Introducing the P3 Performance Digital Interface !

September 9th, 2008

We our proud to present our first P3 product available for multiple applications.  Some have tried and we are first the market with the fabulous piece of kit that is sure to become, not only the standard in secondary interface, readout and control but a part that every tuner MUST have.   Built to give you instant and unfiltered information.  Built specifically for each application with a real eye on the aesthetic.  No more round clunky boost gauge stuck in a vent.  That’s not custom.  This is a revolution.  Seamless integration.  Totally reversible before sale or lease turn in.  Nothing to cut, Nothing to drill.  One touch command of ECU mapping and control.  OBD II expandable.  

 

Proprietary Digital Boost and Vacuum display.  

Bar Graph Boost display.

Switchable map selection with memory and valet lock out (where applicable)

Expansion kits available for secondary vehicle feature control, remote Wide Band Sensor and Pyrometer (where applicable) 

Custom made for each specific application with careful thought and attention given to texture, fit , finish and longevity!

NO hassle install!

We have also partnered with our favorite vendors to package this with what we think will be the best all in one performance package you can buy for your car.

Posted in Articles, Featured, P3 Audi B5 S4, P3 BMW 135, P3 BMW 335, P3 Lotus Esprit SE/S4 2.2 turbo, P3 Mercedes Benz C230k | No Comments »

Germany’s idea of Godzilla…

September 9th, 2008

Many cars have been called the ultimate car for tuners.   The R32 and R33 Skyline is a memorable example.  Also dubbed Godzilla because of it’s HUGE performance potential.  Sadly we never got either of those cars in the states. While many were imported in legal, and probably somewhat less than legal ways it’s success here was stifled by the fact that it wasn’t actually sold here.  The Toyota Supra was also a car that more than a few people realized would easily make 400, 500 , heck , even a thousand horsepower.  When Audi Released it’s Ur (Ur translate loosely as original from the german) S4 (B4) on these shores in late 1992 it may have only been rated at 227 hp, it was only a matter of days before MTM and the like had their S4’s making 350hp on the stock turbo.  Audi had a proud heritage of creating genuinely memorable turbo quattro cars.  Could they finally produce one that was truly worthy of the name “monster or Godzilla”?  As the Ur S4 Bowed (now called the S6 to be in line with Audi’s other model names) many Audi fans were given the news that the venerable 20V 5 cylinder had seen it’s last days as a power plant in Audi’s S cars.  At the time there was much speculation but no one really saw what was coming next.   

If you were to visit your friendly Audi dealer in late 1995 and asked , ” what can I replace my S4 with”  you would have gotten the delightful answer of, “why an S4 of course!”  Indeed , the world was set to receive the greatest S4 of all time.  The 2.7t biturbo 6 speed equipped S4 delivering 265hp in European trim.   Immediately magazines were pitting Ingolstads finest sports sedan against the BMW M3 and Mercedes Benz AMG C36 .  Much to every Audiphiles delight the S4 handily SMASHED the competition, delivering 0-60 in 5.3 seconds and beating both cars to 100 and in the quarter mile.  What was more all road testers praised the car for it’s much more neutral handling and increased resistance to understeer compared with the old car.  Here in the US we saw the writing on the wall. Germany creates another car to lust for and we will NEVER see it on these shores.  Stop the presses! Toward the end of 1999 some three years into the cars production and having been ready for a freshen up in 2000 we were told that we would , infact, be getting the B5 S4 for model year 2000.   At the same time we heard that Audi would be releasing an RS4 in Avant only and with … wait for it… near as dammit 380 hp and reaching sixty miles an hour in 4.8 seconds!  100 would be dispatched in a 911 turbo like 11.9 seconds…from the FACTORY.   Our ship had come in.  Though rated at 250hp for the US market  magazines such as Car and Driver were able to match performance numbers set in Europe.  This was a serious piece of kit indeed.  

Almost immediately software was developed that would see the S4 making over 320 hp with a simple Chip, Exhaust, intake combination.  Soon parts from the RS4 were available from both Audi and in the aftermarket.  By 2002 there were big turbo kits and cars putting down reliable and consistent wheel horse power numbers around the 500 mark.  Few of us who considered ourselves true Audi Fans could hold back.  The cars have remained strong in the used market and are still commanding big money for real cars.  However, when you think of everything you are getting for your money.   It is a near unbeatable value.  Parts support has been strong and so it was time … for P3 to run not 1 but two ….not finished

Posted in Articles, P3 Audi B5 S4 | 1 Comment »

Why we love to drive

September 7th, 2008

For the last 10 years there have been those of you that demanded I either start a new Publication or Blog daily to get your fill of automotive enthusiasm.  Well, I think that you will agree P3 answers all of our automotive needs all in one place.  Here you will find the Profile for every car you have ever dreamed of owning, or maybe even one you currently own and Love.  All the performance Parts you need. Some of which we are first to bring to the market here in the US, some you have here-to-fore never been able to find, and some we are creating ourselves.  Passion, pure and simple we will feed the passion that we all share for these wonderful (if sometimes flawed) machines.  Welcome!

When I set out to think about what my first article would be, it wasn’t too hard.  At the core for those of us that can find no better expense of time and money but to find the perfect corner on the penultimate afternoon during the crispest of autumnal days.  The first time you thread the KEYHOLE just right at Mid-Ohio, or at 16 when you find yourself gazing through the side window of your parents car in a  snow-filled abandoned parking lot.  At the core, the freedom and the thrill that is driving has been wired so totally in our brain that, at times, we long for little else.   

Back in the Fall of 2006 I found myself taking delivery of a brand new Candy White GTI.  I had driven it at launch and test drove several and could scarcely believe that this kind of performance was available for under $25,000.   The car had the build quality of the RS6 I had at the time (and if you haven’t been in one and at this point this surely I have lost the plot… go drive one), felt EASILY up to exceeding the stock performance predictions (later proved out by a stunning STOCK dyno run that yielded 207 hp and 221tq at the wheels after being properly run in !!), had one of the best esp systems on any car PERIOD, and would even get it’s tail involved in the action.  WOW.   I was able to take the car to track days, many memorable road trips and even see what the cars potential was with a brace of performance mods.  This little GTI had really moved things on.  With it’s lively neutral chassis tuning, ample thrust from it’s standard setting 2.0fsi motor and it’s all things to all people interior I wondered what else anyone really needed. It accomplished so many tasks so well, Easily besting E36 M3’s on the track and providing more back road fun than it had any right to.  After 20k miles it was still rattle free and proved to be a real driving machine.  Still the question always begs answering , “what if I spent a bit more money…”

Not too long ago a Lamborghini Gallardo 6 speed found itself in my care for quite an extended period.  Within the first few miles I realized, they had finally gotten things right.   The car was all of a piece (something which no Diablo could ever claim) it was composed, fast and competent and yet somehow as wieldy as a 2.0fsi GTI.   Within a few hundred miles I was seriously enamored.  Lamborghini had done it (albeit with quiet a bit of help from our friends at Audi) and I came to enjoy some of the best drives of my life.    One of the most memorable trips in that car was a long 400 mile highway run across several states. The glistening Orange Gallardo was easily as comfortable as an E class Mercedes.  Turned so many heads I stopped counting.  Further it provided the kind of mile crushing in gear acceleration that would see state troopers seriously questioning if they should even give chase.  Fitted with an exhaust that was well mannered and tasteful at idle and while cruising , but containing the kind of bark that, at one point, literally made the soccer mom and he brace of bemused children collectively; drop their jaws, jump and cheer and literally flinch for cover when the throttle was blipped under an underpass.  A car of cars that not only brought me great pleasure but an enumerable amount of fellow drivers as well. It was truly worth the price of admission.   To my point every time I drive a truly high end piece of kit, be it an SLR or the newest offering from Ferrari I can’t help but here that little voice in the back of my head say, “you will never be able to drive and enjoy a 100 hp car ever again!”   I have to say that with the advent of ever more capable cars being released this point has been underlined over and over again.    With the cars we are being sold today things really and totally  are being moved forward at a blistering pace.   Are we to crush our E30 M3’s, Miata’s, Lotus Europas and the like?

Having the good fortune of having access to a stream of cars certainly has it’s privileges.  A few short months ago a fairly unique and rare car was offered to me that I simply couldn’t pass up.  A venetian Blue Porsche 928 S4 with a manual gear box and a Limited Slip rear end isn’t something you see everyday.  I couldn’t pass it up.  I have to confess with all this new machinery passing threw my hands it took a few days to really draw the interest in choosing it to be my stead for an afternoon of back road passion pursuit.  At first my worst fears seemed to be close to reality.  The seating position was less perfect than that of a Cayman S.  The interior was quiet a bit noisier than I had remembered, and while powerful all the controls seemed to be a step or two more disconnected than the S8 I have been driving earlier that day.  Out on the road that quickly faded.   We have truly lost the plot with modern airbag A pillar design. While structural integrity is important to you and me (and certainly my kids), the PANORAMA afforded by the slim pillars in this car was SHOCKING.  Then there was the throttle response …. OH, that is what a throttle cable was used for.  Not 4 corners in and heavy on the power a hair before the apex (keep in mind I had been driving an Audi a few hours previous) and the ensuing slide was easily ridden out with the perfect amount of opposite lock  prescribed to me THROUGH that thin rimmed airbag-less wheel.   Wait a second, stop the presses.  I was in a 100k mile, sub 15k dollar car and enjoying my socks off.  Never mind that the A/C was struggling to cool my 6 foot 2 inch frame as adequately as a new honda civic would .    I was rediscovering automotive Nirvana.   

Upon returning back to P3 head quarters I snagged the keys to the newly acquired C230k coupe.  Here was an even less expensive car that , to be honest, wasn’t exactly heralded by the automotive press as a whole.  To my complete satisfaction , though flawed, I was able to find and extract the joy from caining this car as well.  I had stumbled on to what I had suspected, neah , KNEW all along.  It is the DRIVING we love.  Certainly having the right car can help, but as I have found from years of modifying  cars … the engineers have PUT the right car … IN most cars.  It is up to us to extract that Rightness.  This is not to say every car has latent potential (ask anyone who owns a Chevy Malibu), however it is the drive and our ability to connect with the world that is key to this passion we all share.  

I look forward to sharing my passion with you.  Here at P3 our goal is to help you FIND the potential in your car.  Make it available at a one stop location.  Then fuel that fire with the content that currently just doesn’t exist.  Here we go, buckle up… put that helmet on if you have it.  We are going for one Hell of a ride.

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Project Lotus Esprit Turbo

September 7th, 2008

Welcome.  Leave your fear or preconceptions at the door. The Lotus Esprit is one of the GREATEST tuner cars of all time.  Granted , they are not common, but now that P3 exists you have all the support you NEED.  START building.

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The P3 rating system

September 7th, 2008

P3 overall rating as a factory built car  this is going to be the definitive ”as it is” rating which will reflect how focused the car is to accomplishing the task we care about most… Driving.  This rating shall only be given after a car is driven in it’s factory issued form.  A drive shall be termed as one of the P3 project editors (at this Time either Tim or Jordan).  The car will be driven in dry conditions and for a mixed period of driving. This rating will take into account the cars performance, attributes, aesthetic, desirability and subjective durability over the course of the test. 

P3 overall rating as a tuned car  here our rating won’t be given until the car has either A. been modified to a level that has increased the cars performance in multiple notable ways , or at the end of the project car’s test life, not to exceed 1 year.  This rating will deal with how completely the mods we were able to install, fabricate, find, etc.  have changed the car’s character into a more focus driving machine.  Any car not improved by modification at the end of it’s life can receive a negative star status… which is unlikely, but we might as well set some ground rules here. 

 

build quality  This is going to be a 1 to 5 star scale on how well the car is put together.

appearance This is a subjective category and, while we may not agree, we are here to let you know P3 sees as beautiful.  There will be times when you won’t agree with this  or many of the ratings.  We are hear to help you make the best car decision, and without this you may never know that you are the only one that thinks your pontiac aztec is cool.  It is not .  Grading will be from 1 to 5 stars 

handling We will be using multiple accelerometers as well as subjective “how does it feel” and “what messages is the suspension giving me” to create a 1 to 5 star assessment of each car. 

drivetrain Here we will subjectively asses the motor and transmission.  We will focus on how consistent power delivery is.  How well the gear ratios work with the power band.  Cruising sound levels, and how the car runs in general over the course of our test. 1 to 5 stars will be given.

brakes Here again we will use accelerometers to gauge actual force.  We will asses fade at speed and how easy the pedal is to modulate.  We shall grade each cars brakes on a scale of 5 stars.

p3 passion meter You could think of this as the drool meter.  How likely is this car to incite riots.  How likely are you to loose sleep over this car because you can’t get it out of your head. 1 to 5 stars. 

P3 parts meter How available are parts for this car.  After we try them all , we will revise at the end of our test.  Because , as we have proven , the existence doesn’t mean they should be installed on anyones car.  

 

-P3 staff

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why the BMW 335 and why is everyone modding this car?

September 7th, 2008

BMW’s in general have always been a bit of a mixed bag with me.  Because they have been so popular , and always done so well in certain magazine tests I have always been someone who has appreciated these cars quietly and from A far.  For years they have had their most lack luster (to the author at least) efforts praised, usually above the offerings from Audi, Mercedes Benz and even Porsche.   I will be blunt, the E30 M3, E39 V8 M5, and E46 M3 were all great cars.  The S54 M coupe is to this day one seriously flawed but spectacularly memorable car that I always hold in a high and special place.  However, the rest of the range was well… I just didn’t like them.  The factory efforts never had the benefit of forced induction and it was expensive and many times pointless to seek more hp.  The interiors were seriously sub-par when compared with their Audi equivalent, traction in the real world where it rains and snows was egregious and well, I digress.  To put even more of an emphasis on why in particular the M3 range always left me cold is that, simply put, I own a 500 hp B5 S4.  It will lap faster, leave the line harder, and is in every way more entertaining.  Then something strange happened.  Audi (the manufacture of many cars featuring not just turbo, but also quattro all wheel drive) introduced the B6 and B7 S4s.  I will be honest, you will likely not see one of these as a P3 project car because the have V8’s that don’t make great power, don’t get great fuel economy and don’t handle all that well.  So Audi (temporarily) leaves forced induction, which in many ways it pioneered and what does BMW do (other than ruin the new M3 with a V8)?  Yup, you guessed it , here comes the 335 coupe,  335 convertible, 335 sedan and they are twin turbo’d and available with either rear or all wheel drive… WTH??? Well, for a little while I was gutted.  I took solace in the fact that these cars featured slash and cut Bangle design, which initially I railed against.   However, as if things could get any worse, the styling (particularly on the coupe) has grown on me.  These E90 cars come with (let’s be honest) more than 300 hp and will run to sixty in around 5 seconds.  YIKES.  Needless to say, here at P3 we had to have one.  If you have read any of the above material you knew it wasn’t going to be me or Jordan, so that job comes down to Rick.   As far as we know Rick must not be able to drive stick because he ordered his in steptronic.  You can rest assured that over the next year of this feature we won’t let him live that down.  

Now that we had a car, and had decided to make it one of our 08/09 project cars all that was left for me to do was drive one.  So, I went looking for once because there was no way in heck I was driving an Automatic. Upon finding one I remembered what it was I loved about BMW’s…. their freaking crazy obsessive lawyers and their state of the art iDrive.  If that chime were to have sounded 1 more time, I wouldn’t have been able to drive the car.  I would have immediately gotten out in protest and possibly kicked the car.  That didn’t happen.  If you work for BMW or are one of their design engineers, please go drive an Audi with MMI or even a Lexus and replace iDrive (which is total crap) with one of those competent and easily superior systems.  After my rant I started the car and was met by a surprisingly sophisticated, complex and low exhaust burble.  My first thought here is that the tone is just perfect and will really be hard to improve upon.  It needs a few more Db, but honestly in is just so correct as it is.  We shall see what gains and compromise can be made here but it surely won’t be first on our list.  Pulling away the car seemed to have the composure and suspension compliance that has made BMW famous and the standard by which others must be judged.  The shift action was positive enough but in many ways substandard to the newest offerings from Porsche and even Audi.  The interior design doesn’t connect with me , being at once square and slashed (perhaps an attempt and flow from the exterior) while using textures that are subpar even for an Acura product.  The seats are comfortable and it is easy to get in a correct and composed driving position.   “So the motor, what of the motor?”, you may be asking.  Well, it easily trumps the competition from Infiniti, Audi (3.2 A5), etc. I would have to say the first most startling revelation I had was that, with a PSS9  or equivalent suspension upgrade and a chip (both of which we will be trying soon) I would FAR prefer this car to the new M3.  Power delivery on the factory map is far to linear for you to get excited about the car being a twin turbo, it is almost as if they wanted to disguise that fact.  They couldn’t hide it , because why it delivers V8 like torque it returned a fantastic 24.4mpg on my drive.   That is exactly what a turbo can do for you.   

taking the car on one of my favorite back roads proved what so many swear to , and that is that BMW is the ultimate driving machine.  I wouldn’t echo that sentiment but I would however say that as a regular non M car this car is fantastic.  Switching all the nannying gear OFF this car rotates well on the brakes, puts power down great out of even the tightest switchbacks and overall let’s one really “meld” with their car.  That isn’t easy for a manufacture to do in a car like this that has to be everything to everybody.  Slap an M on the back and buyers know (and half expect) for the ride to be a bit on the germanic and jarring side.  Not so with this 335.  It provides an almost British like highway ride with a truly responsive shock and spring that responds quickly even to mid bend bumps.  

 

Overall the car really is as impressive as everyone says it is.  As we await our 135i coupe that costs (GASP) about $2,600 less than our 335i coupe… it is hard for me to fathom why anyone would buy the 135.  It weighs near as dammit the same, it costs near as dammit the same and it looks like someone stuck their 335 long ways in the trash compactor room from Star Wars Episode IV.  Other than the smashed more compact dimensions not exactly wowing me our little 135 is going to really have to shine to best the 335, which I am sure we will be able to whip into a state of tuned excellence for not too much dough.  Here comes the rating

 

P3 overall rating as a factory built car 4 stars

P3 overall rating as a tuned car N/A

 

build quality 5

appearance 3.5

handling 4

drivetrain 4

brakes 3.5

p3 passion meter 3

P3 parts meter 4.5

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Things aren’t always what they seem in the car world.

September 7th, 2008

It has happened to all of us.  Dream all your life about driving an Sti.  You get one and you realize that it actually feels slow over 80, it rattles and just doesn’t fit you right.  Save for two years for that big turbo kit for your 1.8t A4 quattro.  Finally after hours of install and prep you take your “new” car out for a drive only to find that it now suffers from serious lag, those horribly short gear ratios went from being not so good to just plain wrong and now you need an oil cooler.    Yes sir, it has happened to all of us.  The real problem is that for many  a car purchase is a serious financial investment . Once we get the car of our dreams we may infact be “stuck” with that car for years.  We have all done that “mod-to-far” where we realized , not only did we just make our car perform worse… but NOW we can’t easily, quickly or cheaply put it back to the way it was.  Just so you guys don’t feel like I am preaching to you with no experience, I will give you an example of each of these that I have had the…errr… JOY of experiencing for myself.   

The right car is the wrong car?  Yes, sometimes that can be true.  In my case even when the car did actually meet, exceed and live up to every expectation I had for it.  However, there was a small problem I hadn’t considered despite the fact that I had driven said vehicle on several occasions.   Let me start by just saying I thought Car and Driver, Road and Track and the like were all mad.  Only The British publications of the day got it right.  From 1989 to 1995 the world’s finest automobile had been made and we all missed it.  I didn’t, I knew it.  I had a feeling that old Colin Chapman had been right, learned something in those turbo charged F1 years and had secretly created the world’s finest car.  With the refinement that came in 1987-1988 in chassis improvement and a gorgeous redesign spearheaded on a shoe string the car was, in my mind, the perfect car.  With weight kept to circa 2,600 lbs dry and a minimum of 264 hp (around 300 with the factory programmed 4 sec overboost) handling , acceleration … everything was perfect.  Yes, you guessed it the Lotus Esprit Turbo.  At this point you would be asking, “but wait, Tim, you enthuse so poetic about the 1993 car in the project car section of this very site.”  Indeed it shall be clear, read on.   Somewhere around the year 2002 the stars lined up and I was blessed with the stewardship of my own 30k miles, pristine and black 1989 Lotus Esprit.  There is a lot to love about that particular year, if like me, you long for the purity of a car with no airbags, abs or other weight adding encumbrances.   I had driven a few other ’89’s and this one just blew those away, being better maintained, sharper and more importantly , fleeter than I had remembered.  Right from the off the car was as good or BETTER than I had imagined.  Fabulous sounds, lustfully boosty acceleration, literally telepathic steering.  This car was immediately drifted perfectly from apex to apex and hurled toward corners at speeds reserved for cars wearing dedicated track tires.  It truly inspired that kind of confidence.  However.  Those first few drives were undertaken bare foot, because with my size 11’s fitted , I literally couldn’t get enough articulation at the pedals , and worse my knees literally were forced against the steering wheel.  Tragedy had struck.  I had my dream car, it was everything I wanted , except… I didn’t fit in the blasted thing.  I soldiered on for about a year and then had to sell the car to search for a newer Esprit.  I will provide a happy aside to this story by saying that with the advent of the S4 interior in 1993 the Esprit gained several inches in every interior space dimension.   I now have an Esprit that I fit properly in and yes your hand still falls gracefully inches from the wheel on to the perfectly placed shifter, the steering still tells you what kind of ant you just ran over and with even more power it will still squat and slither where ever you direct it.  You see my point though.  Had I not been in the business of shifting cars regularly anyhow, my …umm.. tailoring error could have easily been a decade long struggle that lead to either A. having a car I never drove , or B. me being dead because my hands met my knees and had no where to go.  

So, say you did buy the right car, you are a happy driver but now you want to take it that step further.  It is time to modify.  Prepare for phase two.  This time to get an example that will allow you to either empathize with me or look down on me as a fool… either way, if you are truthful with yourself, you know this has happened to you.  Ahhh yes, the early 90’s.   Many great (ok, granted they weren’t that great) cars of the late 80’s and early 90’s had great big turbo’s strapped to them and had all sorts of potential just waiting for tuners to unleash.  Now, many of these cars had so many problems, and at the time I had far too little money to actually undertake any kind of “project” but why would that stop me. I needed a blow off valve and I needed it bad.  After all my Audi 200 Avant was now making around 21 psi and was wicked fast in the quarter (trapping a then stellar 14.1 … what is that sound?  are you laughing?!?! May I remind you that this car weighed close to 4,000 lbs !) It was indeed blow off time and no one would be safe until I had one.   SOOO, with a little research and a company that swore they ran this on their own car, I bought a new silicone hose and BOV set.  It arrived looking very much like I had made it my self, but why should that concern me , this thing is sweet on their car , right?  Fast forward an hour or so…. I was off.  1st gear braaap, psssssshhhhh, 2nd gear  braaaaaaaaaap, ffffappppppsssshhhh, third gear… braaaap (stop sign) fffpssssshhhhhh, cough , cough stall.    WHAT?  Start it back up and my poor 200 was straining to idle at 3 or 400 rpms.  Surely This was a mistake.  NOPE.   After some tinkering and finding a spring manufacture that would give me a higher rate spring , I finally got the car to idle, but the truth is , the car ran like CRAP with that vent to atmosphere valve.  The mixture was all wrong back on throttle, it would still dip and dive trying to run right, it was all wrong.   How wrong ?  About S370 bucks wrong.  At the time I think that is what I made in a week and a halfs work…. PAINFUL.   Was the company at fault?  Partly, they should have been straight about the issues the part had (which they stopped offering about a year later).  Was it my fault?  Well, certainly I shared some of the blame but even after research and talking to others I still wasn’t clear that anyone felt similarly about the part.  Further, at the time it was one of those things that not many had tried.  I had actually modified my car and made it perform….FAR WORSE.  

 

That is why we created P3… not just a resource for educated knowledge and opinion, not just an e-zine or simple parts portal.  We want to help you buy, build and enjoy the perfect car.  Here at P3 we have DECADES of experience in parts creation, track time, sales… literally every aspect of the automotive industry.  If we try a part and don’t like it.  We will tell you why and then find one that works right!   Every PART we create or sell will be graded and given a full test. Not a few miles .  Mixed loops , hundreds of miles. You can be sure that we share your passion and love all the same cars you do.  If you have wondered what a certain car would be like… be sure we have too.   With our project cars absolute MAX performance will never be our goal.  Creating a better DRIVERS tool will be.  If a certain spring rate makes a cars turn in response sharper.   We will choose it .  If a certain spring rate eliminates roll, but breaks the rear view mirror free from the car …it will be vetoed.   If we can’t find the right part for an application… we will make it.  PASSION drives us.  To that end , you can’t make a car better if you don’t really know what it is like from the start.  We will PROFILE all of our chosen cars to the point which, the information and detail we give you… you won’t find it anywhere else.  Real world driving, real world explanations… and in a world where we aren’t all multi millionaires, VALUE will play a huge part.  Any one with money can by a Ferrari 430 Scuderia, anyone can enjoy that car.  Getting that Joy or Passion quotient as we will refer to it… we will aim to extract that from even the most humble Miata.  In a world where facts and figures are easy to look at we aim to perfect YOUR car in YOUR favorite corner in YOUR real life.  The images, video and content we provide will fuel that fire even when you cannot yet own your dream.  Welcome to P3, welcome to our Drivers Revolution. 

 

Cheers,

Tim Neely

Editor in Chief 

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What the heck is an aside?

September 6th, 2008

Ok, this space will become something to do with the ecommerce store. Featured product listings or something.

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Our initial line up of Project cars is SET !

September 6th, 2008

If you own one of the following cars.  REJOICE.  The passion is about to be fueled.  Tough questions about to be answered.  History and details of the vehicle revealed as never before.  Oh yeah, and we are going to make it better!

Without further ado here is the list

2009 BMW 135i coupe 6 speed (can we be first to the market with parts for this exciting app?)

2007 BMW 335i coupe steptronic (how to mod, enjoy and then turn in that lease)

2002 Mercedes Benz C230k Coupe 6 speed Pano Sport (can we make it the great car it should be?)

2000 Audi S4 6 speed (on going big turbo refinement and care)

1993 Lotus Esprit SE/S4 (the first to reveal the mystery)

 

Video introductions to follow.  September is going to be an action packed month here at P3… get ready for the ride of your life!

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Posted in Articles, P3 Audi B5 S4, P3 BMW 135, P3 BMW 335, P3 Lotus Esprit SE/S4 2.2 turbo, P3 Mercedes Benz C230k | No Comments »

Why don’t we all own one of the greatest values in cardom?

September 6th, 2008

The world still doesn’t know what to think about this little hot hatch.  I mean after all, it is a hot hatch. Built by one of the world’s premier luxury car manufactures Americans just haven’t been sure what to make of this little dynamo.  While in Europe and other parts of the world Mercedes has a HUGE reputation for building taxi’s and trucks , here in the states (and possibly due to the demand from stuffy blue hairs) Mercedes has done whatever it takes to forge and maintain a reputation of BIG , STYLISH, LUXURY.  Look at the facts.  Mercedes Builds TONS of sport cars … maybe you have heard of a little tuning house called AMG … until 2007 few have been what we would call tossable and fun. NONE have come with manual transmissions, to the contrary Merc has done everything in it’s power to convince us that we need automatics.

Additionally Mercedes spends so much time marketing it’s E , S and ML class cars here that the C in general is treated as a kind of , “we also sell those” type of car.   If you have visited a Mercedes Main dealer lately and/or driven the new C300 you know that the tide is turning in our favor here, it is a great, and very sporty car, and can be had with a 6 speed MANUAL.   With gas prices having crested $4.00 a gallon and likely to return there, cars like the C class  all of a sudden have gain very real , even to snobby blue hair Americans.   That brings us to the C coupe.  Built and shipped stateside from 2002 to 2007 this car has always been of interest to people like us, that is to say, people that like to DRIVE.  Let’s look at the car as it comes.  For the 2002 model year most tuners agree that we got the prime car right from the start and ONLY that year.  It was fitted with the tried and tested 2.3 litre Supercharged motor.  Fitted with an Eaton blower this car had SERIOUS latent potential and everyone knew it.  For 2003-07 you could have your K C as we will call it hence forth with a smoother 1.8 motor.  It had a silkier character , but lacked some of the tunability and low end punch .  Not only that the car was REAR WHEEL drive.  Yeah… you read that right.  We get a REAR drive, supercharged  HOT HATCH and YOU don’t own one … wth?  The car was offered with an auto or a 6 speed manual and yes, you should get the manual.   You could spec your C230 out pretty seriously as well, kit included a FULL panoramic glass roof, rain sensing wipers, auto lighting , sport pack, 17 inch alloys, leather, CD changer, even NAV.  ….. more to come what do you think and is this were I should post?

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