Poking my head in - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

greg · 15th August 2002, 00:50

I've been pretty silent for 3 weeks - I'm still alive! Just home from 3 weeks up in the wine country - now I have a little over 24 hours to pour over a mountain of mail to find the documents I need to get in to the Concorso Italiano and BMW corral at the Monterey Historics. If I get enough time tomorrow I'll pop up to Sears Point to meet/greet and take some photos, and perhaps make the trip to Monterey with folks who are going down from there - but don't count on me.

Today I had a little 'encounter' with a Mitsu 3000 VR4 Turbo (no slouch.) I'm ashamed to say I had to show him who was the boss. He stayed pretty close until we got over 120 and it took me to 155+ to prove my point after which he admitted defeat and backed off. After I slowed, I heard what sounded like excessive wind noise from the right side - I pulled off and inspected to find the under-body plastic that goes from the rear of the front wheel to under the passenger door had come loose up front and gotten sucked down from the high speed run - it was doubled over and dragging on the ground. (Some of the front attachment holes had already suffered a little damage, which no doubt contributed to the failure.) Hope the dealer has one in stock for me to install tomorrow or I'll have to jury rig it back into place. But there is no question it was the super-high speed that ultimately sucked it down.

Wahoo!

Hope to see lots of you in Monterey!

/Greg

pdiack · 15th August 2002, 02:28

Good to see you back. I was kind of going thru Greg post -withdrawals!! I have only posted some on the board, but when I come and check out what is going on - I make it a point to look at threads you've contributed to (the responses are always excellent).

I'm sure I speak for all of us on the east coast - please, please take some pics from Sears Point and Monterey!!

Chris Foote · 15th August 2002, 05:37

Nice to hear from your Greg. I really hate those 3000GT's, very poorly built and an ancient design (came out in '91?) In fact I'm surprised it was still on the road

-Chris

BlueBomber · 15th August 2002, 16:05

I thought we were going to have to post a clutch question or detailing question just to bring back Greg.

Hope you had a great time in wine country!

Lonman · 15th August 2002, 18:10

VR4's are not 3000GT's........It's the 276bhp rally engine in a family car.

Richard in NC · 16th August 2002, 03:21

Lonman;
In the states, Mitsubishi has used the VR-4 name on Galants and 3000GTs. I had two 3000GT VR-4s ('91 & '95). They weren't the e39's build quality but not bad for their price (better than a Vette). The AWD gave them awesome off-the-line traction. Motor Trend got one to 60mph in 4.8 seconds by dumping the clutch at 6000 RPM!!! They did have too much weight and AWD power loss to keep up with an M5 at >100mph when stock. However, $3000 in mods found 450hp and would give an M5 quite a run. I met several guys with VR-4s that could do mid 12s in the 1/4 mile.