E30 325i Rag-Top

Must have been ex-French military, two shots then gave up! I admire his approach though - think I might try it the next time I don't get decent customer service.

Let your hair down and go wild young fella!

I'm surprised you are running with these headers, even with the ceramic coating, rather than an extractor set-up. Do these e21(?) headers flow well as standard?

^^aaah, yes, I forgot about the good old emissions tune! Having spent many, many months working on tuning an engine and ECU for exactly that it was a bit of a silly thing to forget.

Definately just a different ECU map between the vehicles? Seems a big difference, just for a re-map. Yes, I know you can get lots more from mapping on most cars, but there is usually a trade off in either fuel consumption, or even (with some aftermarket re-maps anyways) engine life.If BMW are happy that the engine can put out the higher ratings in the X5, why have it so de-tuned in the 3-series and 5-series? I thought I read somewhere that there is a different turbo set up, as Oli says variable vane turbo as against fixed, on some of the engines and not others. Should still be a relatively simple bolt-on change though I would have thought? Keeping it all BMW would be much more preferable to me than going for an aftermarket "chip".

^^ Poison Ivy From the current list I prefer "Hazard" for the colour or "Voodoo" for the name!

There seem to be a lot of different power and torque levels for the same engines with the diesels, from the M57TU?? onwards. I'm not sure what is changed to get the different outputs, whether it is a chip and tune, or mechnical chagnes like bigger turbo(s), etc. The X5 always seems to get the higher outputs from which-ever engine.Would be interesting to know what has to be done to say, a 330d to get it up to the same outputs as a X5 3.0d. Especially as Dad's (330d 6speed manual) is due to arrive 6th December...

Is that a HANS device on the back of your helmet? If so, how fast do you think an E30 series car will go !

Got a WoF on the 'vert after it's winter lay-up. Took it for a drive to blow the cob-webs out Quick soak and sponge to get the dust off. Summer's here !!

Which Type Of Beer Do You Drink: - DB Export - Export Gold - None I Just Want Free Beer (TICK!!) LOL!

Nice rims and more pictures of pure awesome-ness. What are the plans for the outside of the car, something subtle and understated like this..

^^ I thought that might set you off Ollie. So angry for one so young?? Should have bought the Bimmersport Euro-style number plate surrounds instead eh??

Cheers for the link, new web-site added to favourites list for more day-dreaming!

The situation is even more confused with auto bids, as in this case. For example, auction is sitting at say, a $50 bid, you place and auto bid of $1,000 so would automatically start at $55. Some else comes along and bids all the way up past the $1,000 to become the lead bidder. Now if they want their "lead" bid to be withdrawn the bid only goes back down to the $1,000 maximum of the auto-bid, not back to the $55 from where it started. I have seen this happen a number of times with my auto-bids, and I fully suspect it is a "friend" of the seller pushing the price up then backing out, so have refused to go through with the sales.

Good quality on the vids, what camera are you using? Slightly OT, but why is Puke looking so brown, have they had a drought or something?

The biggest tell-tale sign for the valve guide seals is a big puff of blue/white smoke out the exhaust on start up. This is where the oil leaks past the seal onto the bottom of the valve and into the cylinders when stopped and is then burnt in the engine when it is fired up. If you don't get the cloud of smoke on start up, it would suggest the problem lies elsewhere. I have heard of other vehicles where you can replace the seals with the head on, but it usually involves special tools to compress the springs and an air supply to push the valve up when you want to put them back together. It's a bit more expensive to take the head off (new gaskets and bolts, etc.) but I would say it's a lot easier and you can clean the valves, etc at the same time.

+1 Loads of BMW content in this months Classic Car. From the front cover with Team kirk-Burnand with the E30 M3 and E30 325i targa cars which have a big write up inside, the featured car club is the BMW club, an article on the BMW Club Council coming to NZ this year, competition to win a Jagermeister 2002 model, featured car for sale is a very nice E30 M3 plus a few other bits and pieces. Add in the random shot of Driftit Dan's race car in old colour scheme, not to mention other cars that aren't BMWs. I would suggest you give it a look out, even if it's not something you would normally buy, supporting a magazine that caters to this particular part of the car enthusiast market can only be a good thing.

True dat.Keep the engine and the options, remove the silly Alpina badges and restore to an original M325i = win!

The BMW engineering team refused to produce a RHD version as there was no way to get the steering column through to the rack without affecting the exhaust headers, reducing power, or moving the brake pedal without affecting the braking dynamics. The whole weight distribution of the car, with the engine slanted over, is set up around having a driver in the left hand seat as well. Any E30 M3s that are now RHD have been converted after leaving the factory and as such are no longer original, which combined with the fact that very few countries drive on the left, has a negative effect on the collectability of the car and hence it's value.

^^ "Seems like a waste of my time" What is it about 80s cars that make quotes from Lock Stock spring to mind. There is a great shot of their showroom on one of the ads - 2 door Cossie, E30 M3, M6 and classic 911, hmm - "how much do you want for the whole lot mate?" If only. Of the three E30 M3s on TradeMe for the last while this is the best by far, and now also the cheapest. Watching the market with keen interest...

The guys in that trademe add seem to have a pretty good product, moulded PP, not cheap fibreglass rubbish. They advertise on there all the time, guess they will have more than one.Might also want to try Tom (M3_power?) I believe he has a few vorsteiner bumpers spare that he might be tempted to part with for the right price, or may have more on the way you could get on the back of? Let us know how you get on, I might go for a CSL or M3 front when I get bored of the M-Sport one.

It all depends on what you mean by drifting it really, are you talking about doing skids in a mate's paddock, taking it to the odd public track day where drifting is permitted, or entering competitions, even doing a full season of D1NZ? As a minimum I would say you need to check everything is in tip-top condition before even the skids in the paddock, fresh new (quality brand) oil in the motor, gearbox and diff, cooling system working well, a decent tune-up on the engine, new air filter, plugs, etc. Drifting is very hard on the cars, even before you start sliding off into things, so things are likely to break, even in a low state of tune E30, allow for that in your thinking.

When Kubica was a BMW driver he was asked what he would like as a company car and they did not know quite how to react when he replied: "A Mitsubishi Evo 7." LOL!

Photo of wheels on the car, not the best shot, but gives an idea. I'm pretty happy with the results from the photo, will have to double check them in the flesh.

^^+1 the detail and the quality of the engineering and fabricuation is incredible, a top effort. More please...