Neil McCauley

Absolute LEGEND at Mitre 10 in his E30 vert with the rear passenger seats loaded up with 8ft long planks of wood.

Was it bring your Pinball Wizard to work day?

I'll never trust a respray that blows over the black rocker panels either.

After an E9x 335d? This is the one you want. Alloy block and head M57TU2. 175,783km which will go up occasionally, RUC’s paid to 182,012km. Regged till next year and just flew through a VTNZ wof. This has been my fast / reliable daily for the last 40,000km with cost being no object to upkeep when I was commuting 160km a day. Usage case has dropped to below 8000km a year, so it's possibly time to downsize to a smaller diesel. The Good: Serviced from new at Jerry Clayton until 120xxx km, and then Continental BMW / Hell BM / Bellar's / Hansen’s Auto from 135xxx under my ownership. To my knowledge, this is the only E9x 335d in NZ with the Harmon Kardon stereo, I won't buy another BMW without it - it's such a massive improvement over the poverty versions. Very well specced for tech, with internet prep / combox / bluetooth / professional nav / usb / music via mobile all optioned in. Hardwired Passport radar as well. Has the later style Magneti Marelli xenon’s which look vastly better than the Hella version. Electronically folding tow bar that hides away under the rear bumper (spot the spelling mistake in BMW NZ's label). Under my ownership: Updated PCV valve to the improved later design, all pipes replaced. All filters replaced as required. NEW intake manifold and all gaskets replaced. New transmission sump. Wheel speed sensors. New 92AH AGM battery (genuine). 6 new glow plugs and glow plug control unit. Battery terminal and blower controller recalls carried out. Currently sitting on 19” BMW Performance style 313 wheels with Michelin PS4S rubber, the wheels were fully refinished by Arrow Wheels to as new with diamond faces, and the rubber is showing 5mm tread all round. Racechip XLR throttle controller installed, which takes all the delay out of the electronic pedal in the sportier settings. Brand new ATE discs and pads in the rear, installed 500km ago. BMW F series 4 piston Brembo performance calipers up front with 340mm floating discs (to be installed today maybe?). BMW Performance black grills installed, and I’ll throw in a NOS BMW Performance carbon fibre mirror cap, see if you can have better luck than me finding the other side to match. Black number plates installed. All of the engine work done is a “when not if” when it comes to the M57, and I wouldn’t buy and M57 without this work having been done or factoring it into the purchase price. All emissions gear is still in place, and the TU2's don't eat intake manifold butterflies like the 4 banger diesels do. The Bad: Definitely a “6fter” – the paint comes up well with a polish, but there are scratches that could be extracted from the clear coat if you wanted – winters are fairly harsh in Queenstown so it didn’t bother me that much. Rear bumper paint is cracked – I never got round to getting it booked into the panel shop. Front bumper lower edge has seen plenty of curbs over the years, but that’s par for the course for any E90 with the M-Sport front bumper, and they’re impossible to find second hand in any decent condition. Curb scratch on the LHS side skirt. Both headlight washer covers have broken, and $70 each at the stealership seemed a little egregious to me. LHS passenger door handle looks like it’s been 12 rounds with a chainsaw, suspect a previous owner’s dog used it as a chew toy, and it’s not a part that’s available as a spare. Rear seat bench has a couple of marks in it, suspect the same dog. Window tints are getting scratched up from the window rubbers, you could either replace them or remove. Stone chips? You’re gonna love them! Sadly that’s the par for the course in the deep south. Headlight lenses are showing signs of burn-in on the inside. A very common problem on this era of headlight plastic. Asking $18K. Any further queries / questions don’t hesitate to ask.

Test drove this last night, 171xxx km 1990 318iA/4 and the only E30 I've ever seen in Tizianrot. Pulled the carpets / boot liners and had a really good poke around underneath, not a bit of rust to be seen. Listed in one of the Queenstown buy/sell groups so if you want more intel / the owners details send me a PM. $6K ono which seems entirely reasonable!

Ray Haslar does great work, though I think Ray himself sold up a few years ago? They definitely do insurance work! Damn shame to hear about Takapuna Panelbeaters, they were once the go-to for E30 repairs, a lot of the racecar guys used them. Precision is still probably the cost-no-object choice on the Shore, their work speaks for itself. Wakefield did a great job on my E500, Nicholson & Hauraki I've dealt with in the past and have had good experiences with. Coast Panel & Paint up in Whangaparoa are much smaller than the big players but do great work, they've looked after plenty of E24's / E30's and Alpina's in the past.

Possibly... I'll have a search of the parts pile.

Might be the latest kiwi new car in the country? The rest of the PP vinned cars are UK imports.

M3T going through Kawarau Gorge this morning, great 4wd for winter down here!

And another. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/740il/listing/4698261042 Lush.

Damn that a shame, I test drove this last time it was for sale - one of the better 135i's in NZ! Carbon trims / handbrake + gear knob + boot price? What would the complete 677 stereo package be worth?

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.

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.