[pat.ross]

Just got back Friday night from Alanta Motor Speedway where my son (37 years old) and I attended the Lexus Performance Driving Academy course I have to agree with everything that SpeedFreak said. We were able to ride with a professional driver around the course for a couple of laps and he really hung it out.

My wife has a new BMW 335i conv with the selectronic automatic with paddle shift. There is no comparison with the ISF's tranny. I have not driven the dual clutch automatic of the M3 so I can't really compare. I think that the problem you had on the track was not knowing the correct gear you wanted to be in as you approached the exit of the turn. After a while driving you will almost automatically downshift entering the turn the same way you would with a 6 speed, sequentially down the gears, until you reach the one you want exiting.

My son has a 330ci and recommended that my wife get the 100k BMW warantee. He said she would need it. Sounds like he was right.

 

[pat.ross]

As some of you BMW guys know, the original 335i came out without an oil cooler and they had several major problems with oil temp. BMW has gone back and retrofitted (at no cost to the owner) some of the older 335i units with oil coolers. From some of the discussions on the BMW boards owners of older 335i's have to push pretty hard (including threatening to sue) to get the work done for free, and then they have to sign a statement that they will no longer discuss the issue on any of the boards

Since early this year, all 335i's being inported into the US have the latest updated oil cooler as standard equipment.