New cars?

digitalwanderer said:
Me and the wife actually thought of building one for 4x4s back when we got the Pathfinder, now I'm toying with building a small closed track out on some cheap land down south a bit.... (I got some friends in the asphalt business from a year I worked in that industry. ;) )

hey that would seriously be a good idea!! You could turn it into a regular buisiness, have races, etc!
 
Yeah, but we got scared after looking into liability insurance for something like that.

I think an asphalt track would be a tad more "respectable", and I think we'd have an easy time getting some financial backers too....I just dunno.

I was hoping someone had heard of a place like that, I figure with all the high performance cars out there some people would be interested in having a place where they could really cut them loose a bit. :)
 
you know what I think would be supercool? I should like buy several square miles of land that has hills and mountains on it, lots of pretty greenery, etc and make a track that winds all around it and stuff. i can't think of the name but it's the highway in southeastern oklahoma and western arkansas that runs atop the moutains there. can anyone think of the name of the route? i know it's semi-well-known but I can't remember it. I just remember driving it when I was a little kid, comming back from the diamond mine in arkansas. it was so beautiful. of course, i was half asleep and dreadfully sick at the time but I still remember winding through the mountains in the early morning fog. breathtaking.
 
That's what we were thinking of doing, there is some cheap land in Southern Indiana that is like that. :)

I think it could happen, but first I gotta find out what the local scene is like and see if the interest is there. I just put in a call to Illianaspeedway inquiring into track availabilty for some testing, so I'll take it from there. (Well I couldn't figure out how to say "I WANNA PLAY WITH MY Z ON YOUR TRACK!!!!" in any more of a subtle/professional way. :oops: )
 
digitalwanderer said:
That's what we were thinking of doing, there is some cheap land in Southern Indiana that is like that. :)

I think it could happen, but first I gotta find out what the local scene is like and see if the interest is there. I just put in a call to Illianaspeedway inquiring into track availabilty for some testing, so I'll take it from there. (Well I couldn't figure out how to say "I WANNA PLAY WITH MY Z ON YOUR TRACK!!!!" in any more of a subtle/professional way. :oops: )

how about just telling them "Hey, my wife just got a new 350Z and loves it to death. Our big 10th anniversary is comming up and I would really like to find a track that we could take it out and really play with it on as a gift to her; I don't think there's anything she'd love more right now." If you're talking to a married man (or, even better, a car-crazy woman) they should understand where you're comming from and think it's very thoughtful, sweet, wonderful thing to do for her.
 
Oh, I'll go there as soon as I actually start talking to a person instead of an answering machine. Babbling into an answering machine makes you sound like a crazy person, first contacts thru an answering machine you just gotta play it safe and professional as hell. :( (Sooo boring. :rolleyes: )

Don't fret, I can be pretty convincing/persuasive. ;) I want to see if I can get her some track time for a Valentine's Day present at the local track.
 
Most of these tracks/speedways actually have classes, and/or a set program for public use. You won't have to twist any arms, you just need to ask where the action is.

Check out your local 'Z' club (I'm sure there's one) and see what events they have. There's also amateur autocross events, etc.
 
radeonic2 said:
MPI said:
According to Top Gear: http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/powerlaps/

BMW M3 CSL - 1.28.0

Mercedes CL65 - 1.29

:)

Still pretty good for a car weighing in at 2.1 frickin' TONS!! :oops: :)

The 190bhp Lotus Exige would probably obliterate both of them on track, if we're not talking about Monza, Le Mans or something.

Oh, yeah... the M3 seems to be sporting sturdier brakes and diffs and stuff since it was meant specifically as a track day toy and everything...
Cool.
Also checking the rest of the power laps, I'm surprised the srt-10 is slower than the vette?
Also the 350Z and the rx8 lap at the same.
wtf.

The difference is that BMW is faster in curves, but slower in straight, high-speed passages. The CL65 could drive ~350-360 top speeds, but will be quite a bit slower than the M3 in curves since it weighs quite a bit more and thus has less traction. It has the strongest brakes ever used in a "normal" car, obviously a necessity. The torque is limited to 1000Nm since fully open it would regularely rip off axes or wheels when heavily pushed.

Technically, BMW, Mercedes and now also Audi have practically no true differences. All get their parts from same suppliers/developers and these are sometimes even actually 100% same parts. They try to differentiate through company image and a different setup. Mercedes is all about luxury and comfort, even in their sportier cars. Not even in a new AMG SLK you'll ever complain about the suspension, although it's very sporty. The steering is a bit cheesy and effortless in all Mercedes, and that is the way they want it. BMW is all about being a bit like a race car - the driver is always sitting exactly in the middle between the axes, the steering is a bit harder but more sensible, suspension is usually sturdier as are the seats. You will drive faster in curves automattically, since you can controll the car better, but driving a car like this reqires a bit more effort.

Electronically, they offer the same toys. Both have shift-by-wire, both will get ESP2 now, both have air-suspension and so on.

As for being faster, look who won the most championships in the DTM, if that tells you something ;)

As for being biased, I'm driving a BMW although they're competition. I like their setup better :oops:
 
_xxx_ said:
The difference is that BMW is faster in curves, but slower in straight, high-speed passages. The CL65 could drive ~350-360 top speeds, but will be quite a bit slower than the M3 in curves since it weighs quite a bit more and thus has less traction. It has the strongest brakes ever used in a "normal" car, obviously a necessity. The torque is limited to 1000Nm since fully open it would regularely rip off axes or wheels when heavily pushed.

Technically, BMW, Mercedes and now also Audi have practically no true differences. All get their parts from same suppliers/developers and these are sometimes even actually 100% same parts. They try to differentiate through company image and a different setup. Mercedes is all about luxury and comfort, even in their sportier cars. Not even in a new AMG SLK you'll ever complain about the suspension, although it's very sporty. The steering is a bit cheesy and effortless in all Mercedes, and that is the way they want it. BMW is all about being a bit like a race car - the driver is always sitting exactly in the middle between the axes, the steering is a bit harder but more sensible, suspension is usually sturdier as are the seats. You will drive faster in curves automattically, since you can controll the car better, but driving a car like this reqires a bit more effort.

Electronically, they offer the same toys. Both have shift-by-wire, both will get ESP2 now, both have air-suspension and so on.

As for being faster, look who won the most championships in the DTM, if that tells you something ;)

As for being biased, I'm driving a BMW although they're competition. I like their setup better :oops:


I would LOVE to be an engineer for BMW or Mercedes. How I envy your job :p


edit:
just curious, what BMW do you drive?
 
Dreamcars

Well - As a dane living in a country with 180% luxury tax on cars i can only dream of those huge monsters you all float around in.

On top of luxury tax - theres also envirmenta tax - roadtax. Such a car would cost upwards of 20.000$ per year in taxes.

Getting one would be 3-4 times as costly... :D
 
Re: Dreamcars

InkSpot said:
Well - As a dane living in a country with 180% luxury tax on cars i can only dream of those huge monsters you all float around in.

On top of luxury tax - theres also envirmenta tax - roadtax. Such a car would cost upwards of 20.000$ per year in taxes.

Getting one would be 3-4 times as costly... :D
Is that Denmark? Or Singapore?
 
Sage said:
just curious, what BMW do you drive?

320 diesel, not tuned in any way but fully loaded. A rather normal car, I get to race enough at work so I don't really need it in private as well. And I don't have nearly enough money to drive something like a CL65 :). But I need that certain kind of steering/suspension/brakes goodness you only get in a Merc or BMW (puristic sports cars exluded, of course) and will never get anything else as long as I can afford it.
 
Re: Dreamcars

InkSpot said:
Well - As a dane living in a country with 180% luxury tax on cars i can only dream of those huge monsters you all float around in.

On top of luxury tax - theres also envirmenta tax - roadtax. Such a car would cost upwards of 20.000$ per year in taxes.

Getting one would be 3-4 times as costly... :D

Well, the people who buy these cars certainly won't be worried about that. (CL65 costs about 204000 EUR in Germany) ;)
 
_xxx_ said:
Sage said:
just curious, what BMW do you drive?

320 diesel, not tuned in any way but fully loaded. A rather normal car, I get to race enough at work so I don't really need it in private as well. And I don't have nearly enough money to drive something like a CL65 :). But I need that certain kind of steering/suspension/brakes goodness you only get in a Merc or BMW (puristic sports cars exluded, of course) and will never get anything else as long as I can afford it.

dammit you guys already have the next-gen BMW's!? They aren't even listed on bmwusa.com so I didn't even know they existed until someone posted on here! *drools over the 320d* I want one. Diesel will run forever and gets incredible gas mileage, and with the 320d you don't have to sacrifice acceleration. It makes my pants all sticky.
 
No, it's the current one. Next gen 3's come in march.

EDIT:
If you haven't seen it in the US, that's because it didn't meet the max allowed emmision levels for cars imported into US. :LOL: . No joking, Merc and BMW couldn't sell any diesel for quite a few years because of that. Ridiculous.
 
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