As a lot of you guys here will remember, my car went from this:
To this:
To this:
Since I was
sans wheels since the 18th, I obviously needed to get a replacement set.
RedDragun from here had generously offered me one of his spare SR20DEs (for free) if I could just find a car to put it in. I was
very tempted to search the forum for another B13 to call my own; the many weekends spent with my old baby (rest her soul) up on jacks with her parts everywhere were truly some of my favorite leisure hours, not to mention the Sunday autoX's where all of that labor was well worth it.
But, as my life has changed since graduating college and as my career is progressing in the USAF, so have my vehicular needs/desires. When I sat down to think about it, I realized that I wanted my next car to have a five seats and a manual transmission (just like my B13, duh!), rear-wheel drive (I've driven FF my whole life & wanted a change), and--
GASP!--four doors. Since this set of criteria significantly narrowed my search options, the four-door requirement's priority was greatly reduced. This gave me a list of cars that included the following highlights: BMW 3-series, Dodge Charger/Magnum, Mazda RX-8, Pontiac GTO.
Some of you may have a keen eye and sharp mind and noticed that of this list, one is not like the others. That's right, the Dodge Charger/Magnum
does not come with a manual, period. I know, it surprised the crap outta me, too. So my options were then down to a 3-series, an RX-8, or a Goat. Here's what I decided on:
That's right: I am now the owner of a 2004 BMW 330i ZHP!
She's got an inline-6 with 241 hp and 229 ft*lb, a reported 0-60 of 5.6 sec, 6800-rpm redline, and a short-shifting 6-speed. Inside in the front are 8-way power seats in leather, a Alcantara-wrapped 3-spoke M steering wheel, aluminum trim, and a single-CD 6-speaker harmon-kardon premium sound system. I. Love. It.
Only one problem, though: not more than an hour after I drove off of the lot in Addison, TX (just outside Dallas) as I'm driving I-35 back to OK, my right front tire goes flat!! After putting the space-saver spare (friggin' 50-mph donut...), I looked the full-size wheel & tire over and found that the inside rim has a big dent in it where it was leaking air! So now I'm working on finding a place that'll repair the light-alloy wheel, and probably am going to have to get a new tire on it, too. Other than that, though, no complaints!
