Nonsense Thread

[varg]

And what's the difference between an MHD/BM3 tune on an n55 vs some aftermarket controller flash for an EV? Especially in a future where companies use the same components and either upsell or charge a subscription for unlocking increased performance.

How technical do you want to get? It's very different. AC motor control is nothing like increasing boost pressure and injector pulsewidths, you're actually passing more current, and are limited by the motor, controller hardware and the battery.

For what it's worth, it's not going to make economic sense once the production runs get larger to put significantly overbuilt motors and controllers in cars that don't need them so just you can charge some of your customers for a performance increase. That would be economically like putting detuned B58s in 330is so you could charge some people for the M340i tune. Current models are still early mass production EVs, they're going to have to optimize designs more heavily as massive demand increases drive up the prices of essential battery and motor components such as lithium and neodymium. Bigger magnets, and heavier windings, higher capacity batteries, are unlike just putting rods and pistons that are beefier than absolutely needed in a production engine that turns out to be very tunable (think side by side comparison of M50 internals vs M54 internals) or injectors that happen to have some unneeded overhead flow capacity because the hole and pintle/plunger are bigger. That's much more excess material and manufacturing cost than a little more steel in the rod forgings or a little more AL in the piston crown, when you put a 300kW motor in a car that is to be sold with 200kW and simply power limit it with software.

[McGyver]

I remember a Top Gear episode (or maybe Jay Leno) where they talked about Hydrogen cars / Hybrids changing the way we see cars. Much in the same way cars changed the way we saw horses. I don't think ICE will ever go away, but I do think it will be abandoned by everyone except hobbyists. Overall, I think that's probably a good thing. The vast majority of people don't care about cars or performance. The vast majority of cars today probably have too much power for how easy they are to get.

The age of cheap dependable power ICE is definitely coming to an end. If MOPAR is walking away, then it's really done. But the EV power wars are just starting, look at Tesla Model S Plaid vs Lucid Air Sapphire. I feel like the ICE has been pushed to it's limit and the only way to increase performance is EV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyDpQpcPpuc&list=PLHKCmmH-x9mK8UKm8V1hMOO9vwl6FjuMB&index=4&ab_channel=Hagerty

I can see a future where motor/battery/controller swaps become the new modification. And what's the difference between an MHD/BM3 tune on an n55 vs some aftermarket controller flash for an EV? Especially in a future where companies use the same components and either upsell or charge a subscription for unlocking increased performance.

All that being said, I'm still building an m20 car, plan to keep playing with my n55 f30, and probably get a miata track toy.

[varg]

I don't think used car prices will ever return to normal, short of a brief dip for a more severe recession. The supply of cool old cars is only dropping and the demand is not.

Currently, the next round of tightening of emissions and fuel economy standards is taking place, legislation which will make ICE cars more expensive and worse. I can't help but wonder if the era of jaw dropping performance we've been seeing over the past decade will be over in 5-10 years never to return, because when CAFE standards and emissions standards are continuously jacked up, how are you going to sell something like an Audi RS3 which out-performs supercars from 20 years ago while at normal mid-luxury sedan prices? How are you going to sell all of these crazy modern turbo cars that make 50% more power with a tune and bolt-ons? Plus we're seeing aftermarket crackdowns we have never seen in the history of this hobby. I know some people are super optimistic about EVs and the hobby, I'm not. EVs are even more black-box than modern ICE cars are, and short of removing the software-based limit by modding/tuning controllers, it just won't be possible to do power mods to them without swapping motors and controllers, and after that battery current capacity will limit you at some point and that's the most expensive part of the car. The manufacturer is incentivized to limit the amount of performance overhead they build into an EV, because unlike an overbuilt piston engine such as an old M50 which will make 3x stock power with a turbo on it and only cost the manufacturer the extra material that could have been optimized out of the designs, there's significant cost involved in putting the bigger windings, better magnets, higher output batteries, overbuilt controllers, into that EV to make it "tunable", and there's no benefit from the manufacturer's standpoint to doing so. And that's just power, EV's aren't going to magically become light, there aren't going to be those fantastic handling driver's cars we so love in EV world, nobody is going to make a battery breakthrough that approaches gasoline energy density any time soon, you can quote me on that one. There's also the looming threat of emissions restrictions being tightened on old cars, and put in place in states which don't have them. This has already happened in parts of Europe, in some of their cities older cars aren't even allowed. Plus, the push for EVs smells an awful lot like what kicked off the scrappage s̶c̶h̶e̶m̶e̶s̶ scams of the late 2000s, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw EVs for clunkers. Can you imagine seeing that old tragic list of cool cars "clunkered" today?

Hey, admin. Why doesn't [s] [/s] strikethrough work on this forum?

[McGyver]

Are you sure prices are returning to normal? Things still look pretty outrageous to me...

[2mAn]

It’s basically an E30 in the fact that it has the location for the engine in front and drives the rear wheels... at least that’s what I think MrBurg is referring to ... I’ve always got some stuff going on

[roguetoaster]

It’s not even a car! It’s a pile of random parts and a dream

edit: y’all want to donate to the cause

I would argue that it should be an E30 now that prices are returning to somewhat more sane levels. In which case I would happily contribute parts.

[2mAn]

It’s not even a car! It’s a pile of random parts and a dream

edit: y’all want to donate to the cause

[roguetoaster]

Maybe it doesn't even have an engine :o

Maybe it doesn't even have four wheels.

[MrBurgundy]

Secret car? Does it have an engine in an unconventional location?

Maybe it doesn't even have an engine :o

[SOneThreeCoupe]

Secret car? Does it have an engine in an unconventional location?

[2mAn]

How's the alfa/z3/secret car going?

Kevan is making great progress on the Alfa, Z3 has arrived in OC ... and yea lol

[MrBurgundy]

Sup

doing an a/c service on my e30 cuz its hot and the e39 is broken :c

The rear shock mount took a shit.. I replaced it with an oem one when I lowered it, so it was pretty much new.. replaced it last week and I didn't even make it home before the rubber shot out again lol..

It has struts in the rear so, its not as simple as the e30 to change..

How's the alfa/z3/secret car going?

[2mAn]

Sup

[MR E30 325is]

e36s are so awesome. I support not selling it. It's gonna be one of those situations where you'd sell it, want one again, then realize that you're not willing to spend what it costs to get back into it. Similar to what happened to e30s.

I regret selling my 328is for almost nothing. It had 100k on it and I bought it from the original owner. Great daily.

Amen.

[MrBurgundy]

They've been impossible to find for a while.

E36 M3s are easy to find if you have the money. Mine will be for sale relatively shortly, completely unmolested, low miles, with a ton of recent work... but will not be cheap. I need the money to finish the E30 build.

Edit: Mine will not be for sale. Drove it again. Remembered why I've owned it eight years.

e36s are so awesome. I support not selling it. It's gonna be one of those situations where you'd sell it, want one again, then realize that you're not willing to spend what it costs to get back into it. Similar to what happened to e30s.

I regret selling my 328is for almost nothing. It had 100k on it and I bought it from the original owner. Great daily.