E30 325i Rag-Top

Going back to somewhere near the original topic.. In my book the 'soul' of most Euro / Asian cars has gradually been killed by a combination of emissions / fuel consumption controls and safety / impact protection. When I started in the industry there were groups of crazy car people trying to make things that would scare you half to death. Now it's all bean counters, risk assessments and computer geeks. Even the M dudes have all their toys kept under control by the joy germs.

I love both 24hours and Adrenalin, the two BMW Motorsport documentaries. But then I a very biased. Lots of good interviews and behind the scenes actions mixed in with the on-track stuff, a great balance.

Those uneven surface signs crack me up! Have they seen the state of the roads in NZ??Would be easier to put "even surface" on the bits that are smooth and flat.

Aha!! I have a full wiring kit for an e46 Touring... which could go well with the towbar above!! A proper Westphalia one, not a cheapy couple of relays, etc..

I've told him many times they aren't M3 wheels, but he keeps putting that back up!!

V8?? Turbo..?

Really? I'd love to know where these independents are, never been to any mechanic that has done that.What sort of guarantee / warranty do they put on the work, especially with the used parts?

Was with AA for everything, car, house and contents. Then had a nightmare with a claim on the wife's car, long story that I will share when I can be bothered to type it all up. As a result, decided to swap, tried Youi and got some aggressive South African salesman on the phone talking down to me so he got told to do one. Ended up with State, same cover, car much cheaper - house and contents about the same. No claims yet, touch wood.

Yes, the M235i Racing is a very good deal as it's basically a marketing tool from BMW M Gmbh. The only downside is the limitations to its use, ie having to race in the VLN or the BMW backed series or be a "customer team". All the cars were "spoken for" before they were even planned into production, they were allocated to certain markets only, and tightly controlled as to who they ended up with. There was a lot of discussion over getting a quota for NZ, but the numbers required couldn't be made to stack up unfortunately. There will most likely be another production run at the back end of this year so you never know! Bit of a different proposition to the M2 though, not even sure you would be able to make it road-legal in the UK? Certainly not a "daily driver" type of vehicle like the M2.

Ash, forgot about looking for that, will have a rummage for you!!

Weight reduction to the extreme... If it still works without them, then sweet! The diff that is, not the spanner, you popped another photo up.

^^that is the ex-Mike Delmont car that sold at auction. It was bought from Turners by the guy Varney who ran it in the BMW series for a year or two, he then swapped it for Hayden Mackenzie's TLX V8 Bottom of the info board it says it's owned by Mackenzie.

Not often the words "common sense" get mentioned in a post about James and racing!!But, seriously, it is a damn, damn good car and still has heaps of potential. Not going to trouble the $$$$ machines at the very pointy end, but that was not the objective. A reliable (hence stock parts) and low(ish) cost to run in the enduros was the aim.. Can't wait for the first round, will be grouse!!

Bloody flies, never had this many of them and they don't seem to be afraid of humans, keep kamikaze bombing me.. Little feckers!!

Which centre console? I have a few, they have different cut outs for the various swtiches, such as electric windows, auto switch, etc..

And again photos are required on for sale posts....

Correct on the pre-production part, but those vehicles are only used for testing. Demo / display vehicles have different 99x numbers, cars for use with press are 992, display cars are 997.Not necessarily any early build date pre-pros are built all the time, to test new options and features before they are released, not just before a new version is released.

It would have helped if they had a photo of how bad it was under the bonnet..

Make sure you get the right one, pretty sure sedan / coupe / wagon are subtly different.

Because the "xDrive" badges go on the sides... And to leave room for all the TradeMe M badges to be stuck on!

Maybe it was the price of beer I was thinking of then... Lol! Andy, it only has to be a small margin per litre when you sell trillions of litres per year.

Ever seen the chart showing how the price of fuel is broken down according to the costs? About 2/3 was tax and excise collected by various governments IIRC.

Yeah, gets messy across the different ranges as well!! I think it comes from the older models numbers, such as 320i showing it's Series, as in 3 Series in this case, and the model, the 20i all in the one number.So, when the newer X and Z ranges were introduced a different system was used, so you get an X5 30d instead of a 530d, or a Z3 28i instead of a 328i. So the newer system kind of has two numbers, and someone has decided to plonk the M in the middle, before the model.. So yeah, bit weird, you get an M550d (LHD only unfortunately) or an X5 M50d. And I thought the Germans were supposed to be logical...

Yup, there are some amazing pieces of historic racing in little-ol' New Zealand, especially in South Island. I think there are 3 or 4 of the E36 STW plus the BTCC ex-Vic Lee E36 amongst a host of others. Was lucky enough to see a good number of them come up to Manfield for the MG Classic in Novembet, a very good grid of cars.

Roll-on the world-wide diesel glut! Filled up with diesel at 78.9c per litre, bought on the company fuel card so get a further 6c a litre off that price = 72.9c a litre With my RUC also provided, that is cheap motoring!! How can I convert my race car to diesel...??