shadowninja

I paid over $60k for my wheels, but I wasn't shopping for a performance car. If I were spending that kinda dough with performance as a priority, I'd probably be looking at an Audi S4, Legacy GT, RX8. 350Z too impractical.

Not a big fan of the road from Owhiro bay to Brooklyn. Apparently there is a senior cop that lives out that way who has a kid at the local school... thus there is frequently a speed camera sitting just inside the change to the 50kph zone. Or did you mean Todman Street/Mitchell Street & up towards the wind turbine. Roseneath to Jville, yeah its against the traffic flow the whole way. Nice drive. My wife works down on the Cnr of Tory & Courtney, very conveniently one block away from Shelleys.

Yep I usually go from town up Marjoribanks Street, Hawker Street Mt Victoria to Roseneath (where I live) then down around Oriental Parade through city to the motorway. Then its out Tawa, back along that same back road of yours to Churton Park, along the motorway to city. That combines the hills, corners, city, motorway and spirited backroad/uneven surface (plus its an excuse to take a nice car out for a good 40-60 minutes depending on traffic.) I haven't seen the 6-series in the flesh yet, but was speaking with a friend of ours who upgrades his two new BMWs every year (currently owns a Z4 and an X5). They tried to sell him one but seems overpriced... I stand by my previous comments that its just a 545i with a bodykit (and two fewer doors). I'd rather buy an M3 for $145k and spend the rest on a second car, or a 2-month touring the Autobahns & Autostradas around Europe.

I know that road very well, used to drive it at least twice a day for years (used to live up on Jubilee Rd) Saw one just like that on the road today actually, coming down Aotea Quay, looked good. ... there is a BMW 545i too... same engine as the 645i. (maybe we should start a new thread on this one instead of hijacking the poor Compact.)

You tease.. Don't make us come over there & b!tch slap you.

Weird... whereabouts in Khandallah & I'll try it with my wheels. Tyres overinflated, suspension not calibrated... who knows? Mind you alot of the 'safety' functions on the late model mercs don't even tell you when they're operating. I haven't seen the spec lists side by side, but I'd believe it. The upper level Lexus models sure are decked out with impressive gear on paper. Have you seen the new colour digital camera screens for parking on the LS models? I didn't see him on the lot, but I did see Pip, another girl ex-Shelly BMW. I have only ridden an S3 (albeit around the track at Manfeild). Theres a '98 model S4 sedan up at that lot at the moment. In the older shape, still looks very fine.

Yeah nice ride.Chirping the VSC may have something to do with the fact that the GS300 has about 160-170kW instead of the 90-odd that you currently drive! The road surfaces can leave much to be desired through Khandallah, and with the suspension of the Lexus you probably wouldn't notice it much. When we were shopping for this Beemer, we tested the IS200 Lexus, and it just seemed more sterile than the BMW. Although it had more power it wasn't as engaging to drive. I checked out a few cars at the Team Euro yard by the motorway onramp, including a very nice RS4 (only $120k) No time for a test-drive, dang.

Yeah that would have been me in Jville, heading off to a client meeting. I work in Jville actually. I don't remember seeing a black GS300 (and my eyes are normally open for hot cars). Very nice car though... the IS series would be more comparable to a BMW 3-series in terms of size/performance. Are you thinking of buying one? 318 the 3-series sport you refer to isn't a compact that I know of, its based on the 318iSE with the M-sport upgrade. Oh and E30 323ti the new BMW 318s are all 105kW with the 2.0L engine, 200Nm of torque.

This car sounds legendary. Redline at 55kph... in reverse?

No kids? Then go for the 3-series Coupe not the Compact!

Compact. Not my cuppa.

Panzer... something a little more german maybe?

Yeah I loved my S15, it was an awesome ride. Good road handling (though a bit of body roll). Quick off the mark, though still very easy to upset the back end, especially with the original Bridgestone feet on it.BTW the Sherman tank is American, perhaps you mean a Panzer?

The back end looks like a truck ran into it. And the front end looks like its squinting in bright lights. The normal 318i SE looks much better.

Have a look at some of the other carbage pics on that site. Is this your dream shopping page or what.

http://www.topgear.com/content/fun_stuff/c...carbages/31/03/ Only in Japan?

Yeah SR20DET rocks... you should check out how much power some of those silvia guys get out of their blocks. Check out http://www.nissansilvia.co.nz/

Uhh... nope As plausible as that sounds... But it could do with a 250hp SR20DET 200SX engine. Best of both worlds.

Haha the only work I did to my Nissan was add a turbo timer. That is... before I traded it in on the bimmer. Dang it was a quick car though!

And AFTER!

OK here's my before picture...

Speaking of M3s there are two E46 models that arrived at Shelleys in the last few days. $120k & $126k. Not sure what we'd want for our wheels, we paid around $65k about 6-7 months ago.

Looks interesting... too bad I'm tied up this weekend.

They want $70,000 for a 2001 model, 36,000km$80,000 for the 2002 model 10,000km

I quite like my steptronic, more fun than my previous car (automatic). It would be better if the lag time in changing gear was reduced (I think some of the new steptronic transmissions can be a 20ms change time... The way I see it is that steptronic gives you the best of both worlds... being able to amble around down in Drive or Sports Drive if you don't feel like changing 1st-2nd-1st-2nd-3rd-1st but still change down for corners & maintain control.