Well let me tell you -- This trip sure was enjoyable.
Let me fill you in with some quick background. Al525i came up to charlotte saturday morning to help fix the oil feed line to the turbo. That job was done in about 30-45 minutes! With our leftover time we decided to lift up my rear end a bit because I was tired of the negative camber and scraping. There are 6 levels of adjustment which you use a C-clip to adjust -- we had it on the highest ride height -- which is actually still lower than the stock ride height.
Well on the way to Raleigh from Charlotte around exit 76 on highway I-85 we go over a bump and this ungodly "THUNK THUNK" comes from the driver's side rear of the car. I pull off the exit immediantly and notice that my car is slanting down pretty bad. I pull to an empty parking lot to notice that my driver's side rear was lowered a good 3 inches -- rubbing tires and scraping the ground! It turns out the C clip had worn out and didn't stick in the groove anymore.
After 4 hours of shadetree mechanics, I bent the C-clip back into place by propane torching it and clamping it down. Nick, the owner of the white turbo 533i, drove down to help me out! We get back on the rode (with a semi-sloppy rear suspension... i think that I blew a bilstein) -- and head towards Raleigh again.
I pull up and we start looking at the white 533i Turbo and WOW! The paint is shiney and flawless, the interior and seats are in superb condition, the shifter didn't even have much play in it! I also notice a giant 3" exhaust pipe sticking out the rear. I inspect under the hood, which looked clean. I then went under the car and inspected -- It was very clean minus a small drip of oil around the bellhousing (couldn't find source.... engine only has 10k miles on it).
Another thing I noticed was the snazzy getrag 265 tranny that was installed on the car! I really couldn't find anything wrong with it!
So we fired it up... man... this thing is LOUD -- The exhaust is a straight 3" pipe from the turbo with only a high-flow cat in the middle. It has a very deep and throaty exhaust that just hums when you give it gas.
So now it's time to take this thing on the road.
We drive down the neighborhood and get onto the highway. Around the neighborhood he shows off the tight suspension and the awsome brakes. On the highway Nick floors the car and this thing sings up to 100mph like it was NOTHING. Whats more amazing is that it's only running 6psi intercooled. I quickly noticed that this car has more pull than my car.
After the run with his car, I took him out in mine at 10psi (I only put it to 10 to show off -- I usually only run about 6-7psi). I pulled on the highway to about 80mph -- I don't go any higher because I run snow tires.
After that run we both agreed that his 6psi was noticably more powerful than my 10psi. That's how big of a difference intercooling makes! We also noticed that his car spools much much faster than my car because of his 3 inch exhaust. I was amazed. The only difference between our setups is that he has a great 3 inch exhaust and an intercooler. Those two pieces alone gave him a huge power gain over my car.
In conclusion -- Alex (Yellow) is going to have a GREAT time with this car. Once a fresh turbo is installed -- this is going to be one awsome car!
The best part? It only cost him $2000!!!