E30 325i Rag-Top

Just popped back up on the Tard.. nice project, cool theme. https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/specialist-cars/competition-cars/auction-2046336605.htm Still a lot of work to finish it off but will be O for Orsome when done.

Couple of reasons, some practical and some marketing wise. The main one being the impracticality of putting a "special" order through a mass production car plant where everything is set up and timed to the nearest seconds. Slowing (or even stopping) the line for one station to fit a special part stops the whole plant - so the opportunity cost is massive. This is why a lot of the special stuff (Individual, etc) is done off-line only on the big $$$ items and costs an arm and a leg.

FBT is only part of the tax equation, a commercial vehicle has a GST element that can be claimed back by a business user as well I believe. Imho the biggest factor is still the "lifestyle image" of the double-cab ute, the rough, tough, outdoors, huntin' shootin' fishin' good ol' boys fitting in well with the psyche of a lot of Kiwi buyers. The editions, and the names, of some of them now - Wildtrak, Raptor, etc. with big black wheels, and black guard flares, and fake roo bars etc. all add to the tough image. Even though half of them are 4x2s and can't do diddly off road. The government has made a few noises about changing the tax rules around company vehicles, and especially the utes, but I think this has gone the same way as the CGT, electoral suicide so has been binned. Needs to be addressed, otherwise we are going to end up with more and more of the proper USofA double cabs into the NZ market - and they make the Ranger look tiny by comparison. Personally I would always favour a Transit van over a ute, much better carrying capacity, better access, you don't have to take any more than two passengers and you can sleep in it much more comfortably.

Sounds like you are looking at the info on the NZTA database, that only shows the cars where the owners have allowed their information to be published to the public. There are a more than that currently registered / on hold in NZ. Not a huge number more, but more than 19 roadsters, plus a handful of the coupes. Interestingly there are even a couple of "Z3" that have a cc rating of >5,000cc according to NZTA. LS2 swap?

Is that the offset.... ?

Unless you have a car with the Australian country code, option 810, as it is part of the ADR rules. NZ new cars can also have this option. You would need to remove the coding for that option first before the firmware update can make the change.

Looks like a facing plate for the lathe - used in place of the 3 or 4 jaw chuck when working with larger flat pieces. The drill chucks might require a taper adaptor to fit - basically a sleeve that goes over the top of the chuck taper to fit the machine's taper - if that makes sense, have you got one of those? Lots of old school tooling for the lathe, which could come in handy. If you are fairly new to machining, and like me not overly skilled and like to save time where possible, it might be an idea to see if you can change the tool post on the lathe over to a "quick-change" style post. Makes swapping over so much quicker - no need to keep setting up tool heights with packers, etc. Depends how much more you have left in your budget I guess. Both look to be good pieces of kit, in very good useable condition, nice score. If you're at the track this week-end lets catch up and make a date...

Yeah chuck up few pics (pun intended..) and we can see what can be identified! Where you based now Rich, could pop round for a nosey if you’re local? There are some pretty good instruction videos on YouTube.

Oh my, now that is gorgeous. It would have to be a great M3 to want to give this baby up...

^^This, or buy lots of raw material and a large scrap bin. On another note, where is everyone getting these lathes from, I have been looking for a good one for ages.. grr!

Wow, that is a nice set-up. Some cool toys on the walls as well. I would be scared of making it dirty or untidy though. A couple of pics of the cakes I got for my recent birthday...

Jeebus, 740whp in a Street car..? That would take some controlling!! which would be another point, putting all that power down. I think DTM is controlled to a maximum tyre width, which is a lot less than the huge rears used on the BT52.

The P48 is the new DTM / Super GT engine which is built to tight control regulations, so pointless comparing it to the un-regulated F1 engine of the 90s. Control turbo, 9,500rpm Rev limit, control fuel all of which would have a massive difference on output. The point being to have a much more level playing field of about 600hp across all cars. As for the F1 engine lasting the required 6,000kms (or about 1,200 F1 laps), it would get nowhere near that. Even in race trim of around 800hp the engines failed many times in races of less than 70 laps. Yes the qually “grenade” engines were absolute monsters but were built for a much different purpose to very different requirements without controls. Chalk and cheese.

HellBM is in Silverdale, if you click on their logo in the forum list it should link you through to their web-site.

Serviced the wife's 116d, pretty simple apart from the oil filter cap being in a prick of a place to get a chain wrench on - took a bit of huffing and puffing to get that off but got there in the end. Anybody know a simple way to reset the service indicator on the E87? Would be good to do it myself rather than have to take it into work and hook it up to a diagnostic machine,. etc. Still waiting on the o-rings to finish the 330d wagon off, but I am getting close to being able to work on the race car again.

Google the error codes, or use a translator to work them out. Otherwise it is just guess work, too many things that could be causing it, might be totally unrelated to the work done even.

Quite a lot of the Uk M-Sport cars also have the cloth / alcantara - quite a few E46s on TardMe have that version of the interior as well. It is a little bit harder to keep in good condition than a leather material - particularly on the side bolsters which are in the alcantara (trade name for synthetic suede material) and do get a bit of a shiny worn look to them that needs some careful cleaning to get it looking good again, and it does tend to wear through eventually. Not really a fault as such, just needs a bit more care and attention.

Not really the case, the sport front seats (option 481) are available on non-sport cars. This alcantara / cloth combination upholstery is ONLY available in cars with 337 M-Sport package (or proper M-Sport cars) and is the factory standard upholstery for M-Sport cars, which is why it is called the Motorsport upholstery in Japan. NZ New cars are generally up-specced to leather as standard, and the Motorsport versions are accordingly upspecced to the leather as well over the factory standard version shown. It's a shame there isn't often an equivalent leather and alcantara version as that would be quite nice imho. As for them being ex-rental, they are probably over specced for that market tbh. They will all come through at roughly the same age / kms, due to the stricter equivalent of the WoF test that comes in after a certain age of the vehicle, it is hard to pass and is quite often the trigger for cars to be sold and export out of Japan as they are worth so little in their market. Lots of cars for Japan are "built to stock" rather than to individual customer requirements so they would order some large batches of cars with the same spec level (ie chosen options) and only different paint colours and or interior colours.

That's the "interior Trim Finishers"... S4MYA INTLEIST LEDER CARBONSTR SCHWARZ or in English "Interior Trim Finishers Leather, Carbon Structured Black" They do look nice, not that common.

Looks like it needs most of the plastic expanding rivets being fitted from underneath which would be a bit of hassle if you don't have a hoist or some other way of getting good clearance under the car. In terms of someone that could fit it, I haven't heard of anyone that specialises in fitting body kits / spoilers, etc.

Probably best to drop Andy a text, he his hard to get hold of at the best of times!

That’s an understatement, they are really struggling to move them. Had offers and incentives from second month of sale, not a good sign!

Finally got around to starting the major service and Tidy up on the wife’s E46 wagon, to get it ready for sale. Not enough room in the garage so have to do it when the weather is ok and there s day light! Got a lot of it done, but needlessly rooted an o-ring so now have to order a replacement before I can finish it. Oh, and the wife has now informed me her new 1-Series needs a service as well, it never rains, it pours!! I will get back to the race car at some point..

Not enough sun in the UK to fade the badge that quickly, but yes looks bad. As does the paint work above the badge. That is one piss poor effort at selling a $100k+ car, good luck with that approach mate!

They are...?