COTW BMW Z3 coupe 2.8

Been a while since i've posted something. Recentely I've been thinking a lot about the Z3 coupe .. again. You might remember my older post on the Z3M coupe, which ended up in me realizing that a 3.2l engine with 320hp would rather kill my wallet when it comes to taxes.

As you may or may not know, the Z3 coupe started it's life as a "humble" 2.8l(M52B28). This makes the taxes bearable, while still giving me the gorgeous looks of the Z3 coupe and the playful oversteer handling resulting form a not so sophisticated rear axle that has to cope with some 190hp.
As an added bonus, there are loads of upgrade possibilities since this is a rather early version of a car that got some nice goodies in it's future life.
- a 3.0 M54B30 engine
- a 6 speed gearbox (from a Z4)
- stability control through an uprated ESP
- a S54 M engine
- some nice big brakes from the M version
And the list goes on, so for a tinkerer as myself it's the perfect car. Now if only it would have 4 seats, so that I can take the occasional friend along for a ride it would be perfect.
 

WTF Blackbird indicators

The other day a dashboard light gave out on the Blackbird. The one that lights up the speedo from 0 to about 200, creating some interesting moments when driving past speedtraps at night.

Needless to say, this needed to be rectified as soon as possible. Instead of just going to the local bike shop and getting me one of those 3 cent incandecent bulbs I decided it's the perfect opportunity to make the change to the 21ste century and install LED lights. So I went to the local parts store called ebay and ordered me some LEDs from China. A week later I found a small package on my doorstep and the repair could start.

Yay Chinese LEDs 

Reading the repair manual, i realized getting access to the instrument cluster meant removing the complete fairing. This is going to be a long one, but hey.
After removing the better part of the fairing i found a wire running from the left to the right indicator with a junction in the middle going to the instrument cluster, so some further investigation was necessary.

Upon opening my rear view mirrors to get  to trace the wire I found this :

Yes, that's a dasboard light glued, well actually siliconed, on the indicator bulb. The connections are soldered and isolated by thin air. I'm actually rather surprised the installer didn't just tie them together with a nice bow in the wire :-/ 

It does however answer the question to why my indicators were always sort of on. 

But there's always a silver lining, it gave me an idea for another project. How does changing the indicators by some LEDs sound. Ok, I agree a bit ordinary, so I'm going to get myself some smoked indicator lenses and some nice 2-tone LEDs. this should give me some white DRLs and orange indicators.

So there you have it, the blackbird is slowly making his entry into Greg's World :-)

Coffee - automation

As most of you know, i'll be getting out of bed at silly-o'clock in the future to make it to work before the roads are clogged up. Hence I don't want to spend any of my potential sleeping time boiling coffee. Especially not since I have an automatic coffee machine of the non-programmable persuasion.

Guess some things will have to change.

I've been looking at the Atmega range, but I haven't got a clue how to program the things. Fortunately there's google helping me out.
I found this site, which has a nice n00b-section, even the name says it all :-)
I'll be working my way through that, but if any of you have some other sites, recommendations or general tips, just let me know.

BOTW Honda CB900F

Since I started a car of the week thing, I might as well start something about bikes.

And I taught I'd start with a kicker. I present you the Honda cb900f.

Other than the fact that I actually rode the modern version of the bike, also known as a hornet 900 or the 919 in the states, it was apparently a very nice bike to ride. And seeing at how cool the one in the picture looks, it might be the base for the project I've been looking for.
Since I already have all the modern power, handling and long distance capability in the blackbird, I need a short distance play thing. Cue the cafe racer :-)

COTW 3 - Porsche 944 turbo

I'm at it again ... this time it's a Porsche 944 Turbo.

Let's brake it down: 

Pro: 

- 220 or 250hp on the rear wheels (ok, that number is at the crank but you get the idea)

- RWD 

- designed by porsche to go on where the 911 left off. (that didn't happen, but the mechanical design should be pretty good)

- 4 seater, with a bit of imagination

- it's a Porsche

- Turbo, meaning more power is relatively easy to achieve

- Pop up headlights ... how cool is that

Con : 

- It's the car that never went on, whereas the 911 did. This means having to live with the "it's not a real Porsche" comments

- Since it stems from the last century it's bound to have some problems

- fuel consumption. Old turbo engines were never known for their economy

- Pop up headlights .. they're heavy and bound to break at some stage

COTW - BMW E28 M5

Since i've been slacking off, here's another one.



The belgian legislation on oldtimers has changed a bit. For the last million years an oldtimer couldn't be uses when dark nor more than 25km away from the garage. Making an oldtimer completely useless.
The changes now liberate us from these restrictions, so driving an oldtimer might actually become fun.

So queue the oldtimer of my choise : The original M5.
It still has the nice shark nose design of old BMW's and not the strange edges Chris Bangle introduced. It came loaded with 80s flair and for that time a load of options. So electrical everything, which i will probably throw out in favour of weight saving and simplicity. Or as Colin used to say : if you want to add speed, just add lightness.
Now let's come to the heart of the car. As any proper BMW, it's graced with a nice inline 6 (the M88), producing 282hp. The ponies are sent through a 5 speed to the proper wheels, i.e. the rears. So we have the basical ingredients for a nice handling car.

As an added bonus, the car comes with 4 doors and can comfortably transport 4 people with ample luggage space. Making it a almost too good to be true.

As far as updates go, the E34 M5 engine is a straight swap to the S38B38, delivering 335hp. That being said, the original engine is good for a 6s sprint to 100kph and a top speed of 246kmh. Not all that slow, even by modern standards.

COTW BMW Z3 2.2

It is been a while since I posted a car of the week. So without further ado, here it is.
I've recently been looking at the Z3. The same logic goes as for the E46, since they came with the. M54B22 engine. For those who don't remember what that means, it's an engine that has the same base as the M54B30, that being the 3L 200-odd horsepower engine that was used throughout the BMW lineup. So a swap of this in a Z3 should be more than feasible. Especially since it was actually mounted in the Z3 coupé at some point in time.
Then there is the problem of it being a 5 speed. Here we can pick a part from the Z4,which should actually fit. Some more investigation is necessary, but hey I already got the engine sorted out.
So there you have it. Rwd 2seater with north of 250hp. Should be fun :-)