Grant

You really are new to this site aren't you.These discussions have been done over and over again. Give it a rest! I've had more BMW's than you, and drive two cars now, neither of them are BMW's. Both of which are very good cars, and completely fit for their purpose.

Well, if nothing else, this thread gave me a good laugh.

Very cool pics (pun intended). Looks like you got a bit more than we get in the foothills 30 minutes northeast of the city (thankfully we don't get any in the city). We are off up to Tahoe (about 1.5 hours northeast of here) for the weekend in two weeks, and the snow up there this year is phenomenol (last I read, it was up to 267% of the winter average). Here are a couple of ours from Thanksgiving Day

190E 2.3-16

That is cool!

Jack A quick bit of advice for your advert (on Trade Me). Accentuate the positive (i.e have all the good points about the car listed first), then outline any faults. If I were to read it for the first time, and the first thing I read is that it has a custom exhaust system that doesn't work too well, I would be somewhat put off, and read the rest of the advert with a negative taste in my mouth. If I were you, I'd still mention this, but only after you have pointed out all of the good points (and your car has many very good points). Just my thought anyway. Best of luck with the sale. I personally think you are making the best decision, as unless you had good financial means or backing, having a dedicated race car would be difficult to operate as a 16 year old with limited financial resources. It would be sad to see it parked up for 95% of the time because you were unable to keep it running at the level required for racing. Having a more road biased car, that can be used on the track sounds like a good plan.

Over here you pay a disposal fee for oil changes for disposal of the oil, same with tyres etc. In saying that oil services and new tyres are a fraction of the cost compared with in NZ, so I have never complained. It is also charged on other goods too, if you buy a new TV or computer etc you pay a recycling fee on top of the purchase cost for the eventual disposal of it. This is of course California, and all states vary.

I suggest you drink it, do us all a favour.

I have only heard very good things about these guys when it comes to Porsches.They may be a very good option.

When I was living in NZ, I bought stuff of them a few times. They are excellent to deal with. I even had them, at one stage, ship something to an address in California, where I was heading so I just picked it up from there and brought it back to NZ with me. They also didn't charge sales tax, as they knew that I was taking the stuff back to NZ (which was nice as they were really just taking my word for it). They also provided separate receipts for the items, so I could bring back some in my suitcase and some in my wife's and therefore not have to pay GST. I'm pretty sure stuff that I had shipped to me in NZ was via USPS, which as has been mentioned elsewhere was cheaper than DHL.

The end of an era, good luck!

This is a great thread. Jack, you are doing a great job! Keep up the good work.

I am friends with lots of my workmates, both past and present. If I decide to leave and pursue another option, I don't think I am screwing them over. Afterall he was simply an employee of the BBC/show, nothing more. This bothers me too, for exactly the same reasons as you have pointed out. I'm sure you'll find that we are part of the silent majority, and as usual it is the vocal minority that get the attention (more often than not for the sake of it, rather than for any legitimate reason).

That was my least favourite part of this episode. People leave their jobs all the time and move on, going on about it in this epsiode just seemed a bit bitter. They should not even mention it, just get a new Stig (Stig 3.0) and get on with it, especially with the birth of the new Stig in the Xmas special (which I'm sure had been planned before this episode was filmed).

I thought that was a great episode as well, in fact I liked it better than the Xmas special. My workmate is from North Carolina and grew up not very far from the North Wilkesboro (ex) NASCAR Track that was featured in this episode. I have given him a copy to watch (he is a huge car and NASCAR fan, in fact often works on one of the teams on thw weekend that they come to Sonoma near here to race - as for the West Coast races they normally don't send out a full staff contingent). I was telling him about the tyre shop in the episode where they tried to get a replacement tyre for the SLS. He was saying that North Wilkesboro is a tiny 'one gas station' town and it wasn't surprising that they didn't have the right sized tyre. He said you would have to drive for at least 50 miles to get to a town big enough to have that fitment.

What a painful thread to read.

I think it is safe to assume that every BMW exec cringed the second the first Z3 rolled out of the factory and into the showrooms.

I liked it. It was highly staged, as always, but very entertaining none the less. I think that James May is one of the funniest guys on TV. After watching a few weeks of the American version, and then watching the UK version (albeit a special one off) just reinforces what a steaming pile of dog sh*t the American version is. It also reinforces that the cars are the least important part of the show and are really just props to facilitate the production of an highly entertaining TV show.

Merry Christmas from a cool and slightly damp Northern California.

Wow, a Mobil station, I have not seen one of those in 2.5 years.

Cool, thanks guys. I get to celebrate twice as it was my birthday yesterday in NZ, and today in the USA. I tried to do a skid, but the VW is a tad gutless, and the Subaru just grips and goes (albeit slowly and sedately).

I finally got around to watching the first two episodes last night. I thought it was terrible. Like most American shows that copy English ones, but without the ability to replicate the English sense of humour it misses the mark by the mile. At times it was just plain painful to watch. The only saving grace is that Tanner Foust can pedal a car bloody well, even if he is devoid of personality. They would have been better off completely Americanising the show rather than trying to make a carbon copy of the English version.

I'm old school, I await the daily delivery of mine, which chiselled into stone tablet, and delivered by a postman who has a brontosaurus powered mail car.

I have the episodes to date DVR'ed but have not watched them. It seems that every US show involving cars is hosted by Tanner Foust. He gets tiring.

That makes sense, I was always trying to jerry-rig the slider so that it was spring loaded, but didn't have the skills needed.