The truth about lowered suspension...

[orangecurry]

I believe the germans have a very VERY severe MOT once the car gets past a certain age; 10 years? - it is deliberate to make running older cars un-economic, so they off-load them cheap.

[Royalratch]

That's great for us tho!

The TÃœV is pretty nasty. They made me change my discs, but all new left beam headlamps, fire extuingisher and winter tyres. They don't joke.

[Morat]

I dunno about Tripoli but I bottom my (undropped) touring in Yorkshire sometimes - not a nice feeling.

[dobbie82]

I dunno about Tripoli but I bottom my (undropped) touring in Yorkshire sometimes - not a nice feeling.

I can bottom out my on-stilts-318i up here! not big, not clever, rather scary sometimes too! some hills are stupidly steep.

[Martinaston]

I can happily bottom out my suspension just going to the shops on the poxy speed bumps, we don't need a tougher MOT to get the older cars off the road around here. They normaly fall apart after about six years thanks to all the "traffic calming"
Royalratch, any lower than the mtec gear and you won't make it around london in one piece

[iDreamBeemer]

dude, if you have an iS then you should have mtech springs. gives 15mm off standard already.

in answer to your original question why lower? its for both performance, stiffer ride plus lower centre of gravity AND looks.

I run 16" alpinas and lowered 35mm all round and I have no problems, no undue wear and tear over normal but then I dont do the horrific milage you seem to be doing! also clearance etc is not a problem either.

If you only want to drop the front follow pacerpetes suggestion and cut the spring! Not something I would chose to do myself but I'm not in a position to criticise (I just dont know!)

[autobahn_stormer]

talking of bottoming out, thats why my E30 will not get lower, just new stuff, the stock drive is very nice I find and i too spend alot of time in the Lake District and sometimes the roads just drop away, anyone whos driven around brigsteer will know this!! I smashed my newly suspended Sierra LX up there and that hurt so the BMW isnt going anywhere near the ground! Ive also had a lowered Rover Coupe and that thing just didnt wanna know when it came to potholes, speedbumps etc etc and thats what matters nowadays!

[Andyboy]

Vielen Danke mein geschätzter Kollege.

Kein problem Schatzi !! Just kidding dear - and chill out, it's only a bit of harmless p1sstaking!

Actually the BMW Puetuelring service dept story reminds me of the time I drove my fully laden C reg 323i Auto (C134MDP, bless it) off the boat at Cuxhaven. I lived in Hamburg at the time and I had to drive from Cux because Hamburg ferry port had been closed. It was a bastard of a hot day and the poor thing behaved itself. But crawling trough heavy traffic near Eppendorf the coolant warning light came on. Yep, pin hole in the top hose. So I added some Volvic and made it all the way to the biggest BMW dealer (Niederlassung) where I presented my hot and bothered self at the parts desk and asked for a 323i top hose. None in stock - but they had a 325i hose which is different to clear the distributor cap but it does the job.

So right in their immaculately tiled car park and in full view of smartly dressed International Germans (Hamburg is very wealthy) I changed my top hose, greeny blue coolant running in a neat stream downhill.

Thankfully the car was no worse off for it's experience, lived in Germany for a while and did a 100 mph dash up to the ferry port in Esberg, Denmark when DFDS kindly closed the Cuxhaven ferry port for winter.


I was in Munich recently in the old 7 Series.

Nice place but very conservative although it has some good restaurants and jazz clubs. Hamburg is a lot more exciting and Berlin vastly cheaper that either.

Recognise this place??


The parts of Munich that weren't flattened by the RAF and USAAF in '44 are still verypicturesque.

[pacerpete]

Everett, i like the last shot, is it just a coincidence that your executive chariot is jauntily docked next to a rubbish receptacle or is that a bit of irony (wheres stuey ?) going on ?

[Royalratch]

Can't figure out how to post pictures otherwise I have one of my car outside BMW HQ.

My first run in with BMW Germany was when my car slipped out on a cobbled pavement in the rain and my front end smashed into, of all places, a German police station. I jumped out and the ONLY people around were an American tourist family.

'Uhh, I thunk you'd better report that sir.'

Needless to say, I sped off convinced I the hounds had already been released.

I drove staright to BMW and left the car in their car park - late night. Returned in the morning and not 1, not 2 but 4 BMW techincians came out to survey the damage and have a right old chuckle over the right hand drive.

New Control arms, tie rod ends, wing and trim. 900EUR (may have been DM back then). Gave me a (then spanking new) E46 for the weekend.

They said I was fine, these 'old timers' are very very strong jah?

[Andyboy]

Can't figure out how to post pictures otherwise I have one of my car outside BMW HQ.

My first run in with BMW Germany was when my car slipped out on a cobbled pavement in the rain and my front end smashed into, of all places, a German police station. I jumped out and the ONLY people around were an American tourist family.

'Uhh, I thunk you'd better report that sir.'

Needless to say, I sped off convinced I the hounds had already been released.

I drove staright to BMW and left the car in their car park - late night. Returned in the morning and not 1, not 2 but 4 BMW techincians came out to survey the damage and have a right old chuckle over the right hand drive.

New Control arms, tie rod ends, wing and trim. 900EUR (may have been DM back then). Gave me a (then spanking new) E46 for the weekend.

They said I was fine, these 'old timers' are very very strong jah?

Mail me the pic and I'll put it up. I love some of the German phrases, 'Oldtimer' is a classic as is 'youngtimer'. The best one has to be bodystyling which one of the tuners (AC Schnitzer, that purveyor of hideous wrongness) called 'optical tuning'

The Bavarians, devout Catholics as they are, alsways seem to greet you on the phone with 'Grus Gott' (Greet God) which the Northern Germans find very amusing. It's a genuine p155take in Hamburg to greet someone this way. But the Hamburgers greet you with 'Moin' to which you reply with 'Moin Moin'. Hamburg is a very 'British' city where anything British such as the Mini (old and new) and Burberry are very fashionable. Hell, they even have English Day every year where chaps play cricket. To be English in Hamburg is a very good thing.
The 'Moin' thing is short for 'Morning' btw. A fascinating country - hard to believe they got up to so much mischief in the 30's and 40's but there you go. Cultured, but possibly easily lead!

Great food though.

[Theo]

Great food though

Nothing better than a good schweinebraten mit kartoffel knodel!

[Andyboy]

Here's the 7 just outside Oberammergau looking towards the Alps. That's Dan a snapper btw. This place is paradise on earth, it really is. Bastard cold in winter though.


Here's a very early 1966 BMW 1600 at the Deutches Museum at Theresienweiss, same location as above and 'that' rubbish bin............

[Andyboy]

Great food though

Nothing better than a good schweinebraten mit kartoffel knodel!

Absolutely. The Knodel is a Bavarian thing (sort of a potato based dumpling) too.
A few years ago I was in the small town at the base of the mountain where Hitler's mountain house is. I was about to order a Pizza but for some reason looked up at the top of the mountain - where you could see the 'Eagles nest'. Hmmmm



'Der Fuehrer is watching you at all times, Ja'.



So a Viener Schnitzel and several Loewenbrau's later.............

A superb place to visit. It's odd how the Bavarian state would not allow the Eagle's nest to be blown up by the Americans and indeed made it a tourist attraction whilst the Berliners concreted over the bunker.
In this area, also visit the Austrian town of W*nk. They even have a small railway called the W*nkbahn.

[Rosc0PColtrane]

Andy, what's with the red triangle mod on your roof? An Alpiiineerrr addition?

[Theo]

Oh dear, all this talk of hearty german food is making my abused and neglected student stomach rather jealous!

W*nk sounds an interesting place, I drove through a little village in Swizerland called C*nt, I kid you not!

[Andyboy]

Probably named after me.............

[Royalratch]

There's a camp site on the way to the Austrian ski resorts (those germans love to camp) and it's called 'Hell.'

The sign for the exit is says 'Camping Hell' ....

I'm going in 2 weeks so I'll snap it in action.

Hire car this time I'm aftraid, gotta go easy on the iS these days - not too much tho...

[Andyboy]

What about the factory that made door latches for BMW and others.






B.U.M

[Andyboy]

It's a pic I robbed from a 1973 Daily Mail motorshow guide. It's from an article about recycling and is the first of four photos of a (very tidy) 1959 Mini being crushed into a cube
The jist of the article was about the fact that whole cars were being crushed and not stripped for parts and ferrous/non ferrous metals separated.
The stuff that was getting scrapped in the seventies was unreal.

[MONSPORT42]

This is a 40mm drop with 16" Alpinas (8" on the the rear). These were Bilstein Springs (called Terra) on Bilstein Sports shocks. Recently changed to Ventura all round for a slightly more comfortable ride but only prompted by a broken front spring!