Olaf

Trailer tyres?

PS - they're the 94W rating, not the wimpy 91 load-rated version. This no doubt makes them more useful for, well, keeping your rims off the road?

now that's exactly what I figured they'd be attractive for: doing some skidz on #8 ) so Ahmed, these could, ultimately, be shredded... on the end of somebody's diff. And hey, if you were in a hole and just needed some llantas negras that hold air and pass a WoF until you can afford some real tyres, these are them. My tyre guy described them as being a fine tyre if all you're doing is punting around town... and added something like "until it rains", so they could be useful for skidpan training too! When you're done, you can add them to that retaining wall you've been building, or make a few tyre swings! How 'green' is that? Reduce, reuse, recycle... our dingbat mayor would be pleased I guess if you out--of-towners are keen, if you arranged it with Andy's Bimmersport Freight Services (™), I'd happily drop these out to Seaview. They is going on TradeMe tonight at $150, so snag yourself a cheap tyre bargain today. Hell, these are cheaper than a bottle of good Japanese 18YO Single Malt. You know it makes sense.

I should point out: I'm not a tyre specialist, not in the motor trade; I'm just joe blogs selling them out of my company as they're not required. I don't have more to sell. thanks for looking!

Fellow Bimmersporters Here's a bargain for those of you needing some rubber in 225/45/17 without impacting your beer budget. Yes, a set (FOUR ONLY) of HiFly's finest HF805, pre-loved. They're tyres, don't you know. They've been run on a staggered set, so two have crowned a little in the middle. WYSIWYG. Condition: No punctures: I've had a look around the inside of each; no puncture repairs! And they held air for me sunday/monday until removed from rims this morning. Tread Depths: from left to right in the image below: Left: 5mm (ranges from 6 to 5.1) Centre Left: 4.4mm (ranges from 5.1 to 4.4) Centre Right: 3.9mm (ranges from 3.9 to 6) Right: 3.5mm (ranges 3.5 to 5.9) General: honest used tyres. No warranty implied or expressed. Where? They're in Wellington. How much, Olaf? Before I put them on TradeMe, I thought I'd offer to Bimmersporters: $125 the lot (including GST). These cost about $115 each when new (according to the ads I've seen), so I figure that's a fair price including delivery in wellington. I'll deliver them to you for that price, as far north as Paraparumu, or Upper Hutt. Very happy to meet you in central Wellington! Oh, and for your entertainment (these are not my words) "HIFLY HF805 225/45/17/94/W. HiFly HF805 is a high performance, low noise tyre. The Unique assymetrical tread meets ultra high handling and traction requirements. Features include: Superb stability Low road noise Reliability Right, and in case your curiosity is getting the better of you, some pictures!! Fig 1: here's the identity parade photo from this afternoon: FIg 2: you were wondering if they were round, eh!? Here's the mug shot.

it's like Gordon Gekko's catchphrase has mutated. in a good way! "Rake is good" edit: for those who missed the 80's, take a look at 80's blockbuster Wall Street.

I think that was 'whilst approaching "close coupling" with the 4RE, our intrepid driver experienced a brown trouser moment'. #8 ) James, that's looking like a whole heap of fun!

can't argue with that, Ron. The guy I'll be using is recommended by a good friend, who has more german cars than I have digits, and additional sets of rims to boot. very particular is he. It was particularly refreshing to find a tyre guy who genuinely knows his onions.

man, 003's are exceptionally well-priced at the moment. I started looking around on Friday, and found - as Ron has pointed out in another thread - that the average to mid-range performance tyres come in from most places around $1k , with the premium end $1.2k-$1.4k. Imagine my surprise when finding sub-$900 pricing for 003s in 225/45/17 and 245/40/17 on the car. If you were completely ruthless and pushing for the lowest possible price and nevermind the impact to the market (eg you get Tony's Tyres trying to undersell the world to buy your business), it is entirely likely one could push the envelope and find these llantas for the mid-to-high $700s. On your car. At least at the moment. Best discovery made while I've been looking around, is finding a company I want to do business with for tyres and alignment. The pricing is sharp enough, but the service is worth more to me than the lowest price so I'll happy to be in the sub-$900 bracket.

can someone PS that image with an e24 please? it's nearly perfect.

yes thanks, I sort of stopped thinking about that suff when I bought another BMW after selling the Nissan. The VQ30 is a beaut engine, but I went for the full package with BMW #8 ) and bought a car that - largely - works.

I've often wondered about this, Ron. I used to know an induction systems engineer from Visteon. The effort (read: cost) that was expended in the average intake manifold and even the airbox for your run-of-the-mill Ford Focus, VW Golf, etc, amounts to the hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more. It seems odd that given the development budget for the M54 which would have been in the tens or hundreds of millions, that they "got it wrong" and the earlier one was much better? Nissan were doing 'clever' manifolds on their VQ series V6 for a while, the 'MEVI' intake manifold had an RPM switch that opened some butterlies to give longer effective runners at higher RPM, and shorter at lower RPM for better torque. Or do I have that the wrong way round? They were also using plastics in the 90's for intake manifolds. At any rate, in the Nissan world folks were locating these later manifolds and fitting them to earlier cars, contrary to the M54/M50 approaches! cheers

like the t-shirt reads: I'm not a gynecologist but I'll take a look

nice work, John! Sorry didn't mean to sound as though I was doubting you; more about 'I wonder what wheels he's done that with, and how does it look? Total class, mate. Kia Ora for that!

yep, there's a clear process for landlords disposing of abandoned goods. it's a bit of a f%#king hassle to be fair; it was suggested to me by some very experienced landlords, on finding a bunch of random sh*t abandoned at my house when moving back in.... was to take the entire lot to the tip, and if anyone ever asked about it the answer was "the house was clear when I took posession as noted on the bond report; I know nothing about the property you mention". The process involves posting notices, charges for storage, and disposal after x weeks. All that for abandoned sh#t. Lazy f#cking tennants, there's stack of brown-smelling karma for them - and their back passages - too. Leaving their sh&t behind - can't they fill rubbish bags, clean up after themselves, take a trailer to the tip? /rant.

hey Elijah, it's not as flash as Ron's excellent negotiation gambit, but Bridgestone stores are having a 'buy one, get one half price' deal**. Which I guess amounts to 25% of a pair. Test-pricing today, their opening price well undercuts Tony's, which should open up for some outstanding competitive bidding between the big-boys to buy your business. PS - ** till 24 March

hey Rohan, what sort of Warranty do Bridgestone Stores provide?

you'll find it's being watched by the drug squad. you'll be bailed up/jailed up before you know it. incommunicado and fearing for your life in a holding facility.

sounds like -1 for Wheel Magician. I'm looking for a good repairer in Welly...

I shouid like to call a point of order here: 'the segment' formerly known as "the sport saloon" in the 2-litre (or thereabouts class) was surely created in the 1960s, one of the cheif protagonists was the Triumph 2000 (straight 6) then competing with the BMW Neu Klasse. The class got a little split/cloned where we had Dolomite Sprint/2002 + 3 Series, and Triumph 2500/5 series. Larger 2 litre class and smaller 2 litre class.... eventually everything got a six! I will concede that BMW has essentially owned the segment since the e21 323i. and in the larger 2 litre class, the 5er has pretty much owned the segment. - well packaged - sporty handling - executive image/cachet - solidly engineered - class-leading in refinement, drive, comfort, handling, performance. It is for these reasons the 3er has consistently been the segment benchmark. The question Herbmeister rightly poses, could be reinterpreted as: "is the 3er still the segment benchmark? Has BMW lost their competetive advantage?" Ron, you can besmirch 911 character from here till sunday, though I've never met one I'd boot out of my party #8 ) bad character is in the eye of the beholder. After all, there are many in the british isles who describe BMW, Mercedes etc as 'german skateboards' and 'magnetically attracted to hedges arse-first'... which is more representative of a lack of experience with RWD and loss of traction, than any poor manners on the part of 3er or c-class. Olaf

congratulations on the move! people seem to drive Ford Falcons or Holden Commodores. If they're a little odd, they'll drive Citroen or Saab. It's interesting, Citroen has a long standing in Taranaki (pronounced Tarr-ann-uh-kai) Olaf

I'd like that.

Oh man. it's lovely. I must.... avert..... my eyes.

I picked up - rather unexpectedly - a set of style 194 wheels (staggered) - today, following a trademe offer. I spent a couple of hours cleaning them up - I doubt they'd ever been washed on the inner rim before. after springs... Next is: to find a kerb-rash repairer (recommendations in Wellington appreciated!) and then: some decent rubber in the 225/45/17 and 245/40/17 flavours. Happy, me.