Twistee

Latest update: I pulled a couple of all nighters for work, after two days on the trot I was a tad foggy in the head. Arrived early to pick up my daughter from school, parked up as per usual turned off the car, adjusted my seat, fired up the laptop and started a meeting..... 30 minutes later, DING, low battery!!! FFS I had run the M5 out of electron juice. As they say in the classics : Hitched a ride to get my jump pack and life was vaguely back on track, but seriously - how many bits of electronic black box wizardry does it take to inform the idiot driver that maybe they should turn the ignition off before the battery is completely dead. So the moral of the story is, no idea..... something about make sure you have a towel and jump pack?

https://www.driven.co.nz/news/man-crashes-his-classic-1m-supercar/ "The accident is believed to have happened at low speeds and according to the report it was due to the driver's unfamiliarity with the manual transmission." So it had gears, a funny stick thing and a third sticky out thing by the feet. I would also be confused. Don't know whether to laugh or feel sorry for someone that paid almost $1,000,000 for that car and then darted it into a palm tree.

I think Clarkson sums it up well

Car looks great, don't you just hate nature !!!

Latest video update of the DRIVETRIBE E61 M5, most watchable as Mike is not woffling on nearly as much as normal and the car is at EVOLVE Tuning :D Biggest take away from this vid is that EVOVLE are still actively developing the full carbon inlet plenum for the S85, something that has been hinted at for more than while and many just put down to idle gossip. Time to start saving ! M5 @ EVOLVE Video PS to any mod - normally when I paste a link directly into a post it will generate the embedded video, not happening with this thread? What have I done incorrectly?

And repeat, then probably go to the red light district and top it off with a quick smoke..... WTF Netherlands, you crazy.

So not BMW, but a 3.4 Turbo Porsche that gets a stunning 24L / 100 kms open road . Yeah, so about that M5 being a gas guzzler? Obviously this a bit of click bait as the beast is old school turbo tech, and lives in 4th gear as it's a big turbo low compression setup for Germany so it doesn't have much of a chance to be economical. As expected another nice Harry vid:

Pretty sure it's the Heritage Touring cars series in AU http://www.heritagetouringcars.com.au/ , which is absolutely wonderful to watch and terrifying. A true series based on use it for what it what built for racing, and we are lucky that there are owners who have taken to the spirit of it.

@Bandit Thanks, that was a great vid. The M3 has a stab at McPhillamy, very brave . New YouTube channel to occupy life !

I'll stand by my statement having done a stint in that industry, yes it is painful because insurance continually and competently adjusts rates - but it is also a consistent income stream that you can run a shop on. @ctho GT Refinishers are also really good, close friend had a bare metal job done by them and it was stunning. But from memory they are always in demand and it took a while to get into the shop, if you are happy to wait then they are possibly worth investigating.

Best of luck finding a panel shop that wants anything but insurance work these days. It's been a long time since I had major work done, but Takapuna Panelbeaters have done a couple of full bare metal resprays for me and the work has always been fantastic - and they know how to properly fix things.

For those who cannot justify another BMW grill you could aim for the Mitsuoka Ryoga, drink enough and it totally looks the same. Avant version. Glorious, sleek grill, dripping with chrome, you would never know that there was a Nissan under that beaver front end All this for the sum of $12,500 https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/other/other/listing/3406935925?bof=jWXxlIBH

Pricing is about 10% sticker price of the car at the moment.

I bought my M5 from Southern Specialist Cars, and they are motivated to sell - and move on price and stand behind what they sell. They paid a fair amount to sort out post sale issues and I would be happy to recommend them. They have this - much newer build and far less milage. Price is not far from the asking price on the one you are interested in. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/m5/listing/3505510325?bof=IHdxNkUT

E39's are famous for being lightweight, I'm sure you would have walked it off Glad the story ended the way it did rather than you bench pressing the wagon. Must almost be ready to sort the exhaust and enjoy the new velvety ride.

Fantastic, you should be very proud @Sammo

That's great news, fingers crossed.

When you check the fuel pressure in INPA does it hold or drop off once primed ? Some good reading for the diagnostic walkthrough https://www.bimmerfest.com/threads/e90-n52-crank-but-no-start-issue.1402751/ Good luck.

Recheck your fuel pump / filter, it should absolutely fountain out of the fuel line when priming. I have been caught out assuming that a running pump and some fuel coming when priming means the pump is all good.

I don't know that I could bring myself to buy that kit with such an eye watering price, let alone hack up the wagon and orange would just clash in the engine bay.

Just take a minute to look at what they are selling for over the Tasman https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/bmw/m5/?offset=48 And that is one of the cheaper ones, pre LCI. In NZ at present I couldn't see that car moving for more than half that price. And don't think that this is anything new or a bunch of dreamers advertising M5's at an overinflated price, I've been watching this for quite a while and E60's are already starting to increase in value and are selling at those prices and higher. I would like to think that at some point NZ will follow, although I doubt any of us bought these as investments.

That's great news, NZTA can be painful to deal with. but it could have been much worse and drawn out.

@NZ00Z3 Thanks, I'll have a crack with that on the weekend.

I went to remove the rear number plate surround on the wagon, only to find that either some ass hat has bonded the number plate on with 3M or BMW has another form of black magic to hold the plate in place. I don't want to pull the plate and destroy the paintwork - any ideas? A gratuitous ass shot :