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Blew out some of the covid cobwebs from the 46 M3`s.

Fine! Have done some more driving, on my second tank of fuel now! I'd say while it's clearly faster than my tuned 335i... it does what it does with much less drama. It's quieter, so stable and composed like it's not even bothered when you're flooring it or slamming the brakes. I floored it in a countryside intersection and did a small drift, I was definitely a little sideways but I couldn't even hear any tyre squeal. Perfectly smooth, most mellow feeling drift ever. Maybe the fake interior engine noise was hiding the tyre sound. I guess if I imagine myself driving the 335i hard, making a lot of noise, spinning tyres, slamming the brakes... the M4 would casually keep up without breaking a sweat or making much noise. It's so insulated, you can see why they added the fake engine noise. It's the only way you can tell what the engine is doing unless you have the windows down. At least with the stock exhaust, because it's not that loud. I think I'd want an aftermarket exhaust or downpipes before I disabled that (which I'm not doing any time soon). I also don't get why some people online complain that it's constantly trying to kick the back out. I think these guys just drive with the assist on and assume every time they see the TC light come on it's just stopped them from throwing the tail out. I drive it around in MDM (from what I understand, it means assist only kick in if you go beyond a certain slip angle). Even with foot to the floor on imperfect roads I never had any unintended sliding, just on one slippery wet bit of road it struggled for traction from a standstill. Maybe my opinion on this will change as I get more confident with it, I'm still taking corners very carefully - both because I haven't driven in 6 months thanks to the situation with my old car and I'm still getting used to the M4. Speed builds up both more quickly and smoothly than the tuned 335i, it's even easier to get into loss-of-license territory when overtaking. I performed what felt like a slightly aggressive overtake on a country road of a single car, who was doing 90, and I hit 150kph as I was going past the guy... it barely felt any different to 100kph. Think the same effort in the 335i might have me hitting 130... at least then I might keep my license if I get caught doing it! The HUD is also great, seeing your gear and speed without having to look down is actually super helpful when driving a bit 'spiritedly' on the back roads.

This: Imola,Le Mans and Laguna Seca combo.

It's been a year and a bit Since the fiasco of the 135i. Since selling it immediately after it was fixed for a silly price and swearing off BMW's, I realized it was I that was the problem. Maybe not so for the problems occurring, or the way I was treated by the dealer, but for not doing any research and jumping into a car having no idea what I was dealing with (yes, you told me so!). Since the 135i, I've owned a Toyota MarkX 2.5 that thundered through oil, a Ford Territory with ABS issues and a distinct odor (read: poop), and an '06 2.3 Mazda 6 which was solid as a rock but underwhelming. I managed live cheaply enough to pay off all of my debt from previous cars including 135, and try and be happy with the Mazda... But surely enough, the itch came back and I yearned for excitement, a feeling I'm sure some of you with family cars and daily drivers are familiar with! The catalyst for the change was my Fiance buying a '14 Santa Fe, and me 'inheriting' her Camry. I managed to sell the Camry (03, traveled 360,000km!) and the Mazda for a combined budget of 6k. Flicking through Trade Me a few weeks ago, I found this; an 06 E90 330i, 143,000km, for $6500. In our house, you leave your boots, bags, and BMW's at the door. In fact there might be a bar of soap lying around for anyone that mentions a German car after the 135i. Despite the resistance I knew I'd get, I shielded my monitor and did my research. To my delight, the car seemed perfect and it met my main criteria: it was port injected. The water pump and thermostat were done in 2006 and the seller was the third owner. He had receipts and evidence of its servicing at both Auckland city Bmw and BM workshop. It sounds like it's been in Auckland its whole life. Here's her specs in M Decoder. I Managed to convince Mrs Steve with a lot of talking and nodding in the Santa Fe's general direction. It paid off as she was smiling the moment she drove it. I've given it a clay bar, wax, and an interior clean, although the interior was redundant as the previous owner had kept it really nicely! I have to repaint the front bumper as it has quite a bad split in the middle due to a driveway. I offered 6k and drove it away. It's a lot of car for 6k and I couldn't be happier. So today, my friend and I went for a bit of a spirited drive from Masterton to Mauriceville and Back via Whangaehu valley road. I'm not sure if anyone has been down there but it's a really nice drive with a bit of everything driving-wise. He bought his 2zz Celica which he hadn't had long either. We both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Now that I have a not-lemon, I'll pay my subs and start coming to events, eh ?.

Nothing tooooo much to report yet. waiting on some gearboxes to arrive from Aussie. And also waiting on some turbos to arrive. have pulled the engine down ready to be rebuilt aswell! bit had some shiny bits arrive for it yesterday ??‍♂️ not sure if it’s going to be e36 or e46 based yet, we have both sitting here. Might just be a matter of how we feel on the day of making engine mounts will be a street legal track weapon, aiming for a solid 600whp

Summit Road in the Port Hills is an excellent place to put a sports car to the test... Had an evening blast there to finish off the weekend!

Yeah for 13.5k at those k's and age id expect a fair bit of preventative maintenance on engine and suspension to be done. Can't see anyone paying more than 11k assuming nothing require attention immediately.

A car yard here in Christchurch just landed 19 ex rental ford rangers

Thanks, I live in Green Bay. Car drives fine. The error doesnt show up after cooling down and restarting, but does come back. I will get in touch with BM Workshop to get them to look at it. Or even get Ray HellBM to have a look.

PM me your email address i'll forward them to you mate. Kind of makes me regret not getting it. Would make an excellent daily for sure.

It was $1500 cheaper than the next other 330 on TradeMe and the only Msport. I wonder if the stiff suspension puts people off?

Seems more like a case of bidding on his own auction and pretending like the sale didnt happen cuz his other acc is “a scammer”. why would you leave that kind of feedback with a positive face? probably will just relist and do it again until he gets a higher price

And that's why M cars are M cars.

Great buy - I saw this on TM as well and thought it looked like great value - few km, but the N52 has a great rep. M Sport, with the sports leather instead of the marmite velour, sunroof, better MV3 alloys and no i drive. Hope it serves you well - can't believe how cheap E90 6 cylinders are getting.

Nice. I went and saw this and offered $5500 due to the imperfections with the bumper and a few panels and also because i didnt need it badly. Didnt end up buying it obviously but the engine sounded sweet and also had a sunroof which was nice. Good buy for sure at 6k it had good service history. Only one big thing was the main seal slowly leaking which will need attention at some stage not urgent and also needed spark plugs i think.

Un-wrapped some goodies for it ?

I've been wanting to do something with my intake for a while to give me some more induction noise to tide me over until I get to the exhaust. Originally planned on doing a long tube CAI but no room with the Xenon ballast in the way and seemed like a pain to relocate, so decided on the dirty old short ram with a heat shield to stop it being a Hot air intake. Was going to try building my own with aluminium sheets but saw a cheap E46 for sale on Facebook that happened to have a nice intake on it that I had seen online but wasn't about to pay $600 odd all up to get shipped to NZ. Its the Cosmo racing one pictured below but not the carbon fibre finish. Got a deal done with the guy and swapped for my stock airbox plus a few $$. I like this design as its fibreglass, really nicely moulded, utilises the factory air scoop and actually blocks off the expansion tank as well (most don't). I also had some really good 10mm foil backed foam insulation I bought a few years ago to insulate my home brewing kettle - a very effective product as brewing, I'm boiling for 90 minutes and this retains heat and is cool to the touch while 35 litres of 100c beer bounces around inside - very sticky too, has lasted 4 years plus on the brewing set up. I used this on the outside of the heatshield to get a much better thermal barrier than 3mm of fibreglass and then finished with aluminium tape to finish - should be very effective at reflecting / blocking engine bay heat. So it looks pretty good, sounds great and shouldn't be losing any ponies - quick test with my dual probe smoking thermometer showed about 9-10c differential in the air compartment vs engine bay after a 5 minute ideal - worst case heat soak scenario really. Next step is a new coupler for the filter pipe (one with it is shot) , new 'boot seal' for the top to get a better seal with underside of the bonnet and might also run some 3" flexible ducting up from the brake duct.

The peak power went from 140hp @5900 to 158hp @ 6300 I played with the vanos on the inlet cam but only at full throttle, I had to loose 2-3 hp from the top end in order to be able to hold the torque for longer. I also changed the values in "Throttle Angle Reaction on Driver Wish" table below 25% to help make the car feel more lively when driving normally. Just for interest this was all done on the factory exhaust. I have now installed the m52b28 exhaust manifolds and removed the cats at the gearbox plus replaced the rear muffer. The car still feels the same to drive just a little noisier. I haven't been back on the dyno with these changes , but I will as I would like to push the timing some more on 98 fuel. All the logging that i have done to date shows no timing correction has be needed so would like to see how much more timing it can handle.

Tempting.. but priced a bit high imo. For me anyway

If you cant figure it out, and before you throw parts and money at it, take it to autolign for them to align as the place you have been going to sound like they dont know what they are doing.

Or vastly different climates and driving conditions. I'd be chucking aside a big wad of cash if that work hadnt been done already at those kms.

Had some time over the weekend to restore my E30 grilles / grills. Obviously I could've replaced with new, but these ones looked ok and I had some time so why not give restoring a go. Things you need: 1) E30 Grille 2) Plastic Doctor 3) Sponge Seal as shown 4) Oomph Instructions: 1) Cut the existing foam off with a razor blade 2) Spray residue with Oomph and leave for 2 mins. Then rub / scrape off. Repeat as necessary. 3) Wash the grilles with detergent 4) Dry fully 5) Wipe grille down with plastic doctor. Use a screwdriver wrapped in cloth for the tight areas. >>Stay away from the foam area<< 6) Leave to dry then repeat on areas until a consistent finish 7) Apply foam strip, cut to length. I used loose fitting clothes pegs to hold it down for 24 hours; seems to have worked well. Enjoy the result!