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Ok, about time I got around to doing this, and if I don't do it now then I'll get too far and miss stuff off. These journals are a great way of recording what has been done to a car if nothing else.
Back story... my previous BMs:
1996 e36 323i coupe
1994 e36 M3 3.0 coupe
1998 e36/7 Z3 1.9
2002 e36/7 Z3 3.0 Sport
(access to www.BMWowner.com required)
History lesson over.
Over the winter I had the M3 all sorted after her... misadventure at the 'ring. New alternator and radiator were popped in her and she was all ready to go! Then one Saturday night I kicked myself off the sofa and I went out in her for a thrash... sublime! I put her up against my mates stock e46 M3 and from both a standing and a rolling start she literally handed him his arse... To say she was quick was an understatement! The combination of weight reduction and mods had made her into a real weapon.
When I got home, after tucking her up safely in the garage I sat on the sofa with a cold Peroni and I pondered... Whilst I loved the 3.0 Z3 I kinda felt as if I wanted something M for daily use. I was fed up of saying "But my other car is a monstrous M3... (honest!)". I had tried taking the M3 to work one day but it scuffed over the one speed hump on the way to work... so I carried on drinking the Peroni until I came to the conclusion that what I wanted was a Z4M Coupe, sell both the cars I owned and buy one I'd love and use every day.
Great, now I had something to think about, so I found one, went to look at it and... meh.
I wasn't bowled over if I'm honest. Very capable, very pretty, very rare... but just missing something. I didn't fall in love. So I went home and carried on my search for another, before spotting a Z3M Coupe. Quickly I changed the search parameters on Piston Heads and AutoTrader and there she was, a Dakar Yellow beast. I had always loved the M Coupe's looks, real Marmite. Splits people down the middle. You can't help but notice it, especially in yellow.
So I went to look at it in the Z3 3.0, left that there and drove the MC home! Is it time for pics yet? I think so, this is how I found her:
Initial mods were carried out on the spot, carrying over things like the strut brace, e46 ClubSport knob, LED front side markers, sport aerial, iridium front , SilverVision rear and silver side indicator bulbs, aero wipers, etc.
The car itself came with a great chunk of history. Highlights of that were a new Dr VANOS unit just 5k ago, a pair of replacement clutches, the first one at a local garage for £400, which the owner at the time had written "NEW CLUTCH RUBBISH" on the receipt!), the second was carried out by BMW with a new flywheel too and that came in at £1900. The BMW technician had written on the top of it "You might want to fit a braided line as the new clutch feels the same as the old one"! Haha! The next receipt was from Munich Legends who'd fitted a "braided clutch hose, supplied in car", hehe! On top of that on a visit to BMW the service guys there had informed me that the boot floor had been replaced by BMW for a rather large sum of money just 5k miles ago. Awesome, that's all the weak bits covered then!
One thing I had noticed was that the rear number plate holder was in the boot... rather than being ON the boot as it should have been! A little fiddling and it was back on with some nice new BMW number plates:
Job done! Next up, whilst driving to work, the clutch assistor spring had fired out of the pedal, it worked fine without it but when I went to replace it I found that the trim down by the pedals is missing, so that got replaced:
I fitted the old OEM fire extinguisher from the 3.0 Z3:
New rear wiper blade, check the box it arrived in too! Haha!
Back story... my previous BMs:
1996 e36 323i coupe
1994 e36 M3 3.0 coupe
1998 e36/7 Z3 1.9
2002 e36/7 Z3 3.0 Sport
(access to www.BMWowner.com required)
History lesson over.
Over the winter I had the M3 all sorted after her... misadventure at the 'ring. New alternator and radiator were popped in her and she was all ready to go! Then one Saturday night I kicked myself off the sofa and I went out in her for a thrash... sublime! I put her up against my mates stock e46 M3 and from both a standing and a rolling start she literally handed him his arse... To say she was quick was an understatement! The combination of weight reduction and mods had made her into a real weapon.
When I got home, after tucking her up safely in the garage I sat on the sofa with a cold Peroni and I pondered... Whilst I loved the 3.0 Z3 I kinda felt as if I wanted something M for daily use. I was fed up of saying "But my other car is a monstrous M3... (honest!)". I had tried taking the M3 to work one day but it scuffed over the one speed hump on the way to work... so I carried on drinking the Peroni until I came to the conclusion that what I wanted was a Z4M Coupe, sell both the cars I owned and buy one I'd love and use every day.
Great, now I had something to think about, so I found one, went to look at it and... meh.
I wasn't bowled over if I'm honest. Very capable, very pretty, very rare... but just missing something. I didn't fall in love. So I went home and carried on my search for another, before spotting a Z3M Coupe. Quickly I changed the search parameters on Piston Heads and AutoTrader and there she was, a Dakar Yellow beast. I had always loved the M Coupe's looks, real Marmite. Splits people down the middle. You can't help but notice it, especially in yellow.
So I went to look at it in the Z3 3.0, left that there and drove the MC home! Is it time for pics yet? I think so, this is how I found her:
Initial mods were carried out on the spot, carrying over things like the strut brace, e46 ClubSport knob, LED front side markers, sport aerial, iridium front , SilverVision rear and silver side indicator bulbs, aero wipers, etc.
The car itself came with a great chunk of history. Highlights of that were a new Dr VANOS unit just 5k ago, a pair of replacement clutches, the first one at a local garage for £400, which the owner at the time had written "NEW CLUTCH RUBBISH" on the receipt!), the second was carried out by BMW with a new flywheel too and that came in at £1900. The BMW technician had written on the top of it "You might want to fit a braided line as the new clutch feels the same as the old one"! Haha! The next receipt was from Munich Legends who'd fitted a "braided clutch hose, supplied in car", hehe! On top of that on a visit to BMW the service guys there had informed me that the boot floor had been replaced by BMW for a rather large sum of money just 5k miles ago. Awesome, that's all the weak bits covered then!
One thing I had noticed was that the rear number plate holder was in the boot... rather than being ON the boot as it should have been! A little fiddling and it was back on with some nice new BMW number plates:
Job done! Next up, whilst driving to work, the clutch assistor spring had fired out of the pedal, it worked fine without it but when I went to replace it I found that the trim down by the pedals is missing, so that got replaced:
I fitted the old OEM fire extinguisher from the 3.0 Z3:
New rear wiper blade, check the box it arrived in too! Haha!
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