leichtbau

God I miss being a mod. I would just ban this moron and his previous accounts.

Funnily enough, just before I hit submit reply I thought about mentioning the obvious about the service life of tensioners and guides, but I thought I'd entertain myself and see how long it took someone to jump on it.

The N47S seems to have avoided the timing chain issue, and Alpina used it in their D3 E90's. I'm inclined to agree with @balancerider wrt N47 chain issues being magnified by the internet. Yes, there are noisy chains out there, and yes, there was a recall, and yes, some failed, but as always, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. In my experience if it hasn't let go before 100xxx km, it's not going to.

I hear David Clarke is keen on testing the range next lockdown.

https://cdn.recaro-automotive.com/fileadmin/00-corporate-website/pdf/en/downloads/recaro-classic-ls-lx-en.pdf?v=1621256416 Pricing down the bottom… They’re quite a bit more expensive than I thought they’d be.

CLK63 is porn! Was that the one on TM recently with the video of it slithering all over Hampton Downs? M113K / M156 / M157 which made the best noise? Three of the all time great AMG engines.

M30 would have struggled with cambelt failure I think...

Done 125xxx km so far between an E350 and now the E500. Great cars. That s211 E55K on TM was mighty tempting but towing the oil refinery behind to keep refueling it would have got old pretty quick. Wouldn't mind an s211 E63 if there are any in the country though!

Fishnets are a good look in E30's, they're also identical to Recaro LS aside from the headrest (obviously). Plenty of places stock bolster foam, so you've got the option of rebuilding some shagged seats to your perfect spec with new cloth etc, ooooor you could buy some brand new LS / LX straight from Recaro, who are now making them again. I know which option I'd be going for.

You, I like you 😂

Nothing says the E30 market has jumped the shark like publicly admitting to a charge of conversion. Why oh why would you do this instead of spending $450 on a cert to get the 318i shell legal with a 2.5 - Further to this; the M20 and M40 airbox mounts in the engine bay are located differently, did anyone save a photo of the engine bay? At least the guy who did it was up front about it, otherwise you can add fraud charges to that as well. https://motoringmessageboard.com/topic/71613/page-2/swapping-vin-plates-and-tags seems this might not be super uncommon with E30's in NZ...

I'm phoning a friend, but 11 years off the road and no engine lines up nicely with a friends burgundy 13B PP T68 mt1 that is to this day the fastest car I've ever been in.

Regarding the E30 M3, almost all of those rust repairs are a piece of piss (aside from the horror story that is the sunroof panel, hooooo boy, just buy a new panel from BMW NZ like I'm about to do), the real challenge would be finding a body guy that can hide the welds. Easy enough to coin the new panels in, but burnishing to invisible will be the challenge. The rust around the front aerial would quantify any other E30 as terminal, but omg E30 M3. The real question should be why that car is rusting in areas that aren't the usual E30 spots...

Of all the things to buy on aliexpress... This is one of them.

@Harper might have skimmed over it, but what's the plan for running non folding PP's up front? Rear belts removed and a seat delete? Further to that, I'd be interested to find how the CSL got around this - are the CSL seats a Recaro model and how did their tilting mechanism work? Edit: have to laugh at that video, the rebound in the suspension it was running is woeful. You'd have to wonder if that factored into its demise.

L4 at the moment, so a ballsy move to drop c. $40K sight unseen, esp as the seller has skirted the rod bearing question previously (I believe)? I guess the seller is really feeling the pinch, there were bidders getting close to $50K without reserve being met in previous attempts to sell were there not. Will have this on a second screen with the AB's second half. Edit: awful car or massive market correction??

What's most surprising is just how many they actually made: 5,703 produced, not including the 555 Alpina V8 roadsters. To put it into perspective, some other production numbers: E34 M5 Touring - 209 E34 M5 3.8/6 - 542 E61 M5 - 1,025 E82 1M - 6,342 E39 M5 RHD - 2,595 E36 M3/4/6 - 1,990 Almost a quarter of the entire S62 26,185 engine production went into the Z8...

386M's. Fronts 7.5Jx18 ET45, Rears 8Jx18 ET52. 4mm more poke up front and 3mm less poke on the rears compared to pre LCI 130i 7.5/8" wheel sets.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/other/listing/3247005872?bof=qu8482P5

Put up large signs saying that there’s camera surveillance and some dummy cameras.

Just to clarify for the others reading, the 335i/d had the 4 piston Brembo fronts regardless (Brembo pad shape 1609), but sliding single piston Bosch / ATE calipers in the rear if just 337 optioned, and the 2 piston Brembo rear caliper if optioned with 2NH. Might as well delve quickly into it, but up front the 337 "greys" ran a 340x30 blank disc, which then went to a 370x30 blank disc for 2NA and the M Performance retrofit was a 370x30 with a dimpled and slotted disc. Out back the 337 disc was 330x20 blank, 2NA was 345x24 blank, and M Performance retrofit was 345x24 dimpled and slotted. Given the number of variables I would say that some coding was involved WRT brake bias when retrofitting.

airflow has some awesome videos of the '92 Auckand Airport airshow when the Russians brought over heaps of toys. re: the video, that white 635csi sounds angry AF - Jerry's Group A maybe?

difflab.com.au if "local" is across the ditch.

Great spec on this F31 335d xenons / HK audio / even has painted brakes (why do 335d's so often have the unfinished calipers?)

Further to what @ssbmw said, two 540i LE's have sold for $48.5K and $50K respectively inside the last 24hrs. Always good to keep a weather eye on carsales.com.au Pic attached is the "unicorn" possibly the last 540i/6 produced #797/797 and the last M-Sport optioned car produced; 21xxx km as of 07/21 😮