Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

hello all!

is there anyone here who's going to australia in the foreseeable future and can be arsed stuffing 2.4kg of machined aluminium in their bags for the way back? @Dammit was/would have been kind enough (i can't thank you enough times, so here it goes one more time: thank you!) to help me out, but aus post fucked up and the package didn't get to him on time..

i have an is200 that i'm trying to convert to an lhd altezza - i have the 3sge gen5 engine and itbs from a 4age 20v blacktop, but the adaptor plate and velocity stacks are at sq engineering's hq in australia.. :(

btw here’s a few pics of the car and parts - intention is to build a street driven track toy

• 3sge engine with itbs
  
• lightened flywheel
  
• ap double plate clutch
  
• one piece driveshaft
  
• ohlins suspension
  
• regamasters on ad08r tires
  
• ap 4pot front and 2pot rear calipers
  
• gt86 factory torsen lsd
  
  

At work we never replace tyres as a pair and the cars and vans regularly get thrashed with hard acceleration, up in the three figures for speed and hard steering and braking, no automatic lane changing functions apparent (obvs with provision tyres are safe to use)

Works van≠400 bhp performance car, albeit the van probably gets driven harder for more of the time.

There’s a significant possibility that I may have to sell the mini at the end of summer, would anyone be interested?
Bit of a cluster involving losing my garage, and a few other issues unrelated to the car.

i will have a free garage soon, henry - i might be able to help

That's interesting. I wonder how safety focused companies like volvo thinks around this

The more pressing issue is imminent student life, possibly for a phd, so time/ money is going to be an issue.

ok mate - sounds familiar

Time > money. But these things need time and I don’t need distractions.

@BrickMan noticed some more rust today when cleaning it, for example here on the O/S front wheel arch. Will research what I can do to treat it whilst I have time.
Going to try and do the filters and an oil change asap, found a kit for £50 on eBay.
My nan helped (did it all) to stitch up a rip in the seat today

3 Attachments

local 550i touring for under 7K..............tempted to pull the pin on it and go see it Wednesday.... its got a crappy wood inlays though, but quick ebay suggests all can be replaced with "brushed alu"

From memory valve stem seals can be a bit tired around 100k, then it’s just standard five series stuff

They're going back to relying on tactile hardware interfaces: knobs and buttons.

This is great news.

The wood is rad, how dare you!

I'll be flying to London from Brisbane in a month, as long as it's only 2.4kgs I can help you out no problem... 🙂

Latest line of volvos* have massive, Tesla-esque touch screens. Very complicated to navigate I've found

*assuming theyre mostly the same, I've only been in the XC90 T8 which is meant to be one of the safest cars

which is meant to be one of the safest cars

For the occupants

They are the same. The voice activated system is pretty impressive at dealing with most of the stuff. But I couldn't agree more- until you're used to it- its a real mess of a system. Not helped by Apple CarPlay.

https://www.euroncap.com/en/ratings-rewards/latest-safety-ratings/#?selectedMake=0&selectedMakeName=Select%20a%20make&selectedModel=0&selectedStar=&includeFullSafetyPackage=true&includeStandardSafetyPackage=true&selectedModelName=All&selectedProtocols=34803,30636&selectedClasses=1202,1199,1201,1196,1205,1203,1198,1179,1197,1204,1180,34736&allClasses=true&allProtocols=false&allDriverAssistanceTechnologies=false&selectedDriverAssistanceTechnologies=&thirdRowFitment=false

The really interesting stuff is the AEB figures, but I can't seem to find a ranking system.
This is to back your point up, btw.

No..... No..... No. No. No

BMW still leads the pack in terms of entertainment / nav system.

The new ID7 system is voice, gesture, touch and the swivel wheel activated and most of the higher end models come with decent HUDs as well.

This makes driving and operating stuff a lot safer than things like the Volvo, Audi or Land Rover who have gone full touchscreen. Having to go through three menus of touches to get to cabin temp in the LR is ridiculous...

I-drive is good but they don't do Android auto, which is ridiculous.

Having to go through three menus of touches to get to cabin temp in the LR is ridiculous...

Lazy UX-person: "just stick it under the burger nav"

Brushed alu is a bit low-rent these days, not very luxury barge.
What year is the 550? If it’s an E61 I can give you a rough list of things to check, especially if you run the plate/VIN through a spec checker first.

Agreed but mine has carplay and honestly the BMW nav, HUD, media integration is so good that I don't use carplay anyway.