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The M3 has been a bit neglected on account of needing a set of tyres and with my compact project eating up all my spare cash. Square set of 265/35 Michelin PS5s on order but I couldn't wait that long and was itching to drive it again. Took the long weekend as an opportunity to stretch it's legs and swapped my spare stock wheels with old track tires on, and took it for a blast to the coromandal for a night. Desperately needs an alignment, but 8k rpm with a carbon airbox does do wonders for the mental health.

When we were in 4th year at uni and needed to clear our heads, me and the flatties would do what we called "the hot lap." Auckland - loop of the coromandel - Auckland. It was an awesome way to waste some fuel (when 96 was $1.60) and spend 8hrs listening to music with the windows down. We're older and wiser now, and the hill from Coro airport to Matarangi is now fully sealed, but I still love blasting those roads to get to the beach house. Is there a better colour than silver that shows just how pumped the quarters on an E46 M3 really are? None of the darker or pastel colours can match imho, and yours looks so bloody good with the 18x9.5's.

Finally fixed my odometer gears and gave the cluster a mini tart up while I was at it with a polished cover and an Mtechnic tachometer gauge face. Kept it subtle and resisted the urge to paint the needles red 😂 Tried matte black cluster rings (2nd pic) but decided against them. Also had some new SI board batteries and capacitors but it all looked good and my soldering isn’t great so decided to not mess with it unnecessarily. Also troubleshooting a pesky ABS light, right before WOF time… does not appear to be sensors and the relays ‘look’ as good as new 🤔

Christmas came early Already have a CSL airbox on my car but its the old V1 Geoff Steel box, so decided to bite the bullet and get the karbonius. The newer Geoff Steel box is okay and fine functionally but I wanted the best which seems to be karb by a long shot, snorkel piece is still on the way, won't arrive until next year. Cannot believe the quality of this thing. Everyone says they are perfect but photos don't do them justice, they are insane. Can't find a single imperfection in the weave or clear coat. Feels like it doesn't even belong on my old M3, looks like it belongs on a Ferrari with the quality of the carbon. Not a cheap exercise though... Ouch. Car got a much needed wash today too, still cleans up okay. Plans for the car next year as of now are: Brake upgrade - leaning towards 996 brakes all round, mostly cause I will enjoy the project of rebuilding them/painting them etc Diff rebuild - Racing diffs has an interesting option which replaces the clutches and has a preload bevel washer to make the diff behave more like a mechanical diff and I've never rebuilt a diff so I think it would be fun. Solid subframe bushings - I'd do this as the same time while the rear subframe is down. CMP auto engineering out of Aus have nicely made solid bushings that correct the roll center from the car being lower, at the same time would do a bit of a rear end bushing refresh, replace all ball joints and rubber. Considering getting a set of CMP's monoball RTA bushes as well. MK60 ABS conversion - This is pretty unlikely to happen since it's a big job and perhaps beyond my skillset with the amount of wiring involved but it's something I'd like to eventually tackle.