NYC to Florida Keys and back through Blue Ridge
04-28-2011, 04:38 AM
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My Ride: Alpine White 2006 530Xi (SLD)
Those of you, who know me, know that I've been long overdue for a vacation. So what's a fellar to do when he's got one? ROAD TRIP! 
But before I could get on the way, one of my wheels found some type of a debris on the road and went all bent on me - right on the outer lip, where the spoke meets the lip.
pity... lucky for me, I had a set of BBS CK's laying around the apartment, so what the heck, right? I called up Discount Tire Direct and had them ship me a set of Hankook Ventus EVO110 V12 tires, square setup, nothing "fancy". Got the tires, mounted, balanced - hubs don't match. After scouting all possible local shops for some hub-centric rings, I realized that my only option was to have a set overnighted from Tire Rack. Well, Tire Rack FT(MF'n)W, because they had a set waiting for me at my indie shop before I even showed up the next morning.
This fellar was hanging around the shop too - one of the mechanics at the shop I used, made him out of spare parts. He's fully articulate, though not motorized. Still, I thought he's cool.
While I was hanging out with the Ukrainian boxing robot, my car was... well, like this:
Couple of hours later, it was turning heads on the street.
I haven't taken too many pics, but it was basically on from that moment on. It was us vs the road, and we won the FUGGG out of it IMHO. We drove down to Savannah, GA through those storms and tornadoes they had that day. Took a couple of extra hours, but that was the first real test for the Hankooks - on I-95 South, we got hit by a downpour, like nothing else, but what you'd see down South. I mean, it was pouring-pouring - not one of those gay little "showers" you get up North. So the tires - being summer performance tires, and all - handled without any hick-up whatsoever. Complete confidence, never a scary moment. Very impressive.
On a side note, these tires are pretty soft for a summer performance tire. Every now and then, when you load the sidewalls, they will roll. Again, always in a very civilized manner and without any scares. But they are on the softer side. They do compliment the stiff Bilstein B8 dampers+H&R Sport springs setup though - which is the reason I chose them over the Nitto NT05, that I originally wanted. Nittos, methinks, may have not handled that downpour at all, too - they are almost slick. I had originally wanted to get stiffer sidewalls, because my winter Conti DWS tires are pretty soft, but after driving with the new suspension for a little bit, I've realized that there is no need at all for a stiffer tire. As a matter of fact, a stiffer tire would have made the car completely undrivable in urban areas, but I digress - more on that later.
After a night in Savannah, we met with my old college buddy and his family for a long lunch and continued on to M-I-A. South Beach is one of my favorite places in the world, and this being the first time I was going there by car, I absolutely loved it. It did greet me with some serious potholes on Washington Ave, where we were forced to crawl through 20 or so city blocks. Still ended up destroying the plastic cover on the bottom, under the engine, but it was messed up from before, so I'm going to just chalk that up to wear and tear.
First morning in Miami. What can beat an ocean view morning coffee on a perfect Miami morning? Well, maybe it was early afternoon, but who's looking at the time?! Its vacation - loosen up!
We situated ourselves on the beach for a few days, kept the car parked and walked everywhere. We stayed only a few short blocks from Ocean Drive and Lincoln Rd. Mall, so it was all good.
As I've mentioned, I love Miami. You have to experience it all - and I'm not saying I have done it all myself yet. Not even close. This time around, one of the things that stuck in my memory was hanging out with my old ex and her man at the rooftop in Ganservoort. I am not single, but if I was - I'd have loved it even more!
Before we knew it though, we had to get going again. We headed as far south as we could, without meeting Castro's faithfuls - Key West.
I have to confess: the town of Key West itself, I don't much care for. I walked around and I looked at all the touristy crap, but what I really loved about Key West are the beaches and the ocean. This was worth all the time spent driving there. Oh, and speaking of time spent driving there, if you're ever in a similar "peril", do not take Route 1 from Miami, as most navis will guide you. Luckily, a friend of mine, who lives in Miami and has worked on building a hotel on Key West for some months, told me to take Florida's Turnpike down to the last point on the main land. Then you take Rte 1, and it still takes forever, but at least you get to see mostly clear blue waters and not much industrial garbage etc.
We got to Key West late in the afternoon, had some dinner and retired to the confines of our hotel. This time, morning coffee was awesome again, but tell me, what is it with the shortage of actual decent coffee down there? Maybe I wasn't looking in the right places - I should look that up next time I'm down there.
We visited Hemingway's famous six-pawed cats:
And paid our respects to his insanely expensive pool:
The car remained in the garage for the duration
One thing I strongly recommend to anyone visiting Key West: a jet ski tour. We went on a 2-hour one with a guide and it was great. If somewhat short. In general, the way I understand it, Florida Keys are mostly about marine lifestyle - not terra firma. Maybe, if I'm fortunate enough, next time I'll be able to do more of that - sailing, jet-skiing, kayaking, etc. Still, great little place, and seafood wasn't bad there either
After a couple of days in Key West, it was time to head back. We drove up to Miami, where I met up with Krozi and had some burgers at the Shake Shack. Burgers were decent, Shake Shack - not bad, but Krozi's RPI exhaust was IN-FRIGGIN-SANE! It was worth hanging out with him just for that. Luckily, he happens to be a pretty cool dude too, so it all kind of worked out. Was awesome of him to drive 2+ hours to meet with me too
And a total pleasure - at least on my side LOL I don't have the pics of our cars together yet, but I'll post them as soon as I'm done editing them a little bit (mostly, to make my belly look smaller 
)
And after that... time to say good bye to Florida. Sad and unwilling as I was to do it, it had to be done - new adventures awaited. We trekked back to Savannah, spent a night there and then set off on a slight "detour". Now, this is something I would recommend to anyone driving up - take the "scenic route". And be sure to pack an extra couple of days for it
What we did, was drive to Spartanburg, SC. Weirdly, the BMW Zentrum is closed on Saturdays, so we just hung around the town for a little bit and jetted toward the Blue Ridge mountains. Spent a night in Roanoke, VA, and found our way to the Skyline Drive, aka Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway.
This road is not known to be the most scenic road in the East for nothing, ladies and gents. I'm here to personally assure you that the fee that they charge you to drive on it and the low speed limits (that you should not break, because you'll get into all kinds of trouble down there), are totally and completely worth the sacrifice. I personally saw 5 live bear cubs en route, among a number of other incredible sights and sounds. The one gripe I have about it - bugs. Vicious, unrelenting, kick-ass bugs will bite the crap out of you the second you step outside. Also, not many places to eat, or get gas on the way. So pack a lunch, grab some bug spray and fill up before you get on the parkway.
See how that thing says "RESTAURANT" on it? Well, apparently, they don't take kindly to our kind of folk down there, because the bitch outright refused service to us. Scum of the Earth, I tell ya - "kitchen closed at 2pm" - whaaaaaat?! I'd have preferred they straight told me they didn't like our faces. And the scumbags knew there aren't any places to eat for 10+miles in any direction. Took me a lot of will power to stay silent and just walk out - my initial desire was to spit in the bitch's face, to be honest... anyway, oooossssaaaa, forget her and her crappy little "restaurant" - she's never gonna see anything more than the tip of her dirty nose anyway. I've walked off the insult - no problems
We made a few pics, but of course, the only ones I have right now are these:
And now, the part about the suspension and tires.
Tires. As I've mentioned briefly before, Hankooks held up extremely well in the heavy downpour we hit on the way down. As for the rest of the journey, they took any and all abuse, never complained, broke traction or did anything to make me worried. They simply do their job without any drama. Awesome
Suspension.
First of, let me give props where it is due.
Michael of Acute Performance came through in a big way. From hooking me up with a great deal, to fast shipping, to endless tech support, he remained the best to deal with and I'd like to thank him enormously for all he's done.
As an example, I can tell you, I PM'd Michael with a few questions about the suspension while on the road and he was getting back to me in real time - this type of service, in my firm opinion, is well worth a premium. Luckily, the premium for doing business with Michael in either non-existent or marginal, as he's always made sure to beat or match any deals offered by competitors. All around, I would grade him an 11 out of 10 easily!
Also, John and Leo at Motorcepts helped out and are still helping out with figuring out some of my personal gripes. A+++
As for the actual suspension? As I had suspected, lowering the Xi netted a significantly reduced damper travel, particularly in the front. This means that on anything but the mildest bumps, it will bottom out. It is a great setup and seat of the pants g-force meter is through the roof. Corners are much flatter and I love how it handles. I absolutely dread how it crashes on New York City roads. There is a trade off with anything, and this is one trade off I knew about, but it is still somewhat worse than I had anticipated. I would rate the setup a 7 out of 10. And considering the cost (about half that of the KW V3's), its a pretty great deal. If I lived somewhere, where the roads are nice and smooth, I'd probably rate the setup a 9 or even a 10. But for urban areas, it is simply not adequate - for that, it is a 7.
I have to also give props to John and Leo of Motorcepts for hooking up the Dension unit for me (John) and installing the Z4 short shifter (Leo). Fabulous jobs both!
In conclusion, I have to say, my biggest lesson out of all the modding I've done so far is: WHEELS, WHEELS, WHEELS. I've left them till the last moment, and I should have put them on first. Wheels and Dension should have been my first mods. Heck, they could have ended up being my only mods. But hey, who am I to complain? Who's gonna listen, right? I still love my E60 and now, with the BBS's on, I finally feel like it came together. I figure, I'll maintain it and maybe do a couple of minor mods (been itching for an alcantrara steering wheel re-wrap for a while), and just start saving my money for bigger and better things. Who knows - maybe it is time for V the Russian to grow up, start a family, buy a house in the 'burbs...
Be well, y'all! And happy driving season - we'll have some meets soon, for sure!
But before I could get on the way, one of my wheels found some type of a debris on the road and went all bent on me - right on the outer lip, where the spoke meets the lip.
pity... lucky for me, I had a set of BBS CK's laying around the apartment, so what the heck, right? I called up Discount Tire Direct and had them ship me a set of Hankook Ventus EVO110 V12 tires, square setup, nothing "fancy". Got the tires, mounted, balanced - hubs don't match. After scouting all possible local shops for some hub-centric rings, I realized that my only option was to have a set overnighted from Tire Rack. Well, Tire Rack FT(MF'n)W, because they had a set waiting for me at my indie shop before I even showed up the next morning.This fellar was hanging around the shop too - one of the mechanics at the shop I used, made him out of spare parts. He's fully articulate, though not motorized. Still, I thought he's cool.
While I was hanging out with the Ukrainian boxing robot, my car was... well, like this:
Couple of hours later, it was turning heads on the street.
I haven't taken too many pics, but it was basically on from that moment on. It was us vs the road, and we won the FUGGG out of it IMHO. We drove down to Savannah, GA through those storms and tornadoes they had that day. Took a couple of extra hours, but that was the first real test for the Hankooks - on I-95 South, we got hit by a downpour, like nothing else, but what you'd see down South. I mean, it was pouring-pouring - not one of those gay little "showers" you get up North. So the tires - being summer performance tires, and all - handled without any hick-up whatsoever. Complete confidence, never a scary moment. Very impressive.
On a side note, these tires are pretty soft for a summer performance tire. Every now and then, when you load the sidewalls, they will roll. Again, always in a very civilized manner and without any scares. But they are on the softer side. They do compliment the stiff Bilstein B8 dampers+H&R Sport springs setup though - which is the reason I chose them over the Nitto NT05, that I originally wanted. Nittos, methinks, may have not handled that downpour at all, too - they are almost slick. I had originally wanted to get stiffer sidewalls, because my winter Conti DWS tires are pretty soft, but after driving with the new suspension for a little bit, I've realized that there is no need at all for a stiffer tire. As a matter of fact, a stiffer tire would have made the car completely undrivable in urban areas, but I digress - more on that later.
After a night in Savannah, we met with my old college buddy and his family for a long lunch and continued on to M-I-A. South Beach is one of my favorite places in the world, and this being the first time I was going there by car, I absolutely loved it. It did greet me with some serious potholes on Washington Ave, where we were forced to crawl through 20 or so city blocks. Still ended up destroying the plastic cover on the bottom, under the engine, but it was messed up from before, so I'm going to just chalk that up to wear and tear.
First morning in Miami. What can beat an ocean view morning coffee on a perfect Miami morning? Well, maybe it was early afternoon, but who's looking at the time?! Its vacation - loosen up!
We situated ourselves on the beach for a few days, kept the car parked and walked everywhere. We stayed only a few short blocks from Ocean Drive and Lincoln Rd. Mall, so it was all good.
As I've mentioned, I love Miami. You have to experience it all - and I'm not saying I have done it all myself yet. Not even close. This time around, one of the things that stuck in my memory was hanging out with my old ex and her man at the rooftop in Ganservoort. I am not single, but if I was - I'd have loved it even more!
Before we knew it though, we had to get going again. We headed as far south as we could, without meeting Castro's faithfuls - Key West.
I have to confess: the town of Key West itself, I don't much care for. I walked around and I looked at all the touristy crap, but what I really loved about Key West are the beaches and the ocean. This was worth all the time spent driving there. Oh, and speaking of time spent driving there, if you're ever in a similar "peril", do not take Route 1 from Miami, as most navis will guide you. Luckily, a friend of mine, who lives in Miami and has worked on building a hotel on Key West for some months, told me to take Florida's Turnpike down to the last point on the main land. Then you take Rte 1, and it still takes forever, but at least you get to see mostly clear blue waters and not much industrial garbage etc.
We got to Key West late in the afternoon, had some dinner and retired to the confines of our hotel. This time, morning coffee was awesome again, but tell me, what is it with the shortage of actual decent coffee down there? Maybe I wasn't looking in the right places - I should look that up next time I'm down there.
We visited Hemingway's famous six-pawed cats:
And paid our respects to his insanely expensive pool:
The car remained in the garage for the duration
One thing I strongly recommend to anyone visiting Key West: a jet ski tour. We went on a 2-hour one with a guide and it was great. If somewhat short. In general, the way I understand it, Florida Keys are mostly about marine lifestyle - not terra firma. Maybe, if I'm fortunate enough, next time I'll be able to do more of that - sailing, jet-skiing, kayaking, etc. Still, great little place, and seafood wasn't bad there either
After a couple of days in Key West, it was time to head back. We drove up to Miami, where I met up with Krozi and had some burgers at the Shake Shack. Burgers were decent, Shake Shack - not bad, but Krozi's RPI exhaust was IN-FRIGGIN-SANE! It was worth hanging out with him just for that. Luckily, he happens to be a pretty cool dude too, so it all kind of worked out. Was awesome of him to drive 2+ hours to meet with me too
And a total pleasure - at least on my side LOL I don't have the pics of our cars together yet, but I'll post them as soon as I'm done editing them a little bit (mostly, to make my belly look smaller )And after that... time to say good bye to Florida. Sad and unwilling as I was to do it, it had to be done - new adventures awaited. We trekked back to Savannah, spent a night there and then set off on a slight "detour". Now, this is something I would recommend to anyone driving up - take the "scenic route". And be sure to pack an extra couple of days for it
What we did, was drive to Spartanburg, SC. Weirdly, the BMW Zentrum is closed on Saturdays, so we just hung around the town for a little bit and jetted toward the Blue Ridge mountains. Spent a night in Roanoke, VA, and found our way to the Skyline Drive, aka Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway.
This road is not known to be the most scenic road in the East for nothing, ladies and gents. I'm here to personally assure you that the fee that they charge you to drive on it and the low speed limits (that you should not break, because you'll get into all kinds of trouble down there), are totally and completely worth the sacrifice. I personally saw 5 live bear cubs en route, among a number of other incredible sights and sounds. The one gripe I have about it - bugs. Vicious, unrelenting, kick-ass bugs will bite the crap out of you the second you step outside. Also, not many places to eat, or get gas on the way. So pack a lunch, grab some bug spray and fill up before you get on the parkway.
See how that thing says "RESTAURANT" on it? Well, apparently, they don't take kindly to our kind of folk down there, because the bitch outright refused service to us. Scum of the Earth, I tell ya - "kitchen closed at 2pm" - whaaaaaat?! I'd have preferred they straight told me they didn't like our faces. And the scumbags knew there aren't any places to eat for 10+miles in any direction. Took me a lot of will power to stay silent and just walk out - my initial desire was to spit in the bitch's face, to be honest... anyway, oooossssaaaa, forget her and her crappy little "restaurant" - she's never gonna see anything more than the tip of her dirty nose anyway. I've walked off the insult - no problems
We made a few pics, but of course, the only ones I have right now are these:
And now, the part about the suspension and tires.
Tires. As I've mentioned briefly before, Hankooks held up extremely well in the heavy downpour we hit on the way down. As for the rest of the journey, they took any and all abuse, never complained, broke traction or did anything to make me worried. They simply do their job without any drama. Awesome
Suspension.
First of, let me give props where it is due.
Michael of Acute Performance came through in a big way. From hooking me up with a great deal, to fast shipping, to endless tech support, he remained the best to deal with and I'd like to thank him enormously for all he's done.
As an example, I can tell you, I PM'd Michael with a few questions about the suspension while on the road and he was getting back to me in real time - this type of service, in my firm opinion, is well worth a premium. Luckily, the premium for doing business with Michael in either non-existent or marginal, as he's always made sure to beat or match any deals offered by competitors. All around, I would grade him an 11 out of 10 easily!
Also, John and Leo at Motorcepts helped out and are still helping out with figuring out some of my personal gripes.
A+++ As for the actual suspension? As I had suspected, lowering the Xi netted a significantly reduced damper travel, particularly in the front. This means that on anything but the mildest bumps, it will bottom out. It is a great setup and seat of the pants g-force meter is through the roof. Corners are much flatter and I love how it handles. I absolutely dread how it crashes on New York City roads. There is a trade off with anything, and this is one trade off I knew about, but it is still somewhat worse than I had anticipated. I would rate the setup a 7 out of 10. And considering the cost (about half that of the KW V3's), its a pretty great deal. If I lived somewhere, where the roads are nice and smooth, I'd probably rate the setup a 9 or even a 10. But for urban areas, it is simply not adequate - for that, it is a 7.
I have to also give props to John and Leo of Motorcepts for hooking up the Dension unit for me (John) and installing the Z4 short shifter (Leo). Fabulous jobs both!
In conclusion, I have to say, my biggest lesson out of all the modding I've done so far is: WHEELS, WHEELS, WHEELS. I've left them till the last moment, and I should have put them on first. Wheels and Dension should have been my first mods. Heck, they could have ended up being my only mods. But hey, who am I to complain? Who's gonna listen, right? I still love my E60 and now, with the BBS's on, I finally feel like it came together. I figure, I'll maintain it and maybe do a couple of minor mods (been itching for an alcantrara steering wheel re-wrap for a while), and just start saving my money for bigger and better things. Who knows - maybe it is time for V the Russian to grow up, start a family, buy a house in the 'burbs...
Be well, y'all! And happy driving season - we'll have some meets soon, for sure!
04-28-2011, 04:57 AM
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Great thread, I'm glad you'll had some fun. Great pics as well n sick wheels, they look good w th alpinafront. I also need a vacation haven't had one n 13 years all work n no play for me.
04-28-2011, 05:11 AM
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Its great reading about the road trip adventures of others and looking at the pics etc. One of these days I've got to take a road trip with the family myself. I loved the last pic you posted. Incredible view in the backdrop over the edge and your ride stands out nicely! Looks like you had a great time.
04-28-2011, 06:39 AM
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Another "EPIC VLADDY THREAD"!!!! Great write up Vlad, I agree South Beach is one of my favorite spots as well (of course the wife has banned me since we got married, I made the mistake of telling her some "single stories"). Glad you had a good time Bro, and yes, we saw the Krozi meets the Russian thread - another epic.
04-28-2011, 07:15 AM
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My Ride: Alpine White 2006 530Xi (SLD)
Its great reading about the road trip adventures of others and looking at the pics etc. One of these days I've got to take a road trip with the family myself. I loved the last pic you posted. Incredible view in the backdrop over the edge and your ride stands out nicely! Looks like you had a great time.
Another "EPIC VLADDY THREAD"!!!! Great write up Vlad, I agree South Beach is one of my favorite spots as well (of course the wife has banned me since we got married, I made the mistake of telling her some "single stories"). Glad you had a good time Bro, and yes, we saw the Krozi meets the Russian thread - another epic.
I go with my girl and we still have a blast - we just stay away from places where there can be trouble
PS Haven't been on the forums in 2 weeks; going to see Krozi's thread right now!
245/35/19 square setup. The rims are square and its an Xi, so I figured it'll work just fine. In retrospect, I think I could have easily gotten away with 40 profiles, but that may have produced some "rubbage".
I've got a couple of vids of the road itself and few more pics - I'll be posting them as they become available, as they are being edited by my better half and our friend Julia - the film major
04-28-2011, 08:10 AM
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Great trip man! Back in 09, I drove my Sonata (then brand new) from KY to South Beach. The worst part was commuting through Atlanta. 
South Beach is awesome! The only thing is, you can blow through hundreds of $$$$ in no time.
I wish I had the time to drive through to Key West, but I had to cut across and up to Tampa to visit my father.
Glad you had a great trip. Thanks for sharing the adventure
South Beach is awesome! The only thing is, you can blow through hundreds of $$$$ in no time.
I wish I had the time to drive through to Key West, but I had to cut across and up to Tampa to visit my father.
Glad you had a great trip. Thanks for sharing the adventure
04-28-2011, 10:13 AM
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awesome thread i enjoyed reading it, and it was very informative, a good road trip, is always needed to test a good car! i love the bbs thinking of switching to these wheels after the summer time.. thanks again
i love the bbs thinking of switching to these wheels after the summer time.. thanks again
.
