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I got to watch this project from the first "are you mad!" idea to completion and with the exception of a small number of people I'd be surprised if anyone has the first clue at what went into building it... that said, It's worth exactly what someone is willing to spend, end of story... It's always interesting to see "experts" come out of the woodwork but take it from someone who's driven it a lot... It's one hell of a car!

So on 1 end of the spectrum you have a Toyota Hilux, which as Top Gear "proved" a while back you can pretty much blow up and it'll still run. And on the other end of the spectrum you have a Formula 1 car which needs an engine rebuild every race (or more frequently sometimes). There's also a performance difference between the Hilux and the F1 car..... Basically you choose where you sit on that spectrum. Once you've chosen where you sit, you need to make sure that you perform the maintenance necessary for your chosen location on said spectrum. If you don't you're going to have a bad time.

Hurray, positive comments ^^^ At least the car exists, who cares if its not perfect, Ray & co built it and if they didn't NZ would have such a creation. I know if I saw it drive down the road I'd smile and not feel the need to poke fun that a panel may require a $300 respray & panel adjustment on one fender.

Hey just signed up ive owned 7 bmws in the past but have only just found this site, heres my e34 525i cheers

As I said earlier, you can't start at $1 so where else do you start? I agree that it will be difficult to reach the target price but I also think you'd be doing yourself a disservice to list it at 20-25k. Why not put it out there as the seller has and see what happens? It doesn't need to be perfect to gauge market interest and if it doesn't sell you can try again. I'm one of the first to bag silly auctions but I don't think this one is silly. Unrealistic? Perhaps. But it's not insulting anyone and I've communicated with the seller and he seems 100% up-front and genuine. I'm pretty confident he'd negotiate with anybody that was genuinely interested. Provenance is an entirely different topic. All I know about the build is what I read here and it seems epic and much, much, much more effort than you can see on face value. But it's ultimately a chop and I have no idea whether it's all new bolts and bushes, all torqued to factory or not so can't comment on that (other than to say the only way to do it properly is to do it properly)**. If somebody asked me (and they haven't) I'd hazard $30k, or perhaps $35k to somebody in an aligned trade that could use it for marketing. $22k for the M3 bits and $8k for the uniqueness. Assuming subframe, VANOS and rod bearings have all been done. I could be miles off also but you'll never recover the labour involved (and if HellBM did then they should be laughing all the way to the bank). I seriously hope the right people meet up to do the right deal on this one, it's pretty damn cool. I want it badly. ** Somebody I know purchased a chopped E36 hybrid thing from somebody who should know better and found it had basically been put together with whatever was lying around. Standard bolts where HT bolts should be, used bushings, missing washers, poor torque values etc.

My experience is that engines are fine but a lot of what is bolted to the engine has a limited life. I include seals and gaskets in that group.

E39 M5 Pro's - Torque - LSD -The V8 rumble - Manual - Easy to work on E39 M5 Con's - The petrol and tyre bills - The tendency to sledge and the re-circulating ball on-centre steering feel

This doesn't make sense, considering run of the mill BMW engines have their fair share of expensive issues. M62, N62, N42 none of them at the high end of the performance spectrum but have well known inevitable issues which will cost more than the value of the car to repair.

Exactly, you need to take it for what it is - an interesting custom build.

Or German Federal law interference

Basically the parts corners can be cut to reduce costs, or parts more compromised by environmental regulations.

Don't stretch fit the correct width tyre!

Welcome and howdy from Wellington! Love the E34 in white. Note that NP is in the 'catchment' for the Lower North Island branch of the BMW Car Club and there's a number of people like @Breaker who join our events - we do some good runs up your way!

That's such a nice car. Good package!

Bridgestone RE003's are very popular around here.

I thought this thread would be about the 120d Ray is selling...

Never, ever say that to a parochial south islander such as myself ? nar , you’re right, I see a lot of stuff I need in the north but the postage is a killer. i made a killing on the seats, got exactly what I was asking for them! ?