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Blog Archives for January 05
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27 January 2005. Blog entry by Bimmerman.
I got the strut bar fixed on my ride last weekend and was quite happy with the purchase.
I detected immediate improvement (not obvious but it's definitely there) on my way back
from the workshop. There is a long sweeping corner which I normally take at about
75-80mph. I would normally have to apply a little brake midway when the car starts to
under-steer, especially when I'm going on the fast side. With the strut bar in place, the
car clearly does not under-steer as much. I took the corner at about 80mph and did not have
to ease off the accelerator. You can feel the front of the car is more 'together'. I've
tried other e34s with strut bars and must admit that sometimes it doesn't seems to make
any difference. From my observation, my guess is that the strut bar does seem to work
better for cars on sportier (lowered and stiffer) suspension setups. Anyway, when I showed
my friend the shiny addition in my engine bay, he felt it was more cosmetic than
functional. And also because most people have one on theirs!
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18 January 2005. Blog entry by Bimmerman.
I saw an e34 strut bar for sale whilst at the workshop last weekend. What attracted me to
this particular strut bar was that it looks similar to the racing dynamics design but
only cost one third the price. Also it seems to be well constructed and light - supposedly
made of aluminum alloy. There was no information
on the manufacturer or the country of origin so I decided to hang on to the purchase until
I can find out more about the strut bar. The other reason why I held back the purchase was
because when I added a strut bar to my previous ride, I couldn't detect any difference in
the handling department. I guess it was purely for show if anything. Still, I'm very
tempted to add the strut bar because it doesn't cost all that much and I've seen e34s
where the strut towers have definitely moved just a little bit closer together - probably
about 1/4 of an inch. If adding a strut bar can help prevent the latter, that's good
enough reason for me to spend the money this weekend!
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13 January 2005. Blog entry by Bimmerman.
I couldn't wait forever for the dealer to fix the Alpine head unit so I ended up getting
a Nakamichi receiver/head unit and a MusicBank 5-disc changer. In terms of
CD sound
quality, the MF-51 probably has a slight edge over the Alpine. There's more clarity and
also 'air'/space around singers. Nevertheless, the trademark smoothness associated with
single-bit converters is still there which is a good thing because I listen to a lot of
female vocals for long periods. The difference in sound quality is probably due to
comparing a rather old mid-range Alpine model against a more current player. For me, the
best part about the Nakamichi is its solid build and also it looks right at home in the
BMW dash with its clean layout and basic amber-coloured display.
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