Michael.

M3 CSL Saw the beauty parked in Ellerslie heights, had to stop for a look....... what a machine!

Thats beautiful. I'd buy that tomorrow if I didn't have all my cash tied up at the moment.

HA, word.

Not unless you want to keep spending money.

What a beauty.

Fitted an M-tec bumper and put the fog lights back in. Sporty.

Interesting James... did you use Bilstein Heavy duty or sport shocks?

Fantastic. How does it go with the H&R + Bilstein kit?

Hmmm not so keen on the small bonnet stripes personally. Should have gone for the full effect

This is what it looks like inside.

Bit like that RS6 crash where the car split in half.... Is it me or do more of these new cars like to do that.... I don't think I've seen older cars breaking appart at the seems like these newer cars do.

Wow, thats an excellent figure, bang on what most E39 540i manuals are making form what I discovered. Have you had your 540i manual on the dyno Ian? .

Due to taking a different route and running a manual gearbox I wont be need this SMG M3 shifter I bought from the UK In good condition off a late 90s M3. The idea of it was to adapt it to work with a Toyota 4 Speed automatic, and a stand alone transmission controller to manually shift the gears and have the option of putting it into full automatic too. Trade Me After $200, comes with all as shown.

Ah thats right, I vaguely remember seeing an M3 with airbag panels in the door card for that reason. .

I was just wondering what, to anyones knowledge were some of the most up to date and safest cars back in the late 90s and early 00s. From what I gather the E39 and E38 were pretty safe machines from BMW, Audis A8/S8s were up there too, The Lexus LS and GS series, but what about those from Mercedes and other reputable manufacturers? I guess the main problem is though with these cars being around 10 years+ now days you have to question whether or not will the equipment that makes them safe may not perform as it should... I mean who knows how well a 10 year old air bag would work, same goes for the chassis when it crumples, will it perform the same as it did brand new with no miles on it? As much as I like my E36s, their lack of side impact protection & side airbags does bother me, especially in Auckland with it's many inconsiderate drivers. I'm not being paranoid about having an accident, but I would like to think I could drive a car that at least offered some genuine protection other than a thin skin of steel.

Thats a beauty.

I was going to use this for my project, but I already have a more ideal pair of mufflers for it so this is somewhat unneeded. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=349857586 BMW E92 2006-2009 M3 V8 Rear muffler assembly In excellent condition, removed from a low kilometer 2007 example. Stainless Construction Internally this exhaust runs a true dual setup, there are no balancing pipes inside. This costs thousands new from BMW, the tips alone come at a cost. Pick up Central Auckland $450 for anyone here, or make me an offer.

Ah, I've just done that now. I would have used your Xtra email address, but chances are you wouldn't receive it as I have a Hotmail address, and a lot of the time it goes straight to the junk inbox. Might be best to try sending it from your end to me at, M62B44@hotmail.com .

I'm pretty sure there was a crack at the top of that washer tank Nick, on the neck of the tank or the cap, but I remember the odd leak when it was full. Hmmm K&N filters, they are a bout 3-4x the cost of a stock type, they may flow better being less restrictive, but let in more particles as a trade off.. I don't see them being that worth while. If you want to get one, heres a link from Pelican Parts. ~ $55 + $37 USD shipping. (about $121 NZD or so) K&N Air filter

Reading up on those, they quote 40lb as stock weight and 13lb as their alloy version. Quite a saving if that is the case! $798 USD though, usual rate for light weight flywheels right?

Generally, Is the only way to manual one of these M60/62 V8s to import the right gearbox from overseas?

As far as I know, they E39s just have slightly less build quality than some of the earlier cars, so you may have to spend a bit at times replacing broken bits, electronics etc, but really I think its a small trade off for what is a very good car that cost in excess of 140K back when new. I've thought the same thing about E34s, I want a 540i, a E34 would be nice, but I feel they are too dated and not especially safe when compared to the more recently developed E39. Plus after owning a E34 540i, I feel it was good, little dated being so related to the E32, but Ive been there and done that so time to try an E39. Apparently the E39 chassis is one of the strong points, considerably more rigid than the E34 and I would expect E36 too, so with motorsport suspension, or a decent branded shock, spring, sway bar and wheel/tire setup they would handle pretty well for a car over the 1.5 tonne mark. They respond well in crashes so the chassis is pretty well engineered. I don't think many 10k-15k cars would be any better, especially dating back to the mid-late 90s. I've done some researching recently as later this year I'm looking for a 540i E39, seems most manual ones are putting out around 180rwkw-200rwkw with a few slight modifications. Easily a 200+ rwkw car with the right upgrades, tuned of course. A stock automatic one I would expect would be at least 160-175rwkw or where abouts, but who knows all these results can vary a lot. Personally I want to go for the non vanos 1996-1998/8 models as from what I gather they are better to modify and are ideal to rev higher having a higher peak power output, the Vanos version are more suited to crusing at the lower end of the rev range. Chances are though I will find a perfect 1999-2000 example and end up going for that despite my preference at the moment.... we shall see!

Heh damn, how dramatic was the gearboxes failure? This was always a worry of mine with my 540i back when I had it in 2009... especially since it was my first BMW then. But yeah, a good idea to convert it to manual if you are prepared to part with the money.

I have sent you a message!

Hmmm very interesting...