Herbmiester

I drove from Wellington to Ohakune in an RS6, it's a big heavy beast but my god the engine is special. 0-100 in less than 4 seconds, sure I have done that in a 911 Turbo but not in a family wagon. I have to say at that level of power 4wd is almost mandatory. It made me realise that horsepower is just so addictive.

Had mine done under warranty at JG, no problems in and out in 1 hour.

Yes the white one.

Did anyone see what happened to the 335i Touring that Sold at Manheims yesterday? I was going to bid but getting to AKL was a pain and it had rear suspension damage and as I couldn't inspect it personally I passed on it.

Nice

But if your name is Chris Harris it's the E46M3.

It's good you have taken it to First Class European, Sheldon sorted out fault codes on my E60 as well as rebuilding the vanos on my E46, I have been happy with the quality of his work.

Try SAS suspension, they sell a lot of BMW suspension parts.

Mmmmmm, yummy.

Looks sweet, I always like 193's

I look forward to driving it, it sounds like you made some noticeable improvements.

To be clear I am not talking about the rear going sideways like an old 911. No it's more of an absence of understeer so that if you choose too you can provoke some oversteer, but the emphasis is on "provoke". Compared to how it was initially where the default setting was for the front to run wide unless you could get some trailling brake turn in ; it now just turns in and you can rely on the rear to stay planted unless you want to influence it with the right foot. But as its only got 170kw its most obvious in slower tighter corners, on long sweepers it just sticks and I haven't wanted to test when it will break away at 100 kph plus on a public road. FWIW my drive home is 44 corners on a twisty 8km mountain road with not much traffic and most of those corners are taken between 40 and 80 kph. I drive this road 2 to 4 times a day and you can get a pretty good idea about a car's ability with a few runs over the hill.

Update on my RE003's. After 5000km, I am still very happy especially with the grip in the wet. I managed to ride in an E36 a few weeks ago with RE002's and it confirmed to me that the 003 is a much better tyre, much better dry grip, better wet grip and better feel. Sidewall stiffness on the 003 seem pretty good as under hard cornering there is very little squirm just a linear input from the wheel to the amount of turn in. Now I probably have to put some of that down to the chassis, Olaf's kind words about my 46 are appreciated but to be fair a bit of time and effort went into setting it up and it's good to know someone else also thought it felt right. With 245's all round now I have set the front end to be a bit softer than the rear and I am running the front anti roll bar on its softer setting. This has made it turn in very direct and if anything it can be a bit prone to oversteer if pushed to aggressively, that said I am sure E 30 owners would feel at home especially with ASC turned off.

Now I am not sure if its my color, actually I am pretty sure it inst but for some reason I couldn't look away.

Try SAS suspension for a price, my e36 arms off them were only about 140 each from memory.

I doubt we will ever see those numbers but the rumour I heard is that the Govt paid less than the dealerships paid for them.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/a.aspx?id=1077405165

I have to agree, I have heard from Jeff Gray that the Govt got a stellar price on them and as they are a work tool they get depreciated just like a sales reps Mondeo. Plus being a diesel they were probably a lot more economical than something like a petrol Statesman. Anyway I have had a good look at a few at Turners in Wellington and the ones I saw were immaculate. Curious to know what they were going for.

FWIW the RE003's seem pretty good in the wet, for me that's important.

YEs indeed M2 has now officially gone on my want list, M4 not so much.

BMW cost cutting?

I do like Motor Trend reviews especially since Jason Cammisa has joined them. So it looks like the M2 is the better drivers car and it looks a lot better as well.

Ok thanks for that, doesn't look to difficult.

Is replacing a soft top on a Z3 straightforward? I am looking a a cheap Z3 that is a possible repower project, but the roof looks a bit rough.

Yes it was; spoke to the garage that serviced it and while they were hesitant to divulge too much they did say that mechanically it was A1.