Het verhaal achter de motorrevisie van mijn E28 M5

[raymondw]

De nieuwe Bilsteins voor de voorkant; ze zijn nog steeds leverbaar



Nog een paar foto's van de Ardennentoertocht met de harde kern van http://www.bmwe21.net

[Rupie]

Prachtige auto

[Jurriuit]

Blijft gaaf hoe heerlijk low-profile zo'n E28 M5 eigenlijk is.
Je hebt echt een mooi exemplaar!

[Tristan]

Mooi is dat, he. Als je er een 528i badge opplakt geloof je het ook.

[raymondw]

It has been quit from my side since a few months, mostly because limited amount of time, but #231 needs some service as an oil-change is due. After some research, I came to the conclusion that Mobil1 has better specs than TWS, enough reason to justify a field-trial.



Missing on above picture is a new OEM oil-filter, but I usually buy them five-at a time and I think I have on left in my stock. There also is an oil-sample kit from Blackstone laboratories for a UOA of the old SJ/CF grade TWS Motorsport.

The springs are also for #231. This can be done simultaneously with the scheduled replacement of the front shock-absorber inserts. The electronic parts are for the rear-hatch of my E39 530iT (micro switch and locking assembly). As for the E39 530iT; this is a ****** brilliant car. It excels in comfort and refinement over almost any other car. Recently we made a trip to Berlin; about 1100km return trip and averaging 9ltr/100km including is 70km of city traffic through Berlin is excellent for a car weighing 1700kg. Suffice to say that I love that car.

[raymondw]

Apart from the third shark-nose meeting in May, I hadn’t used #231 for an appropriate trip this year. This changed on last Sunday (21 October) as I arranged for a small insider meeting in the South of Limburg near Maastricht and Belgium. This also was the first time that I could fully assess the change to Mobil1 Extended Life 10W60; granted the recent roundtrip to the German autobahn allowed me to get a baseline, but in essence its duration is very small, 160km in just 90 minutes including a fuel-stop in Gronau and thus hardly stresses the engine oil. This would also not happen for today as the shortest route from my premises to Teuven in Belgium is not through Germany, but straight through speed-enforced Netherlands. The route over Nijmegen and Venlo (A73) is shorter in distance and time as even in Germany there are not that many unrestricted autobahns, especially not in the congested Ruhr Area. The journey towards the gathering point in Teuven went uneventfully. I had to refuel just before Maastricht where I filled #231 with 31,6 liters of BP Ultimate 98. This means that #231 averaged 10,3ltr/100km since the last fuel-stop in Gronau late in September. Not bad at all considering the fact that I wasn’t driving on economy, but stayed relatively close to the speed-limit for 90% of the time.

In Maastricht, I left the A2 highway in favor of the N287 towards Margraten and Vaals entering an scenery and landscape that is untypical for. This region is located in close proximity to the German Eiffel and the Belgian Ardennes and offers some nice driving-tours in a hilly-environment with mountains up to 360mtr’s in height. Just before entering the village of Slenaken, a Polaris-Grey E24 came from the left and I quickly recognized this as Rob’s car. Although we participated in Email discussions for quite some time, we never met in person. In Slenaken, we both turned right towards Teuven in Belgium were we arrived at tavern Moeder de Gans in Teuven (Belgium) only ten minutes after the scheduled time of arrival.



Robert, Martijn and Han represented the S38-popution with a 1992 E34 M5 3.6 respectively a 1995 E34 M5 Touring. They arrived at around 12:30PM.



After the initial greetings and chats, we walked towards tavern Moeder de Gans for Lunch. This is an old-and popular establishment where one can eat in casual environment without worrying about protocol or time.



At around 3:00PM we all finished our meals after which we started with the driving-tour. This driving tour is identical to the tour that we drove on the 7th of November 2010 with m5board’s E39 M5 community, albeit in a much warmer ambient; temperature rose to almost 22°C which is unique so late in the season in this part of the hemisphere. It felt as if it was spring, but the nature had progressed well into the autumn; one could describe this is a golden-autumn.



As there is only a very small area in Belgium south of the border with the Dutch-Limburg that has Dutch as native language, we also entered French-language Wallonia. This crossing is only noticed by the names of the villages. We $planned our first stop at the abbey of Val Dieux, but with such good weather, there was no opportunity to line-up the cars so we continued driving. We maintained a moderate pace on the small and poor condition Belgium country roads; Sometimes spirited, but generally relaxed to enjoy the lovely scenery as well.



After about an hour of driving on the Belgium roads that generally have a poor state of maintenance compared to the roads in the Netherlands and Germany, we crossed the border at Le-Planc towards Slenaken and Eperheide where we stopped for a brief moment to enjoy the scenic view. The Classic Bugatti was almost left unnoticed on the parking area.



This particular car certainly isn’t a Pebble beach or Villa-d’Este contest-winner, but does it have to be ? One can smell the cars history and lovely patina of decades of enthusiast-use. Actually, this is much better than those overtly restored cars that are stashed away inside museums and private collections ?





Note the eight sparkplugs; lovely.



Well, back to the topic and subject; #231 at Eperheide with a view onto the Vijlenerberg and Vaalserberg.



After about thirty minutes, we resumed our trip towards Epen and the Vijlener-forest and the small ascent to the Vijlenerberg where we ended the driving-tour on the terrace of café ‘t Hijgende Hert.



From a driving point of view the south of Limburg offers more than plenty routes; don’t expect challenging driving-roads such as the many passes in the Alps. For that, the hills are by far not high enough. Even for spoiled enthusiasts like me, the south of Limburg and the nearby Belgium country-side offers a unique friendly and open atmosphere that doesn’t really compare. And if that is not enough, a visit to this region can easily be combined with the Eiffel-region or the Ardennes, albeit the condition of the tarmac in Belgium is way below Dutch or German standards.

[raymondw]

Apart from the third shark-nose meeting in May, I hadn’t used #231 for an appropriate trip this year. This changed on last Sunday (21 October) as I arranged for a small insider meeting in the South of Limburg near Maastricht and Belgium. This also was the first time that I could fully assess the change to Mobil1 Extended Life 10W60; granted the recent roundtrip to the German autobahn allowed me to get a baseline, but in essence its duration is very small, 160km in just 90 minutes including a fuel-stop in Gronau and thus hardly stresses the engine oil. This would also not happen for today as the shortest route from my premises to Teuven in Belgium is not through Germany, but straight through speed-enforced Netherlands. The route over Nijmegen and Venlo (A73) is shorter in distance and time as even in Germany there are not that many unrestricted autobahns, especially not in the congested Ruhr Area. The journey towards the gathering point in Teuven went uneventfully. I had to refuel just before Maastricht where I filled #231 with 31,6 liters of BP Ultimate 98. This means that #231 averaged 10,3ltr/100km since the last fuel-stop in Gronau late in September. Not bad at all considering the fact that I wasn’t driving on economy, but stayed relatively close to the speed-limit for 90% of the time.

In Maastricht, I left the A2 highway in favor of the N287 towards Margraten and Vaals entering an scenery and landscape that is untypical for. This region is located in close proximity to the German Eiffel and the Belgian Ardennes and offers some nice driving-tours in a hilly-environment with mountains up to 360mtr’s in height. Just before entering the village of Slenaken, a Polaris-Grey E24 came from the left and I quickly recognized this as Rob’s car. Although we participated in Email discussions for quite some time, we never met in person. In Slenaken, we both turned right towards Teuven in Belgium were we arrived at tavern Moeder de Gans in Teuven (Belgium) only ten minutes after the scheduled time of arrival.



Robert, Martijn and Han represented the S38-popution with a 1992 E34 M5 3.6 respectively a 1995 E34 M5 Touring. They arrived at around 12:30PM.



After the initial greetings and chats, we walked towards tavern Moeder de Gans for Lunch. This is an old-and popular establishment where one can eat in casual environment without worrying about protocol or time.



At around 3:00PM we all finished our meals after which we started with the driving-tour. This driving tour is identical to the tour that we drove on the 7th of November 2010 with m5board’s E39 M5 community, albeit in a much warmer ambient; temperature rose to almost 22°C which is unique so late in the season in this part of the hemisphere. It felt as if it was spring, but the nature had progressed well into the autumn; one could describe this is a golden-autumn.



As there is only a very small area in Belgium south of the border with the Dutch-Limburg that has Dutch as native language, we also entered French-language Wallonia. This crossing is only noticed by the names of the villages. We $planned our first stop at the abbey of Val Dieux, but with such good weather, there was no opportunity to line-up the cars so we continued driving. We maintained a moderate pace on the small and poor condition Belgium country roads; Sometimes spirited, but generally relaxed to enjoy the lovely scenery as well.



After about an hour of driving on the Belgium roads that generally have a poor state of maintenance compared to the roads in the Netherlands and Germany, we crossed the border at Le-Planc towards Slenaken and Eperheide where we stopped for a brief moment to enjoy the scenic view. The Classic Bugatti was almost left unnoticed on the parking area.



This particular car certainly isn’t a Pebble beach or Villa-d’Este contest-winner, but does it have to be ? One can smell the cars history and lovely patina of decades of enthusiast-use. Actually, this is much better than those overtly restored cars that are stashed away inside museums and private collections ?





Note the eight sparkplugs; lovely.



Well, back to the topic and subject; #231 at Eperheide with a view onto the Vijlenerberg and Vaalserberg.



After about thirty minutes, we resumed our trip towards Epen and the Vijlener-forest and the small ascent to the Vijlenerberg where we ended the driving-tour on the terrace of café ‘t Hijgende Hert.



From a driving point of view the south of Limburg offers more than plenty routes; don’t expect challenging driving-roads such as the many passes in the Alps. For that, the hills are by far not high enough. Even for spoiled enthusiasts like me, the south of Limburg and the nearby Belgium country-side offers a unique friendly and open atmosphere that doesn’t really compare. And if that is not enough, a visit to this region can easily be combined with the Eiffel-region or the Ardennes, albeit the condition of the tarmac in Belgium is way below Dutch or German standards.

[raymondw]

I used the holidays to tackle some issues on #231 that have long since been planned and partially overdue. One of these is the replacement of the output flanges that contains the actuators for the ABS sensors. These fine machined tooth’s are prone to corrosion and their failure is a common issue on E24’s and E28’s.



In the case of #231, their replacement wasn’t really necessary as the ABS system only went into error-mode well above autobahn speeds or more precisely above 200-210km/h on the speedometer. This means that in my speed restricted country, the ABS system stays fully functional and its failure will not be noticed during MOT. I wanted to replace the flanges already in 2010 and submitted the order, but BMW didn’t stock them and needed almost two years to have them remanufactured.



Disclaimer: Although this job seems simple which to some extent is true, safety concerns make that this is not a DIY job without implementing all the usual precautions that should be heeded when working on a motor-vehicle. Neither the author and webmaster accept any responsibility and/or liability for damage or injuries sustained as a result of using the information in this note.

The first step is disconnecting the two driveshaft’s from the output flanges. There is no need to remove them fully but make sure to secure them. I used electric hook-up wire to fix them to the anti-roll bar. Please note that the car needs to be lifted to gain the required clearance to remove the universal joints from the flanges.



With the driveshaft’s out of the way, the flanges locking nut becomes visible. Its size differs by model, but for the M5 this is an M27 nut that is tightened to 250Nm. The nut is secured with a securing plate that has to be removed first after which the nut can be loosened using a 36mm socket and a breaker bar.

note: This part requires full safety measures to prevent the car from falling or dropping. With other words, never ever use a jack-stand.



The next step is the removal of the flanges themselves and also here, extreme caution should be taken as the flange sits very tight on the splined shaft. I used a pulley-puller that is centered against the splined shaft. Without such a device, pulling the flanges is simply impossible.



The following picture shows one of the old flange. Clearly visible are the corroded actuator tooths. Their depth is no more than 1-2mm whereas for the new parts this is at least twice as much.



Ideally, the ABS sensors have to be removed to drive the new flanges onto the splined shafts. However, this is not really necessary. I applied a small amount of molycote grease before driving the new flanges. I used a small hammer and a wooden block for that.



The M27 nut has to be tightened with 250Nm requiring a suitable torque wrench. Mine only went to 210Nm, but I tightened them with an additional 10degrees with the breaker-bar. This is close to the required 250Nm.



Although the securing plates were supplied two years ago as well, I only found one of them in my parts-bin meaning that I had to order another one before being able to reconnect the driveshaft’s. These will take a few days to arrive.



This already looks much better and should solve the problem.



To be continued!

[raymondw]

During the suspension overhaul that took place in the winter of 2010/2011, both front shock absorbers and springs were not replaced; I already explained about the arguments in an earlier post and explained why this eventually was required after just one season of driving.



It has been about three-quarters of a year since the dealer supplied the new Bilstein B6 shock-absorbers; these parts are specially valved units for the E28 M5 and E24 M635CSI and are not used for any other car; in fact the stamped BMW number on the shock absorbers does not match the ordering number in the ETK, but this has been explained in an earlier post as well.



As I didn’t want this to interfere with the 2012 driving season, I postponed their replacement to the 2012/2013 winter-season. In the mean-time, I decided to replace both front springs as well as these would then be the only two parts that would not have been replaced and it was penny wise pound foolish not to do so in the first place.



Disclaimer: Although this job seems simple which to some extent is true, safety concerns make that this is not a DIY job without implementing all the usual precautions that should be heeded when working on a motor-vehicle. Neither the author and webmaster accept any responsibility and/or liability for damage or injuries sustained as a result of using the information in this note.

Details about the strut dis-and assembly can be found in earlier contributions, more particularly those added between November 2010 and March 2011, hence why it does not make sense to repeat each and every detail again. However, the lessons learnt in that exercise were translated into the acquisition of new tools to eliminate the risk of damaging parts.



A good example are the spring compressors; for the previous session (now two years ago), I borrowed some from my neighbor who runs a professional workshop. As can be seen on the previous picture these consist of three individual compressors, each with a single hook construction. Although this tool is simple in construction, its use is rather complicated. Ideally, the three compressors are separated 120degrees apart to obtain an even load of the spring, but the narrow grabbing-hooks drift easily during the compression phase.

Much better are compressors with a dual hook design. Generally, these consist of two individual compressors that are placed opposite to each other with an ideal angle of 180degrees. The dual hooks cover about 90degrees of the circumference eliminating the risk of them to chance position. This not only eliminates the risk of damaging the spring, but more important increases the safety by quite some margin as there is no risk of an uneven load of the spring.



Another tool that was specifically bought is the ‘special tool’ for loosening and tightening the locking nut for the Bilstein B6 shock-absorbers. Until now, I used a home-made special tool, but learnt that it was impossible to tighten the nut with the correct torque without the official tool.



The ‘special tool’ from Bilstein has an extension with a rectangular hole for fitting a ½” torque wrench-or ratchet. The following picture shows the usage of the special tool with a simple ratchet during the removal of the tightening-nut.



The torque wrench are placed outside the opening for the tightening-nut, hence the effective length of the wrench is extended and thus also the force. The Bilstein instruction manual that is part of the delivery specifies a tightening torque of 130Nm, but it is unclear if this should be the effective value or the setting of the torque wrench. Based on the limiting value that is stamped on the ‘special tool’ I reasoned that the 130Nm is the effective torque and thus compensated the setting of the torque wrench for the extended length, estimated at more or less 10% resulting in 90% of 130Nm or 117Nm. This worked fine.

The following picture shows the old (right) and new spring (left) prior to installation of the new spring. Their height and stiffness are identical proving that the spring-constant of coils-springs doesn’t change throughout the years. The old springs aren’t really bad, but why bother at 80 Euro/each ?



Prior to inserting the new shock absorber, I compared the new unit (right)with the old 28year old part. Given the fact that the strut was disassembled from the car in its entity and thus the there is no weight of the car that compresses the spring, the piston of the shock absorber should have been in its maximum outbound position. The following picture clearly demonstrates that this is not the case.



I already noticed that both springs needed to travel a considerable length, almost reaching the critical point at which it was impossible to continue. The following picture clearly shows the required compression.



I failed to notice that the piston of the shock absorber was travelling to a more inbound position as well. To my recollection this was also the case two years ago; my main concern being safety and proper alignment of the spring compressors, hence I paid little attention to the behavior of the parts. With that in mind, I could have done with a little less travelling of the spring, but one first has to learn before obtaining knowledge.



Please note the difference in the distance of both grabbers in the above two pictures; With the new shock absorbers being in their most outbound position, the springs needed to travel much less to install the top mounts; this not only simplifies the installation, but also adds to the safety. Before reinstalling the reassembled strut, I cleaned the strut tower and added two layers of zinc-primer. The following picture shows the condition of the right strut-tower prior to cleaning.



Looks much better !



Please note that I waited with tightening all the nuts and bolts once the car was standing back onto its own wheels.

Expectations:

Although I have to wait for a few months before adding some mileage, the outbound dampening will improve a lot. As long as the tarmac is smooth and predictable, the springs and dampers won’t travel that much. But on rougher roads, as for instance can be found in the Belgian Ardennes or e.g. the Stilfserjoch in Italy, the suspension takes that travel and with the old shock-absorbers, the outbound from the neutral position relied on the stiffness of the spring. Now that every part in the front suspension is new, I expect nothing less than a significant improvement of the cars handling and predictability.

[raymondw]

Despite the 12Mpixel of my ‘new’ Point-shoot Camera, Nikon S3100, the sharpness is not according to my expectations; It appears as if manufacturers tend to soften the pictures of their ‘budget’ point shoot cameras to compensate for the weaknesses in their sensor and picture-processing designs at the cost of the ability to capture detail and sharpness. This clearly proves (to me) that more megapixels makes no sense unless the rest of the camera system is capable of processing the large data-streams coming out of these high resolution image-sensors. My Nikon D300S is the complete opposite; it also features an (much larger) image sensor with 12Mpixel, but each one of those is of a much higher quality than those of the S3100.

Granted, one may not compare an 1200 Euro high-end Digital Single Lens Reflex camera-body with a 100 Euro point shoot.; however my nine-year old Sony DSC F717 only has a sensor with 5Mpixel, yet the contrast and sharpness of its images is much better than modern point-shoots such as the earlier mentioned S3100. The S3100 would perform a whole lot better if its designers had focused on the optics and digital post processing rather than merely following the industry trend by increasing the sensors pixel-counts. With my F717 out of commission (another story) and my unwillingness to use a high-end and expensive DSLR for documentation purposes, I have no other choice than relying on the ‘budget’ S3100 as workhorse.

Back to the topic; the last missing parts for #231 arrived last Friday. The securing plates appear to have a minimum order quantity of five pieces, but at 75cents, I cannot bother. The stabilizer- links were needed for the front suspension as the old part broke down during the removal of the right-strut-assembly.



Fitting the new stabilizer links is not really an issue; with no more than a few nuts and not even bolts this is an easy DIY issue. Installing the new parts was just a matter of placing and tightening using new self-locking nuts.



With the completion of this issue, each and every component of the front suspension has been replaced with new parts in a timeframe of just two years (January 2011 – January 2013). It would be interesting to make a breakdown of the cost; I estimate the in total roughly 1200-1600 Euro’s worth of parts were used; errrr, maybe I should not do that and leave it at an estimate, but it certainly looks nice.



The securing plates were punched into place with the same 36mm 12way socket that II used to tighten the M25 nuts of the output-flanges. This basically replaces the BMW special tool ‘33 4 060’ that is listed in the E28 repair instructions without any issue; in fact, there is no noticeable difference in the end-result compared to a factory installed securing plate. Unfortunately I have no pictures to show as I accidentally left the above mentioned point-shoot at home. However, I did make a picture of the final result afterwards with the drive-shafts installed and tightened to the flanges.



The only disturbing factor is the rusty appearance of the final drive’s cast-alloy enclosure. For a proper appearance, the enclosure needs to be sandblasted prior to repainting, but this requires the removal of the pinion, which is not so easy as there are specific mechanical requirements for the pinion-sprocket to crown-sprocket interface. Adjusting this correctly requires special tooling and craftsmanship, hence that is better to be combined with a full rebuild of the differential by a specialist at a later date, but there are no concrete plans for doing so in 2013/2014.



What remains is a thorough inspection of all the work; checking all nuts and bolts and make sure that they are correctly tightened.

[Niels]

Mooi hoor, ding wordt per keer nieuwer

[///Joost]

Echt fantastisch om jouw verslagen weer te lezen elke keer. Ik kan me zo ontzettend vinden in jouw precisie.

klap, klap!

[Petrolhead Tom]

Dit blijft echt het gaafste topic van DF!

[GTRene]

wat ziet dat er vreemd uit al die stangen
je zou bijna denken dat sommige met elkaar in aanraking kunnen komen bij inveren e.d. doch dat zal vast niet

hoe dan ook, ziet er wel erg fris uit met al die nwe materialen, well done.

[jgpeggeman]

wat ziet dat er vreemd uit al die stangen
je zou bijna denken dat sommige met elkaar in aanraking kunnen komen bij inveren e.d. doch dat zal vast niet

Daar heb ik me ook altijd over verbaast bij mijn BMW's (e34) maar het ziet er wel erger uit dan het is zo van de onderkant....

[Peric]

Raymond, nu hangt alles er zeer netjes bij, maar er hangt nog wél een verroest diff onder. Ook maar 's een keertje een nieuw verfje op?
En respect voor je precieze werkzaamheden, bij mij is het gewoon 'vast is vast'..

[Tristan]

Raymond, nu hangt alles er zeer netjes bij, maar er hangt nog wél een verroest diff onder. Ook maar 's een keertje een nieuw verfje op?

*kuch*

The only disturbing factor is the rusty appearance of the final drive’s cast-alloy enclosure. For a proper appearance, the enclosure needs to be sandblasted prior to repainting, but this requires the removal of the pinion, which is not so easy as there are specific mechanical requirements for the pinion-sprocket to crown-sprocket interface. Adjusting this correctly requires special tooling and craftsmanship, hence that is better to be combined with a full rebuild of the differential by a specialist at a later date, but there are no concrete plans for doing so in 2013/2014.

[Peric]

Had niet het hele verhaal gelezen...

EXQUISE ME!!

[Tristan]

Mijn diff onder de M3 is ook geroest maar de (sper)werking is prima dus zie ook geen reden om alleen voor het uiterlijk de diff te demonteren en te zandstralen. Belangrijker is dat mechanisch alles goed werkt.

[Peric]

Is in principe ook zo, maar zoals ik schreef, als veel onderdelen er nieuw opzitten en het diff is zo verroest zou ik toch even het diff er ondervandaanhalen. Zo veel werk is het nou ook weer niet.
En dan ziet het er weer netjes uit.
Vind dat zo'n afbreuk doen, alles netjes, en dan zo'n bonk roest ertussenin.
En ik weet wel, het zit onder de auto, dus niet in het zicht. Maar dan zou ik het doen voor m'n eigen gemoedsrust.

[Jeroen E21]

Mooi uitgebreid verslag weer! En als je even om dat diff heen kijkt ziet 't er wel angstaanjagend fris uit daaronder hoor! Dat wordt weer een massa meer driving fun na deze hele operatie. En sja, als je de brug tot je beschikking hebt, dan zou ik me er toch eens aan wagen om dat diff op te frissen, daar hoeft nou ook weer niet extreem veel tijd in te gaan zitten en dat maakt de onderkant wel af hoor!

Succes iig en blijf ons vooral zo op de hoogte houden, erg fraai om te zien en te lezen elke keer!

[Flamman]

Mooi project Raymond ! Ik ben enorm fan van de E 28 en dan met name de M5 natuurlijk .....

Mocht je je diff. compleet willen laten reviseren dus niet alleen optisch pb me dan even dan zal ik e.e.a verduidelijken.

[raymondw]

Is in principe ook zo, maar zoals ik schreef, als veel onderdelen er nieuw opzitten en het diff is zo verroest zou ik toch even het diff er onder vandaan halen. Zo veel werk is het nou ook weer niet.
En dan ziet het er weer netjes uit.

Wat je schrijft is helemaal waar; twee jaar geleden had ik het diff voor dat doel er al onderweg. Maar om het huis duurzaam mooi te krijgen moet deze gestraald worden. Het risico dat er residu in het huis terecht komt was mij te groot zonder dat ik de ingaande (pinion) as zou uitbouwen. En dat is specialisten werk, reden waarom ik destijds heb besloten om dat t.z.t uit te besteden.

Vind dat zo'n afbreuk doen, alles netjes, en dan zo'n bonk roest ertussenin.
En ik weet wel, het zit onder de auto, dus niet in het zicht. Maar dan zou ik het doen voor m'n eigen gemoedsrust.

Juist omdat het niet veel werk is, stoort het verroeste huis mij niet zo. Laat ik het zo zeggen; alleen een visuele verbetering is voor mij geen reden het diff aan te pakken als ik er geen functionele verbetering mee krijg. Dat houdt dan een totale revisie. Ondanks dat die noodzaak er niet is denk ik er wel over na, maar dit zit nog steeds in de research fase. Heet heeft voor mij alleen geen haast.

[GTRene]

wat je zou kunnen doen is zo'n goedje kopen wat je er op kan kwasten met roest omvormer...
eerst beetje ergste eraf dan dat spul erop en wordt vanzelf zwart
goedkoop en makkelijk als ie weer eens op de brug staat, voor voorlopig zou je zoiets kunnen doen, is niet duur dacht ik en alleen voor het 'aangezicht' niet dat je het normaal gesproken 'ziet'

[raymondw]

Last weekend, the ASVH,which is a local car club in Hellendoorn, the Netherlands organized a meet-and greet event for its members who happen tob e owners of classic cars. The general definition of classic cars is 30 years and older, but as there are many owners of special and unique cars that are a tad younger than that, the term youngtimers has been defined; generally cars between twenty and thirty years of age.

This event was aimed at a wide variety of owners, thus not limited to a specific brand or genre. The event started on the 20th of April at 13:30 with a static show followed by a small drive towards an old motorcycle track, the Luttenbergring. This ‘ring’ still offers some driving thrills and a unique location for a photo-shoot. Nowadays, the Blikweg section is a public road with people living in its close vicinity, hence it goes without saying that we behaved as gentlemen rather than hooligans. Nevertheless we had fun.

The following series of pictures show #231 approaching the S-curve in the Blikweg section; As the camber changed direction for three times before exiting the second curve, it is best to turn-in sharp in order to obtain a best approach for the second. If one stays to the outside for too long, one not only loses time, but also fails to settle the car properly for accelerating out of the second corner, which is essential for the high-speed left-turn that follows soon after. .



This approach simply would not be possible without the new suspension components that were fitted in December/January. The above picture clearly shows the difference in suspension travel on both sides. Upon exiting the first part of the S-curve, one has to allow for some settling time, a second or two will do.



Upon the turn-in of the second curve, #231 is stable and ready for picking up speed before….



Entering the second corner that can be driven in a straight line at full speed without disturbing the cars balance.



Picture courtesy by Richard Hammers ( http://www.rallyinthepicture.nl ).

The overall summary is that I am impressed with the new front suspension. I have often driven the same road with a various number of cars and with #231 it was not possible to do that with the same agility and control as on last Saturday.

More pictures of this event can be found on my facebook album