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Hi, it’s so good to be back here after a few years. Bought this baby over the weekend from Auckland City BMW. It’s an F22 M235i. My favourite thing about Mr Grey, is his colour obviously. I would love to add all the OEM M performance parts to keep him authentic BMW. If you know the best place and prices I can get his bits shipped to New Zealand, please let me know. So happy to be part of the BMW family again.

The audio commentary is a crack up.

Saw this 850ci this morning. I am only aware of @treone 840i as the 8-series on Wellington.

Im with Star Insurance but I reckon you have to get an valuation done regardless if your vehicle is anything above average. All these insurance companies will happily take your agreed value premium whilst paying out their perceived value in the event of a write off (usually way lower since they don't know the market and not take half the stuff that actually matters into account) Even a proper evaluation only goes so far but at least you know where you stand i would hope.

Thanks, I had a an e30 325iM, a 330ci, a Z4 Coupe, F30 320d, a terrible F20 118i (don't know what I was thinking). All M Sports and throughout that time missed the compact go cart e30. As the Coupe M135i is now the M235i and the smallest coupe you can get which is only slightly smaller than the e46. It is for that reason I purchased it, smallest, fastest coupe daily driver.

I'm starting to dream that one day soon I will be able to drive my project car ... this shall require some insurance. I'm looking at Star Insurance as the provider currently as I hear (mostly) good things ? In any case who ever I go with I will likely opt to get a proper valuation done as there is no real market value for a bespoke builds as such. Has anybody got recommendations of a good valuer in Auckland who's brain can cope with bespoke project builds and doesn't just look at collectable type cars ?

350km range and it's almost a full tank.... man they must fang it all day long 😂

@Sammo yeah it was easy enough to do by hand.. just pushes in. My one was in 2 halves, if yours is the same you wont have any trouble.

Good to hear - that was the technique that seems to be popular - did the new poly bush push in by hand?

@Sammo I started with a press but couldn't find anything that was the right size to push it out, was only pushing the rubber. So I drilled out the centre rubber piece and used a hacksaw to cut out the outer metal ring, once the cut was made it tapped out easy with a big flat head and hammer. All up it took 30-45 min, not too bad at all

A couple of months ago I acquired a 14.5mm rear sway bar and also picked up a 3.75 medium case diff. I finally got around to installing the rear sway bar and diff a couple of weekends ago. I've been finding motivation is hard to come by in these cold dark winter months but felt good to be giving the old girl some love. I had a small case diif that I used when re-installing the fresh rear subframe so I had to remove that before installing the medium case, I decided to make the job a little easier by removing the half shafts to create a little more space. Pushed out the old rubber bush on the diff hanger and installed a new power flex bush. Installing the medium case diff was pretty hassle free but reinstalling the half shafts proved to be a right pain in the backside!! It took me several attempts over multiple nights, lots of cleaning and filing away any small imperfections on the splines, finally managed to to get the splines aligned and pushed into place. I suspect this job would have been much easier with 2 people and a hoist rather that on my back in dimly lit garage. I knew when I installed the manual conversion on this car the shifter would need replacing as you can see above it is far from pretty. After reading one of @Sammo posts I decided to go with z3 1.9 shifter, installation was quick and easy - a quick win all round. Going from no rear sway bar to a 14.5mm sway bar and new shifter I was very impressed with how the cars feeling.. having a sway bar has made a huge difference to the feel of the back end and I'm amazed at the difference the new shifter has made. Next up for this build.. Converting 4 door sport seats to 2 door following this article..

I've read and watched that silver is harder than others. I'll be painting entire car(s) so as long as I get the paint at once then should be OK.

To celebrate the car being back under cover again (sorry, still no garage for her) after almost two months in the Auckland winter rain, I washed it for the first time in 5 weeks. Feels good, just need my long delayed interior back in and will be ready to be seen in public again!! Still a bit of landscaping to be done but nice to have a better space for her.

We had a quick look at the i4 e40. Here is our quick take on it: - it's probably one of the best/better EV in the market as a drivers car. However compared to our M5, it's very much softer even on sports mode. I am not sure if the i4 had adaptive suspension, I think all M spec version should be fitted with one. It did feel stiffer on sports mode. - acceleration from standstill is really good even if its just e40, in fact for me 300-400 hp is what I prefer for a street car. More than that is not fun in the public road, so the 340hp e40 variant is on the sweet spot. However I can say beyond 80km/h the M5 V10 is very much competitive or better - it's interior is great, the screen is great (not as fluid as a Tesla though). The seats (it didn't have the most expensive optioned seat) are actually better than a normal car but its actually not as nice as the old leather seats of the M5 both feel and support (however I got my M5 seats dialed to me already, so maybe if I spend more time on i4 it could be just as good) - the individual dravit grey paint is so much better over brooklyn grey (there was a M440i beside it on with this color), this is probably the best color for a i4, M4, M3 or 4 series. The big kidney livable with this color. - hans zimmer sound on the i4 for me actually makes it better, unlike other EVs which has no sound or very cheesy sound. But I guess it's no substitute for ICE sound, especially from a V10 NA - the driving assistance is good, or I like it as it seems to be less intrusive. btw the AEB got tested, a ute cut us off and slowed down aggressively. Not sure why, because we on an EV or BMW... or both. I think i4 e40 is a great choice if you want a drivers car EV, the e40 is also very efficient close to a Tesla Model 3. However it's very costly, at almost $120k for the example we tested. For $120k, you can get a M5 ($40k) and Tesla Model Y ($80k - $9 subsidy) plus some change. If you had $120k, which would you pick? P.S. Thank you to G. Yang of Continental cars BMW, he is great to chat with.

Just a 5inch stepped intercooler from ebay, I use water meth, so iat stays under 30c

Appreciate your opinion mate, the BMW 333i came factory with an m30b32 which was a contributing factor in choosing to go m30. ,I don't think the swap is tardy at all haha, in fact HARTGE and ALPINA have both developed the m30s. Theres only 204 of the 333i worldwide so their more of a spectacle than the standard m20b25 of today. Yes it is a close fit, I'll be relocating the dizzy, will have to get around the booster issue for sure haha Why waste time boosting a m20b25 when boosting a m30b34/5 would give you even better gains...? Like i said before, sticking to N/A is the plan.

I agree with modern engine with greater performance, Im just not the biggest fan of a newer plastic covered engines sitting in a 80s car haha. I love the history around the m30 keeping it period correct is the theme for this build.

100% doing it for love mate, keeping this build n/a.