Olaf

Squirrel! ----> zoom.

it also spent it's first 20 years and nearly 100k miles in UK, so best you get a look under it's skirts with the shrowds off, if it was from where the southern softies are, or only driven sparingly in Summer, you should be okay. Salt kills. Yes it would have had a stringent inspection in 2018 on entry, but tread carefully. Stuff that never rusts in NZ can be incredibly crusty.

It's a Z3M, a real go-kart. Be prepared for ///M maintenance costs though. agree re the e46 M3 rims - just not right for it.

Update. I've driven it a few times since installing the new gear knob, a little over 100kms. It occurred to me today how much nicer the tactile experience is. It's better matched with the steering wheel. Let's face it, with just over one hundred neddies beneath the hood, one changes gear often! This is a much more pleasant place to be. I also installed - at last - the CTEK quick connect/battery monitor adaptor. Should have done it 16 months ago!

I bought 15,000 last time. I'll be buying that again. Let them tell me I don't have a govt approved ute, or need to buy RUCs like a peasant on the bones of my arse 1000kms at a time. They're trying to put up the admin cost of the transaction to boot.

you should buy my particularly well-maintained e60 545i. 50:50 weight distro, valve-stem seals already replaced, what a drive.

I am untroubled by it.

I couldn't find any pics of mine before I mounted it.

Where's the commitment?! 😊 I go there from Wellington, such is the quality of work.

I reckon you're right! I recall my e30 bar is symmetrical. As were the later 318iS.

Going from no rear bar to having one makes a good difference. My 316i started out with no bar, and 30 year old RTABs and subframe mounts. I did the lot - in OE rubber - with a 13.5mm rear bar. Later updated to 14.5mm when the front went bigger and all the front bushes were done, and H&R sportsprings with Koni yellows. It's firm tight and grippy, but doesn't rattle my teeth or shake my kidneys too much. Show us a pic of the bar you've got, they're pretty recognisable. They can be very fiddly to fit - best done with the car on a hoist.

You should consider Begley Motor Works in Marton. Excellence personified. You can get Jon on ‭021 651 591‬

it'll help, though your RTABs and subframe bushes are probably toast as well. You may want to source those parts (don't bother with poly bushes unless it's a race car), and a new diff mount bush, and replace those as part of adding the rear sway bar. If you're not going to go 20mm at front (and stay with your stock 19mm), suggest you go with 12.5 rear. Maintain the ratio front-to-rear. HTH

"I bought this pig-hunting truck. Can't understand why all the pig-hunters come out of the woodwork to admire it wherever I stop". They're not the "wrong people", they're 200SX family.

welcome back! looking forward to seeing your progress, @yoshie

Nikon D3s, AF Nikkor 300mm f2.8+1.4 teleconverter, 1/500 @ f5.6, ISO320. Copyrighted.

here's one I took earlier.... Nikon D3s, AF Nikkor 300mm f2.8+1.4 teleconverter, 1/1000 @ f5.6, ISO640. Copyrighted.

I bought my e60 545i for 45c in the dollar compared to a Commodore SS. I was fully paid up dollar-for-dollar in the maintenance stakes within a two to two-and-a-half years, though with a *much* (much!) better car! From my perspective - as I don't shy away from quality maintenance - the higher depreciation of the euro has always paid off.

FOMO, perhaps? 😁 Missing out on the lifestyle, the driving experience, instead living with the humdrum experience of operating an appliance?

mosdef. I went with factory spec off-the-shelf BMW part. Dunlops. I've not owned runflats before, and after years with Goodyears, switched to Bridgestones about ten years ago. The Dunlops have taken a bit of getting used to, I'm now very happy with them. Given no provision for a spare or a jack in the F25, I view non-RFT as unworkable. PS: the other option was the Pirelli P-Zero on BMW parts system. I understand they're very good, though wear quite handily on NZ's sh!t roads. My Scottish genes - along with advice from the dealer that he preferred the Dunlops on his X3s - dictated the Dunlops 😁

outstanding mate!! well done. And congrats on getting to road-legal with your conversion, a big job.

Wow, @Kodachrome did you print that yourself? Where'd you get the files? And how's the M54 conversion coming along?

then they take your advice seriously and get you into a hearing that you're then essentially obliged to attend, as no-shows don't fare well. I prefer the Keep It Simple, Stupid approach, and don't rely on not having your bluff called. Your mileage may vary, you may have a higher threshold for stupid. Me, I learned you can't argue with stupid, so why bother.

Happy (surprised) to note that this varies. I drove one with 138k kms (F25 30D) and the rear shock were stuffed. Bought another F25 30D Msport, at 146k kms and all the shocks (non msport) are very good, and they're original. I think they'll be good for another 20k kms. My car was Msport though optioned with standard suspension. SI dealers felt msport suspension too harsh for NZ roads; this car is firm enough!

As long as you swear you're not a fat-cat capitalist trying to gain advantage of the system designed to provide a tax break to poor socialists scraping by on 1000km top-ups of their RUCs. If you're found to be "gaming the system" by the monitoring cabal Department of Approved Utes, they'll come after you for the savings you originally banked and bill you for the difference. Surely this insane system will cost more to implement and monitor/police than it will claw back for the govt coffers? https://www.newsroom.co.nz/government-relying-on-diesel-honesty I bought 15k RUCs for my little oil-burner soon after buying it. I think I've done a little over 5k kms in that time - diesel has gone from under $1.60/litre to over $2.30/litre in these ~6 months so the gubbermit has already increased their tax take from me dieseling my way around our fair land. I'm doing fewer kms than I had reasonably expected to, as we're still mired in Covid-land panic. Anyone rational will buy (anything they use regularly) in bulk to acheive a reasonable saving, given available funding and consideration of the opportunity cost. However this Transport Minister and his apparatchiks want to actively discourage responsible behaviour by vehicle operators, and reduce transactional efficiency (the operator's time and the licensing authority's) by forcing more frequent and smaller purchases of vehicle licensing. Let's not forget the LTNZ have recently proposed increasing charges for these very services. If I take advantage of the reduction in RUC price and buy another 10k kms now to cover the year's running, I risk a slap on the wrist if they perceive I had an ulterior motive and was not buying fairly and squarely. Is this New Zealand we're talking out, or am I in fact driving a Lada and drinking Vodka in a large northern hemisphere country in the 1980's? Scene: Interrogation Centre, Wellington, 2022. Olaf is getting a grilling about his RUC purchase. "why did you buy those RUCs?" "Because I expected to use them, did not want to risk running out. You put them on sale, I bought. Is that illegal?" "yes! you had plenty when you bought, you clearly didn't need more. Off to the gulag with you, fool! You cannot game our system." "I manage efficiently one transaction per year and not worrying about RUCs improves my productivity, provides more time for me to bill more and pay more tax! The project I bought the RUCs for was canned." "This is rubbish, we will change your behaviours through our clever controls. And while we're at it, that's not an approved ute. You are a BMW-driving capitalist! You really should drive Chinese - they're more proletarian, mate." "errr, your govt car is a BMW. Unless it's an Audi e-Tron. How did you sneak those in to the fleet?". "Room 101 for you!. And we're fining you $300 tax difference" "You've cost the country $7000 in lost productivity while you investigated this". /rant