BMW E46 M3 Thread

[kerryt5r]

Hi All,

Just thought that I would post up a few pics of the latest addition to my fleet - my E46 M3. I have been looking at these on and off for years and finally bit the bullet in early August 2015 when a fairly local one came up in a desirable (to me) colour combination. Anyway, pictures speak 1000 words:

Here it is once home, and after I had spent the whole of Sunday from 6am - 6pm cleaning out the interior and giving it a thorough wash:













Fitted some new plates/surrounds:



And then gave the car a good polish the next weekend:

Edited by kerryt5r on Thursday 10th August 13:16

[kerryt5r]

After getting myself acquainted properly with the car, I had a 2,000 mile road trip planned towards the end of September 2015 so decided to get a few bits done for piece of mind. This included an oil service, new exhaust brackets and all new front and rear discs, pads and wear sensors. Ouch - over £1K down already..

Front discs:





Rear discs:

Edited by kerryt5r on Monday 14th August 17:52

[95 fiesta si]

Very nice

[jb2410]

Lovely car in arguably one of the best colour combos, not keen on a csl plate on a normal m3 though.

[kerryt5r]

95 fiesta si said:

Very nice

cheers

jb2410 said:

Lovely car in arguably one of the best colour combos, not keen on a csl plate on a normal m3 though.

Thanks very much. Know what you mean, I thought the same originally but as the car was registered from new with that personal plate I'm now thinking that I will leave it on there

[supertouring]

Not seen that colour combo before but I have to say I do like it.

Very nice.

[f1nn]

Love that colour combo.

[ethomas]

Best colour combo. Get rid of the number plate surrounds though, they look like st and cheapen the car.

[2.5pi]

Love the interior , cinnamon?

Not sure on the window tints though but appreciate others like the drug dealer vibe

[davamer23]

Lovely colour combo and clean looking car, agree that plate surrounds look nasty and the CSL plate is a bit naff but each to their own.

[LanceRS]

Just personal opinion , but those windows spoil an otherwise very nice car. I might be inclined to lose the number plate surrounds too, but each to their own. Hope you enjoy it.

[anonymous-user]

Nice colour combination but I don't like the tints.

[kerryt5r]

Thanks all. The tints weren't my choice - came with the car and were done back in 2003 as I understand. Easy enough to remove though if I choose to, been too busy driving it since I bought it to worry too much about the cosmetics.

Did do this minor modification:

Bought a late CD player with the "MODE" button



And a cable from fruitycarcables



Replaced my tape player!



And can now plug my iphone in via this:



Works well and get to keep full functionality of cd player, stack system and aux/mode along with steering wheel volume control. Pretty pleased overall

Edited by kerryt5r on Monday 14th August 17:53

[kerryt5r]

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had a 2,000 mile European road trip planned for late September 2015, and after getting the car serviced, new discs, pads, wear sensors, handbrake shoes, exhaust brackets etc etc I was ready to go and happy that the car was in the best possible mechanical condition for the trip.

European Road Trip PART 1

Me and my girlfriend set off after work on Friday 18th September at around 4.30pm for a 7.30pm crossing



English weather meant that the car was already filthy before getting to the terminal! Oh well..



First stop was one night in Gent so as to get a chunk of the mileage done early on and leave us with more time at our destination the following day. Team Lotto pro cycling team stayed in the same hotel as us and one of the team members was up bright and early to wash all of the bikes and team cars



Here we are on the way through Belgium





And here we are at our first planned destination – Nurburgring in Germany







Did a lap cautiously in the wet – didn’t want to take any risks due to the fact that we had a lot of miles left to cover and all accommodation booked.. After my lap we went to get some dinner at the half way point in Adenau – parked next to another UK M3. Not sure if they are members on here or not?:



Next planned stop was Luxembourg city. Very nice, and we stayed in a great hotel with a nice view off towards the city

Edited by kerryt5r on Monday 14th August 17:53

[kerryt5r]

European Road Trip PART 2

The next part of our trip was a fairly long slog from Luxembourg via Switzerland to Stresa in Italy on lake Maggiore. Here are a few pics from along the way:

Services in France, not too far from the Swiss border



Stopped at the swiss border in order to purchase the annual motorway vignette



And then stopped again near to the Italian border - starting to get very scenic by this point





And this is the view from our apartment in Italy:



nice view to the right as well





We had the best part of a week in Italy which was very enjoyable and we checked out a few of the nice locations along the lake. One such location was Feriolo which had an old ice cream shop that had been open to the public for around 150 years (not in shot)



We thoroughly enjoyed our time in and around Stresa and will be going back some time. Still a few more places booked, so were still looking forward to the rest of the trip. More to follow

Edited by kerryt5r on Monday 14th August 17:54

[tozerman]

Do like your car there mate, very good choice. Me and the Mrs drive to lake garda every year, great road trip I always look forward to it.

Cheers.....Tony..

[jaacck]

lovely, arguably the best in its price range and what a colour combo.

[kerryt5r]

tozerman said:

Do like your car there mate, very good choice. Me and the Mrs drive to lake garda every year, great road trip I always look forward to it.

Cheers.....Tony..

Thanks Tony, I'm certainly very pleased with it so far. We have probably been on some of the same roads there then - what car do you take on your trip?

jaacck said:

lovely, arguably the best in its price range and what a colour combo.

Thanks very much for saying so. I do agree with that and before I decided on getting an M3 I couldn't think of much else that I would have for the money

[kerryt5r]

European Road Trip FINAL PART

By now we were 1,000 miles into our 2,000 mile trip. Our next destination was Annecy in South East France, but we had a few planned stops along the way, the first of those being Monte Bianco/Mont Blanc on the Italian/French border. We stopped on the Italian side as there is a new 360 degree panoramic cable car.

View on the way up:



Fantastic views from the top:



Thought it would be rude not to take a few photos of the car at the bottom:





And this is the view from outside the apartment we rented just outside of Annecy



Annecy itself was beautiful - we had a few days here so had a good chance to check out some of the local sights





Drove up a local mountain "col de la Forclaz" 1,157M above sea level which had a great view down over the lake we were staying on



After our time in Annecy, we then headed back to the hotel that we had previously stayed at in Luxembourg which book ended the trip quite nicely. Did a fair amount of walking and exploring in the city this time as we were there for a bit longer.

typical scenery just outside of the city:



And that was it, next day after our time in Luxembourg we headed back to the UK. Car was faultless, covered just over 2,100 miles averaging 53mph and 27.6 mpg. Another thing that surprised me about the car was how effortlessly it covered long distances. Just put the cruise control on when on motorways, and then the car can transform completely when you get to a twisty mountain pass. I didn't once feel tired on the road and the seats were surprisingly comfortable for long periods of time despite being in the car for nearly 9 hours on one of the days. Very impressed with the car 3 months in. Certainly been enjoying the car since I have been back, even more so because it is not my daily drive. Here is a pic of my car next to my younger brothers when we went out to a country pub a few weeks back



Will post up more pics as and when I do anything to the car or take it anywhere interesting

Edited by kerryt5r on Monday 14th August 17:55

[tozerman]

kerryt5r said:

Thanks Tony, I'm certainly very pleased with it so far. We have probably been on some of the same roads there then - what car do you take on your trip?

Nothing elaborate, we go in the wifes Civic, I want to take the S2000 but she always vetoes it

Cheers.....Tony..