Normally I tow the Z4 3.0 to events, but I got a wild hair to drive it out to the SCCA National Tour event in San Diego this weekend since I have 12k of lease mileage leftover from last year and I was able to line up a number of business meetings along the way. Shipped the race tires out via FedEx Ground and carried the rest with me. Trunk and passenger area are full, but it's amazing just how much stuff you can pack in a Z4; 7 gal. air tank, floor jack, tools, 5 gal. of 93.5 octane gas (Cali has schnitty gas), 4 jackstandscar wash bucket & supplies, and other misc. support stuff, plus luggage, drinks, food, rain gear, detailing towels, etc :eek: Covered 700 miles to Houston, TX today doing mostly 80mph on the interstate with some city driving too and managed 29.4 mpg according to the trip 'puter despite carrying several hundred pounds of gear :clap:

Despite the stiff Koni shocks and the booming open exhaust (sounds much louder in the car than out) have to say the Z4 is a sweet highway machine. It slices and dices traffic like a hot knife in butter :buttrock BMW really got the steering feel right at highway speeds. Wish there was some way to stiffen it up at parking lot speeds, a little too much assist there for my taste. I spent all day Sunday re-Zaino'ing the paint and VisionBlade'd the glass. Came in handy as it's been foggy and rainy along the way. Cleanup will be a breeze with the fresh detail job ;)

Anways, couple of meetings in the AM then I'm off to San Antonio, then on to El Paso for the night

Sounds like an adventure/quest! Take pics along the way, if you can...

Doesn't the Z4 have a port to let exhaust sound in the cabin? Maybe you could cover that up since you have since swapped the exhaust.

I love long road trips. Have fun.

envious .....

Originally posted by count_schemula
Doesn't the Z4 have a port to let exhaust sound in the cabin? Maybe you could cover that up since you have since swapped the exhaust.

I love long road trips. Have fun.

No, it's a subwoofer connected to the engine.

yeah, trying to compare the sound tube to my exhaust is like trying to compare a pea shooter to an Abrams tank ;)

1500 miles through last night, mileage now at 29.0 mpg after getting caught in Houston stop-go rush hour traffic and higher elevations :wave:

Originally posted by TeamZ4
yeah, trying to compare the sound tube to my exhaust is like trying to compare a pea shooter to an Abrams tank ;)

1500 miles through last night, mileage now at 29.0 mpg after getting caught in Houston stop-go rush hour traffic and higher elevations :wave:

I was stopped at a Flying J truck stop just north of El Paso when I wrote the reply above earlier today. I have a WiFi internet account with them so I can stop and check email, etc. while traveling the interstates. Normally I sit out in the car, but I hadn't eaten yet so I went inside and sat down to chomp some pizza down while surfing. When I came back outside I opened the passenger side and put some stuff in the Z4, then walked around the back to the driver's side. I noticed that the entire trim ring with the clown-button turn signal indicator had popped out of the front fender and was laying on the ground. Immediately I thought "how could this happen ..." and as I looked up it was obvious how it did ...


some sorry M-F'ing Sumbeeotch had thoroughly viloated the virginity of my Z4's left front fender :bawl and I know who did it, though there were no witnesses and the driver was long gone :mad:


when I pulled into the parking spot there was a FedEx delivery truck on my left. Based on the evidence, it seems that rather than pull straight back and then turn, he must not have seen my Z4 and cranked the steering full left then backed, and his right front swung around and smacked into my left front. White FedEx paint high on the fender in front of the wheelwell and black tire rubber behind the wheelwell where his cranked-out tire smashed it in good :( , scarred the front wheel pretty good, and skinned the leading edge of the drivers door. It's all cosmetic and I'm able to drive it on and run the San Diego event bruised but OK. I'm not really all that upset about it; it's only a car, and a leased one at that, except I'm going to be the one to eat the $500 deductible getting it repaired. http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/images/smilies/cursin.gif

I called and reported it to FedEx, but without a witness it's probably a moot point. Best I can hope for is they can figure who it was and fire him for hit & run :behead:

AWESOME! I have always had the notion to just pick up sometime this summer and just drive around the country in the Z3, that is my ideal road trip right there.

It's too late for this trip, but some locations for high octane in SoCal are listed at http://www.schube.com/racegas.html including one San Diego location. That would save hauling that 93.5 octane around.

Well, you can use it when you drive out to Pasadena :D in July for Oktoberfest. There are 2 high octane locations in Pasadena.

Sorry to hear about the Fedex incident -- since they track all their trucks, they would know exactly when/if one was near your car at the appointed time. Any luck in dealing with them?

no, the bastages pretty much blew me off

O'fest is highly unlikely, too many SCCA events around that time frame

they just moved the DC Pro Solo, so now there are 4 back-back weekends in June alone for DC and Toledo

What? And miss driving cross country in July, twice?

well I'd probably do it if the finances allowed :(

having to fork out the deductible from my own pocket pretty much ruled that out :complain