Neil McCauley

That's usually parked about 200m from my house if anyone wants me to check it out. There's three 130i on that street alone hah.

Manual Mt1 325i vert on fballs for $35K if you want to be a cool kid like SJ and Palazzo.

Was this Will's old car? Looks familiar.

Car is looking mint as always Blair!

Does that mean Nathan has finally finished the Mt2?!

I did a end of year project on suspension kinematics at uni, but the more I learned the less I knew...

... this site has some awesome articles and is a good place to start, I wish I had this resource in 2004!

From a design perspective, the E90 stuff is pretty hard to beat. Multi-link is a massive step up from semi trailing arms, but the calculations required for things like spring rates are massively different - See link above.

Fortunately the E90 stuff (complete, including the front sub frame) has been used front and rear with an S85 in the past, although it all went into an E30 M3, so it "is" possible. See the pics attached for a possible solution - custom cradle for the rear using the same E90 pickup points, and then get that mated to the shell. Wide body will be the next step if you keep the sub frames the same width though.

If you're looking at the simplest solution at getting the power to the ground, I'd suggest a 4-link and tubbing the rear to the width of rubber you want to run - there's really nothing wrong with McPherson struts up front, and you can always build some custom coil overs with rates to your fancy. I've seen it in the rear end of an E30 with 650whp and it was an economical solution to the trailing arm problem.

1 hour ago, balancerider said:

@Neil McCauley assume you’ve seen this? All ready to tow with factory electric towbar

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/335d/listing/4690130959

Oh my! Can't say I had, although not for lack of TM trawling sitting at home with a fractured pelvis... My spacers arrived yesterday, so as soon as I'm slightly more mobile I'll list the E90 for sale (with brand new brakes, natch).

Not sure if this has been posted, but a twin cam 5 stud E30 for $10K... What's the catch?!

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/318i/listing/4661790436

Might I suggest Jagermeister Orange?

Fractured pelvis. So that's golf and snowboarding done before the season began. Stable fractures so no surgery, but I was teased fairly aggressively by the ED nurses about being under 40 and suffering an "old lady injury." Priority parking for the next 6 months though!

Got the Simple Green and then the Aerospace 303 out to clean up the plastics I'll not see for another 180xxx km. Back on the ground for a couple of days before my airfreight arrives 👀

Hey team, what are the chance of fitting a 19x8.5 ET17 wheel under F3x guards?

I'd be shocked if the first bill was only 4 figures.

Racecar MT2 M52 anyone? Go to 3.2 and it would decimate all at Race Wars.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/325i/listing/4675293669

Things were going well. Until they weren't. My kingdom for 2mm.

Love the wood, but the beige is questionable

I'm throwing money at the screen but the car isn't appearing in my garage?!

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/316i/listing/4671966332

Give us the gossip SJ!!

Absolutely insane attention to detail. Following closely!

Singaporean cars should have an engine hours gauge rather than an odometer, for the reasons Olaf mentioned.

Test pass with a Rupes yellow DA fine foam and Farcela G3 1+2 compound.

Might have to dig a bit further into the clear coat with a Rupes DA blue coarse and commensurate compound.

30 minutes ago, balancerider said:

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/330d/listing/4666067620

I know you've just splashed out on big brakes for the E90 @Neil McCauley but this looks like it ticks most of the boxes?

Hah! I saw that this morning and thought it looked bloody good - great minds etc etc

I do need to be in Wellington shortly to collect some items, so this could actually be a "cheap" courier.

In a fortunate turn of events, both Dogballs and I got the bits we wanted from SJ's set of F series big blues for sale.

I've done brakes plenty of times but this will actually be the first time I've swapped calipers out, so I have some questions about the bleed / refill process as I've heard the brembos can be a pain to bleed completely.

I'll only be running the fronts as the rears on an E90 are firmly in the way too hard basket - that or spending moonbeams on having the calipers converted to axial mount. Some quick maths on piston sizing shows that braking bias won't be affected very much, the difference being 10,202mm^2 stock compared to 10,048mm^2 for the new blues, which is a 0.4% shift in brake bias to the rear.

1) Check the bleed nipples firstly - I've heard they are prone to seizing - are these an off the shelf / generic item if I need to replace?

2) Bleeding calipers from empty - I guess the process is the same as bleeding but will obviously take longer to fully clean the system out?

3) The E90's that could be retrofitted with the 6/2piston BMW Performance yellows also had coding added to the VO as "+SPBR" - is this necessary at all?

4) Bleed the outer side of the calipers before the inner side?

Many thanks!

Best colour and interior, but jeez that's some mileage! Good E30 swap donor hah.

Hey they finally improved the front end

On 4/10/2024 at 1:08 PM, Bennyboy said:

Hi Neil is this still available?

Yep, but struggling to find the right F31 320dX I'd need to replace it with... That or an M235i because sensible winter car.