I had an excellent session
in the 325i from valley to the Parkway. About 20km of winding road up the Blue Ridge, that gets progressively tighter and steeper after meandering along the rivière. I was cornering faster than I normally do on my bike, although that's simply because I'm timid around blind corners on 2-wheels. The 325i sport is still a fun, willing, and extremely capable car.
Just finished a MTB/DH ride in the forest, didn't plan on doing a spirited drive. "I'll just go up a few km, then U-turn." Well, the car in front of me was on a quick pace, so I tagged along. There were no other cars, and I was having a good time. Eventually I gave the other driver room, then went full out the last, steepest 8-10km where the ø grade = 7% and it climbs to 1350m.
For the entire 20km, the quick, active steering was spot on. I was deftly balancing the throttle, brake (left foot), and controls, blipping the throttle for downshifts as I entered corners at speed and tucked the car in. ContiSportContact 3s stuck like glue, suspension never left its firm set.....it was excellent.
Then the transmission cried uncle. I overheated the transmission. Last 3km or so till the top, smelled something burning that wasn't motor oil. At the top...."Ding!" and the gear indicator disappeared along a the gearbox warning in amber. Car went into limp mode, so I pulled it over onto one of overlooks to give it a minute. The lever wouldn't budge from Park ("
Nein ! Noch nicht, lass mich noch weiter in ruhe !"). So I turned off the car, snapped some pictures, restarted the car a few min later and drove home on the Parkway with no further ill effect.
I even tunnel blasted
First time I'd ever done that to a gearbox. It's okay, the car's got 214k km and I don't think any car would be happy being driven 3500 - 7000 1/min for 20km on end at that age.