Re: SEX i have a variety of questions on my 535is. (archive)

Your first investment should be a Bentley manual. It will pay you back the first time you don't have to pay 2 billable hours of diagnostic time to the dealer.

As far as upgrades, before you do anything, decide what you want the car to end up like. If you're looking for a street car with some performance over stock, that's one thing; an all-out track/autox car is entirely another. Once you've decided, plan out your upgrades and do them in logical sequence. If you need wheels and tires, fine, but 17x8s with low-profile rubber are pretty serious and are going to take a lot of the compliance out of the suspension. If you want to tighten up the suspension, do it all (bars, springs, shocks/struts) at once, as a package of similarly tuned components. You'll find that the most expensive thing to upgrade is the motor, so leave it alone at least until everything else is done. Good luck.

i can only hope the "SEX" in the subject caught your attention...

i'm 17, a bit naive to the whole "car" thing but reasonably educated given my age, and eager to learn... i was incredibly lucky enough for my father to trip across a beautiful 87 535is just before my 16th birthday, and for that i am eternally grateful. but anyway, after reading this forum for the past couple days, i have a few questions of my own that i was hoping somebody could maybe shed some light on:

#1) when starting in fairly cold weather, my engine promptly dies if i don't give it some gas to keep the revs up a bit for 15 seconds or so, is this fairly normal? is there any simple way of fixing this?

#2) after putting up with the Michelin TRX tires for over a year, it's time to get some real wheels and tires. right now what i'm looking at are some new Kosei 17x8s and Pirelli P7000 supersports. any comments on these wheels or tires? and is Tirerack.com a good place to get these?

#3) does anybody actually know the 0-60 time on this car?? the best estimate i have is somewhere under 7.5 according to an original BMW ad promoting the new 535is back in the 80s, where it says "0-60 in under 7.5 seconds..." as part of the blurb. so does that mean 7.49 seconds or what?

#4) i'm sure i'll get all sorts of answers to this one, but can't hurt to ask.... given that i'm on a teenager only working part time, i'm rather strapped for cash.... so what would be the #1 best bang-for-buck upgrade can i make for handling? i have friends who say "sway bars are where it's at" whereas others say just blow all your cash on the tires... they all have valid points, but if i have a few hundred bucks, what should i actually spend it on?

please forgive any naivety or newbieness i'm displaying in regard to the workings of the forum, but i'm very eager to learn everything i can about cars, especially the 535is in particular... i can already say i honestly love my car, i can't imagine a luckier 17 year old guy the world. any help/advice is much much appreciated!

--ethan
87 535is 165k

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Re: SEX i have a variety of questions on my 535is. ethan 15:46 9/17/2000 (0)

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