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Had been looking for a replacement for the F01 750i for a while, thinking about a G01 or a X3/4 M40i then this X5M in Melbourne Red rocked up for sale. Never been a SUV guy but super impressed by the ride and handling combination this thing gives. Plus add 550hp is a pretty good recipe. Impressive spec interior, sounds great, good tech, nice to have that elevated ride with so many Ute’s etc on the road. If you can’t bet em…. With a big warranty 😁 plus matches the bosses i3 upgrade in Melbourne Red also. Let the fun begin.

Long time, no update! Not a Heck of alot to tell on the E30 front. Had a dyno day Aug '21 that was great fun. Was interesting to see what power the M52 put out with 200,000kms on the clock. 122rwkw or 163hp at the wheels. We've recently moved south, so in the mean time the E30 has been put on the back burner (modification wise at least). Recently bought an E87 120d and it's turned out to be a lemon. So the e30 has come to the rescue! Happily carrying out the daily commute around Central Otago. Making some friends at work. And some more E30 goodness (or maybe sadness?) at a museum down here. Cars look to be in a pretty bad way. I don't think the owners realise the fairly recent rise in value of these cars over the last couple of years. Bought a replica Mtech1 spoiler from Mr Bodykits as I have always like the shape. Technically not correct being on a FL E30, but I like it! Only mocked up in the pictures. Need to colour code the forward portion and find a rubber like paint for the rear portion. And then mount it. Probably this weekends job.

Firstly thanks to Gaz for letting me buy these & Done for picking up and getting them to me. Bit of a progress report Sanded up & delivered to painter today. He's wanting to do an especially good job on them. Hundreds of hours spent on these already sanding & polishing lips. Started with 36 grit paper on the lips & worked all the way down to 2000 wet dry papers then autosole metal polish and 0000 steel wool then alloy polish. May try to get some 3000 & 5000 grit paper if anyone knows if this can be bought in NZ that would be awesome. Bolts stripped back in vinegar, boiled in vinegar and baking soda, fully stripped to a black shiny finish then coated in zinc by Christchurch metal finishers. Better than new ones, will probably last a lifetime. Sanded and polished hex caps and restored old original BBS centre caps with polishing tool, look like new & OG to. Got a spare in the mix, is a nice lightweight 7" rim perfect for the boot, probably fit with a 195 tyre to make it even lighter New tyres have been ordered from hyperdrive after lots of consideration I've decided to go 225/50r16 all round. Had purchased 245/45r16 Nangkang AS-2 (only road tyre available in that size in NZ) but being unsure of Chinese tyres & bit of risk of clearance on M535i I have gone with Laufenn 225/50s instead keeping it closer to original

Mostly boring stuff recently. But might as well add it to the log. Previously the car had a UUC evo3 short shifter. I hated it 90% of the time because the shift effort was way too high and made the gearbox feel like a pig to drive especially when cold. But admittedly it was super nice when driving the car closer to the limit since a lot of the resistance between gears disappears and you get a nice tactile short throw. Ultimately I opted to return to a fully OEM setup. I thought about going with the AS SSK with a OEM throw and just use their redesigned linkage but that would have cost something like $700 once shipped and everything and OEM was less than half that via Schmiedmann. At the same time replaced every bushing and wear part in the linkage. What a huge upgrade. The throw feels like a perfect length, shift effort is perfect. Everyone who complains that these shifters are sloppy are wrong, the bushings are probably just knackered. The gear change is super tactile and I have zero complaints, other than the fact that the install is a nightmare and took me something ridiculous like 5-6 hours. Other job I finally crossed off the list was getting a second key. Since getting the car I have only had a single manual key. First tried through BMW but apparently they no longer stock remote keys for the E46 so I went via ebay and got a shell incl transponder and chip for $20. Once it got here I quickly realised that it wouldn't work since my car is a jap import with the dreaded IR key. I remember the IR on my old E46 sedan was horrible so I wasn't going to have that on this car and decided I would convert it to RF. Picked up a 433mhz FZV antenna from a scrap car for 10 dollars with the connector needed and bought some additional wire to run to the GM5/fuse box. Old Unit: New unit: Ran the new wire through to the GM5 and fusebox and tapped into the relevant lines. Wiring isn't really my thing but I tried to make it as tidy as possible and run it with all the existing loom. Photo below was just how I had it set up while I was testing to make sure I had the right wires, I did tidy it up after. I did get stuck here for a couple hours when I couldn't get the key to pair but realised after banging my head against the wall that I had put one of the fuses in the wrong place so none of the central locking system was working at all. As soon as I put that fuse back it paired up no problem and the key was remotely locking/unlocking. Had the key cut locally and had Tom code it to the EWS. All in, I realised the car was IR on Saturday and by Monday I had a fully functional key so it is a pretty easy conversion and well worth it. Not to mention the key itself was $20 from ebay, AFZ antenna $10, wiring $10, and key cutting was $40. Grand total of $80 when the original quote from BMW that I got a year ago was $5XX or so. That last thing I've been doing recently is swapping the cheap mtexture door cards onto a clean set of vinyls. The originals were in rough condition with rips and scuffs all over them. They were probably repairable but I don't have a vinyl person I trust to do them properly and coupe doorcards are still relatively available. Found a good condition set from Brent at BM World which I'm using as donors. First OEM insert removed: And here it is in place on the new donor vinyl section: Super time consuming drilling out the plastic welds and fixing the panel in place but easy enough and I'm happy with the results. These are in good enough condition that I'll probably end up using them instead of the ones in my car.

Wonder if they will shake up the tyre market in NZ?

That's a Fratelli Pedrini Sarezzo wheel, which despite being a genuine supplier of E30 basketweaves, went out of business in 1992, so I can only offer you $150 and you pay shipping /s. F.P.S. was a supplier of 'weaves, as were Alumetall, their wheels were made to the same spec as the BBS RZ320 (15x7 Et24) 'weaves. Differing manufacturer embossing under the cap for BBS / FPS / Alu but the same part numbers et al. The F.P.S. wheels also had JWL (Japan Light Wheel Alloy) standard embossing.

Depends on how much drop you are after, they are 45-50mm according to their site. Id rather spend another $75 and get Eibach Pro-kit which is a modest drop and works well with OE sport dampers. Regardless you'd want to replace struts and shocks with something decent and new at the same time, otherwise its going to ride and handle poorly with old worn out units.

mainfreight depot to depot.

Refirb these two. Then sell to some E30 hipster for $4000. Who promptly throws them on his $20000 318 4 door poverty pack.

Ended up with a 2016 Octavia VRS, DSG with 162kw, NZ new with one owner (other than Skoda NZ who used it as promo car for cycling event) and 72000km on the clock. Looked after by the one skoda dealer since new. Will haul it back from Welly later in the week, good shake down drive

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/130i/listing/3786120963 - Dirt cheap needs some love but would be a nice project! That interior is factory... someone optioned that https://bimmer.work/vin/pcfbe73be3513fac63bbc35adeb592b9f/

Please let’s not turn another thread into an argument about electric cars. 🙏 There are plenty of specific threads on the topic already. Apologies as i am partly to blame with my hipsters comments.

I wouldn’t bet on it, it will take more than the sun coming out to change the current car market, and economy in general. Plus all the hipsters are buying Teslas to “save” the planet.