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Oniomania (from Greek ὤνιος ṓnios "for sale" and μανία manía "insanity"), is characterized by an obsession with shopping and buying. Safely ticking that box at the moment... Still haven't bought tyres yet, so the poor basketweaves are sitting naked in the corner of the garage. But we've got a dyno day coming up so I've borrowed a set of my mates (a fellow hoarder) Rays Gram Lights. They're 15" and don't actually look too bad! I said earlier in this thread that there's no way I'll be retrofitting A/C... I've just bout a complete kit from a SA 325i and lining up what new bits and pieces I need. So I guess that is happening. Also just bought an almost complete, OE cruise control kit. So there's that too. However the most exciting thing recently was the arrival of my sport seats! The vinyl is average and theres a few bits of missing trim here and there but they're NIGHT AND DAY comfort wise to my comfort seats. They fit snug and the lower lumber support is far better. Aesthetically, the car is pretty much where I want it to be. Yea it could do with a paint if I was fussy and ideally the seats would need recovering (will probably buy the kits from LSeats.com)but I'm going to leave those jobs to when I'm an old man with expendable cash I reckon. Also, to change up the wheel situation I thought I'd get round to putting in the Mtech II steering wheel I purchased of the late Jake Hamilton.

In the E30 you could get cruise control in the manuals. Very rare over here, but some cars internationally had it fitted.

Where there is a will, there is a way.

You'll definitely want to replace the seals on the heater box which go to the firewall, and also the one on top that goes to the dash. Ah, so you snapped up the cruise control. I'd finally finished my tour around the south island, and figured cruise control would be a great thing to have.

This car represents the epitome of British sports car design. It has a purity that cannot be matched by anything leaving the factory today. A true classic that has endured for sixty years and will still look good in another sixty years !!! Video here... https://youtu.be/ze6MTz0fkmY Cheers...

too much meta discussion. where's your project thread?

The one your mate grabbed is from a e46 that had a m43b19 engine, and wont fit unless you reposition the module with zipties.

Yes they have, sorry, have updated the post

Cruise control in a manual is a thing?! And I can’t believe an ‘80s car had them. I always thought my 06 jap hatchback didn’t have it because it was not modern enough. Found out now that it’s just pov hahaha Also if you change your mind on the AC, I’ll be happy to grab that off you 😂

Mine cost $120 incl shipping (second hand) so the one from TM if you could get it for $150 which is the starting bid isn’t too far off.

I dont have a spare at the moment, but you should def do the mod when you find one.

As I am still in overseas I just ask the seller to give me the pic of M3 finger cross it won’t be use lot of money to fix the stuff show some pic to all for sharing lol happy weekend

OK works done and I can get back to the trip story. After getting settled at the overnight accommodation I emptied out the wagon and spent the next few hours cleaning the interior making sure that my daughter had not left any surprises behind. Knowing that we would be spending a couple of hours from 5am sitting in the line waiting for the ferry I made sure that the DVD's we had hunted down would play in the CIC unit - you would not believe how hard it was to find a place on the way that sold DVD's. As a BMW newb I found it both frustrating and ultimately rewarding in a "I beat your crazy German logic" once I managed to get the DVD's playing - I had forgotten just how long it took for most DVD units from that era to load / boot. But the relief of not having to deal with the "how much longer?" line from our daughter was almost worth the cost of the M5 (man math is great). Finally we got onboard and parked behind a sheep truck, something that totally bit me when I forgot that the moonroof was cracked and let the delightful smell invade the interior. Other than the brutal smell (and we have sheep so it's not some city boy complaining) we had bigger problems as the ride leveling system threw a code when we arrived in Wellington. So first major mechanical failure, compressor looks to be on the way out - or at least sounds it. After getting off the ferry and hunting through the online resources I concluded that we could proceed without issue as I could get air into the bags and the error was very intermittent. After spending a few hours in lovely Johnsonville at the mall carpark so I could take a meeting we spent what seemed like forever just getting out of Wellington. By now I was worried about getting home at a reasonable hour, which was great when I missed the turn towards Taupo and ended up miles off course, so well after sunset and on a road that I knew quite well between Whanganui and National Park I really started to push it. A few things immediately became apparent, the turn in for something of this size is fantastic, 6 - 8,000 rpm is like having a turbo come on boost and the sound of the rotors whistling makes it sound like a blower in action. The pad knockoff is pretty intense once things are up to temp, the Dunlops on the rear of the wagon are a 275/40/19 which makes for a tall sidewall which probably helped iron out a few of the bumps. I have never run Dunlops on anything, but these are pretty sticky in the wet which was great given the horrid conditions we were progressing through. At first glance it would appear that the S85 becomes more efficient when you are on it, the engine was certainly much happier and smoother after having been flexed on the way to National Park. On the final stretch out of the gorge I got stuck behind a couple of delightful individuals who I had earlier seen at a gas station, they looked like stand up (fall down) pot smokers who were slowly driving off with a trail of smoke and bumpers barely hanging on. After answering the age old question of why does anyone need 500hp to pass a Honda Civic, we stopped off at National Park and had in my opinion a well deserved steak. Then it was off for a final push to Auckland, as my wife had flown down we had to go all the way to airport to pick up her SUV and then back south again. That turned out to be great as the motorway was closed in both directions so we were diverted for what seemed like forever. I think I turned her off around 2am at home. So final thoughts, on this purchase: - Initially it felt very much like this was someone elses car that I was babysitting, but after some hard miles on it and building the confidence to use it I feel much more like it's mine. - I didn't buy this on impulse, I had been hunting for a few years for an E60 and had spent just as long researching how this was going to financially cripple me, that said I have built a career that allows me to have some toys in my life and I have chosen this path. I could have gone for a 911 Turbo, but that is a very selfish car when you have a family. - I am a firm believer in the "buy once cry once" mentality - and I have the T shirt to prove it many times over. So I paid a premium over an E60 - but then this is an E61 with all the boxes ticked. - There are lots of things that I could have bought instead, but as others have put it "they are not an E61 M5". - The car has been well maintained by its previous owners from the limited documentation that I have, although I do have the service records - but a stamp and signature in a book doesn't always tell the whole story. - I think that cars like this are a rare breed, and people who can afford to buy and maintain them should. These cars are dinosaurs, they are the last of an era of big displacement high rpm powerplants with unique drivelines. While many will argue that the E60 / E61 is not a classic or future classic I would like to have that conversation in 10 years when there are even less of them and we are all daily driving hydrogen bombs. I'm not anti the future of fuel efficient ecomentalist cars but I guarantee that I plant more trees on my property in an average summer than all of the current policy makers combined, so if I want to put some CO2 back in the form of V10 noise and a happy smile then I will. - I love the SMG, I think it makes for a unique drive where I have to think about what I'm doing with the throttle. Anyone that drives these and thinks that the SMG is the worst thing ever is totally entitled to that opinion. I was worried for all of 10 minutes that the SMG was going to be a pig, as dumb as it sounds I learned very quickly to drive it based on experiences with a horrid Ford gearbox that they put into the later gen Fiesta Zetec. While they are worlds apart in power, they can both be very stupid boxes until you work the throttle timing, and I know this is nothing new for most but this is my experience. - Last thing is that it works as an amazing family therapy tool, wife complains - press M, daughter moans - press M, need to get away from inlaws house fast - press M. As a family cruiser that you can do a holiday in the E61 has already proven itself, I didn't expect to make it home with a car that has been in hibernation for some time without some issues and they will get sorted out in the coming weeks. Cheers.

I work from home and have done for the past 14 years, so the M5 is doing the school run on the odd day shared with the wife's SUV. The STI RA is a 4 door, it is currently missing the interior while I do a wiring upgrade and arguably uses more fuel than the M5 when you're on it - I built it a very long time ago and the old school HKS turbo and big cams love loads acceleration enrichment, but it does leave nice flames as a result. From Wellington to Auckland it averaged 17.1 L / 100 km. Given that I went the most indirect route possible and ended up going through the gorge between Whanganui and National Park in P500S I thought that was a really good effort - I certainly was not trying to hypermile a v10.

I thoroughly recommend the Auto Glym wheel brush. Absolutely brilliant, makes cleaning my 14" baskets easy. They last and last and last, this is not your $18 supercheap or repco brush. I've had mine three years and used it across four cars (now my fleet is down to three), still looks like new, gets the job done with no hassles. Buy one here, support your fellow Bimmersporter @Autoglym https://barrysgarage.co.nz/product/autoglym-hi-tech-wheel-brush/