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Yesterday I got the tires fitted to the ARC-8's and today I put them on the car and went for a test drive. It will surprise no one that this setup is a huge improvement over 19s with old RE050A's. The first few minutes of driving were weird, it felt like I'd lost a bunch of road sensation and it took a few minutes to realize it was just harshness and unhelpful noise that was missing. All the useful feel of the car and the road through the seat and wheel was still there, it was just a quieter smoother ride with much less of the unnecessary hum, buzz, fizz, whatever you want to call it. As soon as I realised I could still read the road as before I settled in and started comparing the difference. I can't talk to how the Potenza Sports compare to the PS4Ss, but compared to old RE050A's they are very significantly quieter, I first noticed this by noticing that the CSL intake sounded louder! 18inch wheels are clearly what this car was designed for and are better than 19s in every way when it comes to ride quality and feel. I'm very happy I opted for the firmer sidewall of the Potenza's over the, softer than PS4S, PS5's. The accuracy and immediacy of handling is still there, significantly improved upon with new sticky tires. I need to give a big shout out to Bry5on for his advice to put 9in wheels up front with the ET42 offset. I'd always been worried about putting anything too wide up front, afraid of ending up with heavy, dull steering, but with pretty much the correct offset and lighter wheels and tires all the precision and immediacy is still there, and when you get on to windy open road the feel of the car with a larger tread patch up front and closer to square setup overall is just superb. On the topic of weight. The combination of lighter wheels and lighter tires means I'm almost 4kg lighter per corner, which (including weight of the rotors) is close to a 14% reduction in rotating mass, and I can really notice the difference. I'm always skeptical of my butt-dyno because I'm always concerned it is excessively influenced by the "wallet factor". But in this case there is no doubt. Acceleration and braking both noticeably benefit, not to mention how much better the car ride and holds to the road with less unsprung mass. In summary, as you would expect, this is a fantastic upgrade in every way. I do want to thank everyone who took their time to give me advice and suggestions on this project. It wasn't one I was planning to do right now, and as a result I had not performed my usual excessive amount of research and preparation well in advance. I'm very grateful to everyone who shared their knowledge and experience to help me arrive at the ideal outcome. Thank you! Like heinzboehmer I've very much missed driving the car while it's been laid up, so like him when I got it back on the road a short test drive turned into a longer one. Only I ended up at a slightly less globally-famous landmark. The Mt Rex sand processing facility in Helensville 😂 Also, it's winter here, it was raining, and the sun was in the wrong place.

Of all the Alpina E46variations this has to be the most base model. 4 door auto. Seems a bit excessive.

Hi all, Bit of a shameless self promo here-I’m responsible for the “Buying a neglected M5” videos on the tube recently. I’ve just uploaded episode two where I get stuck into the rod bearing job, check it out here. https://youtu.be/GgoFUOo4YH4?si=5fJqrjDjsYPfMa_V I’m not a mechanic, I’ve just always fixed my own crappy cars over the years and when values for Japanese cars went a bit crazy I dipped my toes into the BMW world and now here we are. Started with a great e28 535i (malachite metallic) then an e34 535 5 speed followed by a fairly broken e39 540i 6 speed with AC kit. Anyway, I always wanted an e60 and couldn’t resist the challenge of reviving this one. Open to any comments, questions or criticisms! Cheers Jordan

Could be a number of things. Might be a random stab in the dark but one possibility is the ignition switch. Had that on my E46 a couple of years ago, would just intermittently not even crank until I cycled the key 4-5 times, became more frequent as time went on. Cleaned it out and has been fine since. Could also just replace it as they're fairly cheap. Haven't checked but fairly certain it'll be a very similar part on the X5, if not completely identical. Worth cleaning out regardless as they can cause a number of weird electrical issues, access should be pretty easy too, just need to remove the bottom cover from the steering column.

Not much progress on the wagon in the last wee while, moved house and jobs so plenty on with all that. The new place has a garage! Pretty excited about this, a nice dry place for the wagon to live and a place to work on it too. Anyways, todays progress was a transmission service. Dropped the pan and valve body, replaced the 4 sleeve seals and bridge seal and threw it all back together with a new pan. Also replaced the mechatornic sleeve while I was at it. I used Penrite BMV which looks to work with Lifeguard 6 spec, will see how this goes in the coming months. The old fluid was very clean, I believe it was replaced before I bought the car. Was an interesting project having never dropped a valve body before this. Cool to see the inner workings of an auto box. Overall was a pretty easy job, dropping the trans brace and exhaust hanger helped to get to the mechatronic plug. Will give this a few weeks of driving before throwing an XHP tune at it, have heard good things about the tune, looking forward to seeing the results. Big thanks to Tony at TPD for coming in on a Saturday to use a hoist for this one.

Hi All, I'm just back into BMWs, this time with the might M6 V10. Keen to get to know people who may also have an S85. Keen to know the best workshops in Wellington. Also keen on tuning the transmission and possibly ECU. Was wondering of there are any local people who do coding for the basics like window control from key and the like. Cheers, bloody good fun and hope all is well