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Many people like myself have a lifetime of memories associated with Puke. My earliest memories stretch back to 1985 and the Nissan Sport 500, I was 6 or 7 at the time and my father who was a motorsport nut and car collector ended up with VIP tickets into what was quite a fancy grandstand at the time. In all fairness when you are 7 years old and you get to go into a catered area at a motorsport event everything seems pretty fancy. Looking back I was fortunate to have attended some crazy motorsport events as a kid outside NZ, but going to Puke was something that cemented the dad and lad relationship and I was lucky to have many fond memories of being burnt senseless (because dads are great at packing the basics...) while inhaling a heady mix of leaded fuel, roasted clutch, brake dust and tire smoke. Fast forward to present day and I've been lucky enough to take my daughter to the last two Supercar events at Puke, and while she loves the noise and spectacle of the cars I suspect she loves the hot chips drowning in tomato sauce even more. While Puke has been on borrowed time for years it is sad that we won't be making any more memories there, either driving or watching - and horses don't count. The Unitron Computer M3 sounded epic. On a side note, I left the M5 at home as I didn't want to deal with the stress of parking it in a paddock (for anyone that has not been to Puke during race weekend every local farmer within walking distance is selling off street parking). An hour after arriving at Puke my wife messaged me to say she had to go out ASAP, having never driven the M5 she got a crash course on how to operate an SMG in 5 text messages and a video link .

Sold.

Hey guys reluctantly selling what has been an amazing car to own, my NZ NEW 4.6is in Estoril Blue. 1 of 29 delivered new to NZ in the 2003 year, unsure of how many of those were Estoril Blue. Have owned it for about a year now having used it mostly for big road trips & then 2-3 days a week to the park n ride. Have driven up 90 mile beach to cape rienga & multiple trips to the bach. Currently sits at 197,000km’s with most major work having been done in the last 20,000km’s. Will come with complete service history dating back to 2012 along with original handbooks/manuals, 2 keys & sale agreement. Work done mechanically includes window regulators, cooling system replaced, rocker cover gaskets, spark plugs, ignition coils, handbrake lever, cv boots, tie rods, timing chains, gear position switch, starter motor, battery, rotors & pads, boot-lid mechanism, fuel pipe set, abs control unit, PDC sensors & most recently the alternator. Interior is black nappa leather over Titan shadow trim. Heated seats, cruise control, blah blah I’m sure most of you will decode the vin yourselves. My partner & I have recently got engaged & are planning on moving across the pond hence the sale. Not in any rush right now as would like to see this go to a caring new owner. Still a great car to this day, only thing letting it down is the paint (Bonnet could do with a respray & the front bumper is scratched/slightly dented from previous owner). Would be worth the investment on getting it back to its former glory. Feel free to contact me anytime however I may take a little while to respond depending on time of day. My number is 021 265 5240 or you can check out the Instagram @estblau. I’m sure you know values for these everywhere else have risen, however unfortunately I don’t have the time to wait for the NZ market to catch up. Price is $8,500 for bimmersport, will post on trademe soon.

Drove to Auckland and back over the weekend. Wow are we in for a brutal road construction season (summer). The roads are just wrecked.

Anyone interested in our 330i M sport touring? Reshuffling the family fleet. Will list on trademe in next few weeks, unless someone wants to snipe it before hand. Very rare 330i touring, UK import (no rust) was bought over by a family immigrating, kinda hard to price as there isnt many out there. 10k seems like a good point? 170xxx km, will check. Sparkling graphite, has cool pink/purple fleck in sun. Automatic, shifts fine in sports and normal Full beans N52B30AF with magnesium rocker cover and hydraulic power steering (for the purity) Standard Msport bits, Dakota Leather interior (manual heated M sports seats which are way lower and have better movement range than the electrics) Android CANBus integrated headunit All works well, no errors or gremlins to worry about. Its a good solid well looked after car. About the only downside is UK apparently didnt like xenon headlights, so its got standard halogens. WBAVS32050AF81214 Its been looked after by me, so is mechanically pretty f**ken shweet Sump gasket/rocker gasket/all other gaskets/waterpump/CCV/engine mounts/shocks (Bilstein B6)/tophats etc etc etc etc have all been replaced in last 30,000km. Full set of new ATE rotors and pads in last 10,000km. Oil changed every 7000km. Wheels were refurbed last year. Will get full detail and clean up before sale, paints pretty good other than a stone chip or two and a bird sh*t etching on bonnet. Cleans up nice. Near new Nankang NS20s. Latest pics I have, will post more if anyones interested.

It's looks to be in great condition and a nice colour combo but... priced for perhaps 2027, or later... I'd saw half the price is right for today. What could they be thinking? I couldn't get that price for my mint 2.8 manual Z3 in green/tan with lower kms. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/listing/3765528153 Other stupid things in the ad. "BMW Z3 1.9 Roadster M in Manual" It looks like this was ordered with an M steering wheel and shift knob but it ends there. No M suspension and most importantly, no LSD. "Featured include - Headlights, Electric Front Seats, Auto Wipers, Remote Central Locking." Nice, it has headlights! "This little rocket" It's a 1.9.. it's fun but it's not a rocket! Also, it may have had a dodgy respray as orange peel is visible in the picture of the RR corner. Kudos for the original radio! (I loath aftermarket radios)

Track days still going. Never been on that track so i thought id better get one or maybe 2 in before its gone.

With the engine still a bit of a shambles, was nice to finally get some wins on the board over the weekend. Got the gearbox very much ready to drop in. Now just the small task of sorting the engine... Spent an absolutely stupid amount of hours cleaning it all up with all sorts of drill bit brushes. Impossible to get it perfect but at least isn't as caked up and crusty as it arrived. Then refreshed all the shifter pins, reverse & 5th gear detents, new shift lever and all the shift linkage bushes, new metal clutch fork pivot as well as new oil. Also threw on a new reverse light switch. Probably didn't need to but at $7 figured I might as well. Did a bunch of digging online, people seem to go with either 75W80 MTF, pure ATF or a 50-50 mix of the two. Read a few accounts of shifting being a bit notchy until the gearbox warms up if using 75W80. Seems to be climate dependant to some degree too. Went around BMWorkshop and B&T who both recommended ATF so I went with that. Good enough for them - good enough for me. Will see how it goes. The set of special punches form Street Driven Industries came through who also threw in a set of plugs for the shifter pins that I'd been struggling to source. Did charge me a rather silly US$10/each but was the only place I could find them so figured what the hell. Happy to lend the punches out or sell them on if anyone wants to do their detents as I probably/hopefully won't be needing them anymore. As is typical for these, she was clearly suffering from 5th gear lean. Reverse and 5th especially needed some effort to jam into. Pulling the 5th gear detent out, was pretty clear it had seized up and chunks of the inner sleeve it was sitting in were flaking off. Bit of a mission getting those out, literally have to destroy them before they let go but very much doable. Got myself an E60 shift lever and ZHP gear knob from Schmiedmann, as per @Eagle's recommendation. Seems only a few mm's difference but probably does change the geometry enough so it doesn't feel as much of a row boat. Threw the shifter linkage on to play around a bit. Rowed through all the gears, of course whilst making manly engine noises. Shifts seem much smoother and more effortless now so was definitely worth doing. Onto more serious sh*t now.

super rare to have a 3L in a E91 msport, and knowing chris would have taken care of the car it seems very reasonably priced for peace of mind driving for many ks. GLWS

Hi everyone, I thought I should say since I've only recently joined. I've been thoroughly enjoying reading through all the posts and seeing some beautiful machines here. I started my driving life with a 1984 E30 318i. Such a fantastic analog car to learn to drive in. Alas, that was over 20 years ago, and until now I haven't had the joy of owning another one. I've had my F07 550GT for 9 months, and I love this car. Yea, she has a few quirks, and has cost me a few dollars, but in terms of comfort coupled with her ability for outright speed, I couldn't be happier. Having never owned something with the power as this car has, I have strangely found that I'm quite happy cruising behind slow cars with the knowledge that if I want to, I can easily go past, but mostly don't. Of course I'm certainly aware that I do have the N63B44O0 engine, with all the potential problems that entails. The previous owner has had the stem seals replaced, along with alternator, starter and water pump. I do know I'm up for expensive repairs if something does come up with the N63, I do look after it, with regular services and maintenance. The only change I have made is the muffler delete, and while a little louder than I thought it was going to be, I do love the sound of that v8. I think the tips do look the part. Such a well made and solid vehicle with the nice touches such as soft close, and electric seats front and back (it is a 4 seater). I do have a couple of plans for the future, such as a tune to unlock some more power, but for now I do really love just getting in, pushing that start button, and going for a drive. Oh, my partner is also a BMW owner with her 2010 X1 sdrive18i. Both cars in sapphire black. Anyway, that's me, and I look forward to meeting and talking with you all in the future.

No solution yet @Bronsk. I dropped the car off to a place in Queenstown on 27/08 that specializes in BMW/Jag etc. They called called a couple of days later, and they couldn't figure out why it wouldn't start (partial relief that I didn't miss anything obvious/worry that they won't find the fault). Their next step was to order a special compression tester from BMW in AKL as their one kept getting blown off apparently. His suspicion is that its compression (or lack of) related as it sounds like it is turning over too quickly. Bloody diesels.