In reply to docwyte :
Have you driven both of the vehicles in question?
I would say drive them to see if you actually prefer them over the vehicles you own before going any further down the rabbit hole. Which, understandably it might be tough finding such rare cars to drive locally.
In reply to roninsoldier83 :
I used to own an E46 M3 and I've driven S52 M coupes, but I've never driven an E63 AMG wagon.
In reply to docwyte :
Honest question: are you truly comfortable giving up your 996 Turbo for an M Coupe? I don't know your personality traits, so I have to ask: do you think you might regret selling your 996? Or are you at a point where you feel like you might be done with it?
The way I see it, your SUV is a disposable appliance... and even though it's a sweet car, the AMG would likely also become somewhat of a disposable appliance (maybe I'm wrong). But the 996 and M Coupe are collector grade cars- they're the only ones that matter, at least in my mind.
Also, I've owned 38 cars (not including my wife's cars) and I'm always coming up with some new, financially irresponsible car idea. Translation: don't listen to a damn word I have to say!
I really like the 996 Turbo but I'm not sure it's a car that I've gotta have in my garage at all times. The touareg certainly gets the job done, it's a great hauler and even with the tune it gets very reasonable gas mileage. I've always wanted the amg wagon as a daily though. Prices on them seem to be pretty stable, not that many were imported and while I doubt they're going to appreciate, I don't think I'd lose too much money on one after driving it for awhile...
I know Monument is a bit of a drive, but I might consider reaching out to the owner to see if he would let you take the M for a spin. If so, I would drive the 996 down there to get a back to back feel and go with whatever car puts a bigger smile on your face.
There have been a plethora of cars I've considered getting rid of my S2000 for, but whenever I drive it back to back with anything, the S is always the car I have more fun in. In my mind, when it comes to sports cars, that's all that matters.
Over the years I've bought a few cars I thought seemed perfect on paper, only to have a bit of seller's remorse at getting rid of the machines I sold to get them... so, maybe I'm just projecting here. But I would drive them both.
Also, Doug DeMuro is an addict. I mean, so am I, so I'm not judging, I'm just pointing out that his crazy car ideas might not result in the best lifestyle choices lol.
In reply to roninsoldier83 :
I'm curious to see how differently the M coupe drives compared to an E46 M3. It's been quite a few years since I owned my E46 and the 996 has a tendency to make most other cars feel very slow and ponderous.
I may reach out to the M coupe owner tonight because I'll be driving through Monument tomorrow sometime...
Aero lip popped out on the right side again. Looks like the bumper is fine, just the screw popped out. I'm kinda getting tired of this and would love to have a GT2 bumper. I might pull the trigger on the NR Auto one, it's poly urethane, so at least it won't break/shatter like a fiberglass one...
If we hadn't just bought a new house a few miles north of the Academy, I'd go take a look at that M Coupe. I owned an S52 M Coupe for 7 years and really liked it. It's not an easy car to drive fast, and I never felt completely comfortable autocrossing it. It was stock, so still had that tendency to snap oversteer. But if you could keep the throttle down, it was a very fun car to drive (or rather, hoon).
I have a hard time imagining an S54 M Coupe would feel slow.
In reply to JoeTR6 :
My 911 has twice the hp and more than twice the torque that the S54 M coupe has, so the M coupe will feel slow in comparison. I also noticed that "The Big 3" haven't been done on the M coupe. Rod bearings got done 80k miles ago, so they're due again and the vanos and rear subframe reinforcements haven't been done either. So that's a bunch of work, not sure, I drove the 911 this past weekend a bunch and it does what it's mission is extremely well...
On the bumper my epoxy repair to the tab came unbonded. Hmmm. I cleaned off the old epoxy, roughed up the surface of both parts and reglued it. I'll see how solid it is today when I get home but I really think I'm going to buy the NR Auto GT2 bumper. I know the Ruf fits better plus comes with all the necessary ducts, hoses etc, but it's more than twice the cost and I don't like the way it looks as much as the OEM GT2 look.
Do these cars need reinforcements to the rear subframe? They run semi trailing arms like an E30 or E36 318Ti. I would imagine that will lead to a different driving experience to the E46 M3 you had in the past.
In reply to adam525i :
Yeah, they still need reinforcement. In a different way compared to the E46 M3's, but they still need it. I understand that the M coupes are far twitchier and prone to oversteer compared to the E46 M3 due to the rear suspension and shorter wheel base.
Repair on the bumper seems really solid, at least for now. I put the lip back on and will drive around some and see. Really only another 6 weeks before the car is put away for the season at this point...
Fast BMWs are a riot but at their best they're still more compromised than a comparable Porsche.
And personally I would be wary of selling something engaging like a 996 turbo for something softer and automatic like an AMG. I've never driven one and probably never will but it seems to me that it's a car that's fun to own and fun to look at but not so fun to drive. Easier, but not as fun. I could be wrong
In reply to spandak :
The AMG would be a replacement for my DD, so the Touareg. My thought was to take some money from the fun car budget and buy a more expensive, more fun DD. Then use the remaining cash to buy a different, less expensive fun car.
Maybe a gle63 of the similar year, saves $10k-$15k. I don't find the wagons being worth their price difference.
In reply to yupididit :
I think at that point I'd be looking at a Cayenne Turbo instead...
I booked some dyno time for today, so had to convert the car to rear wheel drive. Easy enough, just pull the cardan shaft to the front diff. First take off all the plastic under trays
Then take off the three 15mm bolts holding the shaft to the transmission, after marking the clocking of the shaft and the bolts. Then pop it out of the guibo and pull it out of the front diff
Sitting on the bench, ready to go back in
Drove the car up to the dyno, strapped down and three runs down. For my set up I expected 520-530rwhp and the car didn't disappoint, making 525 rwhp on 1 bar of boost. On the street I see 1.1 usually. When I eventually drop the motor to do the clutch and pin the coolant lines I'll probably send the turbos in to get rebuilt and at that point they'll most likely hold 1.2 bar of boost.
Still, the car runs great and makes a ton of power, so no complaints!
That's impressive! What's your current list of power-related mods?
That thing makes some serious power! I bet it's a hoot to drive when you're getting on it!
In reply to dyintorace :
Stock motor, stock fuel injectors, 5 bar fpr, 1 bar wastegate kit, K24 (stock X50/GT2 turbos), EvoMS airbox/intake, 997GT2RS intercoolers and a catted Europipe exhaust. Tune is a custom dyno tune using the Cobb Accessport, was making 1 bar of boost on the dyno
In reply to roninsoldier83 :
Yeah, it definitely gets out of it's own way. I'd love to take it to sea level just to see how it feels
So this happened, starting snowing Tuesday night and didn't stop until Saturday mid morning.
I looked for a set of used snow wheels/tires for this, but the only ones I found had tires ranging from 10-20 years old on them. Nobody makes snow tires for the sizes you need for a 996 anymore. I could get a set of all seasons like Conti DWS06's, but that seems like a ton of money to spend for a set up I'll only use when my wife's car goes to the shop during the winter and she grabs my Touareg. So just going to roll the dice and if she needs the Touareg I guess I'll Uber to work.
Time to get the car put away. Thankfully today was sunny and pretty warm, so I was able to wash the car and get it covered up and on the lift. I also brought in the Husky
Did an oil change, ever since I found and removed the extra turbo oil tank drain plug gaskets they've been weeping a bit. I replaced the gaskets and took some 320 sand paper and tried to clan all the burs up from the mating surfaces on the tank. Definitely better, but I'll have to see how it goes
The main dry sump oil tank is usually a geyser to drain, thankfully didn't make a mess this time
All the gaskets were pretty hammered, especially considering I torque everything to spec
Checking the oil level is done inside the car. Eventually I'll retrofit the GT3 dipstick but that won't happen until I drop the motor...
After waiting forever for it to warm up, got the perfect oil level
Quick video of the exhaust, cold start, sounds great!
So I've been wanting a GT2 front bumper, to match the rear GT2 wing/decklid, ever since I bought the car. The cost of these is just insane, factory parts, if you can even get them, total to over $8000, plus shipping, prep/paint and fitment. So easily $10k for a bumper, not gonna happen. Ruf sells their bumper, which is made from polyurethane, like stock, comes with all the ducts, brackets etc, for $4500 shipped. So about half the cost of OEM, but it's still $6000 with prep/paint, and I'm not really thrilled how it looks, plus still way too much to spend. NR Auto sells a polyurethane aftermarket piece for $2000 shipped, but the prep/paint cost on it is quite a bit more due to quality, then if you want everything to work correctly you still need to spend a bunch of money on OEM ducts, brackets, etc, so maybe $5000 when you're all done. Way. Too. Much. Money.
I'd pretty much given up, it's not like the OEM turbo bumper looks bad. Then an ad popped up on my FB feed in one of the 996 groups. Someone was selling an aftermarket GT2 bumper, painted Artic Silver, which is my car's color. It's a Precision Power bumper, which is known to be a good quality aftermarket bumper, but made out of fiberglass. That's not my top choice, just due to the fact that if I hit anything, I'll damage the bumper immediately. However the price was really solid, $450! That's less than the prep/paint cost for an OEM bumper, for that amount I'm willing to risk damaging the fiberglass. These sell for ~$3000 new, plus prep/paint/fitment, so this is a really, really good price.
Complicating matters was the bumper is in Miami and I'm in Denver. My daughter goes to school in Miami, but this bumper is too large to be stored in her dorm room, too big for her to load into her car and I'm not sending her to meet some random guy off the internet. Here's where the GRM community stepped up bigtime! Slippery agreed to meet with the seller, inspect the bumper, pay the man and then store it for me, thanks Slippery!!
To get it to me either it'll get shipped out to me via UPS or something, depending on boxing it, Slippery's time etc, or at the end of Spring Semester I'll send my daughter up to meet Slippery and have it loaded into her car. We're going to ship her car home, so the bumper can just come home to me that way, "free" of cost. Well, kinda.
Anyways, from the pictures, it looks really good, all mounting tabs intact, one small area of damage and it's missing the tow hook cover. I've got a spare, painted tow hook cover though, so should be good there. I'll take the rennline grills out of my stock bumper and put them in this one.
The big question is how far down the rabbit hole do I want to go mounting it? To get it fully OEM functional requires a lot of parts, which are expensive. I think a friend has most of the parts needed and won't be using them, I've reached out to him to see if he'd sell them to me. Other local has modified his stock ducts to work and is no longer using them, I've pinged him too. I really don't want to cut up my stock ducts in case I want to revert back to stock at some point...
Pics!
Bumper acquired, thanks Slippery!!
Gotta work out how to get it to me, either shipping via UPS, maybe shipping on a transporter via DocWemple, or waiting ~6 months and having it loaded into my daughters car and then shipped home inside of it.
Need to start finding all the other parts I need, like radiator ducts, spacers, etc. Sadly some of the ducts are not sold anymore, so going to have to try and dig them up elsewhere...
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