Archive for June, 2009

BMWotD — 1991 Dinan 535i

Friday, June 26th, 2009

It’s been a while since I last posted a BMW of the Day, and I’d have to say that this one is notable enough to post. It’s a 1991 e34 535i that was modded by Dinan by the original owner. This thing is a hot rod, no doubt. Dinan added an intercooled turbo to the M30B35 engine, bumping the output up to about 425HP and almost 500 ft. lbs. of torque, more than doubling the stock numbers — 208 hp & 225 ft lbs. This thing would definitely plant you in your seat when the throttle is hit! The Dinan package also included various cosmetic upgrades, special wheels, and tighter suspension.

Vern Eide BMW in Sioux Falls has it for sale; I’ve seen it in person, and it is a gorgeous car. Not flawless, but then again it’s got 110k on the clock. The car is listed at just under $14,000, which I think is a tad higher than anybody in Sioux Falls is likely to pay for an 18 years old car, even one of this caliber. I would love to have it, but… I think it’d be difficult to get that one by the CFO at home!

Verne Eide put it up for bids on eBay as well, but the high bid of $8,600 didn’t meet their reserve price, so it’s still for sale locally. It’ll probably end up back on eBay or on one of the other Bimmer-specific sites; the latter would be a smart move on their part. This is a unique machine that will be fully appreciated by a select few people.

Update: I drove through the Vern Eide lot yesterday, and this car had a hand-written sign in the window declaring it “SOLD”. Since writing this post the dealership had dropped the price on the car to just under $10,000, and it probably went for right around that; one of the guys on mye28.com had offered $9,000 over the phone, and they turned it down.

Oh, and a little more history behind this car… It had previously been for sale through Premier Motorcars, with a list price of $29,988! Little surprise they couldn’t sell it. Not sure how it ended up with Vern Eide, but the fact that their starting price was half of Premier’s asking price says a lot.

Here’s the copy from the eBay auction ad. ‘Scuse me while I go get something to clean the drool off my keyboard.

Vern Eide BMW
of
South Dakota
Proudly Offers

1991
BMW 535i DINAN
450/hp 494 ft-lbs
**All Upgrades Done By DINAN Engineering**
(Two Owner)
0 to 60 -4.5 sec
Standing Quarter mile 12.7 sec

Low Reserve Bid to own

All work performed by Dinan Engineering Cost of upgrade $19,995 back in 1991
Turbochraged With Intercooler
3.7L Low Compression Stroker Short Block
Ported High Flow Intake Manifold
Cold Air Intake
Dinan Free Flow Exhaust
Custom Software
Detonation Control System
Performance Clutch
Dinan Stage 3 Suspension
Bilstein Shocks
25mm Front Adjustable Anti Roll Bar
19mm Rear Adjustable Anti Roll Bar
Front Chamber Plates
Limited Slip Differntial
Dinan Brake Conversion
Dinan Wheels

You are bidding on a beautiful 1991 BMW 535i DINAN this in an absoulutly amazing car, This 535i Was driven directly from the Allison BMW in CA to DINAN Engineering for all upgrades “No Expense Spared” Cost of build back in 1991 was $19,995 this is a one of a kind DINAN. Car looks as it it has 20,000 miles, Interior is flawless! No dings or dents or scratches few minor rock pecs on nose but have been touched up, please remember this car is 18 years old but was only driven approx 6,000 miles per year and has been maintained. Call Heath @ Vern Eide.

Ten Thousand Visitors!

Friday, June 26th, 2009

How cool is this; when I wasn’t even watching, visitor number 10,000 came knocking at my site yesterday afternoon!

From the SiteMeter report, it looks like number 10k was someone in the Army looking for info on wiring up a Freestar to pull a trailer, a trial I went through a while back. I’m glad I took the time to write about that, because that’s been one of the top ranking pages ever since. Seems that the wiring on that van is goofy enough that a lot of people go looking for answers on it. Sure isn’t like the old days when you’d just splice in an off-the-shelf wiring kit…

Overall, visitor stats are on the upswing, as evidenced by SiteMeter’s graph showing visits & page views; last June saw 393 unique visitors with 674 page views; with a week left to go in June, the site has already seen 853 visitors and almost 2000 page views!

That doesn’t mean a whole lot, I know — lots of sites will see more traffic in a day than this one will see in a year — but it’s kinda cool for a site with no constant theme other than stuff I take the time to write about, little direction, and very little in the way of disciplined regularity. One cool side effect of the rise in visitorship is that Google Adsense revenue is on the rise as well; when I checked this morning, I had a whopping $17.60 banked! Much closer to the magic $100 mark than I was last August, when I had about three bucks in it. That’s right, folks; just keep on clickin’ those ads! Party at Dave’s when I get my first check!

The Most Amazing Man Alive

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

The media guys played this at the beginning of our church service this morning; it’s a hoot! (YouTube link.)

“He once counted to infinity… Twice!” “He’s both left-handed, and right-handed…” “He uses Tabasco Sauce instead of Visine.” “He is not afraid of the dark; the dark is afraid of him.” Yeah; that pretty much describes me.

Automania 2009 Mega-Gallery!

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

The 2009 Automania show is history, and it was a good one. I got there early yesterday (about 4:30) hoping to see a lot of the cars rolling in, but most of them were already in place when I arrived. A couple of the owners said they were there about 2:00!

There were a lot of cars there, and a lot of people. So many people that it was tough to get a decent photo of some of the cars. That’s the bothersome thing about a big show like this; that many cars draws that many people, but if there weren’t as many people, there wouldn’t be as many cars worth seeing. So I guess I’ll put up with it!

A lot of the cars that were there had been at previous shows, like the ’54 Ford Delivery & matching boat-topped camper, and the over-the-top awesomeness of the ’57 Pontiac Chieftain… I had a chance to talk with the owner of the Ford Delivery rig, and will put up some more details about that and other notable cars later. But for now, I’ll quit typing and just hit ‘publish’ to get these photos out there. I hope the page works ok; the admin side is a little balky, which probably means WordPress doens’t much like having to deal with 284 images. Oh well; here’s hoping!

Enjoy!

Click through to see all the photos, but beware; there are a lot of them! (more…)

Automania 2009 Is Coming!

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

Had a nice surprise in my inbox this morning; I subscribe to the Hemmings Motor News eWeekly newsletter, and today’s edition had a top-line writeup on the Sioux Falls Automania Show coming up next week! Sweet!

Not sure what to think of the bits about having to “chip harder when it comes to breaking out of winter” and the “Crisp weather” reference — the weather is usually pretty warm for Automania — but I guess the misconceptions about the weather in the upper Great Plains die hard. I read the Hemmings Auto Blogs pretty regularly; one can only hope that they at least send someone out for a writeup and some pictures. If not, maybe I can lend them mine, or better yet, get paid for it? (hint, hint!)

But anyway, Automania is less than a week away. As Caleb says (way too often), I can’t wait!

How Low Can You Go?

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

Here’s a car that Caleb & I saw at last September’s Oukasts’ Car Club show in Mitchell. The thing is so low it’d probably be grinding just rolling down the street. When the owner started it up & drove off, hydraulics raised it up a bit to make it at least drivable, but it was still low.

The whole thing was done up very nicely, with a Caterpillar radiator up front, a flathead engine… Parked right down the street from the Corn Palace. Very cool. Very much undrivable, but very cool!