Buklemaschu

On 6/16/2018 at 4:22 PM, E30 325i Rag-Top said:

I think the translation of that is "the best car of all time, ever, end of, so ner!"

more or less, correct translation is... "The most successful touring car of all time."  ever, end of, so ner!!!!

Thought i spotted a black M5 with that new BMW Ice paint this morning walking to work.... on closer inspection it was just a lot of dew/frost

Damn commie bastards

I love the 3.0L in my Z3. I test drove the 2.2 and they are great, but the bigger engine just has that feeling of effortless power.

pics? 

"The curves on this thing are eye-locking and will leave you looking back at every opportunity"

I don't have any Motorsport history, and as i mentioned above I've pretty much only ever driven family wagons and such. So take this for what its worth. 

My Z3 is the best handling car I have ever driven. 

The way i look at it is, when under normal or even "safe but spirited" driving on NZ roads will i ever even get to within 80% of the limit of this cars handling. Yes i know if things ever do go really pear shaped id be glad for every sliver of extra performance, but as is its already significantly better than anything else I've driven, so I'm already significantly ahead of the game compared to other cars in my driving history.

A lot of the Z3 "naysayers" tend to focus on the rear's trailing arm suspension. which was apparently a bit dated when the Z3 came out. But its the same rear suspension as the E30 which gets a lot of love. So go figure. I do intend to make all of the changes that Murray mentions above. They are recommended consistently across a lot of Forums.

Another "Serious Issue" is the rigidity, or lack thereof. its a roadster, so yes its never going to be as rigid as the coupe. There are stiffening kits you can get (including butt and body braces), but unless you looking at a serious track car, I'm not sure if they are necessary, Some even dispute their effectiveness, and it seems a lot of the benefit can be achieved by replacing some of the bushes in the rear.

I tend to think that the perception of poor handling was affected by a sense of disappointment in some of the press / reviewers etc at the time of release, I think some people had really high expectations, and what they got initially was a good car (if slightly under powered with those initial 1.9's) but not the amazing car that they were hoping for. So yes it might not be first choice as a race car, but is it a great little roadster that will make you smile?

At the end of the day, the Z3 is now a 20 year old car, I don't expect it to perform like a modern sports car, Its perfectly fine too me if it performs like a good car of its time period. Its still one hell of a fun car to drive, and IMHO the retro styling is aging really really well.

wait what? you mean I've been doing it wrong all these years... no wonder it hasn't been as successful as i was lead to believe.

Photo thanks to @adro at the WLG BMW Car Club Coffee meet.

I dunno, i kinda like this one https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-1607703825.htm

Gave Betty's convertible top a proper wash with a (shoe) brush and convertible top shampoo ready for application of weather treatment.  Rest of Sunday was spent with son sanding and filling his "opsies" on the Mazda.... better in that than in Betty though i suppose.

My Son has recently obtained his restricted license. The whole process sparked several discussions, comparisons to what i had to go through, what my parents did etc. It should be clear to anyone that getting a drivers licence today is harder and more convoluted than it has ever been.

That being said, once you have a license its pretty difficult to get rid of it, and there is almost no 'control' over your standard of driving. I know that i would be hard pressed to pass the theory section of the tests if i sat one tomorrow, and I'm not arrogant enough to assume that i would simply fly through the practical tests either.

I think it would be good if every licensed driver had to take both a theoretical and a practical driving test every five years. I would have it more frequent for under 25's and over 60's. A failure should require completion of some additional driver training. I also think that drivers on a foreign license applying for a NZ license should have to go through the same process.

Not a lot we can do about tourists, but allowing them into a "truck' sized camper on a car license does seem a recipe for disaster.

Come on... everyone knows putting an M badge on anything adds a good 15-20 bhp ... seems totally legit!

There really is no fix-all for reducing the road toll. But they could start with a look at the root cause of fatal accidents and then actually publish the results. But i'm guessing that wouldn't actually sit well with the various lobby groups out there that push their own particular "solution'

But my pet peeve:  Few months back, i drove from Akl to Wgtn, significant stretches we were trucking along at 80-90... until we hit the passing lanes, then miraculously those car's at the front of the queue that didn't seem capable of breaking 85 up a hill were suddenly able to do 110+ WTF ?!?!  Now i took it mostly in my stride, but i saw a few road warriors letting loose to get past so they could catch up to the next queue 5 mins further down the road.

HI All,

So while we wait for the theme to be fixed, there is a way around this for firefox & chrome users. Here is a very simple Greasemonkey Script to adjust the background color of the website.

// ==UserScript==
// @name     Correct Bimmersport Background
// @version  1
// @description Change the background colour of the bimmersport forum 
// @include http://bimmersport.co.nz/

document.body.style.background = "#e1e1e1"; 

// ==/UserScript==

In Firefox you will need to install the greasemonkey extension ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/greasemonkey/ ), and then create a new script, and copy and paste the script above into it, then save the script, reload the bimmersport page and presto your bimmersport user experiance has been improved.

In Chrome install the tampermonkey extension ( https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tampermonkey/dhdgffkkebhmkfjojejmpbldmpobfkfo?hl=en ) , and follow the process above.

I have tested both of these and they work as advertised.

There are extensions for greasemonkey script support for IE, and potentially other browsers, but i haven't tried them at all. 

*Greasemonkey scripts allow you to adjust the contents of web pages being displayed in your browser. They do not affect the page views for any other users, and only affect the browser that they are installed in. I am no sure if there is support for browsers on cellphones. When the theme is corrected you will need to remove the script to get the new color. NOTE if your a novice do not modify the script above as you may affect other websites.

Gave her a wash and wax.... first time ever.... OK, so I've only had her a few weeks, but start like you mean to go on right?

Was just thinking about getting a cover myself. My car sits in a carport, but was looking for a little more protection... but from whats been said here, not sure a cover is a good idea anymore... especially in windy wellington.

Guess i just need to wash her more regularly.

I've typically worked with recruiters when looking for a new position. However i usually treat the first meeting with them as me interviewing them. It can be a colossal waste of time if the recruiter has only just started recruiting for the industry, and or doesn't have a basic understanding of the technologies around my skill set, or the type of role or position that suits me. So if i don't get that vibe from the recruiter in the first meeting, ill take everything they say with a good pinch of salt. There are simply too many that fire any and every candidate they can locate at a position. After all sling enough and eventually some will stick and those commissions are not small.

good luck on the search. 

Cheers, Ill definitely be along to one of the next meets.

Tackled my first non-"basic car wash" job last night. Removed some glue residue on the boot lid left over from some Japanese TV aerials... TV in a Car, (got it in the mazda too) cant be a good idea, Shirley!

Hi All,

I've finally managed to get started on my midlife crisis... with the purchase of a 2002 Z3 3.0i Roadster in Cosmos Schwarz.

Never really had a decent car in the past, always driven practical family wagons, or petrol savers, so really looking forward to enjoying a little bit of silliness on the weekends.

The car is a definitely not new, it has some pretty heavy stone chipping on the bonnet, and rear wheel arches. Its also got some strong swirl marks and scratches in the paintwork from rough cleaning. The Softtop could do with a refurbish and the back windows cloudy, and I've got some work to do to bring the interior up to a high standard... but it'll give me something to do, and practice on, without being scared of breaking the bank.

I intend doing an upgrade to the exhaust. Its stock exhaust is just a little to gentrified for me, Id like it to let people know its not its smaller brother (the 2.2 version) without shaking the house to bits every time i start it up  I am probably also going to put some new 18'' wheels on when the rubber next needs replacing, and maybe a few other little upgrades.