540i Buying advice needed!

Hi Andrew, yes i have driven a 540 e34 but only an auto, and yes i have had an hartge and a e34 b10 bi turbo one of the fastest bmw`s ever built and its a 6 pot 3.5  m30 i do belive

But yes the 540 is a powerfull car ,only imo if the guys wants a sporty e34 i would go for a manual not an auto ,and peter not all manual 540`s were sports, so yes when you say you have seen a manual 540 in rhd i do not doubt you, but it would not have been a sport (v5)

Unless most of your time is spent at a drag strip I've always felt that 30-70mph is a much more accurate, real world performance indicator - the 540iA posts 6.7s 0-60mph and 5.2s 30-70mph. This latter time indicates a car with serious performance. Having just come from a BMW with 325hp sraight six that weighs approx. 200kg lighter I can assure you that the 540i would be left wondering where the ZM went off the lights but with kickdown from say 50-70mph I can't honestly say there's anything in it - although there's much less drama in the 540i.

It really depends how you want to use your performance. The 540i isn't a sports car, it's a luxury car and one of the car's biggest luxuries is the effortless pull of the big V8 engine. The 535i engine is more highly stressed (bhp/ltr) and perhaps the biggest indicator of the character of both engines is that the 540i has more torque than power, while the 535 has less torque than power (my 540 maybe nearly 40bhp down on my ZM but it's nearly 30lb.ft up).

for a grand i would probably go k+n panel filter(£40),chop the end off the airbox(free) and a superchip(£293).i also run mine on optimax.i dont think you see much gain from an exhaust and they are bloody expensive for a decent stainless.

  i would also take a look at an m5 six speed diff,as it has a slightly higher ratio for improved acceleration.this is what i am looking for next.

   if you can find one you might get a secondhand supercharger kit for a grand(i haven't found one yet).which will give you 406bhp.the cheapest i have found so far is from ess which is about £3500.

  other than that theres not much about for the engine i am afraid.

                                            bryan

Should just re-iterate what has already been said about the gearing of the 540iA on this thread. The gearing is so long in top that - whilst its no a lot slower than the ZM than from say 50-90mph it really doesn't pull anywhere near as fast above 110mph (research obviously not conducted on the public highway officer).

Chasseur, glad you like your 540 with a manual box and this is not meant with any disrespect, but there would honestly be no situation that I can think of where your car would be as quick as the ZM (apart from when carrying four people I suppose!). No disrepect, I'm sure your's is a very quick car but it wouldn't be as quick as the ZM - even with the M3 CSL it's still the fastest accelerating production BMW that EVO magazine have tested and if your 540 is by no means disgraced in a sraight line (which I'm sure it wouldn't be) it wouldn't see where it went in the twisties! Anyway, this is meant to be a 5 series discussion board and I certainly shouldn't be highjacking it with ZM threads!

i cant comment on the exhaust ben, but as you can only legally do cat back,and the fact that it looks pretty much straight through as it is.the noise would be nice but until my factory one drops off i think i will leave it alone.i was quoted around £300 for a two box system or £500 for a three box system.both of these were from powerflow.

    i think if you are allready accelerating from say 70 (so it is in third gear)then its not two bad over the ton.but,and its a big but,if you are cruising at a ton and nail it the gearbox has no where to go but fourth gear and takes ages to pick up speed.i got caught napping by an a4 tdi the other day and could not catch him let alone over take him untill i was pushing 130-140(a4 was probably flat out by then?)

  this is one reason why i am looking at a higher ratio diff from an m5.

                  bryan