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Hi guys, I was googling online for parts for my car and landed in here, only to discover (thanks browser cookies) that I'm already a member from 6 years ago. So I guess "Hi" again..... New cars though now since I joined back in 2015 but still Beemas prevail! The E39 M5 is my baby and an F15 X5 is my daily driver. Absolutely love both of them! anyway, Hi again and hope to see a bunch of posts I can benefit from!? Cheers

Survived the south coast storm last night. Parked the E46 on higher ground as iv spent double what it’s insured for so with a clear driveway I took the E30 out for an errand run today. Shot this on some old glass mounted via multiple adapters to a new mirrorless body. The mirrorless body has focus peaking making the old manual focus lenses more accurate and actually usable. This is the 80mm in the photo but the photo was taken with a 150mm F4 Hasselblad C series lens. With the 35mm crop factor it turns a 150 into an 85mm. Is it better than the 85mm Nikon lens….probably not, but it has a nice softness to it which I think resonates with the romance of E30’s.

This will be my daily and it needs a bit of work body wise. But it’s a straight six NA BMW and that’s all that matters. It’s Monaco blue with grey leather. German made and was once used as a display car by BMW in Germany (apparently).

FInally replaced the busted down shifter, no more random downshifts!

I think the only logical thing to do is take mine down a quarter mile and see if they are all shagged at this age or if that one is particularly sad!!

I will be quite happy watching a 440i go past from the driver's seat of my M5, but I suspect that if the example in that video was in as new condition the gap would be a lot smaller, try it again when the 440i has 100k on the odometer!

Wife is out of town so went for a 'blast' out to Piha today - typically, got stuck behind a line of soft roaders and people movers heading out but got space to stretch the legs on the way back.

This is Barry's @Autoglym “Mini-Me”. Why Mini-Me? It’s the little version of his fabulous Zinnoberrot e28 ///M535i! See the likeness? Mini-Me: Tuesday 11 August, 2020 e28 ///M535i - August 2017 (unmistakeable likeness) The short story is it’s done ~250k kms, originally from Wangvegas. It was found in a quiet garage, off the beaten track. A very tidy car, feels like the rear seat has barely been sat in. There are the minor dents and dings of a 30+ year old e30. It’s running a very slick M42 installation that's had new rings and bearings, and it idles beautifully and goes well. There's a carefully-built compact header setup that clears the steering and meets with the standard M40 exhaust. Mini-Me currently runs an auto, and has disc rear end from factory. Plans are to tidy it up, perhaps a manual conversion, windscreen, and get it certed. And then enjoy Mini-Me for fun and shows. e30 Mega Meet, here we come! First job: A good go over with Auto Glym and a little elbow grease… Rinse and Bodywork Shampoo to start, with a quick blow-off Auto Glym Clay bar kit, Auto Glym Bodywork Shampoo (briefly), Followed by Auto Glym Super Resin Polish, Auto Glym Clean Wheels, Auto Glym Bumper & Trim Gel, Auto Glym Bumper & Trim Detailer, ... and then finished off with Auto Glym Instant Tyre Shine. Beautiful! You might have guessed, Barry is Mr Auto Glym. Support your fellow Bimmersporter, you can find his products here: https://barrysgarage.co.nz/shop/autoglym-product-categories/ Plans are to tidy it up, perhaps a manual conversion, windscreen, and get it certed. And then enjoy Mini-Me for fun and shows. e30 Mega Meet, here we come! Some upholstery work is being scheduled, and other maintenance items are in the wind. Watch this space!

In the process of buying a complete car so will be an engine rebuild and move it on. @APT Did anyone from here take it? Would be curious to see if it was a good steal.

One of the most rewarding days of my life. Final fix & tidy before cert inspection tomorrow. So rewarding. The wash yesterday, remembering the first wash.of the car 3 years ago, and now she sits all this work done to her(around 600-700hrs). Around 4 hrs of repair today, with the final wipe down being the highlight. WoW!! Straight up!!!

@Contrails much more accurate than the other options

Spec looks amazing. Can't imagine many cars in 2004 had bluetooth phone prep! Not sure about a towbar on a coupe though... https://bimmer.work/vin/p04e66ce8c919e8c683bc0007b7835b03/ Google translate may have slightly missed the point on the wood.

Great pick up Rohan, was very tempted myself! I really really like the Birchwood interior trim, looks sooo much better than the Jaguar-spec brown wood that kiwi new coupes seem to have been afflicted with.

wow, this is a very interesting car. the grey leather interior is quite nice and that wood trim is definitely not the standard "wood" trim.

My take on this is that what was at one time the best sports saloon in the world with a 500 HP V10 is showing its age. I do love them and the point of the video, as you can see by the title, was not to degrade the old girl. The point is our future does look pretty awesome when an M-Lite's can nearly break into the 11's (Probably can with a tune), we are going to have some very fast used cars in 5 years or so. I do note that when I read tests on the E60 M5 the 1/4 mile times were closer to 13 flat, especially in the Aussie mags. I realise we now have 4wd and awesome gearboxes and that purists dont always like either of them but it does make them easier for the average driver (AKA most of us).

Unpopular opinion coming up but the M340 sounds better to my ears. Still way rather have the M5 though

Back onto the topic of e34 535is's... I have been told that any e34 535i sold in NZ new is a "535is" if its vin starts with WBAHD12. According to the motor vehicle registry there are 20 NZ New cars left that have VINs that start with WBAHD12. That's the same amount there are e34 M5s in the country. There's actually also 26 UK import WBAHD12s in the country, this is more than the amount of NZ new ones left. There's also 2 with Japan as the country of origin and 3 from Germany but I don't know how similar these are to NZ New ones. The more you know.

Haha, why does it even matter what is faster. An M5 E60 is a fast car by any standard, especially for a road car, way more than most people can handle. If we think a little outside the video topic, a 325i E30 for example would get thrashed by most BMWs cars, but it's one of BMWs most iconic models loved by so many. Looks, style, engine sound, simplicity, driving experience, history, the list goes on. There is so much more to a car than just straight line performance. Furthermore these new age BMWs have electronic telemetry that tracks GPS location, steering inputs, brake application and speeds that can paint a picture of your driving style, so if a situational arises insurance/police can use that data against you too, makes having such a fast car like a 440i seem nonsensical in this age of big brother. Read the fine print of these new incar data systems, it's really quite startling how much data the manufactures are collating from every parameter of the car.

Either a bargain or a $3000 donor car

You've never put a bicycle rack on your car, or brought a couple of sheets of gib home from Bunnings? It's not just about towing your 8 metre house to a new caravan park.

Never knew I’d fall in love with a door card

Will be a much classier car once your return it to a stock appearance. All the mods the prior owners did really reduce the quality look, especially as the add ons age, like the rear badge.

Grumpy boomers woke up and found their metamucil had run out.

Never leave

Car is back from the panel beaters after a minor mishap with a parking kerb -last month - decided to take advantage of my low excess to get it perfect - new OEM bumper colour matched and new undertray 👌🏽 Pretty much everything in this photo except the windscreen has now been repainted / replaced for anal cosmetic reasons 🤣

Didn't move at $39k, won't move at $59k. What do they think it is - a 1988 325i? 🤣

Seems like a bit of a reach being LHD.