E30 325i Rag-Top

Looks like it was in a frontal accident before the fire, possibly the cause?I saw the burnt out 'vert as well Andy, what a choker. Shame I didn't see it early as it has now been started to part out. Hope to be getting a few bits off it soon.

You mean Britain is no longer part of the EU - Hooray, at last! Pack the bags love we're going back!Just checked, and unfortunately Britain still hasn't come to it's senses and is still ruled by Sausage and garlic munchers based in Brussels. Being even MORE pedantic, a Morris is ENGLISH not BRITISH, made entirely in England. Playing guess the brown car, I'm not sure on the Avenger, possibly a late square headlight model, edge of guard is not right for early round headlight. I would say, a Morris Marina (keeping in the Morris family)?

In the garage we have... E30 325i 'vert (no wof or reg, stored up for summer) Mitsi Pajero 2.8DT manual (in bits) M20B20 L-Jet (spare) M20B23 L-jet (spare spares) Set of bottlecaps and road tyres Spare race weaves and tyres. Most of an E30 in bits, doors, bonnet, boot, trim, glass, etc. etc. Tools, Fluids, 3 Gun Cabinet Washer, dryer & tub Royce Union 18-speed bike Various kids Cr@p Etc...

From the clip it is hard to work out what country that is from, but wherever it is NO WAY would I ever want to race there - some very poor driving and as you say the stewards let them get away with it! Maybe they are practising for the V8 Utes ?

Of course it is, the body kit we make for those isn't cheap you know !Just thinking about it Dan, would the turbo motor give you the right sort of power delivery you need for towing, as opposed to the V8? Low down torque as opposed to mid-to-top end grunt?

They seem to be quite a strange lot up in Whagarei, it must be something to do with the heat and humidity Personally I would say look for something diesel and double-cab, but then you don't have ankle biters to worry about although the fuel bill could be a bit scary especially when towing!

Have you seen the project that Freemo has listed on TradeMe? http://www.bimmersport.co.nz/forums/index....showtopic=28075 A bit of work to finish, but I would say it is about 85% there for an E30 series car. Speak nicely to your dad for a few $$$s up front?

"After attending a party in Havelock North, Kight entered a friend's house on Iona Rd about 1am. He searched the property and stole sunglasses, designer watches, jewellery, laptop computers, cell phones, cameras and other electrical goods" Hmm, some friend there. With all those excuses, sorry disorders, surely it would be a good idea to steer clear of drugs and booze? Thankfully a rare and extreme example of youngster's behaviour, but in no way is it a one off.

The E36 M3 cannot currently be imported and used on the road, need to wait a few years until they are over 20 years old and then can be road registered. E46 should be Ok if you can't wait until then.Another good site for more private sales, rather than the dealers on Auto Trader, is www.pistonheads.co.uk especially good for M3s and performance BMWs.

The only downside to the internet, gives a voice to every idiot loser in the world!

Great thread idea Dan-o. Here's my 3 in no particular order... 1) My mate Jim's family hand me down mid-70s Orange Allegro apart from the colour this car truly lived up to the all-aggro nickname. When still at school you just wanted to drive, any time, any place and if your mate offered you the keys to his car you jumped at the chance.... except Jim's Allegro after you had tried it once! The choke (remember those?) had three settings: two clothes pegs holding it out, one peg holding it or off. The main beam headlights, which were dim at the best of times, had a habit of not working, or worse still all the lights going out. Worst of all were the brakes, which seemed to have a mind of their own, sometimes the pedal going to the floor and not slowing at all, other times locking all four wheels by just looking at the pedal??? 2) The same mate Jim's family hand me down mid-70s yellow Vauxhall Viva Estate, a bit more room and a bit more go than the Allegro, but let down in other areas. Used to randomly conk out and refuse to start, needing to be bump started to get going - always used to impress the girls that one, especially when they were pushing! Once failed an MoT (UK WoF equivalent) so badly the tester had filled in an extra sheet of paper to list all the faults found. I also got pulled over by the Police while driving this car, in response to the standard question "Is this your car sir?" I was relieved to say "Good god no, it belongs to him!" and pointed to the passenger seat 3) Kia Pride 1.0l, courtesy car while wife's car was being fixed. No go, no handling, sounded like it was going to blow up over 50mph, seats that turned you into a cripple after only 10 minutes. Tape player didn't work to drown out the engine noise, fan vents only blew hot air even when set to fully cold. The slightest of cross winds would have you wandering over the road like a drunken uni-cyclist due to the incredibly vague steering.

Looks like an interesting project, I am keen to see it on the track in the flesh.From the addition of the intercooler I am pretty safe in saying you are going to run a turbo (or possibly supercharger), have you had the OK from the committee to run one, as I don't think they were standard on any model at the time?

A quick price check on Piston Heads reveals the price range in the UK to be from GBP37,000 for an '04 with 10,000kms through to GBP24,000 for an '03 SMG with 39,000kms (at todays exchange rate thats $85k to $55k).This car would have to be right up the top of any comparison, if not above all the others, so $85k+ spares package would push it into the six figures easy IMHO.

Yay to... brembo brakes, K&N intakeNay to.. all that carbon fibre, the wheels and WTF rear wing!

Thought I recognised a couple of the TradeMe user names ! Up to 9k now and not within 15% of reserve yet, so a ways to go.

Mr Farmer why are you spending all that time looking at an M3 when you have a race car to fix?? Are you planning on swapping a few bits from the M3 onto the E30 in the rebuild ?? Or is this a plan to move into the Open class? Please DON'T send me the gory details, or I'm likely to get all silly and buy it! Or this one in CHCH... http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motors/C...n-267667291.htm Not sure what the reserve is yet though..

It's black, old and annoyingly slow. But it does have a cool blue light on the front to look at while it takes 10mins to boot up....

Glenn, I have only just spotted your thread - sorry! The problem is at my end, I forgot the inbox size for the account I gave you is very small, only about 10mb which is only enough for one of the files. I didn't appreciate quite how high your hi-res files are either!! I have PM'd you my work address as well which has a much larger inbox and should be able to cope with the files. Thanks for all your hard work on sending these pics through to me - it is much appreciated, +100points to the *Glenn* feedback score!!

Cheers, I didn't even think of that as an option - I will check it out and fingers crossed you are right!

Driving the race car to and from Hampton at the week-end (more of that in another thread) I noticed a new rattle coming from either behind the dash or worst case, the engine. The rattle is gradually getting worse, louder and happening more. I know trying to diagnose an E30 rattle is a bit like finding a needle in a haystack but I have a couple of ideas. The noise doesn't happen all the time, only under part throttle and happens around 3 - 3.5k rpm, and it is a fairly high pitched "ticking" type rattle, definately NOT a deep knocking. Under no load or full throttle there is no noise, even at those rpm. My thoughts are, that it might be a bracket or something getting loose in the dash which is vibrating at a certain frequency, hence the rpm being a factor, OR it might be a little end bearing on the way out, the load on the piston determining whether there is a rattle or not. Any easy way to find out which it is, don't really want to start pulling the engine apart or swapping short engines at this stage if I don't have to?

Do you have a non-TradeMe, cash, bimmersport discount price for the PFL rear bumper? Pick up this week-end?

It's not just doing business with the general public these days, even big companies treat their suppliers like dirt and walk all over them.The lack of respect, as Glenn so correctly put it, now exists in many areas of business, even with companies that spend millions of dollars on PR campaigns to tell the world what a caring, responsible company they are!! Customer - supplier relationships should be mutually benficial whatever the line of business, the "Customer Is King" idea has been taken too far by many people and companies IMHO. My view point is to give what you receive and know who the "good" customers are, if they go out of their way to work with you do the same in return. Not always easy in a recession, but its at times like these that you realise who the customers are you want to keep, and those you would rather went elsewhere.

Which is quite funny, because you would look like a real **** driving that thing

Excuse my ignorance, but is the ECU 'programmable' , ie can you change the maps on it (via laptop or whatever), or does it just run the maps already set up on it? If it is programmable does it come with the software? Cheers, JTP

On my stag do I got asked by a Hen do to complete one of their challenges (no - not kiss the ugly bloke!) and do "a native dance", so I did the Haka, very loudly with lots of actions, in a packed bar. Then had to do it again so they could get photos. THEN got asked to do it again by another two hen-dos.... was knackered by the end, but got a few drinks out of it and started lots of conversations with the hens. You could turn it around and get your brother to ask a lady of your choice to do a lap dance for / on him??