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      03-11-2014, 02:59 PM   #99
ModificaClassica
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Drives: 2011 BMW 550i 6-Speed Manual
Join Date: May 2006
Location: South Florida

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2007 E92 335i  [8.76]
I'm 30 years young, and most (no take that back) all of my friends have stopped buying manual transmissions, and have certainly stopped modding their cars. My best friend, who pulled a Rockford on a Z4 when we were unattended and given keys to drive around town at a BMW ultimate driving experience when we were teenagers....he now drives a Prius. I'm the last enthusiast, as it were. I've owned six cars in my 15 years of driving, with an even split between MT and AT. Until now.

I get it, adulthood sets in, and most adults are satisfied in purchasing/leasing a new or used car with a host of options, and most choose to purchase automatic transmissions. If my best friend had piles of cash laying around, he would certainly have a second and third car and both would probably be manuals and they might even be slightly modded.

Then there's me, I've never owned a car that I didn't completely take apart, or at the very least attempt an entire disassembly just to implement some modification or other before turning my car over to better more capable mechanical minds. I put a navigation system in an Audi that wasn't supposed to have one, I upgraded the navigation in my current 335i to a CIC navigation. I installed short shifters myself in every manual car I've ever owned. I've done lots of other backyard modifications and taken over family and friend's garages to host surgical operations on my cars. Some projects have taken a few hours, others a few days. I mention my insatiable thirst for enthusiastic automotive modding in the form of performance, aesthetics, gadgetry, etc. because I mean to make it known I'm not entirely sensible.

Which brings me to my current car, a 2007 BMW 335i Auto retrofitted with a manual transmission. You see, I previously owned a MT 2008 BMW 335i, and in between that car and the current a Supercharged Range Rover Sport. I could have sold my current 335i and traded it in for a manual, but I chose to teach myself a lesson in converting my automatic 335i into a manual for two purposes. The first, to enjoy the manual that much more knowing the car wasn't intended to be one. The second reason for the conversion, so I would never again forget how much I enjoy driving a manual having my conversion serve as a constant reminder of my love of manual transmission. And if you're going to comment on logic, pragmatics, and sensibility please keep in mind I was and am fully aware of my lack of all of these characteristics. Manual transmissions are here to stay, at least in my retrofitted 335i.
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