S2000

[jterp]

Anyone own one of these cars? Am thinking about getting one to race..

I drove one of the early ones a few years back.. wondering what any owners have to say about themm (?)

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Hallo jterp,

 

kennst du schon S2000 (Anzeige)? Dort ist vieles zu finden.

 

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[jterp]

No one?

[bleh]

the s2000 is a fun car. one of my good friends has one and he obviously loves to abuse it(4 clutches since hes gotten it). since its still under warrantee they just keep on replacing them. they are very difficult to mod for more hp without going fi. but if you are going fi..... the sky is the limit.

[thepolarfoxqx]

i've seen people push them as far as 265 naturally aspirated (and it was pricey). I've seen 315 with an s/c kit, but that was at 7,000rpms, it killed the windy motor thing it had going. It is a great out of the box track car, tight tight stiff handling and high widning motor turning through a close ratio tranny with a positive engagence shifter.

If you were looking for the best track car for the dough, my advice.

buy yourself a decent E36 M3, they have TONS of room to tune, if you tune them for track performance, they are amazing. Truly these cars have tons of room, and i've seen them track modified running with some pretty good 911s at porsche club track events. I've wanted to make one as a track project car myself.

[jterp]

I'd love to get an M3... this is a toy to beat on, however, so i'm not sure that i want to spend that kind of money. 1-2 year old S2000's are available pretty cheap if you look hard enough....

Honda replaces clutches under warranty? I thought that was a "wear item"

[thepolarfoxqx]

honda replaces clutches under warrantee to so many miles. It's like 12,000. I think after 4 they would start getting suspicious though.

You can get an E36 M3 for 15 grand if you look hard. The 3.2L engine has tons of room to tweak on it, and there are after market parts by the drum load. If you did some weight reduction (like pulling rear and possibly passenger seats out, stupid stuff, like the spare, the jack kit, pull sound insulation, stuff like that, you can get the weight down enough to make them competitive. With a supercharger kit, you can have that 3.2L making 400hp, new eibach springs, bilstein track shocks, stiffer roll bars, a racing clutch, track tires, you'd have your self one hell of a track car.

[jterp]

Interesting -- I have to admit that I am not much of a BMW officianado.. what does the E36 stand for..?

[thepolarfoxqx]

bmw gives code names to each of their models. The current generation 3 series is E46, the previous one (1992-1998) was E36, before that was E30.

The next 5 series is E60, the current one is E39, the previous was E34.

Current 7 series is E65, and so on and so on.

[LateNightCable]

The E36 has a ton of room for modification, thats' true, I have pointed that out once before, and it's one of the things I think it has over on the E46. That car is already maxed out, but E36 you can turn into whatever dream you want.

I have never driven an S2000 myself, but I have heard you have to rev that motor like crazy to get any torque out of it. I don't generally go for engines like that.

[jterp]

oh yeah, an s2000 redlines at 9k.... but its a neat little car to throw on the track for not a lot of money... I'm not building a dream car here, just something to cruise around town in and throw on the track every once in a while. How is the power on, say a '97 M3? Is it fast? 240hp right? DOes it have a lot of torque? Anyone have any 0-60 or quarter mile numbers to throw at me?

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Hallo jterp,

 

schau doch mal hier zum Thema Andere Automarken (Anzeige)? Eventuell gibt es dort etwas Passendes.

 

Der V16 Motor zum Selberbauen (Anzeige) ist auch genial.

[thepolarfoxqx]

i'm just saying that i think you can get more car for the money on E36.

it is a torquey 3.2L I6, redline is at 6,800rpms,

stock numbers read as follows for the 1997

0-60: 5.5 secconds

1320: 14.0 secconds

HP: 240 @ 6,000rpms

Torque: 236 @ 3,800rpms

[LateNightCable]

Hey step aside, let the M3 owner through.

Yeah, those are the right figures, and numbers.

My '97 M3 is great to drive, it's a very balanced car and the kind that will make you look like a good driver even if you're not. 0-60 in around 5.5, but this car is more about handling finnesse, it feels very grounded and stable. The engine makes its' power in a very free revving, linear fashion. I have had the opportunity to drive the original Euro model, which has 42 more horses, and honestly, there wasn't much of a difference to be felt behind the wheel.

In terms of things to look out for are the plastic impeller in the water pump on models before '97 although some 97s' too. They tended to fail after around 60,000 miles. Check the cooling system pressure to ensure the radiator neck is not cracked. Also stay away from drive through car washes as the engine managment computer can be prone to flooding with that. I have had no such problems and I hand wash my cars anyway, so my car has been great.

If you keep it maintained by the right people and don't scrimp, it will be a tough car. Mine being a sedan, I think it is an even better driving platform than the coupe - slightly more upright windshield and a little more rigid body overall.

[Thunf]

240 hp M3??? That's insane! I better go tune a Cosworth a little to get that. I've seen a couple of E36 M3s... 321hp playing with the throttle with spinning wheels... rather nice!

[LateNightCable]

The 240 horsepower M3 is quite sane, and fast, and I can spin the wheels too... Rather nice.

[thepolarfoxqx]

i can burn my tires all the way through 2nd gear with all 134hp on my 318i.

[jterp]

i'm very interested in this... you guys may have turned me on to a new lead.. I was bouncing back and forth between a porsche 928 (i love these cars-- v-8, tuneable, reasonably priced -- but they're hard to find with a 5 speed!) or an S2000 --- Opposite sides of the spectrum both capable street/track cars. I just looked on autotrader for 97 M3's and found 15 in my area... I think I will go drive one this weekend.

Tell me this, a good friend of mine used to tune M3's and he mentioned to me one time (we were talking cars at the bar, so it's a little hazy) that the 95-96 M3's --even though they have a 3.0L instead of the 3.2L motor - perform pretty much the same? Is this true? Like I said, I don't know much about BMW's. Any years I should stay away from? '98-99 look like they're a little out of the range i wanted to spend.. but ive found some '97's from 19k-23k... sound right? What kind of mileage can you expect out of one of these cars? If i bought one with 70k miles on it would i be asking for a lot of trouble?

Also, Latenight -- Is there any easy way for me to check the waterpump or the cooling system pressure while checking out the car? I'm used to older cars -- I've got an old 'cuda now -- I've had a few older 911's and a 427 cobra replica, as well as a few HEMI cars -- never had any of this fancy computer controlled equipment... Any help will be appreciated..

[LateNightCable]

The '95-'96 3.0 liter engine is a little less torquey, 225 lb.ft. @ 4,250 as opposed to 236 @ 3,800. But the main reason I would suggest going after a 3.2 model is just that major bugs had been worked out, like the plastic impeller mentioned earlier. The usable power of the two is very much the same though.

To check the coolant pressure in the field, you would need a cooling system pressure tester, I've seen them for $60-$80. Perhaps you could find someone who has one and borrow it. An adjustable one fits over the radiator opening, and you read from a gauge.

Other than a visual inspection of the water pump and such, I would find a car I was really serious about and just invest in a check-up at a BMW specialist. I have never experienced any of these problems on my car, and I take it in for regular proffessional maintenance.

20-25k sounds about right for a good '97. As for mileage, I've always believed that a car that's obviously been cared for and has full service records will tell you more concerning it's life span than the odometer. The cars themselves are built to last.

[thepolarfoxqx]

good things to look for on the old M3 the same on any car. The computer is relatively liveable, nothing TOO painful. There are supercharger kits out there (if you are going for ultimate performance) that can get the E36 delivering 0-60 runs in the low 4s. The 3.0L engine is much windier fealing, the 3.2 feels very strong and torquey the whole way through, the 3.0 feels like it's building as it goes. The 3.0 also uses ODBI instead of OBDII computers (if that makes any difference).

[jterp]

what do you guys think?

http://www.autotrader.com/findacar/vdetail.jtmpl?car_id=131496377&dealer_id=&car_year=1997&make=BMW&distance=25&max_price=&model=M3&advcd_on=n&end_year=1997&min_price=&certified=n&address=20895&search_type=used&advanced=n&start_year=1997&color=&cardist=14

[LateNightCable]

Hey, thats' my car! No, mines' a four-door.

From the ad it looks like a very fine example, regular maintenance at a BMW dealer and complete records, thats good. One owner, it has the Luxury package which is a nice touch. The price seems right. It looks like he replaced the stereo, Ask him where the factory one is.

This M3 looks like a good one to check out.

[jterp]

Checked it out... seems to run pretty good. handling was excellent.. Owner was a yuppie chic... she got kinda squeemish when i jumped on it at a light. What kind of quarter mile times do you expect out of this car? Is it tough (expensive) to maintain these cars?

[LateNightCable]

Yuppie chick huh? She had probably never seen her car go so fast. So did it impress you enough to want to spring for an M3?

In stock form, you can expect 1/4 mile times in the 14 seconds @ around 100 mph range. If you're looking for a drag racer, that isn't the M3's forte, it's a handling machine, and that will often allow it to take other cars that are potentially faster in a straight line.

Maintenance is always a little more expensive on European makes, but on M3 it's not unbearably so, as long as you don't have to make any big repairs. Regular preventitive maintenance goes a long way towards avoiding future big fixes. A lot can be saved just doing things at home as you know, like oil and fluids, anything big, you will want to take to a specialist so you know it's all done right.

[jterp]

It seemed fast, but like i said i only got up to about 75 and the poor girl looked like she was going to cry. I dont want a drag car at all, but i do want an autocross car so acceleration is important as well as handling. This girl's car was 22k... seems pricy since I'm going to race the hell out of it.. How would this car do, say at a real scca track event as opposed to an autocross? WHat kind of top speed can be expected? I really wanted to be able to pick something up for less than 20, but it did seem like a solid car.

[LateNightCable]

I'm not familier with all that they do at an SCCA track, but M3 for autocross should be great. It seems a shame though to get a nice axample and abuse it on a track. If you mainly want to race it, perhaps you could go for a less expensive one that was maybe not as well looked after cosmetically, but is still mechanically sound.

Top speed is limited to 137, I know there are ways to un-limit it though.

[jterp]

scca track event would be just like a pca track event (not sure if that helps) basically just a big track usually with some straight aways... but not enough room to hit 140 usually... Sometimes they'll do an event where they have an infield set up inside a large oval track.. so you enter half way down a straigh, have tight turns on the inside then exit further down the side of the oval and get to go 3/4 of the way around the oval and really open the car up. Being governed at 137 would kinda suck at this point, but those events are rare anyway.

Still debating between one of these and a 928... 928's are cheaper to get into and can hit some pretty high marks on the speedo.... Have pretty much dumped the s2000 idea... for now anyway..