M3AN

I do recall this being on sale from the dealer in NZ in the late 90's as a "Special" or "Limited" edition. The "exclusive" ///M colour and BMW Motorsport options were heavily emphasised. I think it was to close out the E36 era, I'm sure the E46 was in production by then. A few "special edition" 328's might have been a nice option, not sure there were any.

One of the coolest wagons I've ever seen. Perfect spec.

That's for a proper gangster with a family! I wonder if it's a V8?

BMW had a hydrogen powered 7 series way back in 2000/1 when I was in Munich, it's quite amazing how little progress seems to have been made since then.

Nice, looking forward to seeing it in person. http://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/49568-auckland-monthly-coffee-and-cars-meet/

F@#& dude, I really hope 2018 works for you, the end of '17's really let you down!

Interesting thread. That Aussie is hilarious. It's worth noting however that his maths is based on electricity being "85% hydrocarbon generated" which is a poor indictment on Australian energy production and skews the numbers wildly. However I think a lot of what he says has merit. I also think it's an oversimplification to make this a mineral verses electric discussion, science has moved on. What we should all be able to agree on is that, as a population, we need to increase our relative use of renewable and sustainable energy source and strive to reduce our dependencies on depletable energy resources. Does anyone (other than Trump) not think that's a good idea? Nuclear fuel cells I say. And bumper stickers that say "No tailgating, I'm carrying a NUKE!".

Yep, enjoy it. I think it looks beautiful. Fantastic car to cruise around in this summer!

I'm actually surprised the BBC can't sue them. It is effectively Top Gear.

Super Pro - a reasonable blue.

Dude, I'm glad you're able to update us, sounds ugly! Hope your path to recovery is both fast and true. Best wishes.

Actually, that's not an unexpected result. Anybody that was thinking the gas cars would win over an electric hyper-car doesn't know their cars. A Tesla S would probably beat those other two in a drag race. 100% torque at 0 RPM really does mean something.

There's not much more admin to issue new plates than to issue replacement plates, even if it were 100% more effort we're still in the region of $30, not hundreds. We live in a capitalist world, I support companies making a profit but in this case it seems like somebody is profiteering - either through margins or tax/duty (or a combination of the lot). I'd simply like to understand that breakdown. Also plates aren't a scarce resource, they can add characters and increase the pool so it vastly outstrips demand.

So plates actually cost less than $23.15. And the plate monopoly in NZ charges hundreds and hundreds, up to a thousand dollars. I wonder how much tax and margin we're actually paying on these things?

Parked opposite my house in Ellerslie... reveal yourself!

There's a McLaren, two Ferraris (430+612) and a few classic Porsches in my garage in Newmarket (new job).

Cylinder head cover gaskets? If so, which cylinder head cover is made of plastic???

The bit you can see inlaid in this picture? If so I'm not sure that it's available as a separate part...

As I said earlier, you can't start at $1 so where else do you start? I agree that it will be difficult to reach the target price but I also think you'd be doing yourself a disservice to list it at 20-25k. Why not put it out there as the seller has and see what happens? It doesn't need to be perfect to gauge market interest and if it doesn't sell you can try again. I'm one of the first to bag silly auctions but I don't think this one is silly. Unrealistic? Perhaps. But it's not insulting anyone and I've communicated with the seller and he seems 100% up-front and genuine. I'm pretty confident he'd negotiate with anybody that was genuinely interested. Provenance is an entirely different topic. All I know about the build is what I read here and it seems epic and much, much, much more effort than you can see on face value. But it's ultimately a chop and I have no idea whether it's all new bolts and bushes, all torqued to factory or not so can't comment on that (other than to say the only way to do it properly is to do it properly)**. If somebody asked me (and they haven't) I'd hazard $30k, or perhaps $35k to somebody in an aligned trade that could use it for marketing. $22k for the M3 bits and $8k for the uniqueness. Assuming subframe, VANOS and rod bearings have all been done. I could be miles off also but you'll never recover the labour involved (and if HellBM did then they should be laughing all the way to the bank). I seriously hope the right people meet up to do the right deal on this one, it's pretty damn cool. I want it badly. ** Somebody I know purchased a chopped E36 hybrid thing from somebody who should know better and found it had basically been put together with whatever was lying around. Standard bolts where HT bolts should be, used bushings, missing washers, poor torque values etc.

I'm not an SMG fan but I think it's the right choice for this car. Let's be honest, you're not buying this as a track-rat but rather something that has amazing utility and a scary bite. I think SMG with the right tune will give you the best of all worlds in this, you can load it up, it'll scare most other cars yet anyone can jump in and drive it. That's pretty ace. Pity I'm not wealthy enough.

Well, who really knows what it's worth but I wouldn't list it for $1 reserve. At least now they can gauge interest and accept offers if they want. For a unique car you'd be silly to start much lower I reckon. Imagine how much it would actually cost to build. But in the end I think it will go for less. Especially if it needs to go.

Cert is good, seller seems genuine.

For sure it's effectively a custom car and therefore price can't be compared to a normal M3, that's not reasonable. Edit: seen the cert, it's good.

This thing is going to be a beast, I too am looking forward to the end result! Props.