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After a fair amount of procrastinating, I finally bit the bullet and took the car for cert. I used Jody Thompson from Two Six Installation and fabrication in Rolleston - He is fantastic to deal with and I highly recommend his services. The list of mods up for cert are as follows.. Brakes BMW 325i discs front; BMW 325i calipers front, Larger (51mm) 325i front strut housing, braided brake hoses front & rear, manual pedal Steering BMW E46 purple tag rack and pinion Suspension Lowered front and rear; Ride heights: 335mm F, 320mm R +/-5%; Ride heights measured from the centre of the wheel to the bottom of the guard while empty and on level ground. Wheels & Tyres Rim size: 15x7 front and rear; Tyre size: 205/50 front and rear Engine & Drive-train 2494cc BMW In-line 6 cylinder DOHC fuel Injected (M20b25) with BMW 5 speed manual gearbox (Getrag 260) Jody didn’t have the correct category to certify the purple tag rack so he applied for an extension with LVVTA, this took sometime but he was granted the category extension, and we were able to go ahead with bump steer test. Bump steer test results As I had used factory bolt on parts for the manual conversion and engine repower, I didn’t need driveshaft hoops.. I was very happy about this! Booked in to get a WoF this Thursday and then ill be road legal

I have the new 2025 release of the evo AU/NZ maps of any one needs it.. ( map only. - you will need lifetime FSC. ) PM me.

This silver one went for more last year: https://collectingcars.com/for-sale/2003-bmw-e46-m3-csl-18

Nice one Rod! Congrats!

What about this... this can't be reasonable, can it? https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/m3/listing/5026630209

Fair. You could have a 2021 with 32k km for the price he’s asking (also white though) Hell I’m sure you could get the Tanzanite m340d for that price.

Na mate, seen it. - rough paint - worse colour -black wheels 🤢 While it is less money, no chance it is "a better example"

thanks @elias Looking forward to seeing how you progress once you get your car back from the shop!

Memories indeed. In the late ‘80s I bought a pair of Alpine 6385 (maybe at Paul Money, maybe some place in Newmarket) speakers and paired them with an Alpine 3525 amp in my mighty Laser Ghia. With a Phillips head unit and Sony 10 disc in the boot. At 120km/h, a bass note would make the rear vision mirror vibrate so I couldn’t see.

Ahhh, memories. Back in 1990 I needed a stereo for my Datsun wagon. Paul Money Car Stereo advertised in the Herald, I think I bought with a couple of phone calls, a fax and a cheque, and they sent to Wellington. Purchasing is so much easier these days with the web! I chose a Sanyo compact digital radio cassette that fit into the dasboard (twin spindles - volume and tuning) and something like 25 watts per channel, along with two way Alpine 6 inch speakers that were destined for the front doors. When it all arrived they'd sent me Alpine 6x9" 3-ways, so the plan changed and they went into the tailgate on a 10mm particle board baffle that I knocked-up. I ran decent power and earth cables to the unit, it sounded really good for what it was. I couldn't find anything to fit my constraints (the dashboard moulding) in Wellington (other than low-fi models), and nobody down here was doing the stack it high, sell it cheap model like Paul Money did.

Dug into the starter extraction first thing Saturday morning. Quite an easy job all in all, with no messy fuel lines to disconnect the intake manifold came off in around half an hour giving decent enough access to the starter/bell housing bolts from up top. Still quite a tight squeeze but not as hard up against the firewall/transmission tunnel than you'd have on an E46 and such. Cracked the bolts loose using a swivel head ratchet and then used a 10mm ratchet spanner to back them out the rest of the way. The intake itself was still nice and clean, just slightly oily, which was good to see. Took the starter to my mate who split it open and to discover brushes that were very much perished, leaving behind an impressive pile of carbon. From what he saw he reckoned it should be back in business with a good clean, regrease and new brushes. That would be a relief as new ones of these chunky starters are $500+. Left it with him to sort out during the week and scooted back home. Still had plenty of daylight left so tinkered on fixing an annoyance I had with the car ever since purchasing it - when pressing the button to fold in the side mirrors, they would fold in and go straight back out again, refusing to remain tucked in. Did a bit of digging and landed on this video which looked worth a shot. Popped off the mirror covers to inspect - the passenger side was fine but sure enough, on the driver's side the little metal lever had fallen off the sensor mechanism and was just sitting there. Gave the area a good clean, bent the tabs in slightly, reseated the lever and fixed she was. Also noticed the power steering reservoir had gotten wet again. I gave the area a good clean when doing the first batch of work on the engine so this was fairly new. The O-ring in the cap didn't look too bad but I managed to find a slightly chunkier one in my stash and threw that on. Hopefully that was the culprit of the leak all along.

Good progress this weekend; the engine is now running with minimal fault codes, we were able to get it up to operating temperature and verify ancillary systems (alternator, power steering) were operating as expected. We've identified a small coolant leak around the rear turbocharger and have also found the engine has settled on the engine mounts more than expected, which will need to be remedied before continuing with the exhaust fabrication. 20250504_160416.mp4 20250504_162619.mp4

Well, I motored down to Christchurch last week and had two business days there to get some things done. An online search led me first to https://soundworks.net.nz/. Greg was very helpful, although his guy was away for the week, he knew someone else and would check for me. In the meantime a further search turned up this promising result: https://protechsolutions.co.nz/products/bmw-ccc-radio-conversion-from-japan-to-new-zealand?_pos=2&_sid=64a66e6ba&_ss=r Exactly what I want, so I booked them first thing next morning. On arrival they stated 'No play, no pay!', so I said go ahead! After half an hour Greg phoned back & said he'd found someone who could do it that day - I said thanks, but it's being done right now... Well, turns out that while they could extend the FM band from JP to NZ, they couldn't get any reception - apparently some of the code had already been messed with, so the usual fix didn't work. While they were undoing their attempt, I called Greg back & said 'Help!' He said come & see him after lunch. In the meantime I headed to Vantage Auto Diagnostics (https://www.vantageauto.co.nz/) for another issue (see https://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/69604-e91-key-fob-required/), and quickly figured out this was where Greg was going to send me after lunch. When I saw Greg later, sure enough he said go straight to Vantage - since I'd been mucked about already, he didn't want to clip the ticket as well. So back to Vantage, where young Christopher seems to know the BMW computers inside out, and he got stuck in straight away - with a quote only 2/3 of the first attempt! 40 odd minutes later he was done, only one issue - everything worked as desired, station names and reception perfect, except the manual tuning mode didn't show the full NZ frequency range. Apparently some of the code had already been messed with, so the usual fix didn't work fully! I departed happily for the city, wandered around & had a coffee. Went back to the car about 3:30, started the car, and - no AM or FM functionality at all. Bugger. Long weekend about to start... I drove straight back to Vantage & luckily Christopher was still there. I explained the issue and he wasn't too happy, but he hooked up his diagnostics & went to work. Half an hour later he said it was all done, even better than before. Because apparently some of the code had already been messed with, he'd bitten the bullet & done a full reflash of the 5 CCC modules. Now it all worked perfectly, even giving me SW and LW alongside MW. I was so pleased with his work I paid him the extra 1/3, and headed for the hills with local stations blasting! Honestly I can't recommend these companies highly enough for there willingness to help out at short notice. Top guys!

If you come across another set 15's drop me a line;)