Quavey

231bhp is it manual or auto? With that milage there cant be much wrong with it, BUT watch for overheating being broken fans and thats about all with them really IIRC Don't assume anything with spec on a BMW, basically you buy the car and get some air inside for free... everything is an optical extra! (IIRC there were at LEAST two types of folding mirrors lol back and up!) To be honest i wouldnt want to take finance on a car, wouldnt want to be paying it off when the car is devaluing! Also, what if you go to buy a house £258 out of your wage will be a big chunk if your trying to afford a mortgage... trusting your not on stupid money of course! Shame about the random M badge.... hopefully it'll come of without making a mark!

Dad had something similar years ago with his old 740i, which a the time had done 130k or so, took it to the local garage for an MOT which was also a ford dealer, tested the emissions and nothing came up on the machine, they thought the machine was broken so took a nearly new mondingo 1.8i of the forecourt to check the emissions and it read those okay! So they just don't expect anything from his cars anymore... lol

Blimey blast from the past! LOL Yeah mine weer spot on after I did them, although I only did the fronts :)

fantastic, i'll go and buy another v8! :D

Just out of interest what do you pay for your car tax? It should be of course under the old rules of below 1549cc then the low rate and above 1549cc then the higher rate... If you can show them this it might help your cause, although it'll only proove that its older than march 01...

+1 Picked one up of a garage floor and carried it out to the boot of my old laguna to take it down when i had mine converted, thought my eyes and arms were gonna pop out! I put it in the car and the comedy suspension just kept sinking! Much hulk noises were needed! Not as heavy as the autobox that the laguna came back with, sold that to a fella and nearly put it through the floor of his gf's 106! Couldnt believe how far the lagunas suspension kept comnig up meaning we had to lift it further... Anyawy, F'in heavy 65kgs sounds about right!

I much prefer the open ones, ment to put that in my post but forgot LOL I ahd a closed one at Oulton last wednesday and HATED IT, it was like talking into a scafe all day. Couldnt breath properly or concentrate since my vision was half covered.

You need to decide if you want a closed or open face mate, you can hire them for not alot of cash on the day, ranges between 10 and 30 quid but if you do several it soon mounts up! I need to get one as well ive been told figures between 50 and 100 so thats the sort of ball park you'll need i think.

Blimey mate! Cant believe it. Im hoping that she'll realise she's making a mistake. I cant imagine what must be runnnig through your head. I hope you can sort things out again. A friend of mine went through something similar, within a few weeks she realised what she had with him and it was a bit rocky at first but they are well back on track now and have had their first kid together. They are now stronger than ever before, so keep hopeful!

I was thinking that about the NA front bumper, defo got a front mount?

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There is normally a guy or two there taking photos, but they charge you quite alot for them. I paid £30 for the 37 images i got, they don't like combining cars onto a disk which is a bit unfair, it wouldnt be so bad if it was £10 or £15 but at that price is daylight robbery! Open pit is good, if you are a novice you can get a black cross on a yellow background sticker to put on the car to let people know that your new to it, end of the day as long as you let the quicker stuff pass you when you can you'll not upset anyone! Just dont be too suprised when a mk1 fiesta comes bowling along and nails past you, or like i was yesterday when a H reg rover 200 was up my chuff... One of the few cars that overtook me yesterday and im still reeling from it!

I could have just punched you in the arm, woudl have made it sore without the agro of having to risk catching something from your local NHS drop in centre!

Well the last one I did before yesterday was a novice session which was very good actually (although often lots of poor drivers out there...) but they were happy to guide and had instructors on hand to sit in with you etc. That was a sessioned day, so there were 3 groups of cars that each have a 20 minute session each hour, so Groups A, B and C, A goes out on the hour, B goes out at 20 past and C goes out and 20 to. The idea there is taht you get 7x 20 minute sessions of track time, not too hard on your own physique (believe me its tiring!) and the car. But the problem is with that if someone stuffs it on a bend after 5 minutes, then you'll probably loose the rest of the entire session. Yesterdays was "Open pit" where by there is no segregation, you just go out as and when (but there is a max limit of cars on the track (24 i think) so they hold you in a que until someone goes off. Normally though you can go out for as long as you want and then come back in again. I did a 35-40 minute session yesterday (was almost dead after it but there we go) but often as people crash they have to get everyone off while they recover the "spinner" and that wastes a bit of time but at least you can get out again! Its an hour and a half run down for me, but if its a weekend its not that far from my gf's and its a nice run out as long as its not arseing it down like yesterday!

Cheers, i must admit I like the pictures in the rain, looks like a BMW press shot... honest! (Apart from the undertray hanging off! :( ) What day are you going on mate? Might see if im around for some spectating ;) I can highly recommend it! BUT I will stress to you (as the marshalls don't always mention it! Be so so careful around Druids (basically after the first bridge when you've gone up the hill) as its under the trees and even on a dry warm day it gets greasy and slippery. Yesterday it was making everything oversteer if they were enthusiastic! I found that even the slightest touch of the throttle was me battling with it. I could feel the texture of the road was like glass through my arse and the steering wheel, such a strange sensation!

Ah... An e28 535i? I did see it and wondered what was on it! Seemed a wick thing I have to say. I love Oulton park, fantastic circuit... I didnt crash though ;) hehe Do you track you zed then? Where abouts near kendal are you?

Saw you leaving the paddock yesterday afternoon, a friend of mine had told me there was a zed kicking about but I didnt see it until you left. Sounded well and looked clean!

Some friends and I went down to Oulton park yesterday for a rather damp and soggy track day, early start, crap weather and some annoying traffic on a wednesday morning but other than that it was a cracking day! Car did very well in the wet, although Im remembering my earlier comments about my Michelin Pilots being good in the wet, I'm not so sure now! Plenty of sideways action! Dare I say it, I prefer the wet to the dry? Its far more interesting and fun to try and get the very best out of the car round a soaking track! I was dreading it but I learnt so much about the car, how it handled and coped with the ever changing track surface, slithering through most corners was fantastic! I find its far less hard on the car as well! I decided to buy the pictures from the track day photographer, at vast expense but no chance of any pictures if i didnt so needs must!. These are some of my favourite pictures from the day, a very soggy M3 and an even soggier Oulton Park!

theres one on my old zed thats in southern ireland! So if you can find it... try and buy it, and let me know how the old girls gettig on! Obviously you'd have to be pretty desperate for the gearknob.... It was a good knob though ;)

Now run in, according to the manual! Its now got 1230 miles on the clock... bearing in mind it had 64 on it on sunday afternoon I think i've done fairly well! Its been a tiring week I have to say. Hell fire it doesnt half shift for a van, its quicker than most cars out on the road! Accelerating away from roundabouts is quite enjoyable! Once its plylined and insulated to calme a bit of the rear end noise I'd recommend it to anyone. Although don't bother with the satnav, its pretty crap as you would expect!

Happy birthday mate!

Hehe mine is an E36 though, thought u were looking for an E46? I could be pursauded given the right offer lol... The E36 is no where near as good as the E46, people will try and tell you they perform the same in a straight line (as long as its an evo, with a lower ration diff etc) but to be honest they don't. The E46 is streets ahead of the E36 in terms of looks, refinement and the driving feel. Not to say the E36 is a bad car, but the E46 is better in almost every way! Bearings in oil pumps i think is something to watch out for on the E46 from memory, most have it done by BMW but there might be the odd one thats slipped through the net. I'll read up on that tho... lol

Fuel is the least of your worries! They are very economical for the performance. Mine does 35mpg on a steady run on the motorway and about 26mpg the rest of the time. My 300zx over the same type of driving returned about 22 on the motorway and 13-15 lol... Servicing intervals are quite long on the E46, as long as its warmed up properly etc, so they arnt so bad BUT it can be quite expensive when the servicing comes around :)

Like every coupe?... LOL :nana2: Get one mate! Just realised i hadnt replied to your pm... will do it now :) Although i rather think your on a different track now! Just remember that purchase cost and insurance isnt the only cost, servicing IS expensive, no good getting a back garage to look at them as they are not a simple car to look after. Take your time looking and ALWAYS buy on condition, not milage. 50k over 8 years of being kicked around back lanes is alot worse than 100k on the motorway sat at 80 in 6th over the same 8 years! I would try and buy a standard one if you can, and look for the full history, preferably all main dealer but at a push mostly main dealer and a couple of well known specialists. Someone hand writing their own "I changed the oil" etc, is NOT good enough.

it might have been grey.... some beer had been drunk, and I dont drink so the affect was compounded!