wizzpig]

2 Smokin Barrels said:

parrot of doom said: What gear were you in? Lead pants & boots by the sound of things

splurtscoffeeeverywhere

[softtop]

[quote=Adnic69]I came off a roundabout following a 540 onto a duel!! carriage way.

No wonder he put his foot down, was he wearing gloves and did one fall from the window?

[Nuggs]

wizzpig said:

2 Smokin Barrels said: parrot of doom said: What gear were you in? Lead pants & boots by the sound of things splurtscoffeeeverywhere

You owe me a new keyboard too, 2SB...

Adnic - I'm with the gang here reckoning that either (i) you're down on power or (ii) he's got something sooper dooper under his bonnet.

[targarama]

Maybe sir's Chimaera needs a rechip and tuneup - they can still feel fast even when they're a little sick and you wouldn't even notice. He was probably planning to nail it too, whereas you were perhaps just expecting to rumble past and were not in 'ready steady go' mode.

[fire99]

Hi Guys,

I may be opening myself up for a public execution but i own a Chim and a BMW 5 Series..
The BMW will have around 286 bhp (around )
And yep the touring will weigh around 1800 kg.

The 6 Speed Manual (which is most rare!) is surpisingly quick on the road cause the V8 is quite torquey.. And depending on age and spec could be a 4.4.

However if yer Chim is on song it should still be quicker so a bit of a rolling road checkup sounds on the cards!!

[Adnic69]

I was in second ready to pass, then third, fourth and I was giving it everything it had. It was the latter one so would have been a 4.4 v8. Think that i need to go to the rolling road. At 45,000 miles could cam wear be an issue?

[fire99]

Adnic69 said:

I was in second ready to pass, then third, fourth and I was giving it everything it had. It was the latter one so would have been a 4.4 v8. Think that i need to go to the rolling road. At 45,000 miles could cam wear be an issue?

Unless you have some excessive mechanical tapping going on in your engine Cam Wear will not be the deciding factor here..

It could be any 1 of 100 things..A Rolling road will show up the engines health and state of tune..

I would always do this as a good starting point of reference before i started investigating components.

Remember the 4.4 540 is no slow car especially once on the move...

[tahiti450]

tacoma said:

please tell me you looked this up somewhere!!

Naaah mate, that's just the mental calculation I'd have done in my head as I turned off the roundabout before deciding whether to boot it or not!




Actually, I had to get my calculator out to do the P/W ratio

[Adnic69]

I dont think that there is much wrong with mine, it may be a little down on power but not that much. Just have to face it that a 540 is quicker

[wizzpig]

Adnic69 said:

I dont think that there is much wrong with mine, it may be a little down on power but not that much. Just have to face it that a 540 is quicker

Oh no no no sir, that's not the answer. I have no problem eclipsing my mates E36 M3 Evo with my 4.0 Chim, and she is absolutely standard. And the M3 is a quicker car than the 540.

I think perhaps this particular 540 has been breathed on. And anyway, even if it has been, it aint never gonna sound as nice as a Chim at full chat

[SharkyTVR]

My brother-in-law has the 400bhp V8 M5 - not sure what E number - but it's, you know, the last model, not the current 5-series that looks like an angry jukebox on wheels.

Anyway, up to 120, I'm definitely quicker, probably by 2-3 car lengths. This was proved repeatedly the Bruntingthorpe. After that, the Chim started slowing, while the M5 just kept coming back. I have never been faster than 130 yet, so I don't know what would happen.

Even with a 4.0 Chim, Not sure why you should have trouble vs a 540 Touring, powerful as they may be. Get on that rolling road. My guess is injectors and/or induction may not be optimal.

[Adnic69]

Just sent an email to Austec about putting her on the rollers.
This is a good enough reason to sell up and look for a sick 5.0 and rebuild it over the winter.

[Andrew Noakes]

540i Touring is pretty rapid if you keep it in the right gear. More torque than an M5...

That said a Chimaera should be a whole lot quicker.

tahiti450 said:

Drag coefficient rather worse than Chim

Doubt it. Can't find any figures for the TVR but I'd guess it has less frontal area than the BMW so probably less drag overall, but I'd expect the BMW's Cd (about 0.33) to be better. Far better if the TVR has its roof down.

[wizzpig]

SharkyTVR said:

My brother-in-law has the 400bhp V8 M5 - not sure what E number - but it's, you know, the last model, not the current 5-series that looks like an angry jukebox on wheels.

Class quote there Sharky. Think it's the E39 btw.