Heavy Clutches

by Anand Lal Shimpi on 3/24/2004 1:32 AM EST
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18 Comments

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  • K1avg - Thursday, March 25, 2004 - link

    Sorry, but complaining about a Bimmer's clutch just doesn't get it for me.

    You don't know a heavy clutch and stiff tranny until you come here and drive my 1993 GMC Sierra. 265K miles - ORIGINAL clutch and transmission.

    <MUTTER>Bimmer...You people disgust me. :P</MUTTER>
  • daniel - Thursday, March 25, 2004 - link

    if yer into odd cars that push design...
    check out smart cars
    http://www.smart.com/-snm-0135155096-1079601675-00...
  • MaDMaXX - Thursday, March 25, 2004 - link

    20-30k miles?!!? - you guys need more corners :P
    um, thats loads :)
    By the very nature of the beast, a rear wheel drive car will always wear the drive tyres out faster, its to be expected.
  • Anonymous - Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - link

    T-Rex????
  • Anonymous - Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - link

    Raptor????
  • msva123 - Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - link

    I downloaded Gigli, luckily I had the foresight to burn it to a rewriteable DVD. I still haven't watched it yet.

    As for the modern educational system, I am so disgusted with it that I dropped out of college last month. Spare me the lectures please, I know I am taking a big risk.

    I am planning to make a web site about my disdain for the system as a way to encourage more dialogue about it. Unfortunately right now I am too busy trying to develop a steady source of income to get it started. But I promise when I do put it up that it will be very professional and well-researched, not just an "I hate school" type deal.

    Maybe such a site already exists? So far I've only done a quick search and found nothing.
  • lb - Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - link

    I had an '95 M3 for some time. The rear tires wear regardless of how well you treat it, particularly if they are the OEM Michelins. Expect 20k to 30k miles per set even if you NEVER drive it hard. This car has an oddball size so your replacement options are a little more limited than usual. The E36 M3s were great cars -- I have very little negative to say about them. Expect some maintenance costs as you approach 100k miles.

    Regarding education... it all depends on the school and the attitude of the individual. I have a graduate degree from one of the top 5 electrical engineering schools in the US and that education was top notch. I learned an amazing amount of information, but I also burned out and ended up with a bad attitude before it was all over. After several years of retrospect I realize that the problem was me, not the educational process. My undergrad degree was in physics, which I also believe to be a very worthwhile undertaking although of little practical value on the job market. There isn't a lot of "busywork" in a physics program or an EE graduate program. There is no shortcut to learning physics or engineering, so that may be part of why I think it to be more rewarding than some other fields.

    Lately I have been considering trying something new and going into a medical field -- life is too short to only have one career isn't it?

    Anand - What are you studying?
  • Anonymous - Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - link

    As for artificially heavy clutched, most e36's have a heavy clutch, including my lowly 93 318i (more than likely have a 95-97 m3 by the end of the year) and even though the worn rear tires may indicated heavy use, check what tires they are, I had a set of yokohama AVS sports go on me in about 12-14,000 kms with spirited driving, anyways, do your research, they are beautiful cars :), and yes, the trannies are great, so great you can put it in any gear you want whenever, just don't make the mistake and over rev the engine into oblivion (it's happened, take a look around the good ol' net :))

    good luck to your friend, and I would also be interested in knowing what car you drive Anand

  • me - Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - link

    I am looking foward to your thoughts on education. As one who has gone through two schools with two different undergrad degrees, I came out of the experience pretty down on the whole process. Too much wasted time. Too many disinterested people (teachers and students). Anyone who thinks the information revolution has happened has never been to college or most companys. It's a real eye opener. So much information and very few ways to make connections and sift through it all. Therefore everyone is left redoing things that have been thought and done many times before. I thought education was quickly getting up to speed with what has come before than expanding and adding to the body of knowledge. There is so much info that this literally becomes impossible. Time is spent and wasted regurgitating what has already been done and discussed countless times before. As a critical thinking exercise...great. But 4+ years of critical thinking? Or even further...if you get a Phd...25-30 years of education just to get you (maybe) to a point where you can put that knowledge to some applied use. Big picture it's all very lame. Short of jacking in like the Lawnmower Man or Neo, there has to be a better way. I'm not sure what it is, but it will definately involve computers and data processing on a such scale that our constant FPS discussions will seem very quaint in comparison ;-) As you can see I am very down on the whole thing and it depresses me. I think humans beings are capable of great things but we are being bogged down with detail overload. I don't know. Macro/Micro. You could argue both ways equally well. Oh well...my brain hurts...time to go expand my brain with UT2K4

    Haha </BABBLE>
  • GhandiInstinct - Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - link

    Any bashing of the two sequels can only be directed at WB for being cheap jews.
  • GhandiInstinct - Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - link

    The Matrix, The Matrix Revisited, The Matrix Reloaded, The Animatrix, and soon to be The Matrix Revolutions.
  • garfielddk - Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - link

    I really consider all of my dvd purchases as good investments, I haven't got money for crap ;0)
    I did fall asleep watching We Were Soldiers the other day though, but I'm now sure whether it was the movie or just me that sucked.

    Pirates of the Caribbean is difinetely a nice movie. I actually went to see it twice in the cinema, and it'll be in my dvd collection sometime soon.

    I'm looking forward to your blog about education, and I hope you'll put some info about how your education system works in it for us from Denmark and other countries far away ;0)
  • Krishna - Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - link

    Minority Report. Worst movie. ever. (in the voice of Comic Book Guy.) If you liked Starsky and Hutch, Anand, you'll enjoy "Meet the Parents". This one's a keeper.
  • Omega Supreme - Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - link

    I couldn't tell you about the clutch specifically but the M3's transmission generally speaking is heralded by most to be the most superb 'inexpensive' sport sedan's transmission bar none. It may feel different, but there may be a good reason why, in the end.

  • MrHindustan - Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - link

    So what kind of car do you have? Oh worst movie I ever bough (albeit a joke gift for a friend) was Glitter. No I'm not going to give you a link. Needless to say it was horrible.
  • MaDMaXX - Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - link

    Oh wait, DVD's, um, yeah, i wasn't impressed with traffic, for all its oscar praise and the rest, much like scarface, its just boring, although a possibly interesting story, it just never got where i was expecting it to go.
    On the other hand, buying dvd's blindly isn't a favourite game of mine, for the reason i've just mentioned, although the high recomendations i got for Pirates of the carabbean i thought i'd try it. I have to say, i was very pleasantly impressed with this movie, defintely worth repeat viewings and quite funny.
  • MaDMaXX - Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - link

    Ahh, artificially heavy clutches, well looked after high milage, but recent cars are nearly always good for a bargan.
    You can get a lot of car for comparitively little money. However, the obvious stuff applies, like cam belts, suspension and clutches. At this mileage, they nearly all apply so be careful when checking the cars.
    With the extremely worn rear tires, its a good bet the previous owner liked a good bit spinning them up, so its more than likely the driving style thats caused the clutch to go the way of the pear.
    Check for stiffness putting it in first, this is a clutch on its way out, but it doesn't always happen this way, esp. when it goes heavy in the way youy described.
    It should be ok but be looking into the likelyhood of replacing the clutch inthe near future.
    Hmm, gotta stop going on about cars...
  • ViRGE - Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - link

    ...I bought Double Team...

    You should have gone with the porn; the acting would have been better. ;-) As for worst DVDs, I don't know if we can do better than that. Maybe Shazam(the Shaq movie)?

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