Photography by David S. Wallens
Project car sitting? Mine was. I even wrote about it. Blame the fact that someone keeps putting stuff on my calendar. Plus we have other cars here at the house.
The M3, I admit, had been sitting for a spell. And this is a car that shouldn’t stay stagnant too long. As I have found, that can lead to issues.
Do you also have a car that’s been sitting? So why not set a deadline: an upcoming event.
It doesn’t have to be a huge or an elaborate affair. You don’t need to schlep across three states or enter a year-end championship.
Register for a local autocross, find a track day, put a cars and coffee on the calendar, plan a little road trip.
The goal is to give you a reason–a solid goal–to get the car out of the garage and drive it. Another benefit: Air up those tires, remove the boxes piled atop the roof and, in short, give everything a once-over.
Set the bar low, if you’d like.
I did.
The reason to get the BMW M3 out and about this past weekend? A local Porsche Club of America get-together. It’s half an hour each way. That’ll warm up the oil, get the fluids moving, make the charging system happy and, in theory, remind me why I bought this car in the first place.
And, hey, it did.
I know that several of you have cars that have been sitting too long. You’re among friends. We can talk about it. Together, let’s work to get those cars out and about.
This was 100% how I got my e36 back on the road. I had the probable parts on hand to fix the non running condition, and after missing out on events for 2 years I really wanted to attend something.
So I went and got dirty and got to work tearing down to access the distributor (v8 swapped), changed cap and rotor, swapped plug wires over and was able to make it to the cars and coffee event I wanted to attend.
Feels good man, feels good.
This thread reaffirms my post about not taking apart perfectly good running cars.
I drove the Mustang to a show Thursday. On the way home I thought "man this could use some more power" I have a spare motor and good heads........I am not taking it apart till the current motor needs a rebuild.
I have vowed to drive the cars more.
My personal barn find shark is now beginning to get attention. Slowly. At least I can see it and walk around it easily in the garage now. Hmmm? Set a date? End of summer?
Is it just me or do German cars get mad at you and then they brake something to get back at you for not driving them.
dean1484 said:Is it just me or do German cars get mad at you and then they brake something to get back at you for not driving them.
No it's not just you........they are vindictive.
Truck has been sitting for a while.
Hey. Lease is up on the hovel my slumlords call an apartment. Got the things done. First wash it has had in two years as well.
Sounds like we need to put some events on the calendar. :)
Orlando and back with the M3 this past Friday for a cars and coffee. Since the event was hosted by a local film lab, I shot film. So now, we wait.
Always makes me feel good when I get the parts out of the boxes and actually complete the task I set out to do weeks before.
As an aside, I am very angry you purchased this for $10k in 2016. In 2017 I spent $11k on a ~57k mile Fiat 500 Abarth. Man, I made the wrong choice.
Tom1200 said:dean1484 said:Is it just me or do German cars get mad at you and then they brake something to get back at you for not driving them.
No it's not just you........they are vindictive.
My minty rabbit leads a charmed life suckling at my wallet. It stays off the salty roads in the winter for ~4months. I typically start it and let her idle once a month during this time. Regardless of my efforts a new and exciting issue rears it's ugly head when I go to break it out for the first spring drive. Argh but damn I love that little car.
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