Olaf

it's not exactly a pristene time capsule, but appears reasonably tidy and not screwed around with. I'd pay $14k if I had the cash. "supercar" is pushing the envelope a bit, I think.

nope. they are aparrently very rare, so if you see a set, buy them. then weigh them, and tell the world.

outstanding.

jebus christ, what is this, the Toyota Catfish? It rivals even the Pontiac Aztec!

hi Kyu, I had a quick look at the Penrite lube guide. The said it's *either* Power Steering Fluid/Dex III =OR= CHF11. And "Check vehicle owners manual (yeah right) or the reservoir cap". And of course, don't mix the fluid. link here. Post a good image of your reservoir, mate! Perhaps someone here can help on identifying the two fluids. Dex III is usually raspberry red (at least till it's dirty - then it's brown) and has a particular smell and feel, whereas I think CHF11 is clear and feels thinner, not sure of the smell. HTH

yep, it's awesome. I used it for baselining e46 7J16 ET 47 (205/55/16) against e90 8J17 ET34 (225/45/17) and 8.5J 17 ET37 (245/40/17). Being able to visualise how things change with those dimensions is brilliant.

wow. I'd buy these in a heartbeat if I had a plan in place for some track-work. not there yet. GLWS.

I think this is how some alignment guys think it should be; if it all cancels each other out to effectively 'zero' the car, she's apples mate. sigh. when these cars are well-aligned, it can be, well.... sublime!

more seriously though, that's a very pretty car, particularly in that blue. wow.

"Jason Shirt"? If you're gonna be named after a shirt, surely you could live up to the stereotype and get some sartorial guidance from James May?!

This made me snigger... youtube link "Ask any E30 owner, maintenance is expensive and sucks. In a lot of ways, owning an E30 is like dating a super-expensive high-maintenance MILF who cheats on you and sometimes abuses you, but whom you live anyway." ... should give some idea this is not a *serious* review!

well, 32kW & 65-m more than an equivalent 728i, which can still be plenty of fun. #8 ) it's probably worth $4k of anyone's money. I'm seriously considering selling my turbo brick.

have you considered supporting our forum's sponsors like Brent at BM World and Ray at Hell BMW?! You should find them very easy to deal with, very accommodating... and you can still deal with them n TradeMe if you prefer....

how're you getting on with this, Mac?

I've aloways replaced coils at around ten years old (usually single coil, rather than coil on plug), and always found an improvement. PS - NGK BRK6EQUP is the OEM plug for M54, along with a Bosch p/n. The ones I removed were BMW branded, ISTR they were NGK.

Hey, it's gotta be easy yeah - no worries about maintenance plannng etc etc. My update for "what'd you do to your BMW (yester)day: New oil (Penrite 5W40 full synthetic) Oil filter Air filter Cabin filter next steps (within the next week): rear trailing arm bushes & reinforcement shims fuel filter flush and bleed brake fluid fatter ARBs and OEM ARB bushes new 4 wheel alignment. and figure out what's making the front carpets damp. Sunroof drains?

exactly - the vendor's trademe handle is 'tampax'.

oh mate, not advice as much as a tongue-in-cheek observation #8 ) if we get logical we are consigned to 14" boots in staying with the bottle-caps, which is a somewhat hair-shirt approach these days. Still, one should have a set in good nick with good rubber for 'sunday best', yeah?

so after buying this car, will I be able to play tennis, swim, ride a bike?

If you're the first NZ owner after life in Japan, there's a good chance that at 80k kms, it's probably suffering from a bit of deferred maintenance. You're approaching the 100kms mark, which will cover more than an Inspection II anyway, so you can expect to be replacing a few items, and getting a thorough Transmission service. As Glenn points out, if your PPI wasn't done by a BMW Dealer or good Independent, it's about as much use as a chocolate teapot. I think Pete's recommendation - get a repair warranty - is a good one. Had I splashed the extra when I bought my car and purchased Autosure or similar, that transmission failure 18 months into my ownership wouldn't have stung my pocket to the tune of $5k (trans rebuild, new trans cooler, hoses, fluids, assorted gaskets for valve cover, power steering, seals, and fluid top-ups including CHF-11 and full synthetic trans fluid, and labour). Still, a trans failure in a Maxima, Falcodore, Diamante etc would have cost between $3k and $5k so it's all relative, right? Finding an excellent Independent BMW Specialist workshop to do business with will help keep your car maintained and running well, and provide a more enjoyable BMW experience. Using Joe Bloggs motors will be more of a crap-shoot; the specialist knowledge brought to the party more than make up for the slightly lower labour rates of 'the other guys'.

oh man. where's the fun in that?!

Hi, welcome to the forum, Lidushan. lovely looking e30 you have there. I'll make a prediction: soon, e30's on Bottle Caps will become preferred, as they'll be rare. Everyone else will be running cross-spokes (basket-weaves). Those running bottle-caps will be seen as people of discerning taste. cheers!

it's interesting. Useful link, Troy - thanks. power increase 20-50% above factory - 3 cycles 0-100-0 within 2 minutes. power increase above 50% above factory power output - 5 cycles 0-100-0 within 3 minutes. You lads with the big (350-400rwhp) power under the hood will be needing the real big brakes. I can only imagine how much fun that is to play with.

"all TVRs should be registered as pre-production prototypes". Yes, something with a BMW V8 I reckon.

okay, we can do charades errr can it run on chip fat?