Camaro SS v. 95 M3

["HOTROD930" <HOTROD930@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I agree that the M3 is not a dragstrip style race car.  Extensive
modifications including a supercharger or nitrous would probably be required
to keep up with a V8 Camaro.

My '86 325 has "essential" mods for the eta engine;  modified airbox, Jim C.
chip, i exhaust, and 3.25 LSD rear gears, and it is an incredibly smooth car
to drive, also lots of fun around town with the wide, tall torqueband.  The
handling and brakes are great, and I've even had it out to Thunderhill
Raceway.  I'm tempted to take it to the dragstrip just because I'm curious,
but fear that I'll be saddened to find that it runs mid or high 17's.  16's
would be okay, but still not like a car with nitrous, a super or turbo
charger, or a V8.  I love driving it around, but don't try to race any V8
cars.  I don't really try to race anything.

I used to have a 1969 Oldsmobile 442 (now that someone else mentioned having
a 1968 442).  Though mine was bone stock with 160k on the motor ("built like
a one and three quarter ton watch", the ads used to say), it was a large
400ci V8 that ran very well and would run 14's in the quarter mile bone
stock probably without much practice.  I miss that car, it handled very well
(for a heavy domestic car), and I plan to own another someday.  I blew the
engine driving down Highway 280 on the San Francisco Peninsula trying to
race a BMW 535i.  My engine just wasn't built for sustained high speeds,
probably just over double the 55 limit, and I didn't have a tachometer.
(The damn thing would still start, spun bearings and all, a couple of times
later when I had to move my "disabled" car.)  I learned new respect for BMWs
then, and I find myself constantly appreciating the way that it feels on the
freeway at higher speeds.  It seems like the shock tower brace, 15" wheels,
KYB shocks, and Eibach springs have really made this car as firm as it
should have been originally.  It feels like a race car to me, and hasn't
cost me nearly as much as my 1983 Chevy El Camino.  The engine in my truck
is a V8 not unlike my old 442 engine, a "stroker" 383 ci, 4 bolt mains,
everything done "right".  The lesson I learned from my 442 resulted in my
having a transmission builder set up a 4 speed automatic on my truck, with a
lockup converter, and I can run 3.73 gears without having to spin more
bearings on the freeway at speed.

Please pardon my rambling.  It's late, and it's been another 11 hour day at
my new shop.

- -Rod Birch