E30 325i Rag-Top

^^ That was just you coming home p!ssed from the Rusty Nail again Ash!

Insurance policies are a contract aren't they? The application form makes the basis for that agreement, and question on it usually says something like "is the car modified?". Answering the question wrongly could be said to be making the contract null and void couldn't it? The argument comes down to whether the mods in question actually contributed to the claim (make it more likely to be stolen or crashed) I suppose.

Whilst I can see the point that driving an auto can lead to an over-all lower level of attentiveness and involvement from the driver, I can't say that is the be all and end all. If you want involvement from a drive get an old, 1950s car and hustle that along, poor tyres, poor brakes and lack of power grabs your attention straight away! Using a sequential on the track means you can concentrate on the things that really matter, such as braking point, turn in (both hands balanced on the wheel for better feel) and throttle control. There is a reason why F1, FIA GTs, V8 Supercars, WRC, etc all run sequential boxes. The increased speed is not just from the milliseconds saved per shift. M3 V8 DCT would be a great road and track car, only thing better would be an M4 I6 Turbo DCT if I could afford to choose.

I always thought that Jules was more of a Centre?Play nicely children or the mod stick will have to come out.

Cheap long term parking??

Structural rust, yes, surface rust no. Many people don't distinguish between the two. Can we stop talking about rust now please??

The level of tech fitted changed a lot over the lifetime of the E90, and across markets varied a lot as well. Try looking for the later models as they should have more kit fitted into them. There are quite a lot of sensors involved with the comfort access, plus reprogramming, extra module, etc. So whilst it may be possible (and everything is possible if you spend enough) it may not be cheap. I would suggest waiting for the right car with the right options, it will come along.

The last E92 that BMW Driver Training used for the hot-laps was a DCT, that seemed to go pretty well and I don't think it had any problems. You do get the lovely blippy down-shifts and paddles to pull and feel like an F1 driver.

Really? That is surprising, I didn't know OAPs liked putting it about that much... you live and learn. Sorry Graham, the "I had a mate" bit wasn't aimed at you, it was a reference to the old-fashioned type of statements that used to be made in the pub over a beer rather than on the internet. There's also Chinese sh!t that is coming in brand new with corrosion issues, but that's a whole nother thread / stereo-type to be done.

Forget the stereo-types and generalisations, every car is different, treat it on it's own merits. Old-wives tales were bad enough and all the "I had a mate who..." stories have now grown wings and flown around the internets so anyone can spout them as gospel.

Do we really have to go through this same sh*t EVERY time a car is listed that has come from the UK? It is getting so, so tedious and repetitive. Let's just discuss the car in the original post and stop with the ooh it'll be rusty arguments.

When I got the head off I could see that the damage was worse than I had hoped, but luckily not as bad as I had feared. As expected four of the exhaust valves were bent (sprocket on exhaust cam came off) but also all eight of the inlet valves were also bent, losing the sprocket meant the timing chain wasn't under tension and was able to jump a number of cogs on the cam, but still turned it, damn. The good news was that the pistons had only kissed the leading edge of the valves, and no heads had come off completely. The engine was only at low revs when it let go, thankfully not going full chat down the front straight! so there was only very minimal marks on the tops of the pistons and no damage to the rods, phew! The head checked out ok, and there were no issues with the guides or the valve seats which was another big relief. Another member of the Race Series then came to the rescue with a full set of very good condition valve gear which had come out of his 635CSi engine and are the same parts in the S14 - so a huge thank you to Ian Brown for those, and to Kayne Barrie for knowing about them.

"He's got two short legs, one of them square" "Botham just failed to get his leg-over" Johners and Aggers couldn't speak for about 5 minutes after that one... Just want to get into the quarter finals now, see things start to shake out.. real pressure time. Still lots of good cricket to watch, and not too upset that England are out.

90% of the wiring is between the engine and the ECU, so provided you have the engine loom and the ECU for the 325i then that is most of the battle solved. The wiring going through the connections to the body loom, like the C101 are things like the gauges on the dash and power feeds. Pretty sure I have seen a pin-out conversion for L-Jet / Motronic conversion, will see if I can find it. The mechanical side should be even more straight forward and it SHOULD all bolt up, so no mounts etc need to be fabricated.

Some of us (me & Dwarf for a start) are old school cricket fans that were brought up on the dulcet tones of Henry Blofeld and Brian Johnston talking about cakes and pigeons during the innings. We don't all find the same things funny... Although getting banned by the ICC is pretty hilarious, fun police much??

Too true, when you think England can't get any worse, they have a habit of proving you wrong.... Absolute shambles, too many players picked for their reputations rather than form or performances. Time for a total shake-up of the team and the back-room staff. The most noticeable difference with the Black Caps (from watching them live on Sunday) is the 'energy' and 'zip' in the field, constantly high levels from NZ, nothing from England..

When I find some time I will put up the F series numbers (and update the last of the E's) as the G range will be starting very soon!

I would argue that changing the level of fine makes the impact, the dollar of the person with high income has the same worth as that of the person with low income. I guess it comes down to your political viewpoint to a certain extent.The demerit points is more of a leveller if they add up towards an actual suspension from driving, which unfortunately is also a system that is worked by some people.

I would argue that changing the level of fine makes the impact, the dollar of the person with high income has the same worth as that of the person with low income. I guess it comes down to your political viewpoint to a certain extent.The demerit points is more of a leveller if they add up towards an actual suspension from driving, which unfortunately is also a system that is worked by some people.

I would say they would hold up pretty well in that situation. Provided you run quality pads (front and rear - need to make sure rears are doing their bit) a good quality fluid and braided flex lines. There are a number of 6-cylinder cars running RX7s in the series, without any issues.

I would say they would hold up pretty well in that situation. Provided you run quality pads (front and rear - need to make sure rears are doing their bit) a good quality fluid and braided flex lines. There are a number of 6-cylinder cars running RX7s in the series, without any issues.

Why is this a good idea exactly? Is it "more" of a crime for a high earner to be doing 120 than someone without an income doing exactly the same thing? Answer is clearly no. It's just seen as a good idea by those who are jealous of those that have more than them.

You can get 4.45 diffs, may be small case, but possibly medium also. You can also get crown-wheel and pinnions insome crazy ratios - even upto 5. Something from BMW Motirsport, there was one up on TradeMe a while back.

As at the last update I was rushing to get the car ready for the Race Series track day. At about 10.30pm the night before the car was finally all together and fired up, went for a short spin round the block and all seemed good. Come the day of the track session, the plan was to take it easy and gradually run the engine in. First session, I did about 3 laps at slow speed, only using part throttle and low revs. Came in to check the steering as it was a bit "vague", checked and tightened the bolts in the linkage. Three or four gentle laps of the second session and the car lost power then cut out going into the infield hairpin - not good. After a bit of poking around under the bonnet I noticed the dizzy cap was broken into pieces, so guessed that was the problem. Not having a spare that was the end of the day, but not a biggie, or so I thought. When I got the car home and started pulling the dizzy apart, I noticed the problem was the rotor was moving all over the place, which had smashed the cover. Unfortunately the rotor is bolted to the cam, the reason it was loose was the sprocket had come completely unbolted. sh*t, time to pull the head off and find out how much damage was done!

My personal observations from fitting the RX7s on the race car... Rotor thickness is the same, but isn't really an issue as they are vented. +20mm diameter gives a big increase in surface area - as its a circle. RX7 pads look to have bigger surface area than E30 pads - yes they are small in relation to the calipers. Got my 15" weaves over the calipers using a 5mm spacer, many designs of 15" wheel clear the calipers without need for any spacer depending on the offset. 4 x pistons in the RX7 versus the one on the E30, much better to have equal pressure on both sides of the disc than one piston and sliding caliper. I would say the balance on my E30 is now better with the RX7 fronts than it was with the standard E30 set-up. Over-all it is a very good bang for buck upgrade of the E30 front brakes, better bite (without being grabby), good balance, etc. I am running Hawk HP+ pads front and rear which probably contributes as well. I'm sure there are better brake set ups for the E30, but at much greater cost. Plus pads and rotors are easily obtainable for this swap, not hard to get dedicated Wilwood / Brembo / AP Racing parts.