Leaderboard

Hey Nathan, Yes I was reading the comments as I was thinking about buying the B5. The different points of view was very entertaining You know the M5 had always been the epitome of motoring for me and I drove a lot of M5's before the B5 particularly, as you indicated it's rarity particularly in NZ. I believe there are or soon to be 4 here. And to be fair I would be driving an immaculate Blue E39 M5 or Black E61 M5 now if I'd had my ducks in a row at the time or it hadn't sold by the time I got there thankfully, as I hadn't driven the B5 by that stage. The sound of the V10 on song and on the edge is hard to beat but IMO unless you're going hard it would be hard to live with particularly the SMG around town, at least and based on the 10 odd M5's I drove. The E39 M5 also sounds great and a excellent drive but when I drove the B5 with all the power of the E61 M5 plus the extra torque, good handling and the Alpina conversion sold me. Having said that I was very wary of issues with the supercharger and the failures I had read about overseas. That the importance of using the right grade and type of oil at the prescribed service intervals is critical. Given the complete service history and work that had been carried out during it's life together with my mechanic saying inside the engine looked like new and the car had been well cared it was an easy decision and one I am very much enjoying. It has an easy life just occasional weekends and long trips. cheers ps. sorry I'm a noobie and forgot to quote ya

Hi All I brought a Japanese import Alpina B5 December last year. So much power 368kw and torque 700nm, yet handles well, is flexible around town, understated. Had 130k's on the clock but a full service history (albeit in Japanese). To date and touch wood, no problems other a parking light failure and upgrading halos to LED. Back in the day I owned' and sometimes raced' a 2002Tii. I got a lot of enjoyment out of maintaining and rebuilding the engine some 25 years ago and would like to find me a pre-1990 project car. Looking forward to reading the forums following what's been done, tips and tricks. cheers Vincent

A bit like when you take that international flight sitting on the runway and then the pilot floors it on take-off... just a smooth, seamless rush of speed and then you realise you're flying lol

Very nice, I remember applying a level of drool on this. Really interested in what the supercharger performance is like, welcome aboard

Very cool, I think everyone here was commenting on this when it was for sale. Out of interest, what's the appeal of thisnover say an M5? Rarity, different type of performance?

Photos up but cannot satisfy your other requests. Feel free to gag as much as you like, shes very dirty

Okay so the wing took quite a bit more to fit up then I originally anticipated. The paint will need redone at some stage too, however I am stoked with how it looks, and the height of it means I dont loose any rear visibility! Excuse the filth! The car was pretty dirty from the roadtrip to Queenstown and back with nowhere to clean it properly along the way! Also I made more poor life decisions this week and ended up buying an SC14 supercharger.... Thoughts at the moment are to bottom mount it where my air conditioning compressor was and then run a small front mount intercooler. I will get under the car this weekend to have a proper look and see where I can make it fit nicely! This bit of the project however will take quite a while as I know it will cost a lot to implement and I kinda need to start saving a little bit of money! Keep your eyes peeled for more to come... I will try get some better photos of the wing and might do a little breakdown of how it was all fitted up and trimmed if people want to know more!

Been over a year since I posted here. Been busy riding motorcycles lately so haven't done much with the car. No good news to post - my yellow check engine light has come on and will need to be scanned. I don't really want to drive it far with the light on just in case, so might just have to take it in to BM Workshop, which is closeby for me, for the scan to identify what the actual issue is. Engine seems to be running fine, no rough idles, no rough anything, no loss of power etc. Hopefully just an o2 sensor or vac hose, but who knows :-). Getting it scanned tomorrow (I should get my own scanner already!) Apart from that, taking the car to panel shop end of the month to get all those dents (door and side skirt) sorted out.

I did Wang Thangs

Managed a little bit over the weekend on wiring up of the JB4 additional injector controller, getting the pumps into the tank and wired up, all hoses connected etc. Almost there. Managed to get the mirror attached to the base plate for the RHS. Ill mount it up and see how if looks, then make adjustments from there, ready for scanning. Its pretty solid/strong so far, perfect for playing around with, using marine ply then thermoset plastic, let it set then drill into it for the mounts. Then I can play around with the mirror angle. Bog & beatification comes later...

Spent a hour this morning replacing the water hose and the rest of the day driving it for the first time in 3 months. OMG I've missed this car.Here it is sitting on the BBS's.