The BMW
(7/96 - 10/99)
This part of my homepage is dedicated to my long term investment. The one with four tires and a steeringwheel. My first car was Toyota Corolla DX -81, after suffering three years with it I sold it (with a hair-raising price) and decided to go for something better. Okay, the Corolla was a wreck so I had to get rid of it...*s* The only thing I wanted about my new car was: rear wheel drive or perhaps 4WD. (Those front wheel spinners are for sissies.) Of course that ment something old... After a while of pedestrian life I heard about this old BMW 315 which was on sale in Tampere. One of my relatives relative (so to speak) had died (of old age) and his wife didnīt need the car anymore. The date was july 1996. I took all my money with me and grabbed the first train to Tampere. There I discovered the car had been unused for six months and had too took some corrosion damage. The engine started up happily and made a huge cloud of smoke. I decided to buy the car anyway, eventhough I had no intention to keep it any longer than I had to. Maybe I could make some profit on the way I thought. On the way home the clutch started to slip. This definetely wasnīt a good start.
I fixed up the car and drove it a while trying to find a better one, but I couldnīt find it. Either the price was too high or the car was in lousy condition. When winter was getting closer and weather started to be cold I had no other choise that to keep the old BMW I had foolishly bought several months earlier. So I painted it, bought a new set of tires and drove, drove, drove... Later on in the winter I installed my stereos and amplifiers and could now actually hear some tunes! (That took two days and tons of dirty language) When sun started to shine and melt all the snow away I suddenly realized the 1573cc engine was getting tired and it didnīt had that īpunchī most of us want. I sold the old engine away with its transmission and started to look for a new one. That wasnīt too hard: a distant friend of mine was uppgrading his BMW (with 2.8 l turbo...) and he was willing to change his engine and transmission to these two luxurious leather car seats that I had. Itīs a deal!
So, my old tired Bimmer had a new engine. A two point three liter, inline-6 with fuel injection. This was just the thing I needed, 65 extra horsepower and a lot more torque. I can say that it was not that easy to change an engine without the knowledge how to do it. :) After all other īmodificationsī the car was ready for a testdrive. The first disappointment came when I tried to start the car. Thatīs because nothing happened. Later on, on a garage, I heard that none of the connections to the fusebox were made... Of course they werenīt made, how should I know that this engine needed some power too.. :) A week later I tried again (after the wiring, of course) and managed to start ok. While trying to slide up the clutch the engine stalled. On second try I put some more gas (like the old days with 1573cc engine) and to my surprice the car charged forward, spinning wheels wildly, like Iīd never felt before. The life of the reborn BMW had just began!
Actually it was somewhat scary to drive this kind of vehicle at first. You can imagine how it is if youīre used to drive a low power car and suddenly you are thrown to this kind of vehicle. Now Iīm not calling this one a high power vehicle but itīs helluva much more powerful than it used to be! The engine sounded fairly monstrous compared to the pitiful ticking the old one. I left the old 315 sign in place just for my own amusement. Thatīll learn them to give a little more respect on the 315īs... :)
In the recent days Iīve installed a car-alarm, 800W sound system, spoiler (alltogether useless but looks pretty neat. Downforce? Nope, donīt really need that, this baby doesnīt go THAT fast.) and a lot more gadgets you really canīt see. This car was sold in september 1999.
If youīre interested e-mail me,
Eagerbeaver@hotmail.com
If you want to know more ītechī stuff about it check out the
Repair log.
Repairlog Suomeksi!
To see the ultimate (?) rallycar click here.
