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Been there, done that, got the T-shirt (open letter). I am now in the witness protection program, living in permanent fear for the safety of myself and my family because there is someone on the other side of the planet who has watched too many batman movies that is sending me mean messages. I can't sleep without hearing the voice of bane from batman saying "I'm going to f**k your mother" and other mean things. All I can think about is what might have been if I had not banned him - I could have been smoking expensive $11 cigars and drinking expensive whiskey in a $2000 E36 while driving around the mean streets of Whangarei doing drifty-doos in the wet, disco music pumping while we talked about how many hot woman we have fornicated with. Oh how my life could have changed for the better - anyway, guess we will never know. This is a man not to be messed with, he is making such huge waves in the SC scene that they are considering changing the name to "Hyde's super duper chargers" Anyway, that was my annual BS post - back to living in fear , please dont sue me for being mean to you online.

I had a 2006 M540I M sport for 4 years and i have just traded it in for a smaller, newer BMW... https://youtu.be/d_6y3sIBFHY

There does seem to be some good buying in the E46 at the moment, prices seem to have pretty much bottomed out (even E36 are going up now!) and they are still a great looking car - especially in that spec, LCI with M Tech II body kit. A bigger engine would be good if you want to zoom, but if it's just pootling around town the 2.2ltr might be adequate. Wagons are nice, but of the options given in this thread I would take the M-Sport sedan over the non-M Sport wagon but then that is my personal taste. Quite often regret selling my wagon tbh. If you are not too fussed about the lack of modern tech - or want to fit aftermarket nav, etc systems then they are still great cars. I'm now off to browse TradeMe, dammnit now look what you've made me do!!

We had one that died a good death. Didnt throw a rod but the oil got so hot it started to come out of the sump on fire. Ended up igniting the car and gutting it. That was awkward, when the fire department came to a rural dead end gravel road to put out a car fire with a bunch of guys there. Uh yes sir, we were just driving and it caught fire 😂 Garage54 is awesome. Dont be so serious. Every "dangerous" thing they do is probably safer than daily life in Russia.

https://www.repco.co.nz/en/oils-fluids/engine-oils-fluids/engine-oil/castrol-edge-synthetic-10w-60-engine-oil-5l-3412396/p/A1304624 This and only this pretty much. Occasionally goes on sale every now and then so I just grab a few bottles each time.

just get enough people to agree on something and boom it becomes a cult classic. it has to be made in enough numbers to evoke fond memories, at the same time have a sufficient enthusiast following. ie. Honda's EG, EK Civics.

Oil coming out of the sump on fire is a good one ! Had a few interesting ones, all paddock bashers. Honda civic hatch back, carby model. Revved its tits off while we threw stones and dirt down the carb. Flywheel exploded and took the bellhousing and starter with it. Another honda, rev limiter until engine caught fire. Ran it over and crushed it with a digger the next day. Old VK commodore with Bluetop 202 motor, drained all the oil out and put a couple liters or petrol in the sump hoping for it to spin a bearing, never did. Had the valve cover off and standing on top of the rockers holding valves open while its at full rev hoping for a valve to kiss a piston but never did. 3SFE Toyota corona, back yard hack job we put a turbo on. Went really well till it melted a piston and shot the dipstick out and coated the windscreen in oil. Down to pick a part, brought a replacement piston, swapped it in, re used the old head gasket. Started first pop and lived to see a few more thrashings.

Interesting, it shouldn’t be too hard to share the name of this world-leading company, then. Maybe the addresses of these global branches too so we can order these amazing products? Pretty sure Elon Musk’s career started by writing open letters an EV forums.

I forgot I put a bid in on a 1983 505 STI Manual in Turners Dunedin, and now I got it. to get it to Auckland, they want $1150... I wonder if this can be done any better? The Car has the pre interior refresh interior so it looks very much closer to the 504 on the inside.

And plastic, they have a good one welding cranks on 4 pot lada engines end to end as well, think it got up to a straight 12

Prefer located close "ish" to Tauranga Must be in good condition Thanks Karl

Garage54 is great! The which way will pistons fly out of lada engine at 10k rpm video is scienceAF

Got the laser cutting on Monday ... removed the mill scale off the large flanges with white vinegar which worked great !! Drilled and tapped the M10 holes on the large flanges and drilled out the holes in the individual stainless flanges plus removed the cut start / stop marks. Have made the call to switch to mild steel for the headers, with a ceramic coat ... will probably work out the same overall insane cost but cheaper up front for the bends and better thermal performance ultimately. Next up I can assemble the bank 1 plastic headers onto a flange and start on the jig proper !! Yay.

Lots of controversy over this back when I worked at Repco...a long time ago now. Used to order in the 10w60 TWS stuff for a number of m3/e39 M5 customers directly from Castrol. Not sure if it's now been superseded but they were very particular on it being TWS rather than the normal 10w60

Looking back I guess that makes sense, I was looking at an X5 in Chch last year and vaguely remember it was $750ish for flights and no accommodation costs in Wellington.

E46 325i in silver should be low maintenance, easy to find and cheap while still being pleasant to bomb around in.

I have no problem at all with people risking their lives for my entertainment. These people are helping "evolution". They are actively trying to eliminate the weak, dumb, and or unlucky

Pm me dude 👍

@Southerner Cam it's looking good mate! FWIW I did Sachs OEM shocks, bushes etc nearly 100k kms ago on my 2002 325i touring, kept the stock springs and 16's. It rode better, but tippy-toed around corners. Great advice from @Herbmiester and 3pedals/Bill/William.... I ended up hunting out the fattest ARBs from the BMW Lego parts catalogue, fitting with new bushes, and staggered 17" motorsport setup using e90 Style 194s. This made the car ride and handle better, without making my family uncomfortable. Handles way flatter, half of the steering wheel input required for SH1 and SH5x corners compared with stock - a big improvement. Watch for broken springs in rear, a bug-bear of e46, particularly Tourings. As the car's about to become my runaround again (it's been my wife's car for last 4.5 years), I think next year I'll give it a birthday - Koni Yellows and - most probably - Motorsport springs by Lesjofors... @adro reminded me they're available from Rockauto and it's what M539 Restorations used on his on youtube [edit] e46 Touring. HTH

selfie ommitted! opportunity missed 😲. next time, my friend.

Somewhere in Chile in 2008...

Got enough bend blocks printed out now to start being useful ... pretty tricky to get everything to play nice !! Had to revise the design a little more also to prevent some breakages. All in all happy with how its looking but need to print some more specific parts to tweak the design a little then can start to add up the lengths and see if we are on track for equal lengths without having to do anything too freaky to correct the design lower down. The other side will be more difficult with the ABS steel guard (body work) and dry sump pump / starter motor / brake and fuel lines in the mix also.

Jeepers... Thirsty work, is it?

On a side note, a mate had a 504 years ago, the drivers side rear guard had rusted out, so had been repaired with chicken wire netting, bog and newspaper, with a cursory spray of matching yellow paint over it. Completely visible from the boot, what you'd call an honest repair.