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It's because I live in Ponsonby, mate. It rains scented Evian here. Steam cleaning's very effective but best done by a pro IMO. I usually claim I've got an unidentified oil leak and get my mechanic to clean up for diagnosis

Mate, it gets enough sh*t all over it being parked outside at the weekends... But that's just an excuse to clean it again! Made a slight alteration to Mike's exhaust proposal to hopefully keep costs down but with similar results. Might try and do it in sections to avoid a big outlay in one go:

No, not really. I tend to only use it on the tough grease. Michael's method looks pretty spot on and good results. Haven't tried the silicone spray but I think that's what dealers do to keep the engine looking shiny. I use the Natural Shine on a cloth because I don't have a garage and silicone spray goes absolutely f*cking everywhere if you do it outside and completely covers the paint in overspray.

Thanks to Mike for designing this... I've added it to the to do list. Would love to the V8 clear it's lungs a bit more.

Personally, I'd get a really good professional steam clean first to get rid of the worst muck. I use the Meguiar's engine cleaner and Meguiar's Natural Shine for the plastic parts. Perhaps we should organise a cleaning day, Martin? Might not be quite as fun as the dyno day but I'm keen to get my engine bay sparkling and happy to share cleaning products! hah

Siren's under one of the wheel arches, isn't it? If the light's flashing you should be alarmed. Open the window, lock the car then try unlocking manually and opening the door... You'll soon know if you have an alarm!

It does if you normally drive a Renault Megane RS, eh, Graham?

Good idea. I'm in Melbourne at the moment but will chase everyone up and collate all the results as soon as I get back and post.

Won't change my vote... I won't forget what 8M3 sounded like in a hurry! We'll leaving voting open for the rest of today and then I'll announce all the winners from the day. Remember overall winner gets a full Scholl Concepts cut and polish by The Glossmaster worth $300!! There will be other prizes kindly provided by Bimmersport for best 4,6 and 8cyl cars as voted by the judging panel and a prize for the top voted exhaust note.

Great pics, Roo. Dave must be stoked with the M5. It's pristine and made great power.

How about we go all out for a 2 day event in late summer (end March) and combine upper and lower North Island - and anyone from the south who wants to catch a ferry? Presumably we can find a rolling road dyno somewhere halfway(ish)! And if not... Auckland's lovely in March.

Hmmmn... Between Tristan's M3, 8M3 and Brent's E28 IMHO.... I'll flip a 3-sided coin!

That's pretty good. Mine does between 10-12L/100 on a long drive and 16-20 on short trips around town. I'm averaging 15.2L/100 since I bought the car in March but that's with an average speed of 26.2km/h so gives you an idea of what kind of driving I've had to do to achieve those sh*tty figures!!

As people drifted in and out during the day we thought it would be easier to announce the winners on here. We'll run a poll for best exhaust note and announce the judges decisions in the next day or so.

Yep, you can burn $20 pretty quickly with a lead foot and sport mode.

PM'd.

I think there are quite a few people who'd like to go again or missed out here... So you'll just have to drive up to the next AK one!

If you're worried about the cost of fuel then an E39 540i probably ain't for you. Just sayin'.

Gavin, the owner of the C63 AMG Black series wagon mentioned that it would cost NZ$16K to replace the pads and rotors - not even the entire brake kit. Ouch!! You'd expect it to be good for that money! The Black series come track tuned from the factory - hence why its numbers were quite a bit better than the other AMG earlier in the day. Good to see the M5 still smoked both of them!!

NIce... Brent's is number 1 for me, followed by 8M3 and Tristan's M3... They all sounded like music on the day though!! Mike, Josh and Martin - can we get our heads together on the rest of the judging - 4 cyl, 6 cyl, 8cyl and overall winner? Mike - can you add a poll for a public vote on your audio files for the people's choice award? EDIT Listening to mine again, I'm sure it's got more to give... I need another run (and a remap, some headers, supercharger, M60 manifold, etc)! haha

Sorry if I didn't get a decent picture of anyone's car... The parking situation didn't lend itself very well to nice pics. Michael, I want to get some good shots of the V8 E36 so let's catch up for a beer some time! (early eve is best for lighting, etc!).

Looks very tidy and low kms. Paddle shifters definitely didn't come standard. The auction doesn't even mention them so I'm guessing they're not functional, if they are they'd be fairly superfluous as the steptronic shifts are fairly slow in manual mode unless the trans s/w has been upgraded. My guess is the wheel came off an E46 SMG but the paddles don't work. EDIT: Car does look good though.

Quite a big difference. As much as $140 each from the dealer in NZ. You can brand new online for around the $80 mark + shipping (which isn't much) but I highly recommend buying a pintle and o-ring kit at $20 and getting them ultrasonically cleaned. Made a big difference to my 528i, which was a 1996 so the injectors pretty clogged a waxy residue and the flow was less than perfect. Like any rubber seal in a car the o rings begin to perish at around 10 years old so well worth doing IMO.

Scroll down... AIDS is there for sure.