The 545 is not a RACE CAR but you can still take it RACING.

All the cars you mentioned aren't race cars either. Even an M3 or 911 are compromises between a sports car and everyday usability. Take a stock M3 onto a race track and the brakes will die in just a few laps. Yes, the 545 is a pig compared to these cars, but its place on the track is no lesser just because a lot of owners are like you - too conservative to actually push their cars to the limits. Just ask a lot of the European owners on this board - they regularly take their 535d's onto the Nurburgring or other tracks in the UK.

The 545 might not be competitve against other cars on the track, but it sure is fun!
I'll see you at the BMWCCA AutoX and DE events!
Oh wait, no I won't...

 

Jet,

Sorry, I disagree. A STOCK 911, 1985-19 whatever will KILL a 545 on any track, unless that track has a 3 mile straight away. Especially a 545 Steptronic. So will an old M3 (stock) and a Legacy WRX, and probably a Neon Turbo as well. No, the brakes will not fade on a stock 911 in a few laps. That said, if we were racing from Paris to Munich, the 530 Diesel would win.

Do not take a $55,000 four door, aut0 trans sedan on a track. If you lease or financed the car, you really cannot fairly do that as you do not own the car. If you crash, you are out a bit of money. A nice 944 can be bought for $5000, a 911 $15,000 to $25,000. More fun and faster on the track for sure.

The "Ring" is not a typical track. It is a 15 mile section of roads and track and that is completly different from a road course that you would normally find. Most road courses in the USA and Canada are 1.5 to 3 miles long and the corners determine who is fastset, not the straights.



Sorry, a 5 series is NOT for racing; either on the street or the track. I have a 545; the best car I ever owned, but it is not built for RACING. It is a pig around corners, I mean real corners (like on a track or canyon road), and it is just way too big and expensive.

Buy a used mid 90's M3, Porsche 911 or Turbo Subaru WRX and go to a track day to learn how to drive fast, race; and if you wreck the car, it will only cost you $20,000 not $50,000.

Or, buy a used Mustang GT and get your Ya-Yas doing brake torques, dougnuts, third gear smokin hole shots instead of wrecking your nice BMW (or your Dads?)!
[/quote]

The 545 is not a RACE CAR but you can still take it RACING.

All the cars you mentioned aren't race cars either. Even an M3 or 911 are compromises between a sports car and everyday usability. Take a stock M3 onto a race track and the brakes will die in just a few laps. Yes, the 545 is a pig compared to these cars, but its place on the track is no lesser just because a lot of owners are like you - too conservative to actually push their cars to the limits. Just ask a lot of the European owners on this board - they regularly take their 535d's onto the Nurburgring or other tracks in the UK.

The 545 might not be competitve against other cars on the track, but it sure is fun!
I'll see you at the BMWCCA AutoX and DE events!
Oh wait, no I won't...
[/quote]

 

Doug751, understand and agree with most of your points, but a stock 1985 911 isn't going to be able to "kill" the 545. The newer ones will, but not those ones..

 

Doug751, understand and agree with most of your points, but a stock 1985 911 isn't going to be able to "kill" the 545. The newer ones will, but not those ones..
[/quote]

 

Oh excuse me Mr. i often relate racing as driving very hard. Of course the 5 series is not for racing but even your cars mentioned above aren't for racing. A 911 GT3 is another story on the other hand, but even that one isn't for racing. It wasn't desgined to race all day long on a track.

Things in Europe are quite different, and we in other contries that simply don't get too often to a racetrack, sometimes feel ok to drive hard when the conditions are met (traffic, weather...). I was making remarks about a good stand start in a 5 series auto and good for driving hard, even round a track.

I bought my 535d for everyday usability and good performance with decent consuption. 95% of all the driving is NORMAL but at that 5% i sometimes let it loose, driving hard. And no doing that ain't gonna wreck the car. It's not that fragile. It's a sport sedan and it was aimed to those drivers that want to drive a bit sportier than the average driver.
But in the end everyone drives however likes...depending of course of habits, age, posibilities...
Guess you never smoked the tires in a normal car (meaning not "RACE" cars like m3s and gts and whatever). If you did then omg, u probably caused a little wear on it. Poor car. Don't do that again because you might wreck it.

 

And btw yes...another thing...the 5 series is quite heavy but hey almost all the cars today are around that weight. Except some hardcore machines (CSL, Gt3....). The latest Audi RS4 is around that weight also, and it's in the M5 price range. Would you call that car a "RACE" car? I would in a way. Let's put it this way it's more of a race car than a 5 series and costs more and the weight is about the same. Almost all the cars that are built today can pe taken on a track from time to time. Look at Top Gear, they even put a time post with every car they think it's suited to go around their track. The car they have for the "Star in resonable priced car" is a Suzuki with 100bhp, and it is the only car they have for that part of the show. Of course from time to time it's being revised by some mechanics but Jeremy said all the poor car has done from day one when it was born is go round that track.
Should i say more? The 535d when their proffesional racing driver, got it round the track it came out with (I call it) similar time as the bmw M3. In fact it was exactly 1 31.8 seconds. I find it hard to bealive it came out with the same time as the m3...but even so it couldn't have been like 40 seconds behind it. Because of the particular shape of the track the 535d was able to keep pace with the m3. So if u're asking now which one would wear faster, i would say the 535d might wear faster but only after hundreds and hundreds of laps over a period of time. It's not like the 5 would be wrecked in 10 laps and the m3 in 10000 laps.
The Stig even said that the diesel suffers alot from the lack of the LSD. The only reason why bmw doesn't fit lsds in non-m cars is a pure marketing decision. Only the M models get to be treated with lsd.
For me the 535d is a performance car, but that's because i don't have very high standards. I currently don't want to afford an M5 or M6 and find the performance in 535d more than enough for what i do with my car MOST of the time. Of course if you're a profesional racing driver in whatever nascar, f1 than you would consider that way a 5 series. And sorry...i'm not going to throw half the money i payed for my jewel of a car to buy a "more track suited car" and race it, as you say, 5-10 times in a year. That's just money thrown away if you ask me.

In the end it doesn't matter too much the type of car you own, more it matters how you drive it.

 

I only have one buttom in my car, the DSC.

Pushing this buttom the DSC including the DTC are not active,
but the ABS and the CBC still are.

 

I only have one buttom in my car, the DSC.

Pushing this buttom the DSC including the DTC are not active,
but the ABS and the CBC still are.
[/quote]Hi Rr. Is your car all-wheel drive? There is a difference in AWD and RWD when it comes to DSC/DTC, but I can't remember exactly how the AWD works. As I recall, though, it is as you describe.

The Dolly Llama say one's race car is the car one races.

 

[/quote]Hi Rr. Is your car all-wheel drive? There is a difference in AWD and RWD when it comes to DSC/DTC, but I can't remember exactly how the AWD works. As I recall, though, it is as you describe.

See my sign, the car is a 525iA (with a nice 3 inch layer of snow on it now).

All the RWD's only has a DSC buttom an I am pretty sure
that the x-models are alike!

Seasons greeting to you, vnod!

 

Here's my theory. We all bought the cars at least partially (or mostly) because they're fun to drive. I drive the living shit out of mine from time to time because (besides being darn good business vehicles and/or family sedans) that's what e60s are manufactured to do.

If you want to race it around a track until the tires are bald, go for it. However, I'd prefer to just buy something that was actually designed to be raced around a track, and keep my 545 in the
garage. That being said, if I had access to a track (all the "tracks" in Arkansas are dirt and rock, like most everything else), I'd probably take my 545 for a spin at least once or twice.

And, as a final comment about racing (even though it may be slightly off subject), why cruise around in your e60 trying to race Mustangs, Camaros and Honda Civics outfitted whale tails and fatty pipes? For all those folks that do, please don't tell us about it. It's patently embarrassing.