Mike's Alpine White 1991 318is

[mike.bmw]

A little Vintage prep, I guess...

I decided to order some Akebono EUR493 front brake pads and new Zimmerman rotors. I had been running a set of stock Textar pads and Zimmerman rotors for the last few years. Multiple sets in fact (because track days). The dust was out of control for street driving. I had also developed a little front-end shimmy when braking, likely from uneven pad deposits from previous track days. Re-bedding the pads didn't fix this issue and the blank Zimmerman rotors are cheap, so I just replaced them.

These are the same Akebono compound that is on my F31 with M Sport brakes. Pedal feel is good, initial bite is good, and stopping distance is decent. It takes a little longer to stop and a little more pressure than with the stock Textar pads, but totally worth it for NO DUST. I put a bunch of miles on my car over the weekend and there was NO DUST on my wheels.

My son, Carter, helped me out with this (he's turning 5 soon). I had applied anti seize on everything the last time I did this job, so everything came apart very easily. Start to finish it took less than an hour, including cleaning the barrels of the front wheels.

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[mike.bmw]

Photos... I've been taking a lot of photos lately. Check out my instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mike.bevels/

I especially like panning shots. I take hundreds of these every weekend. Getting the shutter speed as low as possible while keeping the car crisp is a fun challenge.

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And of course I still find time to take photos of my E30.

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And I've been covering some local events which has been fun as well.

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One more thing! Check out the latest issue of der Bayerische - I took the cover shot for this issue. https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/derB...2022/index.php

[Reichart12]

Your photos are always killer. I'm always impressed by how many different photo locations you find to take your e30 to.

[mike.bmw]

Hello! Time for my monthly check in.

I went to The Vintage from May 19th to 22nd (my second time). I took my daughter this year. We had a blast and I couldn't be happier that she enjoyed the tip. Over 1,500 miles in four days and the 318is was fantastic. The A/C could blow a little colder, but other than that I have no complaints. I wrote a piece for BMW Classic CCA's The Ultimate Classic about our father-daughter road trip, which will come out in their next issue.

I'm also very excited to be joining the BMW CCA's BimmerLife online team. More to come on my role there, but I'll be contributing lots of content.

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Here's something E30 related that I published this week - Ashley Wrigley's E30 Touring Stars at The Vintage: https://bimmerlife.com/2022/05/31/as...t-the-vintage/

And another story about a special visit to BMW North America's newest Vehicle Distribution Center: https://bimmerlife.com/2022/05/24/bm...-center-visit/

Enough about that, onto photos from The Vintage!

Caravanning from Virginia to Asheville, NC:
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Spotting cars en route. Yes, it's real.
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BMW CCA Foundation's The Ultimate Driving Museum. The Power of M exhibit! See my preview of the exhibit in the current issue of The Ultimate Classic.
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BMW Zentrum (I brought a tripod just for this!):
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Caravan to The Vintage. We drove The Rattler. Awesome road!
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Avery putting in work:
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E9s:
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Ducks:
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Beauty:
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First and last US VIN'd E30 M3s:
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I'm leaving a lot out, but it's an awesome event. We were busy sun up to sun down. Next year I may take both my daughter and son!

[mike.bmw]

But wait, there's more!

I got to drive Mike's (another one) s54-swapped E30 M3. He and his co-driver, Neil Simon, recently won the Vintage Class at One Lap of America in this car. It's a hoot to drive and puts down almost exactly three times the power of my 318is.

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[Tzantushka]

Very nice.
I never get tired of your pics - keep em coming!

[moatilliatta]

Its awesome seeing the photos on a monitor with better resolution than on social media. Great shots. Heck post em all up!

Id like to do the one lap one year..

[mike.bmw]

Yikes, has it been three months already? I've been a little busy... Family, my regular job, events, editor of BimmerLife.com and co-editor of der Bayerische magazine.

I've been driving my E30 a lot. Next week I'll be attending a three-day tour event a few states north with the BMW Classic CCA. Should be fun.

A couple of weeks ago I went to the East E30 Picnic with some friends. What a great event! Check out the October Roundel magazine for a piece about that event. Here are some shots from the drive and event:

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I swapped my custom E30 Sport Wheel for a 350mm Momo Prototipo. Read more about that here: https://bimmerlife.com/2022/09/12/to...-a-big-impact/

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I built an E30 M3 Lego and then did a mini photo shoot with Brandon Wheaton's E30 M3. Check out the feature here: https://bimmerlife.com/2022/09/12/bm...motoren-werke/

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Check out my other weekly stories here: https://bimmerlife.com/author/mike-bevels/

I swapped out my polished hexes for a set of black ones. Just to change up the look a bit:

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Tried some light painting:

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Other than that, I've been knocking out some maintenance items on my 318iS. Oil changes, fluid flushes, and the like.

[mike.bmw]

I almost forgot...

Here's a short piece on Turbofans: https://bimmerlife.com/2022/08/21/tu...-best-hubcaps/

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[DEV0 E30]

I love this thread, your updates, and your photography Mike. Classy as always.

[MaCheFai]

New '91 318is vert owner here in VA and just read through all 52 pages. Super helpful, and excellent photography! As a new owner and getting to know my e30, I can't tell you how helpful this was. Thanks for chronicling your journey and sharing it with us!

[MaCheFai]

mike.bmw Sorry for digging up an old post, but would love your thoughts on comparing these 2 chips. Can I assume from your post that the SSSquid gave all of it's increases a the higher rev range? Where the Mark D provided it in the lowers? And did you get a 93 octane chip? Any details would be much appreciated!

A lot has happened in the past month. I'll separate these by posts.

Mark D Chip!

I've swapped out my SSSquid for a Mark D chip. A local gentleman I've purchased parts from before gave me a deal on a spare DME and Mark D chip. There is a nice bump in the 2500-3500 range which makes it a bit more drivable around town. When you've swapped a dash more than once, installation is a breeze.

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[mike.bmw]

mike.bmw Sorry for digging up an old post, but would love your thoughts on comparing these 2 chips. Can I assume from your post that the SSSquid gave all of it's increases a the higher rev range? Where the Mark D provided it in the lowers? And did you get a 93 octane chip? Any details would be much appreciated!

It has been a while, but my initial impressions were exactly as you described. Gains up higher with the SSSQuid chip and more mid-range with the Mark D chip. Both are to be used with 93 octane.

Both are great. If I recall correctly, the only reason I switched was because the Mark D chip included a spare DME, which was a sweet deal, and I was curious to compare the two.

Mike

[jeenyus]

Mike still posting fire pictures I see! Awesome!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mike.bmw]

So, where did we leave off?

After the E30 Picnic, I attended a multi-day event with BMW Classic Car Club of America in Bucks County, PA.

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I met the group on Thursday morning at the Simeone Museum in Philadelphia. After a tour, we headed to the Bucks County area. I lodged at a place called The Narrows, which overlooked the canal. There was lots of great roads for driving, lots of great meals, and it was cool meeting lots of new people.

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There was even a LEGIT E30 M3 convertible!

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After a few days of classic BMWs, I headed home during a heavy rain storm. The four-hour trip was going well, but three hours in my 318iS started misfiring. I immediately started to pull over and the issue corrected itself after about 20 seconds. So I kept driving home without any further issues.

Naturally, I wanted to figure out what happened. So I went through the fuel system and ignition system. Over the last seven years I've replaced nearly everything, but there were some items that could use a refresh. So I replaced the fuel filter, spark plugs, cleaned the air meter, replaced the ICV, and threw in a new air filter. After this the car ran wonderfully (not that it was running poorly before, but it was feeling a little tired with 160K miles on the clock.)

Since then I've been driving it to an from my daughter's travel soccer games on the weekends and events. And I bought another car, a 1998 M3 sedan (M3/4/5), so that has been commanding much of my attention as of late. Check out the thread for the M3 here.

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