R90S

The guy involved is quite a skilled and experienced rider. A tree fell directly in front of him on a wet road, with no possible means of avoiding it. He was in hospital with moderate injuries for a few weeks IIRC. Potentially fatal, given that a split second delay would have caused the tree to crush him instead of the bike. . . .

Yep, BMW have an entry (and a rider!) for the World Superbike series. Should be interesting, since it's been several decades since BMW were actively involved in motorcycle racing. Their last official effort was sidecar racing, and that ended around 1970 from memory. Not surprisingly, BMW don't like competing unless they are reasonably certain that they are capable of winning. . . . What many don't realise is that up until the mid '70s, the motorcycling division didn't exist as a separate entity, and the engineers and stylists were expected to work on both car and bike design/development. Hence the '70s and '80s boxer engine contained the same conrods and bigend shells as the M30 car engine, but with the rod bolts installed from the small end (like a VW). It also came with an automotive starter motor, automotive style dry clutch and a separate three-shaft gearbox made by Getrag. So the build quality was typical of BMW with high quality electrics and engineering development, although the reliability, longevity and absence of oil leaks certainly weren't typical of the rest of the bikes manufactured elsewhere at the time. BMW bikes and BMW cars make excellent stablemates IMHO!

I knew I'd be in the minority, but now I'm starting to feel quite alone . . . . You guys don't know what you're missing!

I see the occasional reference to bikes embedded in posts along with other cryptic clues, and it's left me wondering if there are others who have an interest in both BMW cars and bikes, or other brands of bikes for that matter. I did a search and very little came up. I've got a few 1970's BMW bikes (and for those who are "bike-aware", my handle gives a clue). Anyone else?

Good luck finding some grass suitable for tents surrounding the track, especially in September. That's the rainy season around here, and it's mostly swamp land surrounding the track. . . .another reason not to go off the sweeper before the front straight! I'm shocked that you could sacrifice the E9 in order to race an E30. That's just wrong!

E30's? Gee, gonna hafta think about that . . . how about you bring your E9? THAT would fit real nice! Semi-seriously though, we have 1 1/2 acres, so there's plenty of parking and tentspace if you're interested. Flick me a PM before the event. :>)

I drove past Hampton Downs an hour ago (we only live ten minutes away from the new track) and there were about a dozen earthmoving machines on site. Some were not in use, and were neatly parked in a line. The rest were in use, moving sh!t from one place to another as you'd expect. FWIW, there's been a lot of earthworks accomplished in the last six weeks from my observation.

local nickname for the local fush'n'chups wrapper . . . .

Or according to this article that appeared in the Harold a few weeks ago. . . . http://blogs.nzherald.co.nz/blog/rolling-s...fantasy/?c_id=9

I was going up Bombay Hill yesterday afternoon heading north, and went past a vehicle recovery transporter with a late model black M3 on the deck. No apparent panel damage, but the front windscreen, back window and passenger side door window had all been smashed. So, is this an indiscriminate "let's smash all the car windows on this street", or is this an attack against wealthy owners in general, or BMW owners in particular, or has the owner of this car pissed somebody off?

Interesting that you ask. Ours is also NZ new, and it also has an MPH speedo & odometer. When we bought ours several years ago, I rang BMW NZ and queried it. I think it was Greg Wenzlick (sp?) that i spoke to, and he said that at the time the first batch of RHD models were built to UK spec. Who knows for sure? According to the M-Registry website, there were less than 600 RHD Euro-spec E36 M3 3 litre convertibles built.

Nice looking car for sale on TM. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=191300215 Bit surprised to see a towbar on a convertible though, since the glovebox handbook specifically warns against it. Equally intrigued to see the wider rear wheels on the front.....

I assume you're on Auckland's North Shore... Try a bearing shop such as Saeco or Auckland Bearing Distributors. Bearing shops have a very good range of o-rings. If they don't have the correct size, try Seal Imports in Penrose. :>)

I remember going to a function at BMW NZ in the early '90s and sitting in a Z1 on display. Maybe 1992 or 1993? The evening was a BMW motorcycle club event, so we didn't spend a lot of time talking about cars that night....anyhoo, I seem to recall that car being green. Still, that was a long time ago.

I can tell you with absolute confidence that the reserve is VERY reasonable.... PM me if interested!

Bump. I recently found (then lost, and found again yesterday!) an article featuring RXSUMO's BMW 2500 E3. Not everyone gets an article written specifically about their car....

I appreciate your point of view, but your post ignores a few realities. Cars of the '60s, '70s and '80s were far more reliable and robust than you're giving them credit for. As a rule of thumb, a car of that era is probably more maintenance-intensive than the cars of the last 20 years, but they were (and in some cases continue to be) quite reliable and dependable. Many imports brought in from congested areas in Japan have arrived in NZ with little or no servicing. After all, why waste money on engine oil changes, let alone coolant or transmission oil changes for a vehicle with a short shelf life? A few trips on a NZ motorway was often sufficient to cook an engine in an import fresh-off-the-boat. Others were still fitted with snow tyres which had plenty of tread but no grip. Yet other imports (including the Euro cars) were set up for Japanese market expectations, and had suspension setups which caused some grief due to soft springs and dampers. And then we have the importers who have brought a steady stream of models into NZ which were never intended to be exported. They were Japanese domestic market models, with unique running gear in some cases and unique body panels in other cases. Your post implies that punters can expect faultless reliability from these imports, but that's simply not true. We all agree (at least I think we do) that NZ is a small market. The manufacturers represented in NZ bring in a condensed range of models because of the cost and logistics involved in supporting the parts & servicing requirements for a reasonable model lifespan. The NZ government in its infinite wisdom then removes all barriers to all new & used imports and the result is a plethora of models with no parts or servicing documentation let alone parts & servicing support. The used Euro brands coming out of Japan, Singapore and Malaysia have enough specification variances to cause the repair industry some serious headaches at times, let alone the Japanese brands. Safe? Reliable? Maybe for some, but not for all. And if your mate down the road, Joe Bloggs can't afford to fix his euro import? He can't afford to dump it either so he'll just drive it without a WOF for a few years until it falls apart.....

I find this intriguing. Perhaps I've missed something, but aren't we still buying those same new cars off the same manufacturers, except they are now coming into the country completely built up? Those big bad overseas companies are probably making more profit assembling overseas and our balance of payments worse as a result...Unless I've completely lost the plot, it was the government of the day's decision to remove tarrifs protecting local industry that removed the incentives for local assembly, not because it it had become commercially unprofitable. I could understand this argument holding water if we had stopped buying new cars when local assembly ceased, but I'm fairly sure that new cars are still available.....

Wow. You have a truly dizzying debating style. Evidently I'm stupid as far as you're concerned because I hold a differing opinion. I really appreciate your deep insight. Thanks for your scintillating enlightenment of what for you is obviously a very simple issue...... If you review my post above, you won't find any personality attack, or derrogatory remarks, so why do you resort to them? Generally, the more obnoxious a post, the more insecure or obnoxious the poster is. I hope that isn't the reason for your approach.......and incidently, if cars are so cheap now, why is the average age of the NZ fleet getting older, not younger? Why are we not all driving new cars? How have relying on second hand imports helped our economy? As a post grad, I'm sure you can enlighten a stupid poster.... Look forward to your response.

With all due respect, your argument is based on faulty logic, and is completely irrelevant. Comparing new car prices to house prices is as relevant as comparing them to the price of fish. The only true comparison is the number of weeks required to purchase a direct equivalent car based on the average income of the day. And while relatively speaking cars are more affordable, that's only one side of the equation. The social and financial cost of supporting thousands of NZ'ers who were made redundant when assembly in NZ stopped was huge. And our balance of payments hasn't exactly improved either. Incidently, this isn't ancient news - the last local assembler only closed the doors 10 years ago. BMW have never assembled cars in NZ, so that's not part of the point i was making either. Neither was I comparing 1990 prices with 2008 prices, I was comparing 1990 prices of NZ assembled cars pre tarrif removal with post 1990 imported new cars after tarrif removal. The country was assured at the time that imported new cars would be cheaper than their locally assembled equivalents by $3000-$4000. It never happened. The open access to used imports have completely destroyed the residual values of all vehicles. And the removal of tarrifs has led to the withdrawal of investment in NZ by global companies who collectively employed many thousands of NZ'ers. In automotive terms we have adopted a "disposable" attitude to cars, and lost the incentive to value them. Remember: short term goals corrupt long term goals. The Government's goal of the late 1980's was to improve the average age of the NZ car fleet. It has gotten older.....

We have owned (and still own) a mix of Jap imports and NZ new cars. I had an utter, utter horror of a Mercedes Vito van imported from Singapore which caused me to go prematurely grey, but that's another story for another time.... My lament is the fact that the import industry destroyed our local vehicle assembly industry, along with all the supporting businesses which helped keep the industry supplied with tyres, windscreens, alloy wheels, upholstery and wiring looms. We were MAKING stuff, not BUYING stuff. The assembly industry helped our balance of payments because we even exported some new cars (such as Triumphs and Jaguars to Oz) but more importantly we kept a whole lot of people gainfully and meaningfully employed. Some might say that locally assembled cars were inferior to overseas assembled cars, but the fact is that plants like Toyota in Thames, Honda in Nelson and the Ford alloy wheel plant in Sth Auckland were up-to-the-minute and regularly won international quality awards. One of the promises the government of the day promised was that new fully built up cars would be cheaper by $3000 - $4000. This never happened. Yeah, used imports have brought the prices of used cars down, but the flip side is that those same used cars are no longer viable to repair when moderately accident-damaged or suffer mechanical damage. We have an eight year old Subaru 3 litre wagon that popped it's head gaskets recently when the radiator sprung a minor (yet unrepairable) leak. The job would have cost $5000 for a garage at typical commercial chargeout rates to sort, and even throwing a used replacement engine at it would have ended up close to the same figure. We had to seriously weigh our options about whether to repair or to sell the car for parts. A mate turned up this morning in a bomb he bought yesterday from a car auction: a very tidy NZ new '97 Nissan Maxima V6 for $1100 for goodness sake... We've become a nation reliant on imports and sending our hard-earned money overseas, and have turned our backs on creating or maintaining skills and employment for our people. My $0.02c

I noticed the Z3M for sale on Trademe several weeks ago, and have followed it with interest. The Z3 as a range has had bad press since its release, and that has continued from people who in many cases haven't even driven one. The "hairdresser" label has stuck. My wife & I have been riding motorcycles for many years and had never owned a convertible. When we took a holiday in Melbourne several years ago we initially planned to hire a couple of bikes. The cost and logistics got too messy, so we changed tack and hired a convertible instead just for the novelty of it all. We got a Z3 2.2 and for our purposes it was a blast. In many ways it was as good as a bike, but with a stereo and a heater! I don't doubt that on a racetrack it may not be the ultimate track weapon, but at open road speeds that Z3 achieved two things: it *made* our holiday, and it changed my thinking about convertibles sufficiently that when our M3 convertible turned up on a mate's caryard a few months later, we grabbed it with both hands and still own it now. Now, I realise that an M3 is a long way from a Z3 2.2 (and for the moment let's ignore that fact that the M3 offers four seats compared to the Z3's two), but the driving experience in traffic or under normal circumstances isn't that far away. We have found living with a convertible as a daily driver to be quite viable, and surprisingly practical. For those occasions where travelling by bike isn't a convenient option, the convertible often is. If we didn't already have the M3, I would seriously consider the Z3M.

My son has an SR20DET powered Sil-80 which he's set up for drift, and he's done a few training days at Taupo and Meremere. I showed him this thread, and he agreed that you have an interesting project lined up. We were intrigued trying to figure how you came up with this plan!! Did you have the VQ30DET lying around looking for a home already, or had you figured out what you wanted and hunted one down? We're interested in following your progress too, and wish you the best.

Fifteen years ago, the 3.0Si models were going for between $6000 and $10,000 depending on condition/history/mileage etc. Since then, interest in the E3 model progressively diminished as prices for the E32 and E34 dropped, making the E3 appear unattractive value-wise. Many were cannibalised for parts to repair other models such as the E9, while others were simply driven until they died. About three years ago, the first article appeared in a UK BMW mag asking the question "where have all the E3's gone?" Apparently there were less than 50 E3's known to be on the road in the entire UK at that time. Somehow the E3 has less of a rust problem than the E9, but it still suffers from rust like everything else from that era. They still haven't quite recovered the values they once had in NZ, but overseas their values are now starting to climb. They are generally regarded as visually more attractive and nicer to drive than the E23 that suceeded them, while still capable of embarrassing more modern cars handling and performance-wise. When the E3 was still in production, it was favourably compared to the XJ6, Rover 3500, Merc 280SE and others. They were highly praised by motoring magazines in the USA, the UK and Australia. Am I biased? Of course I am! I've had a strong interest in this particular model for some reason since I was a pimple-faced teen, and I clearly remember the first one I saw in 1974. I still haven't completely sctatched that particular itch yet.....

IIRC, the Darwin Awards team exclude anybody who takes others out as a result of their stupidity/poor judgement. I seem to remember that the driver had three or four mates in the car with him.