Posted by Peter Florance - First Fives Dictator for Life on August 12, 2005 at 04:20:22 from 70.174.33.144
In Reply to: please allow me to introduce myself... posted by mik on August 11, 2005 at 21:59:39:
I think you'll like the car. If you've driven a number of old Porsches, you'll already know that they are not all maintained to the same level. Same with e12's. Old suspension parts, less than ideal tires (stock size is 195-70-14 yet I've seen many with mud and snow 205-70-14 which is a little tractor-ish) etc. Like the 911 these cars have mechanical distributors yet many car enthusiasts have either forgotten or never knew how to time one. So they may not be tuned well. Again easy to fix. Brakes if in good repair are impressive. Many are not. Brake hoses if original should be replaced without question. If car has sat for more than a year, automatically change the master cylinder to avoid nasty surprise during panic stop.
Once above is checked and/or corrected a 528i car runs pretty well. Understeer which will contrast to the 911. Can you say 'trail-brake'?
I would check the newbie faq and the cylinder head FAQ before you go look at the car. If you could enlist an e12 owner to meet you to see the car, even better.
Once you get the car, you've got over 60 tech article to pour through. If you're lucky, you'll break the motor and get to put a 3.5L in it. (:
Then you're talking about a car with no increase in weight yet 0-60 times of 6.9-7.2 seconds depending on which motor. And torque curve that is nice and wide. But even the US 2.8L runs pretty well if tuned correctly.
Let us know how we can help!