MyE28

[e30slidewayz]

fap fap fap... I will have one of these one day! Just have to finish pharmacy school first!... then pay back the student loans. But then, I will have one! Your's is a beautiful example of what these cars should look like. Clean, elegant, e28... and an M5 no less.

[GOT8SPD]

Not just any e28! E28 M5! Nice...congrats...I'm looking for an E28 myself, but won't be getting an M5... =(

[Eric]

I've spent all winter pondering whether to buy one of these. An acquaintance in Minnesota has one for sale, but since I already have two cars full in the garage and a truck that gets parked in the street, it means I'd have to sell my E30 that I've just got pretty much finished and have a long relationship with. I maybe should go up and drive the thing first before I pass on it though? Maybe I'm avoiding being lured in by the sweet sound of that engine.

Anyway, how does driving the E28 M5 on the track compare to an E30? I've been told by one friend that they're amazingly tossable, but have a hard time believing that.

Some people say it's the E30's big brother, but I don't agree. The chassis is much softer than the E30, and has a less direct feeling. The suspension is more complicated and wears faster (google E28/E24/E32/E34 brake shimmy). In fact mine is going on the lift tomorrow to install all this stuff.



With that said, my track day in the M5 was almost as fun as in my E30 track car. It was about 10 seconds slower a lap, but driving on the limit and that is the fun part! If your looking to have fun on track, then it's a great car for it, but don't expect to win anything.

On the street, it feels kind of like a dog since it makes it's power up top. I've made it worse by removing the cat and putting the frank fahey track pipe in. The car can keep up with traffic no problem, but it just kind of feels like it's bogging. Put the needle past 4k rpm though and it moves just fine. If I find my money tree, I'd like to buy the Miller MAF, which I believe will help midrange power quite a bit.

I'm also refinishing a set of 16x8 style 5's that will get hankook RS-3's for summer time. I think the E28 is a bit sensitive to wheel choices, and the big 18's probably have been a cause for all the thing's I've complained about above. Well see how the 16's change the feel of the car.

[5ickride]

Very nice. Will keep my eye on this one.

[UR1]

Nice car! I would love to find one like this:)

[TrentW]

Some people say it's the E30's big brother, but I don't agree. The chassis is much softer than the E30, and has a less direct feeling. The suspension is more complicated and wears faster (google E28/E24/E32/E34 brake shimmy). In fact mine is going on the lift tomorrow to install all this stuff.

With that said, my track day in the M5 was almost as fun as in my E30 track car. It was about 10 seconds slower a lap, but driving on the limit and that is the fun part! If your looking to have fun on track, then it's a great car for it, but don't expect to win anything.

On the street, it feels kind of like a dog since it makes it's power up top. I've made it worse by removing the cat and putting the frank fahey track pipe in. The car can keep up with traffic no problem, but it just kind of feels like it's bogging. Put the needle past 4k rpm though and it moves just fine. If I find my money tree, I'd like to buy the Miller MAF, which I believe will help midrange power quite a bit.

I'm also refinishing a set of 16x8 style 5's that will get hankook RS-3's for summer time. I think the E28 is a bit sensitive to wheel choices, and the big 18's probably have been a cause for all the thing's I've complained about above. Well see how the 16's change the feel of the car.

Thanks for your input--have to say I agree with your statements. Drove another M5 recently before making a trip up north and am confident and happy to say I enjoy driving my E30 more. "Less direct" is spot on. Plus, there's the five gallon bucket full o' cash that you have to factor in for engine parts and service that make the E30 so much more of an ideal car for me.

[Eric]

Yesterday I got in a fight with the M5... and lost.

I was supposed to replace the front suspension components to rid it of the 55-45mph shimmy. Well a balljoint had fuzed, and I wasted a ton of time getting it off. Finally, after all day on the lift, I left when the shop closed with the front suspension removed, and the car left lonely on the lift until tuesday.

So that means today I get to work on the new wheels! I made a bit of a mistake and bought these in some dudes driveway in the dark, and didn't realize how bad the finish was.


DSCN4430 by ericandshovin, on Flickr


DSCN4436 by ericandshovin, on Flickr

Not one to back down on a challenge, I took to google to learn how to chemically strip the chrome/nickel/copper from the wheels, then have them finished in a less hideous finish.

So right now, the first wheel has been sitting in a Muriatic acid bath for the last 30 minutes and is still bubbling... I think I might need to add more than 2 gallons of acid for more power!


DSCN4400 by ericandshovin, on Flickr

And while I was prepping the bath, Mr. UPS man stopped by! :up:


DSCN4460 by ericandshovin, on Flickr

[Vegas227]

Would a muriatic acid bath work well for bottle caps? I am planning on refinishing them this summer and they have some pretty bad stuff on them like yours do. I realize they are bottle caps but still.. It was either acid or a media blast.

[Eric]

Would a muriatic acid bath work well for bottle caps? I am planning on refinishing them this summer and they have some pretty bad stuff on them like yours do. I realize they are bottle caps but still.. It was either acid or a media blast.

if they are chrome, then yes, the muriatic acid reacts with chrome. But you need to do a nitric acid bath to remove the nickel and copper platting.

[Eric]

Little bit of an update.

So earlier in July at an auto-x, I noticed that my engine fan had done some decorative abstract artwork on the nearly new radiator.




Not so good, so I ordered some new engine/trans mounts from Steve @ bluntech.


At first I thought that the passenger side mount was the main problem child since it looked quite compact & the fan was touching on the passenger side


The Drivers side looked pretty compressed as well!


Transmission mounts looked like they were being stressed/pulled towards the front of the car


Right one was beginning to have permanent failure.


And they were a bit squished compared to new ones.



When I got the passenger side mount out, it looked worn, but not toooo bad.


The drivers side mount though... well it had a bit more wear than I was expecting!


Compared to the new replacement mount.












Back in April, I replaced a bunch of parts trying to hunt down a shimmy when braking. A little while later, the right front of the car developed a clunk when turning left. I was convinced that my $279ea crash mount was failing. Well the other day I mounted the CSL reps onto the car for fun(didn't like the look) but noticed something odd when putting the 16" style 5's back on.



I noticed that the wheel was moving just a little bit from side to side. Initially I thought that I had a failing wheel bearing until I saw the strut moving with it. So a few minutes of poking and prodding revealed that the 3 bolts that hold the strut to the dogbone (bolts to the bottom of the strut & holds the control arms/tie rods) were finger tight! I pulled one out, and the threads had been smashed up pretty badly, so I ordered 6 new ones from BMW ($4.36 a bolt!). This time the bolts were given a dab of locktite, torqued to spec, and a dab of thread marker on the outside of the bolt so you can quickly see if the bolt has moved!:up:







This summer overall has been quite fun with the M5. Since my E30 has been suspensions for 6ish months because of an AST upgrade (they are sloooooow) I used the M5 to compete in the local BMW chapters auto-x series. They have a pretty nice setup for figuring out what class your car should fit into: http://autocross.rmcbmwcca.org/Class.php and my M5 ended up being one point shy of bumping up into C stock. So I spent the year in BDS (BMW D Stock) battling some pretty good competition.
The chapter also has a PAX system, which works much like a golf handicap. It's designed to even all the classes out so you can theoretically compete driver to driver. Well being all the way down in D stock, I got a pretty sweet handicap even though I was often posting times faster than the C stock guys and was really close to the B stock guys! So even though the old M5 isn't relatively fast compared to newer cars out in the world today, I was able to win the season in drivers point... by one point! http://autocross.rmcbmwcca.org/top_drivers.php

I think out of the top 5 drivers, i'm the only one NOT going to the SCCA ProSolo nationals coming up in a few weeks. These guys are seriously good!

Anyways, enough jabbering, here are my video's from this season

Auto-x #1


Auto-x #2


Auto-x #3


Auto-x #4
Our 2nd baby boy was born the night before this event, so I was in the hospital that day


Auto-x #5


Auto-x #6









Not looking forward to the summer coming to an end :down:

[freeride53]

Hey, uh, I just died. ;)

[Eric]

just turned 215k :up:

[cactusjacks1]

Eric,
Your threads are better written, more informative & have better pictures than most magazines !! Thanks for sharing with us - CONGRATULATIONS on son #2!!

Jack

[DooDanE30]

love these cars. i would actually consider getting one.

[dougie30]

the pic with the icicles is seriously fucking nice, should deff be your sig