Neil McCauley

Avus 540iS got down to $16k when it was a private sale, so let’s not stoke the Sunday Garage market pricefest… To be fair it is/was an incredible car; wether you place value on buying an immaculate survivor factory specced car or a well restored facsimile is entirely up to the buyer.

Hell yes Andrew, that looks bloody mint! And very good timing as I’m looking to dump a heap of E30 bits to get refurbished. Gimme the run down on the brakes - were they blasted and powder coated?

Good luck to you mate, the negotiations on the exact same car post Covid in 2011 was at $40k, as you very well know. Can’t see any work you’ve done to add value; but you do you. Several E39 M5’s at this level or better in NZ so that’s a misnomer as well.

This will be a living document in corporate-speak, as I'm after a bunch of bits so I'll update and edit as I acquire stuff. 1) First cab off the rank is a pair of E30 M3 alloy control arms. NLA now but someone might have some NOS stock tucked away before I search overseas? 2) I'm also after the MT2 drilling templates for various body panels - these used to be stickers that you would apply to panels at the dealership if the kit was being retrofitted, obviously long NLA. I have a pair of MT2 fitted guards that I can make templates from, but I need a steel front valance to measure from so if a) someone has one that's had the front bumper attached and would sell to me or b) would be willing to take a template from?

At least you know this will sound awesome blasting through the HK stereo

Meaty rubber + big brakes + small wheels = win.

They had to swap the headlights from left to right as the first gen cars had them the other way around and looked crossed eyed 😂

How much is an F31 320i…

Barrels are an issue with the 313’s - my 19” 313’s wouldn’t clear the 340mm 4 pistons, but I understand the 380mm 4 pistons would due to the caliper spacing being further out. That’s with lower offset wheels than the 1 series version, so ymmv. Definitely worth doing some cardboard aided design beforehand.

Got a sneaking suspicion that it's got a 2.8 that Ray built? Headers and Rac Dyn cam cover look familiar from when they were in a Sterling Mt2 that got binned on the Shelley Beach Road off ramp. SJ has had it in the workshop when it was on 777MHL plates, I tried to find the pics but failed, it was immaculate iirc?

Massive temptation to put that 750 on my throwing stars in the garage.

E32 750iL E34 518i E34 3.8

Might just be coincidental, Mal has been working on putting a big diff into his E30 for a while - was even 3D scanning and modelling the underside of his E30. He’s a good dude so very doubtful he’d be involved with any shenanigans.

Not to hijack, but I’ll have a full set of pads and front discs for sale in October if any M5 owners want to do all four corners with these rears.

The lane assist in current Toyotas is something shocking, I’m regularly in a 300 and a Granace but thankfully you can switch it off. The Yaris Cross is even worse as the suspension is so soft. I believe enough people have complained about it that Toyota is issuing a software change to how aggressive it is.

Another one for S&S Wairau, they messed my old man around very recently with a screen for his Mercedes, and completely f**ked the wiper linkages. It’s not exclusive to them though, I’ve had a horror story in the past with S&S Penrose personally.

That is gorgeous, absolutely peak BMW. Price is special needs though ha.

Can potentially help getting the manifold to you if shipping is spendy, not sure when our next trip up to akl is though. Will take the super sprint off you as payment 😂

Which statement in particular? I can’t speak to the earlier cars possibly having clutch diffs, but it seems like luck of the draw if you can only tell when the rear cover is off, especially (imho only) you’re potentially getting an inferior diff. I’ve driven a couple of 250hp E30’s back to back on classic NZ country roads, one with a rebuilt clutch type diff and the other with an actual Quaife unit (before they started putting a tonne of pre-lash into them) and you could absolutely feel the difference in how the diffs achieved different results. It wasn’t clear from my initial post but I’m talking about the diff locking up not the wheels. Perhaps the subject of another topic, but changing the E30 ABS to a four channel unit and running a yaw sensor would be an awesome way to give yourself a steppable traction control system which would be ideal for NZ conditions given how wayward they can be.

Used Toyota and buy a 3 year dealer warranty.

One thing to note is the Z3 LSD's are torsen style which can lend itself to losing lock up if the inner wheel loses its contact patch, that and they only lock under acceleration, not braking like a clutch style one will. Yes the rear suspension is the "same" as an E30 but all the 2.8's also had ASC+T as well as the LSD. That and a convertible will naturally have more chassis flex than a hard top car. The MZ3 used a clutch type LSD rather than a torsen style one.

That looks legit on style 24 LTW's. More tyre is always good.

Great score! Definitely some nice fruit to peel off that - have always wondered if the 18" 313's would clear the BMWP 6 pistons as well.

Were the wheels still there @Kees?

Big set of BBS RE's it looks like too.