Hi guys, took my £1100 eBay bought 540 to the Nurburgring for the Easter weekend. Did a stack of work to it in the weeks leading up to the trip to make sure there were no problems,and I'm pleased to say it run real good. Normally I go in the E30 M3 , but as this is off the road, I thought I'd try a budget bought car that might be good on the track and can double as my daily transport. Looks like I picked a good 'un with the E34.

The trip started with a short drive to the ferry port of Dover in England for the short hop across the English Channel and arrival in France. Four hours later and I'm in the Eifel region of Germnay and at the Nurburgring just in time for the late track opening at 5pm for two and a half hours of track time.When I bought the car is had four new tyres,but all of the cheapest brand you've never heard off. I was worried how bad they would be on the track and wenrt out for the first lap with the traction control firmly switched on. After just the one lap it was clear it wasn't the problem I feared it would be ,so switched the t/c off and never used it again.

Lap 3 was going great and I was slowing the car down to exit the track, when a huge cloud of steam erupted from under the hood and had me in a panic fearing the engine was about to go bang on me. Having coasted into the car park area and having lifted the hood, it was very quickly clear one of the heater hoses from the heater valve had come free. After leaving it to cool a little, another look revealed it was the outlet to the aux pump that had broken along with the mounting tabs for the heater valve. A quick re-route of several of the pipes made the car good again for the next day.

The Friday was very busy for track use surprisinly warm for the time of year. Sadly these two things usually mean a lot of bad driving and crashes, and this day was no exception.The 540 was running real good and I was starting to gain confidence in the car and push a little harder. The rest of the weekend was much the same and the car run without fault,apart from being heavy on the pads which resulted in a much needed pad change on the Monday.

After 5 days of heavy track use it was time to head home and this year it made a change to have a car that could comfortably sit at 120 mph for large section of Motorway and enjoy a stack of CD's without to drone of the E30 M3. All in all, I was very pleased with a cheap stock car on its orginal suspension and the cheapest tyres known to man. All credit where its due, the do build a rather mean machine at BMW.

Here's some pics I got from various internet sites of the weekend. Enjoy.