This is a September '93 Build 540i. Australian Delivery.

Currently fitted:
A Stock M60 4 litre quad cam all alloy V8,
PowerChip Enhancement Chip. (Program No 112 and set-up for 95 octane (Australian Standard) )
5 speed adaptive automatic transmission,
Automatic Stability Control System,  (Manufacturer Standard Fitment)
Stainless Steel Catback system (no resonator or crossover) EDIT: Now updated see page two for details.
A very clever, but not sure if I want to keep it or get rid of it Quad exhaust,
Eibach 'Sport' Springs,
Koni 'Sport' Struts,(Updated)
AZEV Aluminium rims, 8.5 x 17 ET15 Front and 10 x 17 ET17 Rear shod with Michelin Pilot Preceda 2's 235/45 17 and 255/40 17 respectively.
Stock Brake Ducts in the lower stock bumper/spoiler, with the extension ducting to the front brakes.

A Nakamichi Head Unit, polk audio 3-way split system with a small sub, 2 x ADS amps and a Alpine crossover. Nice sound, whilst not a big kicker it's punchy enough for me and the kids (lets face it stopping at the lights with The Wiggles booming out of the car is not a good look for street cred, but the kids and I get a laugh out of the looks we get from the people in the cars next to us :))

It is a low kilometer (Bought it with 71,000kms on the odometer Update, it now has just clocked 111,687kms) vehical that someone has started working on and has moved it on with the looming fuel prices. Yet taking into account the 80 litre fuel tank, driving it in peak hour to and from work has returned repeated 480km trips filling once every two weeks so around 240kms per 40 litres per week.

The one trip I have done on the highway from Brisbane to Sydney I left home with a full tank two kids, luggage for a week (2 suitcases, Medium sized) and we drove straight through to Newcastle and put 57 Liters of BP Ultimate in it, 805kms on 2/3rds of a tank, nothing wrong with that for me.

Planned Upgrades:

K-Mac/Ireland Engineering/OEM eccentric rear bushes to realign the rear wheels and 'dial-out' some of the twitchiness of the front end along with some fixed Camber Plates from either K-Mac or Ireland Engineering to add some negative camber to the front for more positive steering feel. EDIT: I now have Vorschlag Motorsports adjustable Camber/Caster plates to fit, see Page two for details (Coilovers and adjustable plates for the front maybe added if it needs it for track days)

Still deciding between the Brembo full floating 4-pot fronts and rears or the AP Racing 6-pot Fronts with full floating Discs and 4-pot rears also with full floating discs. EDIT: The Brembo GT series rear brake upgrade kit is not longer available from Brembo, so the AP Racing upgrade kit will be the likely candidate, unless the Alcon kits for the e34 become available from UUC motorworks when it comes time to make the purchase.

Conversion from 5-Speed Adaptive Automatic transmission to a 6-Speed Manual with a UUC Motorworks Flywheel and Update performance clutch and pressure plate (V12 sized Flywheel,Pressure plate and Clutch plate is 280mm compared to the stock 240mm, this will be included for the long term engine upgrade plans.)

I am also looking long and hard at the Quaife Torque Biasing LSD, I cannot 'justify' it yet, but in the pursuit of what I am looking to do it may become 'nessesary' ;) EDIT: I now have in my possesion a 3.45:1 BMW LSD (with 75% lock) to be fitted, again it's all on page two :)

At the moment I am concentrating on the Chassis and brakes, once that is sorted I will begin the addition of power with engine upgrades.

These images have been updated even though they are really bad, I just have to get my act together and go searching for locations to get a few good shots.

Hope you enjoy your viewing.

Cheers!

This is a dyno run I had done to get a baseline figure in the cars current state of tune. It will be useful once the Engine Modifications start. I have to say I was surprised at this rear wheel output considering the PowerChip, but after talking to PowerChip I found that it was a very early program (Number 112 in fact) that had been written for the 540 back in '94. It is only a 95RON tune. I may get the 98RON Tune (Named GOLD98) sometime soon as it is good for 225Kw so with a rough calculation it should give me close to 220ish HP at the rear wheels. The extra power will not go astray as I do find it 'lacking' sometimes, especially at trackdays.

I did notice that this Dyno run was carried out in Third gear (which is 1.54:1 Ratio) so the information is to be taken with a grain of salt as this is not a *true* reading of the rear wheel power. To get an accurate measurement you need to carry out the power run in whatever gear gives you the 1:1 ratio. So I plan to get another run carried out before I get the new Differential fitted to more accurately assess the rear wheel output with the changes I make along the way.

A very wet Trackday with the BMW Club of Queensland at Lakeside International Raceway. It had been a long time coming this day and the enthusiasim of the participants was not dulled. This place may still be closed and bulldozed into a housing development :( so any opportunity to run here is good.

Here is the car again at Morgan Park Raceway, this is a cracker of a track and surprisingly the 540 feels pretty nimble around here. I just get to use 3rd gear on the straight and over the back, but most of the time it's 2nd gear and spinning her to 7000 rpm (indicated) thats where the limiter chimes in to arrest further progress.
At the end of this day the Flag Marshals voted the 540 as the second best sounding car of the day beaten only by a Porsche 996 racecar. Apparently the 540 'sounds amazing' :)