[ctviggen]

I was going to do a couple of body shots today, but it get dark before I finished the yardwork - possibly will get a few in a day or so.

I had thought that run-flats would ride stiff, but with the suspension on this car it feels almost like my like my Navigator, which has gas bags...

This thing will do 0-60 in 5 seconds flat, if you let the automatic shift for you. Haven't tried that yet since it is not broken in yet, but I have had it up to 120mph! We have out=r own little autobahn between Charlotte and Rock Hill

Isn't 120 mph enough to get your license suspended?  See, eg, the following:

http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/laws.html

I had a Saab Viggen with 250hp, 258ftlb of torque and I found the car to be too fast for any road.  Your car has 100+ hp and torque more than that car.  I no longer own a fast car because unless you take the car to the track, you can't drive the car anywhere near its potential and you end up speeding all over the place without even realizing it.   Please slow down and drive safely.  If you're driving 120mph, you're almost double the speed of other drivers on the road.

[zybar]

I plan to buy one of these when they come to the US next year:



Abarth 500c

Martin

Just saw this car for the first time in a recent Top Gear episode.

Looks like a fun little car.

George

[doug s.]

I plan to buy one of these when they come to the US next year:



Abarth 500c

Martin

me too - if i could bring myself to buy a new car.  i simply can't do it.  and, alas, i do prefer the hard tops...

doug s.

[jqp]

Great pics of the new ride.

Love the color and the wheels.

George

Yeah the colors are limited, and I couldn't go with another grey/silver car. I Like black but it is so black all the time and of course hotter than hot in the summer. This Le Mans Blue Metalic is nice and I decided on that color. Fortunately the dealership had this color 335is.

I love the wheels too - never had anything close to this 19" style.

[jqp]

I could be crazy but that parking lot looks like Phillips Place in Charlotte, NC or SouthPark. 

Nice ride!

Thanks, yes that is the "Nordstrom's parking deck" off of Fairview. We are practically neighbors.

Pretty good place for pictures because on a weeknight it is not very crowded, I may do some more when I have more time to plan the shots.

[jtwrace]

Thanks, yes that is the "Nordstrom's parking deck" off of Fairview. We are practically neighbors.

Pretty good place for pictures because on a weeknight it is not very crowded, I may do some more when I have more time to plan the shots.

   I'm down in that area all the time...

[jqp]

Isn't 120 mph enough to get your license suspended?  See, eg, the following:

http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/laws.html

I had a Saab Viggen with 250hp, 258ftlb of torque and I found the car to be too fast for any road.  Your car has 100+ hp and torque more than that car.  I no longer own a fast car because unless you take the car to the track, you can't drive the car anywhere near its potential and you end up speeding all over the place without even realizing it.   Please slow down and drive safely.  If you're driving 120mph, you're almost double the speed of other drivers on the road.

Yeah, no question it is enough to get the license suspended - and I would probably not be as fortunate as Kyle Bush - 45 days is not really that long.
http://www.thatsracin.com/2011/08/23/72353/kyle-busch-pleaded-guilty-to-speeding.html

That's why I did it on the Highway in a 65 zone where I could see for miles, and also most drivers were doing 75+ in the 65mph zone. I waited until no one was ahead of me for a long ways and just went up to 120 for a split second. It didn't take long to get there With this car you do have to be careful. Fortunately, driving it at moderate speeds is a lot of fun. Normally, I just drive it normally, enjoy the cornering too. I have mostly contented my self accelerating up to 45-50 in a 45 zone, and then just enjoying the evening air. It's now my daily driver, so I have to drive like that.

This one will do 150 before the limiter kicks in. It will do 0-60 in 4.8 seconds (they say), 5.0 seconds in automatic. I will likely never go over 90, as when passing someone on a 70mph section of US 74. I will surely check out the 0-60 in automatic at least once when the car is fully broken in.

[jqp]

What's wrong with this picture?

[doug s.]

What's wrong with this picture?

you mean something wrong w/the car in the pic?  it looks like the front of the hood may be slightly misaligned w/the top of the bumper cover & grille, but it's really hard to tell in a pic...  and, it looks the same in the 31 aug 11 pic on the nordstrom's parking deck...

or, is this a trick question?   

doug s.

[PMAT]

Very nice car. I've worked for BMW for a few years. It is a precision machine from the car gods. Save your money for tires, grip has it's tradeoff  and never put stupid tires on it. I have seen many owners spend a little less on tires and then the car doesn't feel right. Then they have to replace them with the real deal. Have your free maintenance done at the best dealer not just the local one. Have fun.

[Syrah]

Well done.  I just noticed this thread, and the 335 is exactly what I was going to recommend.  I think it has the best styling BM has done in a long time, really nice clean lines.  And I love the hardtop convertible.  I'm hoping that is my next car too.  I am green with envy.

[DS-21]

That's possibly the worst car foisted on the US market in the past two decades.

The basic design is just back-asswards: weighs a quarter-ton more than a Miata, yet has less than a third of the cargo space (1.5 cubic ft vs ~5 cubic ft), AND the trunk opens from the middle. AND it has a giant hump in the middle. One can barely fit a gallon of milk back there!

The top is a pup tent is designed like something left in the trenches of Flanders by a British Expeditionary Force ca. 1915. 

Build quality is, not to put too fine a point on it, abysmal. Interior door handles falling off is par for the course.

Oh, and it's no roomier inside than a Miata, either. (Coming from someone who owns a Miata, and at 6'1/220 is at the outer edge of size to fit comfortably in that car.)

The problem with owning a Miata for almost a decade* is that very little else feels a little worth of comparison at legal speeds. A well-sorted Miata makes every BMW and Porsche feel like a GMC lorry in twists. Even an S2000 feels dull-edged in comparison. (At road-legal speeds, at least. At very high speeds, a Miata will be a bit twitchy but a S2000 or Boxster/Cayman will come into its own. BMW's and 911's will still feel like lorries, though.)

The one exception is the Lotus Elise, which is what I would own right now if the sills weren't so darn wide. Getting in/out of the thing is just not easy enough for a daily driver. (I'm one of those odd people with a 2-seat roadster as my daily driver. My Citroën DS-21 is too old to serve that role.)

*Mine's a 2001SE, the special edition for that year, which was painted British Racing Green and had a tan ragtop, tan leather interior, and Nardi wood steering wheel/shift knob. Few aftermarket mods, such as Panasport's Minilite-replica wheels, metal mesh grille, and an Enthuza cutback exhaust. Also, audio upgrades including a McIntosh headunit, augmented wideband speaker system (Aura Whisper/JBL 116H-1), Alpine crossover/processor with Audyssey MultEQ XT, and Clearwater footwell sub. Here's two shots of it from a couple years ago, with the hardtop on.

[timind]

What's wrong with this picture?

It's not my driveway.

[jqp]

doug s. is correct!

There are 2 latch points for the hood - in this picture you see that the right side is out of alignment - because the right latch is not fastened.

There is no dipstick for this engine - only an electronic dipstick, so I rarely open the hood. Two of the times I have opened it I did not press down on both sides, so in both of these pictures you see the same gap!

I actually made an appointment to get the hood aligned correctly! Then I learned that it was user error.

Syrah, this is an amazing car! Mine is a 335is which gives it a few additional features:

Black trim on the front
M-sport steering wheel
313 rims
extra horsepower and torque
additional oil cooler and water cooler
some M-sport trim on the interior (aluminum trim, etc)
black chrome exhaust tips
Increased top-speed limiter
Sport exhaust
Sport suspension

Mine also has the 7 speed Dual Clutch Transmission

Some of these features can be added to a 335i after market, but it is often cheaper to get a 335is.

[TheChairGuy]

Saw this today - maybe helpful with Spring around the corner and folks thinking convertibles

http://www.leftlanenews.com/the-10-best-convertibles-under-45000.html