[lbjgh]

What do ya think?

or

[jk]

rice, and vinyl rice at that

[Le Chef]

Wrap the whole roof with a brown vinyl and add gold trim to it?

[lbjgh]

hehe, how 'bout some corinthian leather too?

[tuco44]

[Penso di no]

Do what you want, but my opinion is

[nonagon]

Thumbs down. If it were an actual M car, then maybe. But it isn't!

[gareth12468]

Originally Posted by lbjgh

What do ya think?

or

[bren]

Originally Posted by nonagon

Thumbs down. If it were an actual M car, then maybe. But it isn't!

What he said.

[RhoXS]

I'd be embarrassed to drive it.

Actually, imo, I do not like anything at all added to the exterior of a car that was not installed at the factory. A number of years ago I refused delivery on a new car because the Dealer, against my up front instructions, put his advertisement on the trunk.

The only exception I ever made was painting the brake calipers on my Z3.

[Chalky White]

Originally Posted by RhoXS

I'd be embarrassed to drive it.

Actually, imo, I do not like anything at all added to the exterior of a car that was not installed at the factory. A number of years ago I refused delivery on a new car because the Dealer, against my up front instructions, put his advertisement on the trunk.

The only exception I ever made was painting the brake calipers on my Z3.

+1

I don't know why dealerships think it's ok to put their ad on the back of cars they sell. Unless they pay you, I don't know why anyone is ok with being a rolling unpaid advertiser for a dealership.

[lbjgh]

Did that make the car faster?

Originally Posted by RhoXS

The only exception I ever made was painting the brake calipers on my Z3.

[rgx3]

What? Don't own one yet! Here's my suprised face.

[lbjgh]

Own no. Ording yes. Timing? ETA 6-8 weeks.
As an added bonus I will be getting the MY2013 production. Thanks for asking.

Originally Posted by rgx3

What? Don't own one yet! Here's my suprised face.

[Dr Stig 2]

Originally Posted by RhoXS

I'd be embarrassed to drive it.

Actually, imo, I do not like anything at all added to the exterior of a car that was not installed at the factory. A number of years ago I refused delivery on a new car because the Dealer, against my up front instructions, put his advertisement on the trunk.

The only exception I ever made was painting the brake calipers on my Z3.

Most times I add an instruction for the dealer not to add any stickers to the car on delivery.
They tend to get upset a bit when I remove it in front of them. I dont care.
They are cheap advertising, and they age quickly leaving a horrible residue as the sticker shrinks but the glue remains.

The worst even case was when I took delivery of a new corolla in 1991 (I was a student at the time) and between buying the car and collecting it, they had installed pin stripes down the side of the car. PIN STRIPES! OMG! How tacky. To make it worse, when they removed them the installer had cut the ends while on the car and cut right through the paint.
I made them remove them and repaint the car. I found a flaw in the pain on every panel so they had to repaint the whole car.
It was never the same again, and I vowed never to let a sticker touch any of my cars.

Even the rediculous name badges came off my Z4, and the only reason I haven't had them debadge the X3 is because the jury (wife) is still out on whether she wants them or not.

To quote Blazing Saddles: "We dont need no stinking badges!"

[RhoXS]

Originally Posted by lbjgh

Did that make the car faster?

Of course not. Painted calipers are only an aesthetic touch and do not effect performance in any reasonably measurable manner.

I am curious why you would you think the the color of the calipers would effect either the maximum speed (already limited by the rev limiter) or how fast the vehicle accelerates? Maybe a bright red or yellow color would have a positive effect on speed but since I used a darker blue to match the paint I do not know what effect a bright color would have.

If anything, the paint adds a finite amount to the total mass of the car so, everything else being equal, with sufficiently sensitive instrumentation, a correspondining finite reduction in acceleration would be measurable.

The paint adversely effects braking as the heat transfer coefficient between the caliper metal and the air flow over it most certainly decreased. This means the caliper cannot reject heat as quickly and therefore will operate at a higher average temperature. Since a brake works by converting kinetic energy into heat energy, it must be able to continuously and efficiently reject this heat to the surroundings.

In any case, I did it because I liked the appearance of it as the paint almost exactly matched the factory color. It was a subtle accent and did not really stand out unless specifically looking at the wheels. In fact, unless one has the knowledge to know BMW did not paint the calipers on this model, it looks exactly like it was done in the factory. I have similar thoughts on a pin stripe. If it is subtle and elegant, then it can add something to appearance of the car that subtly makes a vehicle distinct from the thousands of other mass produced same vehicles. If it is of a nature that causes immediate attention, then, imo, it would not be something that I would tolerate on my vehicles.

[tuco44]

Originally Posted by RhoXS

Of course not. Painted calipers are only an aesthetic touch and do not effect performance in any reasonably measurable manner.

I am curious why you would you think the the color of the calipers would effect either the maximum speed (already limited by the rev limiter) or how fast the vehicle accelerates? Maybe a bright red or yellow color would have a positive effect on speed but since I used a darker blue to match the paint I do not know what effect a bright color would have.

If anything, the paint adds a finite amount to the total mass of the car so, everything else being equal, with sufficiently sensitive instrumentation, a correspondining finite reduction in acceleration would be measurable.

The paint adversely effects braking as the heat transfer coefficient between the caliper metal and the air flow over it most certainly decreased. This means the caliper cannot reject heat as quickly and therefore will operate at a higher average temperature. Since a brake works by converting kinetic energy into heat energy, it must be able to continuously and efficiently reject this heat to the surroundings.

In any case, I did it because I liked the appearance of it as the paint almost exactly matched the factory color. It was a subtle accent and did not really stand out unless specifically looking at the wheels. In fact, unless one has the knowledge to know BMW did not paint the calipers on this model, it looks exactly like it was done in the factory. I have similar thoughts on a pin stripe. If it is subtle and elegant, then it can add something to appearance of the car that subtly makes a vehicle distinct from the thousands of other mass produced same vehicles. If it is of a nature that causes immediate attention, then, imo, it would not be something that I would tolerate on my vehicles.

You're wrapped pretty tight - I am pretty sure he was only kidding you...

[RhoXS]

Originally Posted by tuco44

You're wrapped pretty tight - I am pretty sure he was only kidding you...

I thought my dry sarcasm would be evident.

[RichardBR]

Originally Posted by tuco44

You're wrapped pretty tight - I am pretty sure he was only kidding you...

Spot on

[Earlofessex]

Originally Posted by RhoXS

I thought my dry sarcasm would be evident.

I thought that was a great response. Very well written, thoughtful, technical and polite...and subtly sarcastic. Excellent post. Of course, I've also been told my humor can be too dry, so maybe it's a case of takes one to know one.