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Most Japanese cars are boring and don't have soul. Especially new ones.

Ok! i had a thread up a while ago in the general forum about re-shelling vs restoring an M3, and well the consensus was restore so here it is; introducing brutus, my 1994 NZ new e36 m3 coupe. he is a dark individual, black on black to be exact. a few photos will follow but first the story of brutus.... i picked up the above car in pretty average condition thinking i was getting the deal of the century, all things considered now its probably going to cost me just as much as buying an m3 i good nick to start with by the time i get this one to the level of tidiness i intend. there were a few things i didn't see when looking at it first time round, lust must have taken over! but hey at 23 i was the owner of an M3! bucket list item achieved! 1st order of business - out with the black oil, in with 6l for 300km for a flush, then the full castrol edge - TWS 10-60 treatment, 3000 ks later its still amber! i also treated decidedly scungy intake filter to a K&N panel filter in the stock box and 6 new OEM spark plugs. when i first got it the head lining resembles a curtain more than the roof of a car, so first duty was to whip the head lining out. boom done, fabric and rotting foam striped off. i wanted the A and c pillars to match so out they came and got the same treatment. there was a wee pause in progress here in terms of the roof lining and the next problem reared its head. Enter the sunroof, well exit the sunroof... there was a knocking noise coming from the sunroof when the car un-weighted, and it was not tilting properly, the shuttle was not behaving 100% either but the roof portion was O.K. . until it too stuck in the open position on a drizzly day. great... out came the sunroof casset. picked up on a few broken clips in here so ordered a few from the us of a. jimmied the roof into the close position and re-installed it waiting for the bits to arrive. goodies in the mail! back in biz! or not... turns out one more clip was broken having removed the roof again causing the shuttle not to function. i have tilt now though! another order for the last clip and a tarp over the car. a few more goodies made it over with this order, a new rattle clip for the front right brake caliper that had been driving me nuts and a set of brass caliper bushings to replace the shot flexi and cracked stock ones. time to have the roof lining re-done, well thought having a matching parcel shelf would look better than the faded one in there, so out it came. there was absolutely nothing wrong with the adhesive on the parcel shelf! i must have removed about 3 layers of knuckle skin stripping the fabric off this one! Onehunga marine and auto upholstery did re-cover of these bits in an Audi RS4 esq material. black textured, and once re-installed looks really good. the finish of the job around the edges was not perfect which i was not too happy about originally, but is 100% now the head lining has been installed. next embarasing issue. the drivers door had been increasingly hard to open, until it would no longer open from the outside. slighly less than dignified effort to get into the car in westfeild carpark ended up with a passenger side entry... que replacing the drivers door handle mechanism. brand new rubbers and surrounds for both doors handles here! now the bit that had been really aggravating me. body work.... new guards, drivers door, nose cone, belly pan/under tray, wheel arch liners and radiator shrouding later the front was looking a little more like and m3 and a little less like a prats yard special! although i could not sort the light alignment out for a free beer... disassembly found 1 of the lenses not installed correctly, reassemble and we have aligned lights! PHEW. - i am still after an m3 oil cooler duct though... a few cosmetic bits here and there, LED parking lights, LED interior light conversion, ZHP shift knob and (pick-a-part score of the month) some blau-punked 6*9 including adaptors for the parcel shelf and an M-spec 3 steering wheel (this one currently residing in my 328I though) pretty much brings it up to date! And because every one loves pictures;

I came from an E36 328i coupe. I loved driving that car on the limit, after my mods, you could find the limit right to the edge, very forgiving car. Auto and OBD2. I could use ALL of the available power, it was well sorted. I also had a hankering for an E34, one of the most handsome of the bmws I thought and still think. Its bigger, much more practical being a sedan and it's a V8. I had a 3.0l and swapped it out for a M60B40 and with the 5 speed manual, I am more than happy. Chipped also, cant see how any chip can go from @286 to @320, but there is an improvement, how much I have no idea on mine and I don't care but the throttle response is improved and it gargles on run off so im happy. I have spent thousands on the suspension and its exactly where I want it to be. Anyway I could blah blah all day, but the E36 was tight, I loved the way it turned in and how exploitable it was. My E34, not quite, but I don't go seeking those limits anyway being as high as they are on public roads. Suspension: Slight nod to the E36 especially in steering, keep in mind both cars are modded. The E36 was well balanced and pinned down, with few mods. E34 better cruiser I did many long miles on the E36 and it was awesome, but the bigger motor makes the e34 my pick for longer hauls. Exterior: Full nod to the E34, I take second and third look backs on every occasion, the E36..not so much Interior: E34, much much better leather, and classy if not old. But better quality overall. Yes sports seats much better support, find them if you can. Engines: mmm, both have their merits, you can use more of the 6, it's more efficient more of the time in regards to performance. Once you have had an 8, it's hard to go back, only an idiot would use all of it on the street, I can spin tyres all day long in mine if inclined. I like the noise, its important for me. I like the 8, but it not better than the 6, if that makes sense. Costs: E36's are more plentiful, parts are cheaper all over. Ownership: I feel better with an E34 up the drive. My driving style has changed I think for the better owning one. Nothing against E36 owner/drivers, as I loved my E36, but I am happier in ways I don't think I would have been with the E36. That engine note has much to do with it I think. I don't think I would get another E36 as I live on trademe like many here, and I also had 2x E34's both manuals at the same time for a bit so there must be something in that? Good luck, hope this helps.

Much preferred the Black Esprit v8 bi turbo that was in front :

Hi, Have been looking for either an E39 M5 or an E30 M3 for the last nine months ( yeah I'm pretty fussy !) The right car presented itself last weekend, and yesterday I entered BMW and S14 ownership. The car's build date is 10/90, which means it is pretty much one of the last coupes made, it has the 215bhp motor, Euro spec, and a couple of tasty options like a Schnitzer exhaust and suspension, rear headrests, sunblind, cruise control,16" alloys and a beautifull MTech2 interior that I believe was only an option for three months and is quite rare. It has little things that matter to me, the original BMW first aid kit ( untouched) toolbox ( untouched) and a very comprehensive service history from BMW garages in Munich and London and all manuals ( though much is in German). I am the 3rd owner, the gent before me brought it over with him from the UK in 2003, having owned it over there since the late 90's he kept it in a special ventalated garage north of London, and caught a train up to drive it on fine weekends :-) We spent half a day on Wednesday at BMW up on a hoist as everything was inspected with carefull attention paid to any rust being a UK car. A relativly clean bill later, some negioations and I was off to collect my new ride. Hope you Bimmersports like it. I have been a member for several years, but pretty much admired from affar. This is my first BMW and you will probably start to here more from me as I look for advice during the ownership. Car is totally original, and the plan is to keep it that way. The only thing possibly on the cards being to tuck the factory BBS's away and look out for some Style 5's.

Just bought this beast, she's old but seems to drive alright. Picked it up this-arvo from Gaza. Off to Eurorec tomorrow to tidy it up a bit and maybe put some nicer wheels on her. Anyone here want to quote me for a manual conversion (better be quick before I spend my $!) EDIT: 18'' Schnizer M5 wheels Whitewall tyres USB/iPod/Mp3 Headunit installed Oil+Filter done Air box debaffled Fluids refreshed Spark plugs replaced (Felt strange asking for 8 plugs at the shop!) Full cut and polish on body Transmission service booked in for Wednesday Old photos removed - this is why she looks like now:

Ha! Was a bit slippery in places. Followed a 90s Esprit and brand new looking Evora (?) on the way back. Fun!

I couldn't live with myself putting 91 in my M car.. I mean heck..I don't even put it in my v6 odyssey DD. Even the lawn mower gets 95 haha.

Have you tried Geoff, FIATS 131R? He often has diffs and gear sets, etc and is in Wellytown.

I also have an ehaust clip ill try upload, it has a schnitzer exhaust on it and really sings when you open it up!

Put some front grills that are the correct size ratio for the rest of the car, and a non DTM steering wheel and I'd rock it

HSV's stylist has a new job?

Bringing this one back from the dead since the search function doesn't go back to showing all the posts made by Sam, I'm Looking at buying this car off the current owner, anybody know what he did to the suspension, and if he ever go around to installing an LSD and what have you.

What other info or warranties did you get with this engine ? I hope it's done less than 30k

It would be better to name the Jap cars that are not dull that are still made. Evo Wrx GTR LFA FT86 (painfully slow) That's all I can think of. And the base models of the Evo and Wrx are dull. All the Jap cars that I loved before finding the light are no longer made.

Most European cars are also boring. X1, rubbish, Q5, rubbish, dull as an CR-V or RAV4. All manufactures have a few good cars here and there, but the majority are there to make sales like the above.

should start a project thread for your updates. would be keen to see more of the car.

Interesting. Is there no button for that option? While on that topic, why is the edited message orange banner so massive and ugly? Seems unnecessary. I tend to delete my posts and repost if I make a simple typo. As below.........

yep... and people who drive with park lights on... doesn't help the front end visibility at all! I once nearly hit a chick while she was walking. She was on the side of our country road, on the inside of a blind sharp corner. wearing a black top with a white stripe up one side... I swear she looked like the roadside. I didn't see her until she jumped into the drain

I literally didnt post this because it fall s under the group of that minivan thing they loled up. This is a BMW site, not a children drawing competition.

e34 M5 is a fairly well regarded car, there must be something to them. A 540i/6 won't be far off performance wise, probably evenly matched. Apart from the engine all the rest is practically identical bar some minor brake tweaks. Probably nothing in the prestige stakes between an M5 and M540i/6 either. Good luck finding an M540i/6 though. The regular 540 isn't far off, just needs the 6 speed and sway bar / brake upgrades to M540i spec. Any of these e34's will benefit from shock/spring refresh to get a better result than what was offered in the mid 90's Shadowline trim doesn't mean anything other than shadowline trim as far as I'm aware. It was just an option available to punters. e34 is a big heavy solid car. I'm not sure it would ever track like a smaller lighter vehicle. At 22 years old though mine is enough for me, they really are a nice car to drive whether dawdling along or thrashing through country roads.

people who cycle or walk at dusk in completely dark clothing they dont realise how hard they are to see!And again people who drive in the same conditions with no lights on

Burn it.

I think test cricket belongs in the rant thread

I have EDC in my 740i. And it's disconnected. Theres wires coming out of the top of the struts. Simply look down the wire and you'll see a box where they can be unpluged. It's no big deal and you'll have no errors as stated above. So all you need to do is pull them out and install your coilovers and happy motoring. Note the wire coming out of the top of the strut and where its attached to the strut housing wall. Unplug there.

Venting about vents in the vent thread.

I get a shitload of the Indian telemarketers calling me because my mobile number is on our website. Normally when they ring I am sitting in traffic so just lead them on a wild goose chase for about 45 mins until they ask for my credit card number and then I rip into them. This happens probably 5-7 times a month. Normally it's for a SEO company that promises to take my website to number one on google. I don't know if this video works or not but here is a small snippet of one of the ones I recorded. This lady rang me back after I ripped into her coworker. This is the safeish version before it got feral/racist etc. Can show you all of the others at the pub next time. https://www.facebook.com/ashkan.razmi/videos/10152656758433097/

Legally you can be asked to be removed from their database right then and there. It falls under the same laws as email spam and unsolicited letterbox turd. Ask for the persons name too. I've done this a few times and it actually works. There was a case several years a go where a guy was constantly harassed by a company .. He ended up sending an invoice to the company for his time at his normal charge out rate of 70 per hour ... This was after he sent them a letter stating that if they continued to call his number that it was now a paid for service. Went all the way through the courts, he won and also won legal fees. Made a tidy profit from the company as I recall. The company also still had to remove him from the database and new legislation was introduced that if you want off you can get off their database.

I hate the mazy ones that are just a recording... Drop everything and run for the phone.. and its a message!!

Her insurance should cover all costs. Thats why she had insurance. What is annoying, is that your insurance company should be doing this work for you. Try to take emotions out of the situation and ask yourself, would Donald Trump take no for an answer? Then hang up, and walk around telling people they are fired. LIKE A BOSS.

It kept pissing in the corner....

Btw who is your mechanic? Cheers

i would have said Honda until i saw the plate, and worked out FWD and sideways isnt usually intentional unless your name is Graham and you drive a french car

now what? .... save money for gas