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BIG milestone - Interior is now done: Full retrim in OEM BMW Anthrazit Uberkaro and matching OEM bolster fabric Fresh vinyl on outer bolsters, seat backs + door cards. Rear headrests, Mtech badges, refinished interior plastics, shampooed carpets and new mats. Fully rebuilt front seats - repaired and welded frames / new seat shocks / clips / fresh foam - feel like new seats. The textures and tones in the flesh look absolutely fantastic and like it was always this way - very happy. Might get my shift / gear boot done in genuine Uberkaro to match (they are reproduction Uberkaro at the moment and are a cooler grey) will likely get rear seat Mtech badges and need a new drivers door handle surround as well to finish off.

Spotted this. Sub 40K for an NZ New, M3 Coupe, pretty sure its factory manual since its NZ New and listed as such on carjam. Seems a bit of a bargain?! I've actually seen this car in person frequenting Queenstown and it does need a variety of cosmetic things remedied but has decent bones. I actually took a few photos of it because I thought it looked rather tasty especially with the mountains in the backdrop. From memory the interior needs a full overhaul. Here is the link: https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/m3/listing/3705220724 Here are the photos I took of it in February 2021.

Damn was wondering why you didn't make the meet. Do you know what failed? Yesterday i was thinking about your new seat and was going to ask you for a sit in it. For some reason thought about a member who's E30 throttle cable snapped in the Huntly around that same spot going back to Auckland. So may of jinxed you there sorry.

After 5.5 weeks wallowing around in a clapped out comfort seat and 3 weeks without a front sway bar, can’t wait for the weekend to get my rebuilt and reupholstered sport seats in and my 22mm sway bar with new poly bushings and billet mounts… Looking forward to driving around corners again.

Wet and dry vac - hire a rug Dr with the upholstery attachment, they have a range of treatment sprays - all seem to work as described. My biggest weapon for any smell is the ozone generator - I bought one off TM a couple of years ago and it has been used on all sorts from cat piss to stopping the garage smelling like the neighbours wet scrub fire.

Spotted it on Facebook, seller wants 15K for it, so the reserve cant be far off on TM.

Damn. Hopefully its just a hydraulic issue. Sounds like you your ''cruise' was a bit more lively compared to ours. * Insert 4th gear <3000rpm economy cruise.

Well on the plus side I bet your beast looked great, valve bouncing and all.

It seems logical to me that the big oil companies will be at the forefront of development of hydrogen as a combustion engine fuel. They have the investment capital and a vested interest in maintaining dominance of the transport fuels market. So while I have no doubt that there will be some entrepreneurs and special interest groups that see an opportunity to get a slice of the pie, realistically the most likely outcome is some kind of joint venture between oil companies and specialist hydrogen gas manufacturers. Fuel cells on the other hand represent an alternative and competing development path to direct combustion of hydrogen, one that can either complement existing battery technology or displace batteries altogether. The dividing line between the competing technologies appears to be vehicle type and intended use. So perhaps instead of drawing up battle lines a better solution would be to allow both to develop to their full potential and let the consumer decide which suits his/her requirements better ? Improved technology always comes at a price... evolution and changing attitudes to important issues takes time. Cheers...

Talk to Litchfield Motors. Have a read of Wired...

SOLD

Little follow up. - Wheel is back on with new tyre. Randomly the price was $346….my number plate is DQZ346! - Bank 2 o2 sensor is in, what a PITA. Glad that’s a 160,000km service interval item! - installed new white LED fog bulbs. Before: After:

Put the car back together a couple weeks ago with all new power steering parts. New high pressure lines, reservoir, fluid etc. Also pulled the second hand pump that I got off trademe for cheap apart and it was perfect inside. Got very lucky with that being for sale at exactly the same time as my car decided to fry one. Checked all the internals Also decided that while I had the pump apart I would modify the pressure regulator by stacking the old shim with the new one and reduce the power steering assistance by an additional 12.5% according to forums. Supposedly this would also help to keep temps slightly lower, whether or not that is true I have no idea. Reassembled pressure regulator with the stacked shims: Fully re-assembled pump, looked like brand new: I didn't take any photos of all the refreshed power steering lines but it is nice to have all those finally replaced. They had been weeping since I had bought the car and probably long before. Decided I would re-dye the parcel shelf as a saw a few others do on this forum since mine was that typical faded purple that all E46's seem to get. I totally forgot to take before photos but the after is infinitely better than before. Very happy. Everything back together: Also decided I would buy the m-texture door cards Tom has had for sale for a while now. I really didn't need them but I couldn't resist. I was prepared to get some really beat up manky door cards but they were in much better condition than I initially thought and couldn't believe how well they cleaned up. Considering they were $100 for the full set front and rear I'm stoked. Once I cleaned the alcantara part of the door card up they were in super good condition. Best $100 dollars I've spent in recent memory, even though these are pretty much just going to go into storage. The vinyl on them is pretty beat up so eventually I'll either have it repaired or swap the inserts into a cleaner set of vinyl cards. Couple close-up shots comparing the reproduction fabric from my bucket seats to OEM: Not sure what it is about the fabric but I just have an obsession for it. Has to be one of BMW's coolest interior options imo.

2025 M3 co-developed with new Honda Civic Type R confirmed

Some photos of how the car looks now

You're talking like it isnt already. Toyota is on its second generation of Mirai which seems to be received quite positively, with the only real complaint being the lack of filling stations. Hyundai also has the Nexo, which has the same issue. Really looking forward to big names finally pushing Hydrogen a bit harder. Hopefully this is the start of what we need to finally topple the battery monopoly.

I was having good fun following a G80 M3 - car was driving fantastic but I miss timed a shift around redline / just after the limiter and couldn’t change gear… Seems clutch pedal does nothing - fluid reservoir looked fine. Car could take off (lurch off with ignition) in 1st and ease into 2nd and 3rd which got me the last 20km or so to Huntly then got a pricey tow to my mechanic… Will find out tomorrow!

Ordered a set of VANOS seals and rattle rings from Beisan Systems yesterday, 2 x $60 + $39 shipping. Wake up to this. f**king seriously?