OLLIE

Applying Window Graphics Step 1: Prepare the Vehicle Make sure that the outside air temperature is above 5ºC. Pre-warming the car interior during cold weather application will help insure proper adhesion. Step 2: Prepare the Glass Clean the outside rear window glass thoroughly with soap and water. Make sure that the glass surface is dry and free of residue before applying. Remember: The pressure sensitive adhesive works best if mounted on VERY CLEAN GLASS. Step 3: Position and Apply Warning - do not use a heat gun or water/solution! Rear window graphics must be applied dry! if you find it difficult to line up use masking tape strips to pre-position the image on the vehicle prior to removing the backing material. Carefully peel off adhesive backing from behind the image and apply from one edge and work to the opposite side, smoothing the image to prevent wrinkles. Step 4: Bond To help adhesion, leave the disposable backing over the image and rub firmly from the center to the sides of the image. The pressure sensitive adhesive bonds to the glass very well when first applied but will set more firmly after 24 hours. Avoid power car washes for the first week after application. Treat this image as you would the painted surface of your car. Removal Techniques - The perforated film can be removed by using a thin scraper device. The warmer the outside temperature, the easier the removal will be. If any adhesive residue remains on the glass surface it can be cleaned with any quality commercial glass cleaning liquid or citrus-based adhesive remover.

roflmaobbqtfbmf

i'd buy a fairly crap E30 for about 1500 and start building it into a race car, then i'd save up more money to finish it off.

best road going E30 i've ever driven

yeah this sort of thing gets me really excited, definately check out the website, it has some amazing performance stats and photos etc on it

Was that what was in the BMW showroom last night?

By VICKI MABREY and ELY BROWN TESLA WEBSITE HERE TO SEE SOME COOL PICTURES AND PERFORMANCE SPECS It goes zero to 60 in about four seconds. Its top speed is 130 miles per hour. And it doesn't use an ounce of gasoline. It's the Tesla Roadster, a new car that's fueled entirely by electricity and could be hitting the lot just in time. Today the Energy Department reported that the average gallon of regular gasoline is now $3.10 -- a new nominal record price for the United States. The Tesla Roadster is named after Nicola Tesla, the largely forgotten genius inventor of alternating current electricity, and it's the brainchild of Martin Eberhard, who said he designed it because he cares about the environment and because he wanted one for himself. "It's time for us to do something about our dependence on foreign oil," Eberhard said. "It's time for us to do something about global warming. But I wasn't ready to go drive around some goofy little car. … Think of how electric cars look. All the ones you've ever thought of." There haven't been many electric cars. Early automobiles ran on electricity, as did General Motor's ill-fated and quickly abandoned EV1, which debuted in the 1990s and died soon thereafter. Eberhard said there's "nothing beautiful" about the Prius, perhaps the best-known hybrid car. "It doesn't do anything for me," he said. "Think of it this way. A world of 100 percent hybrids is still 100 percent addicted to oil." 'The Next Great American Car Company' So Eberhard, who made his fortune with a couple of Internet companies, set out to build the car he wanted to drive, one that would change the image of the electric car forever. Eberhard said he wanted "to get people to think of electric cars as being actually hip and desirable and fun." And that's only the beginning. Eberhard also wants to achieve something even he admits is audacious. "Our ultimate goal is to be the next great American car company," he said, "to have a whole line of cars for every kind of driver and all of them not burning gasoline." Eberhard teamed with another Internet millionaire, Elon Musk, the man who invented PayPal. The 35-year-old Musk is busy with another venture called Space X, which, among other projects, is contracted to design, build and operate NASA's replacement shuttle for transporting astronauts to the International Space Station. Musk said it took only five days for him to decide to invest in Tesla after meeting with Eberhard. He's put $37 million into the company so far. "I am a big believer in Tesla, and I believe it's going to be a great success," Musk said. Behind the Wheel Instead of starting with a mass market vehicle, Tesla's doing just the opposite: starting at the high end and working its way down. "I really believe the right entry point in the market is a sports car," Musk said. "Because there, people are willing to pay a high unit cost. So you get that into the market, and you continue to innovate and optimize and go progressively higher volume and more affordable with each successive model." In four months they had orders for all of their "signature" cars. The first 100, with a $100,000 price tag, sold to the likes of George Clooney, the founders of Google, Arnold Schwarzenegger and William of the Black Eyed Peas. Going forward, they plan to make 1,000 Roadsters a year, with a sticker price of $92,000. That investment gets customers a two-seater that weighs in at a relatively light 2,600 pounds and is powered by lithium ion batteries, like the ones in your computer … exactly 6,381 of them. "They are the exact same kind of cell that would power a lap top computer or a camcorder," explained David Vespremi, Tesla Motors' director of public relations, while showing us the car. "This is very different from a combustion engine." So different, in fact, that it isn't an engine at all -- it's a motor. Fewer Moving Parts "The motor [is] tiny by comparison to an engine in a typical combustion car. It weighs about 77 pounds, and you could literally put it in a backpack and walk out of the room with it if you chose to," Vespremi said, while showing us the car. "What it does is, it has one moving part. It's an AC motor, so it takes current straight from the battery and turns that into … the power that moves the car down the road." Is there anything that a standard gasoline-powered car offers that the Tesla lacks? "Well, you have all the belts and the hoses and the gaskets and the plugs and exhaust components. None of that exists with this car. The entire drive line consists of 12 moving parts," Eberhard said, as opposed to thousands in a regular car. But there are drawbacks: The battery pack is warrantied for 100,000 miles, but after that, replacement could be costly -- in the thousands of dollars. Tesla argues that with battery technology improving every year, each successive year's models will be better. You're not completely off the grid because it does require electricity, and you can go only 200 miles between charges. Vespremi said the charging station can be installed by "any competent electrician," and it allows you "to get that quick charging time of 3½ hours. Most people hook it up to the drier circuit. And then you just treat it like a gas pump." The Roadster is still in test mode -- the company hopes to start actual production this fall. The car has gone for its first round of safety tests and, according to the company, has done extremely well. Vespremi told us that part of the reason the car is so safe is because the chassis is made of extruded bonded aluminum, "the exact same kind of chassis that would be used in something like a Formula One car or an Indy car. This is what allows those drivers to wreck at a couple hundred miles per hour and walk away," he explained. 'I Like Fast' So far, those who've put down deposits can't even test drive the Roadster; they can only be driven in it. Bob Huntley and his wife, Marilyn Miller, flew to San Carlos, Calif., from Houston to see what they're getting. "I like fast, obviously," Huntley said, "but more important to me is the smile I will have knowing that I am not putting $50 gas in every time I want to go 200 miles. It's perfect. And I get to pass everyone while I do it." While they work to get the Roadster street ready, the engineers at Tesla are pushing ahead on two more models. The designs are under wraps, but they envision a family-size sedan and a smaller mass-market electric car in the next two to five years. But the real money may come in selling their technology. "We are in negotiations with some fairly big auto companies, so we hope to make a really big difference in CO2 concentration in three ways," said Musk. "One is in the cars we make ourselves, two is the licensing the electric drive trains and accelerating the technology deployment in other car companies, and three is by serving as a good example to the rest of the auto industry and hoping that they follow our lead." Capitalism and Altruism Musk says there is an element of altruism behind the company, but that the best way to serve their goal is to make Tesla a profitable company. "There's a lot to be said for money and glory," said Musk. "I wouldn't say that those were unimportant. There is nothing wrong with wanting to make money or have a glorious outcome. Those are good things. For me personally that's not the most important thing. But I still value those things. I'm not Mother Teresa." Though design and testing takes place just south of San Francisco, the Tesla Roadsters will be built at the Lotus Elise plant in Hithel, England. And who gets the first car off the assembly line? "Well, I get car No. 1," said Musk. "I guess there are some advantages to investing $37 million in a company." Another advantage could be immortality. If Tesla works, it would be the first successful startup auto manufacturer in the United States in more than 50 years.

ice bucket for beers?

if you substitute the beers for some cash, Luke may be keen to help you, he's a good fella. Username: Boost Junky

it looks like a cat aye ... meow

SPAAAARTA, haha and NUMA

ok I might need this next week. can you tell me the over all dimensions so i can see if it will fit in the back of my dads ute.

The new 5 Series Sports Wagon adds yet another feature typical of BMW – flexibility – to the outstanding attributes of sporting performance, supremacy, and elegance already boasted by the new 5 Series Sedan. The reason, quite simply, is that the new five-door model offers BMW's proverbial flexibility in everyday use in addition to the outstanding dynamics of its four-door Sedan counterpart. With its luggage compartment variable in size from 500–1650 liters the Sports Wagon caters for virtually all transport requirements. Unique design: The ideal blend of common sense and superior elegance. It almost goes without saying that the new 5 Series Sports Wagon wraps this generosity in space and freedom into the most elegant and stylish body: With its own unique line, the Sports Wagon takes up the dynamic design elements of its Sedan counterpart, featuring the same striking front end all the way back to the B-pillars. From there the smooth transition to the D-pillars is fully integrated into the organic design of the car, not in any way creating the impression of a rear section simply grafted on. On the contrary – the Sports Wagon with its rear spoiler optically extending the roofline is almost reminiscent of a coupe, the rear view with split tail lights clearly revealing the unusual width of the car and consciously interpreting styling features of the sedan. Making its debut with a choice of no less than four engines. The new BMW 5 Series Sports Wagon is entering the market with four model variants: two diesels – the 525d and 530d – and two petrol models – the 525i and 545i. A new addition to the range is the 2.5-liter diesel, a straight-six featuring the latest common rail technology, four valves per cylinder and a VNT turbocharger developing maximum output of 130 kW (177 bhp) and maximum torque of 400 Newton-metres or 295 lb-ft. Acceleration to 100 km/h in 8.3 (automatic transmission model: 8.5) seconds and a top speed of 225 (222) km/h (140/138 mph) clearly prove the dynamic performance the 525d Sports Wagon is able to offer on the road. But at the same time this new version of the Sports Wagon is not only sporting and dynamic, but also very fuel efficient, with overall fuel consumption in the combined EU cycle of just 7.0 (8.0) liters/100 kilometres (40.4/35.3 mpg Imp). The power diesel Sports Wagon. The power diesel in the BMW 530d reveals even more muscle when accelerating and really using the engine's performance: The three-liter six-cylinder develops maximum output of 160 kW (218 bhp) and generates maximum torque of 500 Newton-metres or 369 lb-ft at just 2,000 rpm. Acceleration to 100 km/h in 7.2 (7.4) seconds and a top speed of 242 (240) km/h (150/149 mph) form an impressive contrast to average fuel consumption of just 7.2 (8.0) liters on 100 kilometres (39.2/35.3 mpg Imp). Right from the start in spring 2004 both the 2.5- and 3.0-liter diesel engine, benefitting from an all-new particle filter, fulfil the EU4 emission standards not coming into force until 2005. In the guise of its 545i top-of-the-range model, the 245 kW (333 bhp) high-tech 8-cylinder power unit gives the "transporter" within the 5 Series all the performance and muscle of a genuine sports car. Indeed, the customer even has the option of choosing BMW's highly efficient SMG sequential gearbox for the 545i Sports Wagon, shifting gears like in Formula 1. The 2.5-liter petrol-engined model in the 525i represents the refined midfielder within BMW's six-cylinder Sports Wagon range: Maximum output of 142 kW/192 bhp, plus maximum torque of 245 Newton-metres (181 lb-ft) accelerate the 525i Sports Wagon to 100 km/h in just 8.2 (8.8) seconds. Top speed, in turn, is 232 (229) km/h or 144 (142) mph. Despite this outstanding performance, however, the six-cylinder petrol model requires just 9.9 (10.3) liters of premium fuel/100 kilometres in the combined EU cycle, equal to 28.5 (27.4) mpg Imp. So this refined model offers all the qualities typical of the BMW brand with outstanding dynamism, performance, smoothness and all-round economy, providing a perfect balance of harmony in the process. Same assistance systems as in the sporting Sedan version. It almost goes without saying that all models in the Sports Wagon range come with the same innovations and technical highlights as the 5 Series Sedan. Particular features deserving special mention in this context are the Active Steering providing exactly the right steering transmission at all times as a function of road speed, the active Dynamic Drive chassis and suspension system, as well as the Head-Up Display presenting important information to the driver directly in his line of vision. Added to this, there are further features typical of the Sports Wagon such as remote control operation of the rear lid or self-levelling featured as standard. Text Source - BMW Press Club

Seems like BMW has finally figured out what to do with their plans of building a CUV or a MPV. Previously reported, BMW was planning 5-Series based MPV as well as a smaller CUV based on the 3-Series dubbed as the F3. While there have been no reports on the progress of the 5-Series based MPV, the F3 has received the green light for production. According to AutoWeek, when BMW’s new CEO Norbert Reithofer arrived and reviewed the five-seater CUV in 2006, he gave the F3 a thumbs up for production. By combining the high seating position of a sport/utility vehicle with the space afforded by a traditional station wagon, crossovers appear to be providing an clear alternative to buyers,” a BMW insider told AutoWeek. “Our goal is to bring a CUV to market offering the best possible dynamics.” With the way the current development patterns are going we probably won’t see the F3 until 2010. The 5-Series based MPV is expected to be revealed in mid-2009 but we really hope BMW learns from the slow sales of the Mercedes R-Class. Source: AutoWeek

soundtrack made entirely in winrec32.exe

click here to go to the map i stumbled upon a fricken great website today, pardon the pun just then, but the site is called stumbleupon.com and basically it's a toolbar that i can click when i'm bored and it will take me to a site that is relevant to my interest and has a high rating from others. i can then choose to add it to my favourites and have it automatically categorized or i can rate it as crap or of course i could do nothing. It is the best thing thats happened to me today since i found out i finally get my car back this weekend. sign up at stumbleupon here oh and these webpages are gold ... open source for windows open source for mac glad to share

WOW I finally fixed this!! the board time should now be bang on, if you are an hour out change your time and date settings to allow for daylight savings. Cheers, Ollie

whats up? they aren't chrome spinnas? you've changed man, you have changed!

manual or auto?

thats is just stupidity!

badass

would it have been imported like that? if so ... why? NZ is becomming a bit of a dumping ground for used cars these days

Hell BM has a huge variety of second hand BMW parts, perfect for when you need an affordable repair option for your car. Contact Ray on 021 2 HELL BM (021 2435526) Check back here for info and deals from Hell BM soon

sheeeat, where have ya been sparkle?

i think brent might