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A new project.. being an old school E series fan was getting a bit.. old.. so out with the e46s and in with the F32.. of course some tweaks: digital cluster upgrade, NBTevo upgrade. more to come thou.. 🤔 note the Tq value on the idrive screen.. 😃

I buy Michelin because they have the sexiest tyre wall

Not a good time to be trying to sell their week-end toys. Where costs are starting to bite quite a few people are looking to cash up the toys. Unfortunately the flip side of this is that there are very few buyers looking for those toys so the market is very flat. Anyone that does have a little cash is in a great position to get something nice for a good price.

Looking to buy a N54 engine. Dont need all the ancillary bits, will just swap everything over from my blown one. Preferably 6 bolt crank but open to anything, dont want high kms and cheap is good.

Cool car, very niche spec. Perfect for ski trips that involve a 1200km of travel and lots of corners. Or, a really long Police chase in winter. Or towing heavy things up the Bombay hills whilst sitting in the slow vehicle lane passing everting and giving them the troll face. Or just a cool looking white coupe. Well done.

Most tires come out of Asia because that is where all the rubber is, my last three sets of Michelin Pilot Sports have come from Thailand, and they are regarded as the best tyre availably, so don't worry about the origin of the tyre. Sorry, cant comment on Pirelli themselves, I just buy Michelin because they win every test and are fitted to every car in the world worth buying.

Road user charges. That is a minefield that is even more complex than taking GST of fruit and vegetables. Seems straight forward with a full EV. They use the road they should pay full road users. Simple. Hybrid with non "EV mode", well they use the road but pay for it with petrol tax like other petrol cars, the leaser amount they use the lesser tax they pay. Plug in hybrid, complicated due to variability of millage done in EV mode. Easy solution would be to somehow deduct additional road charges any time the ICE is running as so you are not double dipping. I would think they would need you to keep a log book as you do if your a farmer or how they used to do back with diesel when RUC were introduced. Will be a sh*t show.

Side view 👍 IMG_1711.mov

Quick update - today the replacement auto-dimming mirror glass for the rear view mirror arrived. I've been meaning to get this sorted since I bought the car in 2015!!! I also received notification over the weekend that the shipment of parts I'm waiting on is with NZ Customs, so just waiting for them to send me the bill and then it will be cleared for delivery. I'm particularly looking forward to getting the rear seat sound insulation and the bracket and handbrake boot for the centre console!

Had this little badboy for an amazing day in the sun today - Bday gift from the wife. So much fun - 140whp and 600kg is more than enough for me - made the E30 feel like driving a houseboat afterwards. Incredible steering and brake feel and the noise from the 4 banger 20V with ITBs and side pipe was truly savage. Would reccomend!

Sorry... couldn't resist...

sell it and buy a 330i or 335i etc

Well it's been quite a while so time for a bit of an update... M5 - driving it when I can and trying to get from A to B as "efficiently" as I can whilst doing so... 540 - going really well. Just done a couple of good trips including the BMW Car Club run to Whangamomona. What a blast. Just recently I've painted the instrument needles again. A PO had painted them red, so I just re-did them in red again, would prefer the white but needle changing is a nightmare, and cluster even worse... Also put on a new steering column leather cover (that was a mission) and a new cluster surround. Got it all back together to discover a backlight bulb had blown.... out it all comes... Still, it all looks great now. I've also decided to fully paint the 540 early next year so preparing for that, new rear MSII shocks whilst the interior is apart as well, rear parcel tray needs a re-cover. 740 - I've done a major gasket etc replacement on the engine and the oil leak has reduced considerably, it was the valve covers mainly, no surprises there. The engine was a real RTV special, why don't people just renew... But it appears there is still a minor weep suspecting the top oil pan gasket. I had thought originally rear main seal... However I happened to scan the transmission one day and a code for slipping lockup clutch is up on the torque converter. So I'm going to get my spare msport TC refurbed and sometime in the next few months I'm thinking an upper gasket, RMS, and TC changeout is coming up... I haven't really noticed any symptoms driving it, but now I know the code is there, my mind is playing silly buggers with me... Other items I've changed on the 740 are the rear door rear rubber trims, transmission mounts, trans fluid and filter (code was up before this), fuel filler hose, centre console rear controls, and a new LCD screen for the Bordmonitor. Being a newer screen it is compatible with polarized sunglasses so that is a great improvement, as well as generally looking heaps better. Will be looking to do a bit of paint on the 740 myself over Summer if I can find the time...

Raced the car at a Hampton downs single car sprint where it performed flawlessly ad managed to take home 9th place. Was a big day for the car, literally melting tires on track. Oil temps were perfect, not getting hot at all, cooling upgrades working well. Then this past weekend, drove down to Ngutunui for the 9km long hillclimb. Raced the fist run, and as I was rolling back down the hill the car stated making some very bad noises. Didnt want to hold up the event but eventually had to pull over and stop because the noise kept getting worse. Inspected the car and couldnt see anything. Tried starting it again, slow crank, turned over and made the most horrible metal clanking noise ive ever heard. Got towed down the hill by the race control ute. The trailered it home, was a long day. Havent had a chance to open it up yet but 99% sure it has a spun rod bearing, and judging by the noises the crank is beyond fcked. So its time for a new engine. Waiting for garage rennovations to be done (about a month or two) then i will start tearing the car/engine down and hopefully source a new one, swap everything over and slap it in. Planning on doing a baffled sump, and fresh rod bearings for the replacement engine. Pretty gutted that it died, but still came 10th on the day with only 1 run, so clearly the car's potential is there to do well.