Slowest kill ever 323i vs Maxima

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#1
This happened a few weeks ago - Don't lecture me on safety, we were on an exit road with no one in front of us, we were looking at speeding tickets at the worst. This was a case of letting the car breathe!

Yes, you are reading the slowest kill ever, minus the GT Metro vs Focus kill post..

Minding my own business last night, coming home North on Ga 400. Just passed the toll, getting close to the 285 loop intersection before the 'alpharetta autobahn' really opens up. I decided to take an exit before the 285 intersection (glenridge connector), and just cruise street roads home (trying to avoid post-rush hour trash rushes on 400..).

I get off 400, (2 lane exit, about a mile long on a bit of an incline, which ahead strangey enough semi-merges back into 400 before becoming an exit lane to 285), and start edging down in speed to hit my exit (I raced up a little to my exit just to give the engine a nice pull and blow out any crud in there from constant daily driving in Atlanta.) I notice a car suddenly sling off 400, and take the left lane of the exit, hauling butt (I'm in the right lane of the exit). I'm thinking 'hmm, did I just pull on him to get to my exit, and now he's all upset?' I keep it in 5th and gave it a little gas (and notice my exit is getting closer, faster now..) Guy scoots by me, Black Maxima, looks shiney and new, 4thgen I think from the view I had of the rear. Young guy looking straight ahead stomping it. I slowed his advance on me by hitting the gas, then made the mental decision to give up on my exit and have some fun!

I dropped back into 4th around 80, and introduced my pedal to the floorboard (well hello there!). I stopped his sprint from me and start to pull him back in pretty decently for a slow car (He had about 4-5 carlengths before I gave up on my exit and shifted down). We hit 110, at this point I've scooted up to half a carlength 'ahead' of him, with the left lane merge 'back' into 400 quickly approaching, with my lane quickly ending into the 285 exit. We crest the top of the incline and I hit approx 115, and as we begin going down again, I got enough space to slip in front of him in his lane, and just slam 5th gear down this hill pulling huge carlengths, with him in hot pursuit (He had it nailed the entire time once I originally dropped to 4th). I'm thinking (cool, I actually pulled someone in, with my slow car!! I stay in the right lane as we pass under the 285 overpass, and get ready to move to the right lane to exit 400 and get back to the street roads I was aiming for originally, when he catches up and sits on my bumper, and does the 'professional lane change' deal where he darts in and out around me, to show that his pride was impinged upon..

1 for the slow guys and gals!
 

adrean8j

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#2
Hey the that engine you have may be "slow" but it is strong enough to power a 5er and get up to triple digit speeds in a decent amount of time. From a stand still you would have killed him. My heavy ass 5er kills japanese and american normal cars on a regular basis. Another thing about the -23i's is that the BHP is usually understated.
 
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#3
adrean8j said:
Hey the that engine you have may be "slow" but it is strong enough to power a 5er and get up to triple digit speeds in a decent amount of time. From a stand still you would have killed him. My heavy ass 5er kills japanese and american normal cars on a regular basis. Another thing about the -23i's is that the BHP is usually understated.
Well, I originally posted this on another forum's 'kill' area, where most of the postings are made by modded m3's and the like, so my car is 'slow' compared to them (inside joke of sorts). Not to mention I'm slightly modded, but you'd think with the grief I got from the original post (All Maxima owners debating hp/torque #'s) that it could never happen.. [???1]

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=241609

I consistantly hear the '323i is underrated in BHP', but it's not more than a lil bit, is it? The 328i is not rated much higher than a 323. [:(]
 

adrean8j

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Well the -28i is rated at 192ps and the -23i at 170ps. But the going consensus in the BMW motherland is that most -23i get closer to 180-185ps pre-mod.....
By mildly modded do you mean exhaust and CAI? Not very many people on here really know much about the -23i's but here in Germany we have -18i's, -20i's(yes even 5er's), -23i's, -25i's, and the mighty -30i's when talking about I6's and below. When driving my car on the autobahn getting to 200kph is no prob and even 230 is not unheard of. The engine seems able to give more but the rev limiter holds it back......by the way what EXACTLY is the difference between the -23i engine and the -28i engine....I know the displacement is different but how does that work? Anyone?
 

tuckster

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#6
323 and 325 displacement is the same. 2.5 liters.

The engine in the 325 is tuned differently to gain the hp. The 323 has higher torque, lower max hp. The 325 has slightly lower torque and higher hp. I have a feeling the 325 was tuned to give higher hp because of the "horsepower" race that honda/toyota started a couple of years ago (at the sacrifice of torque). Sort of the like the megahertz race in computer (which does really tell you how powerful a computer is).

It's called a 323 because of marketing. At the time, the higher end BMW was a 328. If they named the 2.5 liter engine a "325", it would be too close to a 328 and no one would choose the higher end model. So hence 323 (even though it has a 2.5 liter engine). Marketing genius.

BMW later called the 323 (with some slight tuning for slightly higher hp) a 325 when the 330 was introduced.
 
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Tom

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#8
hehe nice story. I think you under estimate the power of your car since those 4th Generation Maximas are pretty fast. Nevertheless good kill.
 
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#9
epj3 said:
I've driven a V6 maxima (you might have 'raced' a 4 cylinder) and it pulled like there's no tomorrow - atleast, for a jap commuter car.

See this was what I was thinking, that I had run into a 2.5 engine version Maxima, but I was politely informed by the maxima owners that the US only had 6 cyl versions of the maxima available - it's not like the Altima (which is what I was thinking - it shared engines, or were on the same 'scale', and prolly had a 2.5 in it). News to me, but I'd not know since I'm not a Nissan enthuesist.

After a bit more research, I think it was actually a 5th gen maxima, as it had the round taillights, with chrome rings, which I was again gently informed by all the maxima owners on the BMW board (hah) that made it a 5th gen.. Which has somewhere around 200hp or the likes? (Which makes the fact that I pulled back on him like that even more interesting).

And it was on an incline, that 323 torque was working.. [;)]
 
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#11
tool fan said:
Can I once again ask a retarded question?????? I know what HP is...but what is BHP?
LOL that isn't retarded!

BHP stands for Brake-Horsepower.

This is the measurement they use in England where, on the dyno, the engine's power is measured at the flywheel by an actual brake that presses against the flywheel until the engine stops. When the engine just stops then they can measure its maximum power by how much pressure was needed on the brake to stop it.

Sounds old-fashioned but it works and is very accurate. But in OZ we use another term for engine power and that's KW (kilowatts).
 


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