E30 325i Rag-Top

Ha ha, don't tell me you have managed to build a quiet M20 motor?? If it's all turning over freely then it should be all ok, i usually turn it over by hand first of all to make sure nothing is clashing, then turn it over on the starter, then put the plugs is and turn it over again and finally chuck some fuel in. Bit of a slow process, but lots of opportunity to spot a problem before it all goes bang - sometimes. A lot of the ticking I find comes from the injectors rather than the tappets.

Good start Jamez, did you replace the valve guides or were they still ok?

You're not selling already Mark??

PM Dan Rollason, (driftit) his car will be up for sale at the end of the season, or check out TradeMe, there are 3 or 4 cars on there at the moment.

Pics and a few more details? Do you have software and installation guide for the ECU? Cheers.

Watching a documentary on the survivors of Buchenwald camp whilst typing this makes me kind of realise what's worth getting upset about. Very sobering.

The wing is outside the rules, whether FIA let Mercedes run with it is another matter. If they let it run then like I say, a couple of months for the rest to work it out and catch up.

Glad to see Red Bull back on the third row of the grid, but there's still a race to go through before anything can be read into those qualifying positions. A couple of months for everyone to catch up with who ever has got a jump by bending the rules this year (looks to be Mercedes this time) and then it will be business as usual - Red Bull followed by McLaren followed by Ferrari followed by Mercedes... etc. I hope I am totally wrong, but money still talks in F1 and that will always make it predictable.

Pretty informative article on the new series of DTM racing, with some nice shots of the three main contenders cars, here on the Top Gear web-site http://www.topgear.com/uk/photos/dtm-previ...03-15?imageNo=0

Mechanically they are a piece of piss to fit, remove bumper, remove bumper mounts, knock the studs out, and bolt town bar through the bumper mounts, replace bumper.If your car is a facelift version the wiring is a lot more of an issue! The rear brake / side light is a single filament and the two levels of brightness are achieved by sending different voltages - which make it more complicated to fit relays (low voltage is not enough to switch a relay) to operate trailer lights. Pre-facelift is pretty straight forward.

You can't get any more 80's than that!! Note to self: must buy orange jumpsuit for next time I want to take the 'vert out for a drive!

Why spend all that money on making a car look like something IT'S NOT rather than make it go faster, which is kind of the whole point of an M3 in the first place - grr! I cannot even begin to understand some people.

^^ you're right. It looks like the M3 cluster has been fitted, so will the odo read-out be correct at 123,000kms? Ok, it won't be the miles that are on the chassis, but it would be more beneficial to know the miles on the motor / box / diff, etc.

The thought of having an oil feed pipe hanging down under the car like that kind of worries me. I was looking for a 1st April date on this article - but it seems to be kosher???

^^ This.Don't choose the people to work on your car purely on price, otherwise you will end up in the position of the OP. If a workshop is not prepared for you to have a look around I would be asking what is it they have to hide?

I think the seller is the guy who bought it from Turners, has been trying to sell it for quite a while. Last time it was up on TradeMe I pointed out about the plate and the fact it was an M3 conversion, he changed the pictures on the auction so that is shows the M3 plate, not the chassis VIN stamp and LTNZ cert plate but didn't really clear it up on the auction. Again, I think the guy has been caught out, now knows it, and is just trying to get as much back on it as he can.

So now we are comparing CSLs with E60 M5s? Hardly like for like is it, how many of those m5s were built compared to the CSLS?

Andrew, I have a complete power steering rack / pump / lines, etc. No idea what condition the lines are in, or which one you are after, but more than welcome to come and have a look see. Pretty sure I can let you have the lines for less that the dealers quote !

If you want a CSL with lower mileage there are plenty about in the UK, this example was GBP20k, less than NZ$40k which was the point being made here about prices of CSLs.Have a look and see what you can buy for NZ$70k at the current exchange rates... will make your mouth water.

Welcome to the world of Global Economics. The funny thing is when I lived in the UK we used to call it "Rip-Off Britain" because everything was so expensive compared to Europe. People used to buy new RHD BMWs in Holland and Belgium and then get them imported to the UK and it was thousands of pounds difference on your average model. The big factor that is coming into effect here is the strength of the Kiwi Dollar against the Pound and Euro in particular, prices are pretty much fixed when a model is introduced, they are not continually adjusted to take into effect the changes in exchange rates. So as the dollar gets stronger (now less than 2 dollars to the pound it was over 3 not so long ago - sniff!) the NZ version effectively gets dearer against a UK car. Freight would be a factor, but not a huge one, even moving cars from Germany to NZ is not that expensive. As for dealers, they are independent of BMW, why would you buy something from them and sell it at a loss? Even if you do hope to recover it in the service department later there are no guarantees, particularly with fixed price servicing and service packages included. Again selling prices are pretty much fixed by BMW, even in the UK it is pretty rare to get any discount on a screen price from a BMW dealer, you might get a few accessories thrown in and a t-shirt but not much else.

Supply v Demand again, quite a few race cars up for sale at the moment, especially E30s, against what is probably a pretty limited number of buyers in the current economic climate. Either hold your price and wait until people start buying race cars again, drop the price until you can convert a possible buyer into an actual buyer or differentiate your car from the others somehow...

Hey Kerry, what capacity is your engine?

Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BpfydZdTE0...l875l9.6-1l10l0 Censored (slightly) version, you need to log into youtube to view, but almost SFW. Not their best song, but such a great, great video. I like it because it reminds me of quite a few stupid nights out from years ago, and for the kicker at the end.

Previously owned by BMW UK - so it's either a fleet car or press car, won't have been thrashed much then.

So very true in a business world, the number of sales reps that can only sell on price (particularly in NZ - what does that say about Kiwis??) rather than on benefits / strengths of a product.In this instance though I think the OP is referring to the "For Sale" section of Bimmersport and Trademe, where selling skills and marketing are pretty much a level playing field. I think there is a latin saying for "providing everything else is equal" which should be used as a caveat with the graph. Good old price elasticity of demand....