Apex

Snake skin all the way. Snake skin is the new silver.

Ever been in a Taxi cab in Auckland?? Was in a Camry last night that had quite spectacular millage on it!

The E34 was engineered and built to a standard you do not find on modern BMW's. Looks like a cracker of a car that has been well maintained.

That sucks mate, they tried to take mine but I told him to f**k off he has no right to take my personal property, also argued that I would have no plate, he then threatened to arrest me so I apologized for swearing at him... did not give him my plates though, they are on may garage wall and my car now has real number plates. I know a few cops in Auckland spot them, the guy that is in charge of the "investigation" or legislation enforcement is normally patrolling between Mercer and Meremere. And yes they do issue demerits, 20 or 25, I manged to get two fines and demerits in two days with mine

Easiest way to get rid of it is to dump her Have you tried decent polishing or cutting compound and a foam polishing pad?… maybe wait until after summer as it will likely happen again.

A set of H&R's would be all you need, have run their "sport" spring before and the spring rate was great for he road, lowering was 25-30mm at the most and the height left the car totally compliant on kiwi roads. Maybe call stocks and find out who your local distributor is. http://www.georgestock.co.nz/Stocks/default.asp

First lot are here next March. Quite expensive as per normal, in the UK it about NZ10k more than the RS265 but over here it works out to NZ30k.. and it has been closely compared to the RS265 as contender to take its crown as best hot hatch, lap times are on par as is equipment.. with 30k price difference it would be hard to justify. I thought this article was good, would love to have one to drift at every round about. Also like his comments on the old M for "Motorsport" badge.

This thing goes hard and sounds fantastic. Good luck with the sale mate, wish I had the money!!

Should be good for burnouts when that's all done then.

I lunched an engine on a car once from running too lower octane. Short story, the car was a Jap import that was modified in Japan and it had been custom tuned on Japanese premium fuel that has a higher octane level than what our premium has.. was flooring on a back road up a hill in third gear when all of a sudden car lost all power and I had a rooster tail of smoke for 300m behind the car... car had leaned out and engine was toast, car was one week past the 4 week dealer warranty and it cost me 15k to fix. Hence why I only buy NZ new stock cars now with warranty..

Well done. Do a burnout with black and white smoke please.

That's a bitchin wedding car, very cool.

He must have been after the Flybuys points?? Thats one thing I miss having to run 98 in my cars, i also miss all those little people whe used to clean my engine for me while I drove, I now have to change the oil instead. Also, from the Z site: ZX is the premium fuel for people who want to put top quality fuel in their car to deliver superior overall performance. We’re proud of all our fuels, but this one’s our favourite. You’ll find it at all Z stations.

Ever driven a 5 series V8 around a race track? How about a nice 540i vs a C6 Corvette, maybe a Camaro ZL1 or a HSV GTS? Seeming we are making silly comparisons. The LS series is perfect for a conversion, it has a lot of pro's vs a German or Jap V8, its lighter, smaller, more reliable and there are an abundance of parts available cheap for them.. did I mention its way more powerful?? BMW E39 will make 200kw, a LS2 will make 350kw easy, 500kw with a supercharger. Was just a thought, a Chev powered E39 with a manual gearbox and LSD would be a beast!

Looks much better, has been a long time since we could say the BMW was a better looking car than the Audi... + the Audi is AWD, Automatic and very heavy, BMW has it licked hand down.

Put a real V8 in it, never mind the over engineered and under power euro trash and jap crap! http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-parts-...n-539067847.htm

From what I have seen The M5 and 540is often had a lighter grey almost white leather vs the cream or beige on lesser models. A re-trim wont be cheap and leather may be hard to find in the correct colour.Good luck!

Yes, I had a good look at the photo's last night and the interior was done by BMW's Individual division, those seats are soooo nice in other photo's. Looks like that basket effect is a leather weave, like a belt. Have never seen that before, quite innovative.

When it comes to exteriors brown is the new purple and purple was the next tiger gold. Looked good for 1 year when fashionable.. would be brave buying a brown car if you cared about resale. I do like the brown interiors though, also like some of the textured/patterned leather that is making its way in premium cars, very nice.. this is only a concept (not much) though, the real thing will be lower rent.

BMW must have been doing something right with its “M†spec packages, they sell well and have noticed slowly but surely other manufacturers are offering these type of “sport models†now, some more convincing than others. Personally I think 90% of the “M spec†cars are a joke and have cheapened the proper M brand to the point where buying a real M3 or M5 is not appealing, it was O.K in the 80’s when the E30 M325i and E34 M535i were proper sporty and worthy as standalone sports model and I think they are coming back to it now with the new M135i and M550d, even the top model Z4 is convincing, but generally they are wallowy automatic open diff pigs that need to be striped of any “sports†connotations. I realized this four years ago when I purchased a E60 545i-Motorsport, it was a joke of a car, open diff, skinny tyres, automatic with a shifter that would let you select gears but would not hold them and change mid corner automatically, it was a sporty as a whale wearing a tracksuit and on the one track day I took it to it was passed by non-sporty cars with ease as it smoked one tyre and wallowed about confused as to what was going on, it was way out of its comfort zone and did not deserved of the M badge it wore in 28 places. IMHO the M badge has been so bastardized to a point I don’t even care anymore when I see people putting them on everything, throw one on your lawnmower for what its worth, its probably sportier than most of the crap BMW put the badge on 5c

It’s definitely a return to form for BMW, let’s just forget the last generation and pretend this was a transition from the E46 Coupe. The M4 is going to be awesome!!

Yes, I am lucky to have quite a good relationship with the NZ importers and they have had a press car for a few months, this one is well "run in" Are you working on them now? If you ever need any info just send me a PM, we have accumulated quite a bit of practical knowledge on them over the years.. have also learnt not to go by what the sales brochures tell you

Thanks Jon I think my wife accountant would kill me if I did that, he is still not happy with other cars I brought and I amde a promise not to buy any more cars for three years Keen to have a test drive of the M135i when it lands though, think it would make a for a practical family hatchback in a couple of years

XJ is still horny though, would have one if I was a rich old dude, noticed James Bond was driving one in SkyFall, the royals used them as wedding cars.. if its good enough for James Bond and Royal family, its good enough for me! haha All the Euro fords are great, they are good value and drive well compared to the Japanese equivalent IMHO.. have been driving a new Focus lately and its the best car in its class.