Wheel hop & 0 to 60?

["bmw" <bmw@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi All,

The other day I was trying to see if I could get 0 to 60mph times as claimed by numerous magazines for my 1997 M3 coupe.
Basically anything less than 6 seconds. This was a totally unscientific test using nothing more than a sport stop watch controlled by a passenger. 
(of course that is an additional weight penalty of 160lbs.)

On the first road surface i tried, which was a black top road that had been resurfaced with tiny round pebbles years before, I was only able to 
attain approx 6.7 sec time. But this kind of surface, typical on many city and rual roads in wisconsin is, I think, quite slippery compared to a new
black top road. No wheel hop occurred during these runs from 0 to 60. But I could find no combination of shift points or starting RPM to get better than
6.7 seconds.

Next I tried 2 runs on a much newer, smooth, asphalt road, and realized that any attempt to launch the car with a side step of the clutch resulted in a 
large amount of rear wheel hopping!  I only tried it a couple of times because it felt too violent and I did not want to damage the car.
I tried side stepping the clutch at 3000 rpm and 4000 rpm and both times resulted in the same wheel hopping behavior.

Can anyone tell me if that is normal or if something is wrong with my car (or me :) ? Perhaps tire inflation is not right. The rear tires are Pilots with about 
50% tread left. This is not a car that I have beat, it has 24000 miles and runs great and has been carefully maintained. I  don't plan any more clutch 
drops, but I would like to know what other people have found with their M3's.

And if anybody want to share how to get the best 0 to 60 times, that would be interesting. From my testing I can see it is not as easy as one might think.
Please be detailed, i.e. Best road surface, temp, initial RPM, shifting RPM, number of gears used, etc.


Thanks much,
Rich

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