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@madda_joe

Not strictly today, but took the vert to the cars & caffeine meet at Mount Smart, what an absolute cluster f**k on my part!! Was supposed to be going with the wife, but she wasn’t feeling well so bailed on Sunday morning. It was early start (for me) and roads were damp but looked like sun was coming out so I thought - yup go for it. Need to use the car more. Drive off, top down (as you must in a vert) realise five minutes up the road that I’ve forgotten to wear a hat (as you must in a vert). Now driving towards ominous rain cloud… keep positive thoughts… starts raining “only a few spots”.. more rain “it’ll stop soon”.. now really raining… bugger, stop to put hood up. Get to Greenlane Maccas for E30 pre-meet up, already a few E30s and lots of other cool cars there. Grab drive through beekkie and a coffee, start to feel human. Lots more E30s arrive, lots of new faces and a few familiar ones. Good chats, and smiles all round. Time to go to Mt Smart for main meeting, wagons roll, E30s driving off… mine won’t start. Realise I left my lights on while parked up, bugger. Find Good Samaritan with jump leads amongst group of old Skool American muscle group, and get a jump off the last remaining E30! Starts first pop with the leads, phew. Drive off realising I don’t know exactly where I’m going and no one to follow - hoping to see the lights of the stadium, but no… By watching the car behind and some last ditch lane changes manage to get there, but no chance to park with other E30s. Start to wander around looking a lots of cool cars and start to feel sub-optimal. Find a seat in cafe but still not coming right.. Decide to head off home before things get worse, but put hood down again, as sun is shining brightly. Do the crawl of shame through lots of people to get out and head home… a bit more rain.. but couldn’t be arsed to stop and put hood up. Why do I own a classic car again.. it’s fun they say… yeah right! And even better I now have the cold from the wife (nothing to do with getting wet in the rain, honest.).

So not BMW, but a 3.4 Turbo Porsche that gets a stunning 24L / 100 kms open road . Yeah, so about that M5 being a gas guzzler? Obviously this a bit of click bait as the beast is old school turbo tech, and lives in 4th gear as it's a big turbo low compression setup for Germany so it doesn't have much of a chance to be economical. As expected another nice Harry vid:

@E30 325i Rag-Top bugger about leaving the lights on - on mine if I leave them on only the park lights stay on? I was nursing a hangover Sunday and completely missed where the other E30s parked too - looking forward to a sunny outing next time in full health!

I did a couple coats on my 540 in October and the paint is still glossy and hydrophobic. One thing I've heard recently is to keep the coating on for as long as possible you should use a pH neutral car wash. I think Autoglym and Meguairs have pH neutral options. I had been using a generic Turtle Wax car wash but I will be switching to something pH neutral. Just reminded me I did a polish and ceramic coating on my old S8 when I had it with the Turtle Wax Ceramic Black products. Photos are a bit rubbish but man the Turtle Wax stuff does a slick job.

https://jalopnik.com/we-have-reached-the-inflection-point-where-chinese-seda-1848821592 Front end of the actual Hongqi looks a bit better in pictures IMO but I bet in the flesh it is full of weird angles. I'm sure the new BMWs will look expensive and 'striking' in the flesh which is probably the goal - the days of 'pretty' cars are gone. Not a fan of the skinny lights, big grill needs bigger lights - reminds me of these:

Put a layer of the Turtle Wax Ceramic Black on the daily. Definitely made a big difference when I used the polishing machine on the bonnet. Early days, but I’d recommend on a black car. Would not recommend a black car as a daily 😒 Tempted to do another coat and apply a ceramic coat over it to help it last.

Last week I came across a couple of guys struggling to push one into a trailer in the middle of the street. I hoped they were stealing it so I stopped and gave them a hand but alas it was genuinely broken (quelle surprise).