[StephenHallman]

Not sure where else to put this but I had to share in my sadness.



Driving home tonight. Little tired. Guy in his 330CI passes me(when I was speeding) on the streets. We pull up to a stoplight and I prepare for it and give it a little gas and beat him to next light. Nothing major. Next light he prepares for it and I know he is, so again, I prepare for the light change(rev to 2k) and floor it this time. Sadly, going into third he's a cars length ahead <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/sad.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> I probably could have gotten a better start off the line and also shifted into second a bit better. Not much/enough though. It was a very sad night. Ruined my night. So now I have to save my pennies for some upgrades.



On the bright side(for a dark night) my car looks better than his <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/biggrin.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> And it was much cleaner. And I know had it gotten to the turns it would have been all over.



This is usually why I never race from street light to street light regardless of if I can win or not.

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[Monstrous4Banger]

Power between the two is similar. You should have nudged him if you had drove right.<img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/tongue.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> Youve got the wrong car altogether for drag racin. Really any porsche is the wrong car for that purpose. Sounds like you need boost! The 968 is clearly a better platform to work from. IMO

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[Rap]

Take solace from the fact that you were in your 968 and at the light! Not everyone gets to say that. Besides which your right, you have a better car!

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[Cloud9...68]

Obviously A LOT of factors play into how a car accelerates under different circumstances (standing start, mid-range, top end, etc.). I don't know what year the 330Ci was, so I don't know its exact horsepower, but from a pure weight:power ratio viewpoint, especially given that from your signature, you have a chip of some kind and the airbox mod, your car should have had the edge, or should have at least been able to hold its own.



How many miles are on your car? How's the oil pressure? Oil consumption? Does it smoke at all when you first start it up? Have you had a compression test done recently? Having stripped my 115K mile engine down to the bare block, I've learned that these engines are in fact very durable, but still, given their age, I would recommend that before you add any more mods, you check the baseline health of your engine by at least doing a compression test, and preferably a leakdown, taking a good look at the spark plugs while they're out, checking the cap and rotor, replacing the plug wires if you have no record of them having been replaced, etc. And if you're really serious, and can afford it, you might want to put your car on a dyno, though you have to be real careful here. Once in awhile, local car clubs will sign up for a "dyno day," which has the dual benefit of reducing the cost to each individual, and it provides a basis of comparison to other hopefully similar cars, so you're not looking at your numbers in a vacuum. Good luck, and chin up; these are great cars with a lot of potential once you get them sorted to your liking.

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[bombfactory]

E46 330ci: 225 HP @ 5900, 214 TQ @ 3500, weight 3285 lbs. (manual).

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[flash]

this is exactly why i constantly get stuck in conversation about dynos and horsepower numbers and how they are all completely useless in determining how a car drives



new cars have much better control over ignition and fuel and cam timing than our cars, and about as much of an advantage as our cars have over cars in the 60s with similar horsepower numbers as ours



case in point: 1966 mustang 289 vs a 1994 968 vs a 2010 bmw 325



mustang

weight 2570

horsepower 225

0-60 10.9

1/4 mile 17.9



968

weight 3086

horsepower 236

0-60 6.0

1/4 mile 14.7



325

weight 3348

horsepower 215

0-60 6.1

1/4 mile 14.7



you can clearly see that the 325 is about even with our car, even though it weighs 300lbs more and is down n power by over 20hp (almost 10%) - a 330 will kick our butt

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[tamathumper]

You left out the *supercharged* 968 in your comparison

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[flash]

lol - yeah - i was just trying to show that it is more than just horsepower and weight - the lightest car in the matchup was the slowest, even though it had more power than the heaviest car

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[StephenHallman]

Obviously A LOT of factors play into how a car accelerates under different circumstances (standing start, mid-range, top end, etc.). I don't know what year the 330Ci was, so I don't know its exact horsepower, but from a pure weight:power ratio viewpoint, especially given that from your signature, you have a chip of some kind and the airbox mod, your car should have had the edge, or should have at least been able to hold its own.



How many miles are on your car? How's the oil pressure? Oil consumption? Does it smoke at all when you first start it up? Have you had a compression test done recently? Having stripped my 115K mile engine down to the bare block, I've learned that these engines are in fact very durable, but still, given their age, I would recommend that before you add any more mods, you check the baseline health of your engine by at least doing a compression test, and preferably a leakdown, taking a good look at the spark plugs while they're out, checking the cap and rotor, replacing the plug wires if you have no record of them having been replaced, etc. And if you're really serious, and can afford it, you might want to put your car on a dyno, though you have to be real careful here. Once in awhile, local car clubs will sign up for a "dyno day," which has the dual benefit of reducing the cost to each individual, and it provides a basis of comparison to other hopefully similar cars, so you're not looking at your numbers in a vacuum. Good luck, and chin up; these are great cars with a lot of potential once you get them sorted to your liking.

The 330Ci was an e46, manual.

My car has 116k miles. Oil pressure was at the 5. Just got an oil change a couple day ago. Oil consumption seems fine, it does leak though. No smoke at all when I first start up(I would be very concerned about that). No compression testing but when I had a full service done a month ago, he didn't give me numbers but said it was in good shape. Spark plugs were new, cap and rotor was new. Plug wires are original as far as I am aware. It was probably half my fault than my car. When I say car lengths ahead, his trunk was at my nose. There wasn't a car fitting in between us.



So... I'm not sure what my car wants to be. It like's being stock I think. It's old and tired and if I start replacing things it'll wear out other things faster. I had just hoped for better results. I'm fine with a slow beauty though. Just means I won't drag race anymore

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[benspeeder]

I've got the first race of the season coming up at Summit Point WV and ALL the other ITR race cars are BMWs and I plan to kick ALL their butts <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/ohmy.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> (we'll see). I'll do it in the corners and hope I get enough space to keep ahead down that massive straight.

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[flash]

that's a whole different story - straight line acceleration we often lose - over a road course, against the same car, we often win

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[Cloud9...68]

Yes, not to turn yet another thread into a discussion about racing capability, but I'm utterly flabbergasted at how much success our distinguished cadre of 968 racers has against what should be insurmountable competition. Do our cars really handle THAT much better? Why? So the transaxle is stuck out back... Is that really such an overwhelming advantage? Doesn't the fact that our cars are up to 19 years old also put them at a tremendous disadvantage in the handling department? And yet, the results speak for themselves. I'll start a new thread about this if you'd like, because I find the subject of our cars' ability to slay giants at the race tracks utterly fascinating.

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[flash]

handle yes, corner, maybe not - people often confuse the two



handling is defined by the ability of a car to maintain balance and composure while negotiating changes in attitude and weight shift



cornering is the ability of a car to hold a speed or attain a speed through a corner



a car can corner very well, but still handle poorly



our car handles well, which means that properly set up, it can transition more quickly and smoothly through corners, which cuts down on lap time and increases entry and exit speeds - this is where races are won and lost

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[Cloud9...68]

OK, that does it. I'm starting a news thread in the Racing section about how it is that this old, underpowered, unloved (by the early 90s marketplace, anyway) little car can hold its own so well at the track against much newer, and more broadly-campaigned competition.

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[PorscheG96]

I guess I'll comment, not that winning the 'race' really matters, but the 2k RPM launch just happened to stick out in my head. The key to newer engines is that they're so much easier to drive fast than older engines, specifically because of their broad torque curves and instant engine response that 968's are really lacking. I don't think you 'losing' in a race between stop lights came down to power as much as bogging down your engine. The 968 is a slug under 3500-4100 RPM's and takes forever to build manifold pressure that generates enough torque for decent acceleration. BMW makes some of the most torquey and responsive engines around so they are much more forgiving to drive in this manner IMO.

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[Monstrous4Banger]

Oops, wrong thread.

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[kwikt]

The 330 could be a match for the 968. I have both and the 330 did turn 5.9 0-60 times according to my g-tech. The 968 was 5.6 with exhaust and K&N. Haven't checked both cars in a few years though.

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[smshirk]

I had a 530i with that same engine and it was astonishingly quick, even with the old slush box and a couple of hundred pounds heavier than the 330. I have always been amazed by how well the BMW straight 6 engines pull from low in the rev band. I'm not sure how the manual 330s are geared compared to 968s, but the 6 speed in my E46 M3 has a really short, strong 1st and 2nd gear. In stop and go rush hour traffic I almost never go to first gear starts and can drive in 3rd for all but complete stops. When just going from one place to another I frequently shift 1st to 3rd then 6th and have plenty of power for all but traffic light drag races <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/biggrin.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/biggrin.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> I really like the M3 but it's never my first choice when picking up a set of keys out of the basket in the kitchen. Both Porsches are preferable for enjoyable driving, even though the Bimmer is a great car. The trunk and backseat does give it an edge at times though.

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[ds968]

copied from the other ( "how does the 968 .." ) thread..



Performance vs 330 i, M3( not the 8cyl one.. ) , or a 335i twin turbo.



With just a chip, airbox mod, BB catback and some 50-75 lbs lighter than stock, ( ok, and a fresh head rebuilt ),and shifting between 7000 and 7200 rpm, this car does quite well against a lot of the new(ER) and more powerful engines, so I have to believe 90% of that can be attributed to the weight/power ratio ..and driver skill So I'm guessing if you have a supercharged coupe with a lightweight catback, and the spare tire removed, you should get close to, if not right at a 10:1 weight/power ratio and although the torque ratio may not be par with the new twin turbo 335i, I'm thinking from a rolling 20mph, it'll stay fairly even with it..but should easily smoke any stock 6cyl M3s out there.

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[tamathumper]

May I just express my appreciation that this thread has lived this long without someone proselytizing that driving fast is only to be done on the track and shame on you for being human and giving it the goose once in a while. The same cannot be said for my experience on other lists, 10 years ago or today.

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