Dave240Z

2000 M Coupe Freakin' love this car, but family is expanding so it is going up for sale. There are a few faster rides out there, but this car is incredibly enjoyable to drive. Best kept BMW secret IMO. -Dave

I'm familiar with Rob's car. Definitely not that one. This one had much larger wheels and was carbureted also a much darker green. License plate should read more like "Ribbit" as in Kermit the Frog (due to green color), not RB26TT as in RB engine.

Nice to see so many folks from back then still around. I honestly haven't checked that website for probably the last 10yrs. Still have the same username here though, as do many others apparently. Haven't really done a whole lot with the Z since 2000, but I still have it. Driven very rarely now, but will be spending more time on it in the coming months. The last decade was just a whirlwind of jobs, marriage, kids, houses, cars, etc...that the Z just took a backseat. Despite it all, I managed to keep the Z. I still can't totally come to grasp with the fact that I've owned it for 15yrs now and only the 2nd owner. Speaking of Z's....saw a nice green 240Z the other day that looks to have been recently restored/modded. This is in Campbell/Los Gatos area of NorCal. Bright green exterior with "RBBBTT" for the license plate. Anyone here?

Wow. These are more popular than I thought. I agree, these are a great kit. You would be hard pressed to save any money trying to piece something of similar quality and performance together yourself. Questions: Anyone change their Master cylinder and/or booster? I assume an adjustable prop valve is required to get the f/r balance What rim/tire size is being used? I currently have 15x7 Panasport ultralights. They barely cleared a knockoff kit (Juan?). I haven't found anyone locally to try these out and Dave doesn't have a printable wheel fitment diagram either. I'm not against going to 16x7, but would prefer to stay with 15x7 for both looks, performance and cost reasons.

Seriously considering a set, but wanted to solicit some feedback from anyone who has 'been there, done that'. Any comments?

I think values are definitely on the rise. Take a look at any classic or collector car magazine. You will find references to the 240Z as an up and coming classic collectible. Grassroots Motorsports sister mag Classic Motorsports even has a 240Z project car. When you think about it, the Z has a lot going for it from a collector's perspective. 1) It is considered by most to be the quintessential sports car from Japan. It helped establish Datsun as a respected marquee and literally defined the affordable sports car. In other words, it’s not just another car; It has an iconic status. 2) It has aged gracefully and is still admired for it’s good looks today. Heck, people even complain that the new Z didn’t have enough of the original 240Z “DNAâ€. 3) It is reliable, fun to drive and easy to maintain. The same can’t be said for a lot of peers from the same era. 4) The newest samples are nearly 35 years old. This is just about the prime age for a car to start to appreciate as appreciation is usually due to people who grew up with the car finally having some extra cash and having the desire to ‘re-live’ their youth. The 60s muscle car craze of the past few years is testament to this, as is all the 50s nostalgia before that. All that said, sub $1500 examples can still be had all over the place. However, some of the top restorations and best modified versions are certainly on the rise. As time wears on, the prices of the other cars will rise as well. The fact that NLA OEM parts such as the working radios, hubcaps, etc…are fetching upwards of $100 is a good indicator that prices are on the rise.

Sounds like something similar to what I was planning to do. There is a real problem with this design for securing the clips. Both in the way they use the rivets and how the spring clip stays secured. Since the recess molded into the base doesn’t have a lip, these clips are prone to just pop off. Each time I came back from a drive, I found at least 1 or 2 loose. I too contacted [insert name here] company about this issue and after several email exchanges, was basically brushed off with the notion that we haven’t really seen this problem and don’t think it’s a problem; therefore there isn’t a problem attitude. I was also rather disappointed in the lack of a finish layer on the outside. The black gelcoat inside is fine, but the outer layer could have used a nice finish coat to make keeping it clean a little easier and dress up the appearance a little. Now that I have it all apart, I’m somewhat inclined to just go ahead and finish that aspect myself. As far as the latches go, I’m going to have a go at these…McMaster Carr p/n 1889A34 (see attached drawing). The retainer portion needs to have the ends cut off and new holes drilled to fit in the molded recess, but this should work. I will re-use the backing plates for the new rivets, but will be using blind pop rivets instead. I suppose there is a slight chance the mandrel could potentially fall into the intake track at some point, but that is fairly remote in my experience. Perhaps a little application of some racer tape might be a good insurance policy. If our USD wasn’t so weak at the moment, I’d be inclined to pickup one of yours. Looks like you’ve addressed all of the issues that [insert name here] company refuses to acknowledge.

wouldn't happen to have the initials T W M in it now would it? On that note, can you elaborate on how you are securing the clips for the airbox to the base? Mine have a tendency to open up due to engine vibrations. They are held very loosely and really should have had some kind of lip to keep them in place. Instead, they are relying on pure friction, which is marginal at best and changes with temperature and vibrations.

That's it in a nutshell. It's a purpose built road race car for the street. Any LSx powered Z car is going to put up some impressive acceleration numbers to be sure. On par with some very modern/exotic machinery even. It's part of the attraction some of us have to these old cars. However, while you may beat the GT3 in a 1/4mi. drag race, keeping up with it for hours at a time on a track would be a whole different story. That said, I doubt you would have as easy a time keeping up with a 996 GT2 (as Mr. Mikelly drives), nor the new 997 GT2 which has proven to even out accelerate its sibling, the Carrera GT.

Wowsers. Consider yourself lucky. Not many people have been so fortunate to find a real “Preludus Disgustus” in the wild. And what a find you have made. Kudos to you Aux…Kudos! Please permit me to summarize some of the best design highlights of this rare bird as I see it. - The symmetry (or rather assymmetry) of the trunk. Just compare the L/R sides. Also note the trailing edge of the ‘wing’ on both sides. This car must be designed for turning right as the right side of the ‘wing’ appears to have a greater AOA. Templates are clearly a waste of time for someone with this kind of talent. - The blending of the bondo to the painted bumper. Unfortunately, there is some issue with adherence in that area. - The inability to change the lightbulbs. Then again, maybe we don’t’ give this design genius enough credit he might be using some of those last forever “mad tite LEDs”. - The effective removal of the trunk. That must have been a truly inspired moment when this was decided. Clearly this is a dedicated racing machine, therefore a trunk is not required. - The misalignment of the taillights. Again, a template is apparently not necessary here. Who wants to bet that if you chipped away all that crap, the trunk would still open?

When I was a kid, my Dad and his best friend we’re really into Porsche’s. They would build and race them constantly. I have many memories of sitting in their garage handing over the occasional tool and watching them tune and adjust things. I even had a little Porsche mechanic suit that I wore to P-car outings. I think its safe to say that I either inherited the car bug, or caught it though direct contact. My dad daily drove a ’59 VW Bug with a complete 356 drivetrain. It was quite the sleeper in its day. His best friend owned (3) 356s, one speedster and two coupes. One of the Coupes had a swapped twin-plug Carrera drivetrain. He even drilled holes in the floor to reduce weight. Sounds crazy, but at the time these cars weren’t nearly as valuable as they are today. Fast forward a couple years and my Dad’s friend is thinking about getting either a 911S or a Datsun 240Z. I wondered what the heck the Datsun was and he simply replied it’s the only other car that can compete with the 911. Unfortunately, he died on his way to an airplane race (he was an amateur air racer, built those planes in the garage) before he bought anything. Every time I saw a 240Z after that day, I couldn’t help but remember what he said. Fast forward almost 2 decades more and many cars later. I had just crashed my homebuilt 1991 B18 powered Civic hatch. (today these are common, but at the time I did this there were no kits or adapters, so you had to do this yourself). I was in need of another car and found an early 1972 Datsun 240Z for sale locally. It was the typical “old lady” car, hubcaps and all. It was originally bought by said lady from a local dealership and daily driven for 25 years. She finally retired the car from daily duty and wanted to sell it. The car was visibly tired, but rust free and in decent shape. Everything was there, including original keys and the numbers matched. I made an offer of $1500 and it was mine. The year was 1996. I made some basic repairs to the car and upgraded the wheels/tires to Panasports. Drove around like this for nearly 2 years while going to college doing 12K+/yr. The original L24 burned a little oil, but otherwise ran fine. One day, the transmission seized. Since I had been anticipating such a scenario, I had already purchased and rebuilt a 2.8L engine and 5spd transmission for the swap. Thus ended it’s stock status. I still have the original engine and transmission though and intend on restoring them at some point to keep it a numbers matching car. As the years wore on, the car was slowly modified. First suspension, followed by webers and then brakes. I ended up throwing a rod on the 2.8L after an accidental visit to 8000+rpm during a missed shift. Continuing with the modification team, this was replaced with a fully built Rebello Racing 3.0L and fully rebuilt 280ZX close-ratio 5spd with 4:11 R180. Needless to say this was quite the upgrade. I continued driving this until ~2000 when I finally retired the Z from daily duty. Since then, I got married, bought a house and embarked on a complete house remodel. Unfortunately, the car has been sitting for most of this time due to both a lack of time and a lack of funds. It’s still regularly started and the battery has a trickle charger attached to keep everything in working order. Now that the house remodeling is finally winding down, time and cash are starting to free themselves up a bit. I have been looking at catalogs for some parts again and have finally started to re-tune the webers. New brakes are high on the list. My hope is to have the car ready by Summer of 2008 for some real driving again. In the meantime, I’ve been enjoying my //M Coupe. It’s still technically a Z I guess and it offers a very similar driving experience; sitting over the rear wheels, straight 6 under the long hood and hatchback practicality.

had an opportunity to sit in one of those a couple weeks ago. carbon fiber galore. Looks fantastic in person and sounds incredible (same engine as RS4). If the V8 version is this sweet, I can't help but drool at the thought of the upcoming V10.

Just to add a little more to this old engine stuff.... Anyone heard of sleeve valves? They were popular pre-WWII, most notably in Bugatti's. At the time, they were preferred over poppet valves which leaked and lacked the ability to rev over a wide rpm. The sleeve valve, basically a sleeve that fit around the cylinder, which either moved up and down to expose the ports, or rotated via a gear from the crankshaft is a very simple design and required very few parts. It eliminated the cam,springs,valve stems which provided for very efficient packaging with no worries about valve float. However, these also leaked quite a bit (although less than poppet valves at the time) and once poppet valves were perfected, they fell out of favor. Perhaps the rich enthusiast who rebuilt a Bugatti engine with modern materials and tolerances did so with a sleeve valve engine? I would love to read that article. I've always wondered what some of these classic engine designs would be capable of given modern materials, tolerances and compression ratios. Another fascinating little engine is the BRM V16 which debuted in 1953 F1. It was a supercharged 1.5L V16, capable of 12,000rpm and 550hp. This was later followed up with an H16. Crazy stuff. Unfortunately, these BRM engines were notorious for their lack of reliability. Here's a sound clip of it running full throttle at some track. Imagine hearing this in 1953 amid the other contenders. http://gpl.krej.cz/mp3/BRM%20-%20full%20track.mp3

I think you'll find that you need to run velocity stacks. The carbs don't work very well without them. There is some tuning to be had by running shorter vs. longer stacks, but I doubt you'll notice much difference with the length differences we're talking about. As far as filters go, I am a big fan of ITG. They sell both individual filters for weber/dellortos as well as one large filter to cover up all three carbs. They flow exceptionally well and do a darn good job of filtration. I use ITG on all my cars, including the Audi and BMW, both of which use a MAF and I have had zero issues in the years I have had them in use. Manifolds are spotless as well. MSA sells them now I believe.

Glad to help Thumper. That Z06 is going to be one heckuva car. Excellent color choice for the Z06 BTW. BTW, no offense taken Mike. I totally agree that the C5 Z06 is certainly in an entirely different league from the M Coupe when it comes to performance. However, there is more to a car purchase decision than just absolute hp. If there wasn't, I don't think anyone would be cross shopping an M Coupe vs. Z06. In the end, you have your opinion and I have mine. We'll just have to leave it at that I guess. Cheers!

Not sure where you were going with this response, but from my 1st post on this topic I was recommending the C5 Vette over the 99-00 Coupe, given the criteria. I'm sure a 996TT blows away all of the other cars you have known, but this isn’t a 996TT vs everyone else comparison. I only raised the Porsche costs into the mix as a contrary viewpoint to the one in which you compared BMW maintenance and modification costs to that of your Porsche and considered it “NUTSâ€. As I stated earlier, my experience with Cost of Ownership and modification on my 99-00 M Coupe (which is the exact car the OP was asking about) has been very good and apparently quite the opposite of yours. Perhaps I have some direct experience with Porsche’s as well? My apologies if listing Porsche prices offended you in some way. I'm certainly not trying to bash your decision to go after a 996TT. I'm simply trying to provide some 1st hand BMW M Coupe ownership experience to help in the OPs query. We can at least hope that this information proves useful in some way.

I hear ya Mike, but your experience is quite different from mine. My Coupe has been dead reliable and very easy to maintain, both in terms of time and money. While still expensive when compared to the ubiquitous Chevy/Ford, that statement holds true for most imports. I have found very little price difference for day to day maintenance parts in my experience with VW/Audi/BMW. I just purchased OEM front rotors for our Audi A6 and they were just $160/pr at dealer prices. OEM replacement rotors for BMW can be had for ~$120/pr and ~$260 for the Motorsport ‘floating’ rotors. Since all of the German makes tend to use the same suppliers (Bosch, Sachs, Febi, etc…) I believe you’ll find Porsche maintenance parts similar in price if not slightly higher. In essence, I don’t think it’s surprising that your 996 isn’t terribly expensive to maintain for everyday stuff. Thankfully, Porsche’s are rather reliable as well so assuming you keep up with the required maintenance they should be relatively cheap to maintain, if not to buy. However, I’m sure you’ll find that anything beyond normal maintenance gets very expensive, very fast. Did you price out how much all of your upgrades cost to get to 600hp? An APR/GIAC chip upgrade alone is $4000. The BMW Eisenmann exhaust @ $1800 seems like a screaming deal compared to the 996TT set which costs $5768. A Supersprint exhaust is $5700. How about an upgrade to K24 GT2 turbo’s? According to AWE, that kit costs a cool $10G! While a BMW may seem expensive when coming from a Chevy/Ford, it’s a bargain compared to Porsche. This isn’t a slam on the P-car however because they have and always will be my favorite make of all time. I grew up around the cars (356-early 911s) and have a real affinity for anything 911. From reading your post, it sounds like you are a little bitter about some of the ‘hidden’ costs of ownership. Your insurance drop should come as no surprise as the M Roadster tops the list of most stolen cars. Click. The Porsche is far less common and although more expensive, less likely to be stolen hence the rate drop. The special oil requirement and valve adjustment are well documented for the S54 engine cars. To be frank, these items are what turned me towards the slightly underpowered, but considerably cheaper S52 version that I currently own and enjoy. The S54 is highly strung from the factory. Anyone buying one of these knows that there is little to no power to be had from any upgrade. Even forced induction add-ons are iffy due to the high strung nature of the beast. Exhausts are for noise, not power. There’s a reason BMW is dropping this motor for the next-gen M3. They simply can’t wring any more reliable power out of it. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that the aftermarket wasn’t able to either. Still, it’s rather moot as 315hp is more than enough to make the car scoot. BTW, M Roadsters are a good 200lb heavier than their Coupe brethren; Coupe’s routinely come in just under 3000lb. While still heavy in my book, when compared to similar cars it’s a featherweight. Heck, even the newest Nissan Sentra SE-R is tipping the scales at almost 3100lbs! The subframe issue is a well documented problem with a myriad of solutions. While I won’t make excuses for this design deficiency, the problem is not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. BMW has been stepping up to the plate in some cases to take care of this at no cost to the owner, as they should. Others have decided to go the custom route using one of several kits available to strengthen the affected areas. Most of this seems to be done for <$1K. Each manufacturer seems to have their share of problems these days. Toyota has sludge in their engines, Porsche has faulty main oil seals and BMW has a sub par frame so I tend to look at these issues with a grain of salt. Aside from all this, the original poster was asking about a 99-00 M Coupe so the whole issue of unique oil, unreliable engine (rod knock) and valve adjustments goes out the window. The subframe failure is an issue and should be addressed. Aside from that, the 99-00 M Coupe is no more expensive to maintain than an E36 M3. There is no question that a C5 Vette will be the better bang for buck all around given the OPs 3 choices. The M Coupe, while arguably more expensive than the 350Z comes in a close 2nd with a 350Z in a distant 3rd. If he were to say 2001-2002 M Coupe/Roadster, I would probably put the M Coupe in 3rd place due to some of the issues you raised. BTW, gorgeous P Car. I wouldn’t mod it any differently.

That's a bit of a gross overstatement IMO. On S54 engine cars (2001-2002), this is somewhat true since you need to use a special oil formulated for BMW (and only available from BMW, i.e. expensive) and these engines also require need periodic valve adjustments since the valves are non-hydraulic. The rest of the car is pretty straightforward though. Parts are more expensive when compared to other makes, but that's true for most imports from the Fatherland regardless. I own a 2000 M Coupe and just hit 60K miles. I have only had to do scheduled maintenance up to this point. And just FYI..normal wear and tear parts aren't terribly expensive. Brake pads, rotors, filters (oil fiters are <$5) are reasonably priced and very easy to replace. There is also decent aftermarket support. I doubt you'll ever find a car that is any easier to change the oil on. It will need a cooling system overhaul in the near future, but that is a well known design weakpoint which has been a curse on BMWs for the last 10+ years. My car is used in at least 5 autox events per year (just local BMWCCA stuff for the most part) so it sees it's share of motorsports. It's certainly not babied by any stretch. Yet, it has managed to hold up very nicely and is extremely rewarding to drive. Given your criteria, I would probably go for a Vette first. It will be easier to find and arguably cheaper to maintain own. It's already a very capable and fast car so there's probably very little you would need to do to satisfy certain urges. Second would be the M Coupe. It may not be as fast or cheap to own, but it is very fun to drive and arguably more collectible if that is in your plans. Prices for S54 equipped cars remain rather high ,and S52 cars although cheaper are still commanding decent prices. Compare this with similar year M3s and it's clear the M Coupe is gaining ground. Bringing up the rear in distant third is the 350Z. Granted I'm biased already since I own a 240Z, but after driving one several times I have come to the conclusion that it's just too heavy and the dynamics in just about all aspects are poor in comparison to the other two. Unfortunately, this is true of most modern sports cars with few exceptions. Porsche is one of the very few who have actually managed to *reduce* weight.

I’ve got a few…. I was raised around air-cooled Porsche’s and VW’s so it was only natural that my 1st car was a Type 1. Thankfully, these cars are rather forgiving with some of this stuff. About 1 week after purchasing my first VW Bug (1967), I bought a used 1.6L Dual Port for a performance rebuild. I had the engine on the engine stand and was torquing the case back together. It was summer and I was wearing shorts (i.e. improper car working attire) when the whole engine with stand began to fall. I was soon to learn first-hand what it meant to buy a chincy engine stand. The whole setup wasn’t very heavy per se, as the case is magnesium afterall, but it does have these rather long cylinder studs sticking out of it which I found can cut your leg up pretty good. The cuts were bad enough to land me in the hospital. I still have the scars as a reminder today. Now on my 3rd VW Bug (1954 Oval window), I was building a 2180cc monster engine. I had actually gotten pretty good at all this by then and was moonlighting by fixing neighboring VWs. As part of the restoration for the car, I also replaced the wiring and upgraded it to 12V (stock is 6V). This requires new bulbs, motors such as wiper and starter and of course a new alternator. Once I finally had everything hooked up and Ohm’d out (or so I thought) I tried turning her over. Much to my delight, everything was working and I let it idle for 5min while I performed a perimeter check to make sure nothing was leaking and all was working as expected. Confident that I had achieved greatness, I decided to take my new machine on her maiden voyage. This was a 1.5 year project so this was a big deal. I was living with my parents at the time and our house was located ~1/2 mile from a freeway overpass. As part of my test drive, I decided to head over the pass and then turn around and head back. A few moments later I realized that I should have turned around *before* the overpass, because once I had reached the crest and was on the downhill side, the engine died as did all the electrics. I was able to coast into a nearby parking lot and immediately began to diagnose my problem. Clearly something electrical, but what? After a good 30min of snooping I realized my problem. I had mis-wired my alternator. I was essentially running on battery power the entire time. The alternator is completely toast so jumping wouldn’t do me any good. I had towing available through AAA, but I didn’t want to waste it on a mere ½ mile home. My only problem was that home was on the other side of this overpass. Maybe it was because I was young & dumb, but I decided to try and push the car back over the hill. I figured it would take some work, but I would be rewarded with a nice coast down the other side. Besides, this is an old VW bug they only weigh ~1600lbs. I had kept my trusty wheel chock (i.e. brick) in the car with me so I proceeded to roll down the window and push, throwing the brick under the front tire every few feet to keep from rolling back. Much to my frustration many people walked by, but no one offered to help. In the end, I did manage to get to the top and eventually had the car back home. This took almost 2 hours. I doubt I could remotely attempt this today. During college, I rented a room from a family and had to do an oil change on my 1991 Honda Civic. Anyone that has worked on these cars knows how much of a PITA it is to get the oil filter changed with the car on the ground. It’s directly beneath the intake manifold and takes the abilities of a contortionist to access. After successfully changing out the filter, I was greeted by a huge puddle of fresh oil on the ground. Upon disassembly for the 2nd time I realized the seal from the 1st oil filter was stuck to the block and when I threaded on the new one, it made for a nice gap. I always checked for oil filter seals after that. Since this car was my only transport, I was hoofing it back to the auto parts store for a new filter and new oil. Other than that, no major screwups. Thankfully I have been pretty much mishap free with the Datsun. Lets hope this trend continues.

Cool to see so many WWII warbird fans here. Have to say my all time favorite is the FW-190. Finally got to see one in person back in April while on vacation in London. They had one on display (hung fron the ceiling) in the War Museum. Also hanging from the ceiling were an P51-D and a Spitfire MkIV. They also had a portion of a British Leyland bomber fuselage which you could climb through, and the remnants of a Mitsubishi Zero. Very little left of it, just the cockpit and some wing supports, but you could see how these things were crammed full of instrumentation. Very little wiggle room for those guys. It amazes me how people can fly such things, let alone go to war in them. On a related note, anyone in the SF Bay Area this weekend could check out the "Bs" @ Moffett. The group consists of a B-25 Mitchell, B-24 Liberator and B-17 Flying Fortress, all in flying condition. Walk through tours are $10, and 30minute flights around the bay are $250-$425 depending on the plane and where you sit. (Tail gunner position of the B-25 is cheapest).

Nothing to be ashamed about. BMWs are great cars. That's a screaming deal for a low mileage E36 328is. Being a BMW owner myself ('00 M Coupe), I hear ya with regard to part cost, but you’ll also find that these cars are actually quite easy to work on. Oil changes and air filter changes are a breeze. If you can do some work yourself, you can save a bundle. They are also very reliable. My M Coupe hasn’t had any major problems outside of routine maintenance. They do tend to wear through stuff like brake pads/rotors/clutches/tires a bit faster than other ‘more ordinary’ vehicles, but that’s the price you pay. The achillles heel can be some electrical gremlins or the marginal cooling system. The cooling system now has plenty of aftermarket support and when replacing it with these parts (Stewart Water pump to replace the weak BMW unit, Zionsville Aluminum radiators to replace the plastic end-tanked BMW units which leak) go a long way towards making the car nearly bulletproof. They’re actually fairly efficient as well considering the power levels and fun factor. Enjoy the ride!

I would tend to agree with the other advice offered here, those jets seem huge for a relatively stock L28. FWIW, back in the day I was running 145 mains and 180 airs with 55F9 idles on my then mostly stock L28. I was able to easily get 20+mpg on the highway and mid teens in town. On my Rebello 3.0L with a crazy cam, I’m using 155mains & 60F9 idles which are still a little rich according the A/F ratios I’ve seen while on the dyno. Also, don’t underestimate the difference a seemingly small jet size adjustment will make, both in drivability and efficiency. Little changes can have big effects on these carbs. 12.5:1 is great for WOT, but you should be much leaner at idle. That’s a lot of wasted fuel and can really impact your city mileage. I would say you need to drop the jet sizes across the board. Just looking at the sizes, all of them seem too big to me, although the readings you have seem to indicate otherwise. I’d be interested in seeing a complete A/F graph from idle to redline. That will help explain things a little better. Going with the LM-2 is the right way to go about this, but make sure it is working correctly before blindly following the readings. Technology is great, but it shouldn’t replace your brain entirely. Sort of like the guy who crashed his car by blindly following his in car navigation system which told him to turn left right into a building! Just for the record, what are your timing settings? How about spark, are you getting a good clean spark?

http://www.hagerty.com/NewsManager/templates/template_adv.aspx?articleid=1229&zoneid=39 For the lazy.... California Introduces Bill to Require ANNUAL Emissions Tests Monday, March 05, 2007 / Hagerty Plus and SEMA The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) sent Hagerty Plus the following Legislative Alert to share with our customers and agents immediately. If you have any questions regarding this alert, please call or email Rory Carroll, Hagerty Plus Legislative Resource Director at 800-922-4050, x8407 / Advocacy@hagerty.com or Steve McDonald, SEMA Vice President of Government Affairs at stevem@sema.org. URGENT LEGISLATIVE ALERT Here we go again! Legislation (A.B. 616) has been introduced in the California Assembly by Assemblyman Dave Jonesto require annual Smog check inspections for vehicles 15-years old and older. The bill would also require that funds generated through the additional inspection fees be deposited into an account which can be used to scrap older cars. You may recall that in 2004 a new law was enacted in California to require the lifetime testing of all 1976 and newer model-year vehicles. Pre-1976 motor vehicles would remain exempt under A.B. 616. The bill has been referred to the Assembly Transportation Committee. We Urge You to Contact Assemblyman Jones and members of the Assembly Transportation Committee (List Below) Immediately to Oppose A.B. 616 A.B. 616 ignores the minimal impact vintage cars have on air quality. A.B. 616 could entice vintage car owners into allowing these vehicles to be scrapped. A.B. 616 ignores the fact that vehicles 15-years old and older still constitute a small portion of the overall vehicle population and are a poor source from which to look for emissions reduction. A.B. 616 ignores the fact that classic vehicles are overwhelmingly well-maintained and infrequently driven. A.B. 616 would increase costs by creating an annual inspection fee for owners of these vehicles. A.B. 616 represents another attempt by California legislators and regulators to scapegoat older cars. Please contact members of the California Assembly Transportation Committee immediately by phone, fax or e-mail to request their opposition to A.B. 616. Please e-mail a copy of your letter to stevem@sema.org. Thank you for your assistance. Assembly Transportation Committee Pedro Nava, Chair Telephone: (916) 319-2035 Fax: (916) 319-2135 Email: Assemblymember.nava@assembly.ca.gov Michael D. Duvall, Vice-Chair Telephone: (916) 319-2072 Fax: (916) 319-2172 Email: Assemblymember.Duvall@assembly.ca.gov Wilma Amina Carter Telephone: (916) 319-2062 Fax: (916) 319-2162 Email: Assemblymember.Carter@assembly.ca.gov Mike DeSaulnier Telephone: (916) 319-2011 Fax: (916) 319-2111 Email: Assemblymember.DeSaulnier@assembly.ca.gov Cathleen Galgiani Tel: (916) 319-2017 Fax: (916) 319-2117 Email: Assemblymember.Galgiani@assembly.ca.gov Martin Garrick Telephone: (916) 319-2074 Fax: (916) 319-2174 Email: Assemblymember.Garrick@assembly.ca.gov Shirley Horton Telephone: (916) 319-2078 Email: Assemblymember.Shirley.Horton@assembly.ca.gov Guy S. Houston Telephone: (916) 319-2015 Fax: (916) 319-2115 Email: Assemblymember.Houston@assembly.ca.gov Bob Huff Telephone: (916) 319-2060 Fax: (916) 319-2160 Email: assemblymember.huff@assembly.ca.gov Betty Karnette Telephone: (916) 319-2054 Email: Assemblymember.Karnette@assembly.ca.gov Anthony J. Portantino Telephone: (916) 319-2044 Fax: (916) 319-2144 Email: assemblymember.Portantino@assembly.ca.gov Ira Ruskin Telephone: (916) 319 - 2021 Fax: (916) 319 – 2121 Email: Assemblymember.Ruskin@assembly.ca.gov Jose Solorio Telephone: (916) 319-2069 Fax: (916) 319-2169 Nell Soto Telephone: (916) 319-2061 Fax: (916) 319-2161 Email: Assemblymember.Soto@assembly.ca.gov If you are experiencing any difficulty in contacting your legislators, please contact Rory Carroll, Hagerty Plus Legislative Resource Director, at Advocacy@hagerty.com or 888-310-8020. Please e-mail a copy of your letters to us at Advocacy@hagerty.comor fax: 231-932-6887. Thank you for your commitment to the future of the collector vehicle hobby. Sincerely, McKeel Hagerty

2000 M Coupe 2002 Audi A6 4.2 Quattro (wifes car) 1972 Datsun 240Z