Discussion
A bit of car history first,
Last year I purchased my first M3 in the shape of a 129,000 mile E46 in carbon black. It was bought at a local trade auction for silly money purely with the intention of using it for a three week Euro tour. After renovating the brakes with race fluid, braided lines, new discs and Carbon lorraine pads, and also adding a new clutch (Didn't need one, but was more of a pre-emptive change), it completed the tour faultlessly. We covered 4000 odd miles, including Monaco, Monza, Venice, Stelvio, the eagles nest, BMW and porsche factories and of course the ring! I sold it shortly after the trip due to paranoia that the engine or some other expensive bit may let go on me. Here are some pictures of the old girl.
I regretted selling it massively and almost immediately began looking for another car. The initial thought was to buy an alpine white E92 but having test driven one (along with other similar priced porsches, TVR's and Lotii) I felt it lacked the rawness and fun factor that the '46 had. It would have been a great all rounder, but with the low miles that I do, I felt i could justify something a bit more raw and unique but still with the BMW build quality and reliability. Having visited and spoken to a local CSL owner I was totally smitten, and went about the search to find the right car.
I ended up settling on a SB car down in manchester, with 55k on the clock and FBMWSH.
Some photos from the for sale add.
For the first couple of weeks of ownership the roads were wet and couldn't really get to grips with it. But a couple of recent dry runs have built up my confidence with the car, and am now fully in love with it. From the incredible noise, beautiful seats and interior to the superb standard suspension and M-track traction mode. The car just comes alive on B-roads of which there are plenty around me. I now find myself constantly making detours and a 12 mile journey home will often become a 40 mile afternoon of B road blasting. Even the SMG box which I was fairly worried about getting along with, is great, with lovely auto blips on down change and brutally fast upshifts even in S5.
Here are some pictures from my first 3 weeks of ownership. (If anyone fancies editing any of the photos to bring them up a bit better let me know and I can send the originals over, would be much appreciated).
The other M3 is a lovely SMG that my sisters other half has just bought.
Heres a small video to give you an idea of the sound. Obviously the clip was taken on a private road at no more than 70mph!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0Bcjme5jIc
(I am aware that there is slight clutch slur, hopefully having it reset when the cable and software arrives next week as it has recently had a new clutch)
Future plans are;
- Remove the front tints and put a full size front plate, as recommended at a £60 fee by a nice chap from the grampian police!
- Fit ap's to the front or at least better pads and fluid as they are fairly inadequate at the moment.
- Try and keep it clean on our mucky roads
- Attend the CSL homecoming tour round Europe at the end of May!
Last year I purchased my first M3 in the shape of a 129,000 mile E46 in carbon black. It was bought at a local trade auction for silly money purely with the intention of using it for a three week Euro tour. After renovating the brakes with race fluid, braided lines, new discs and Carbon lorraine pads, and also adding a new clutch (Didn't need one, but was more of a pre-emptive change), it completed the tour faultlessly. We covered 4000 odd miles, including Monaco, Monza, Venice, Stelvio, the eagles nest, BMW and porsche factories and of course the ring! I sold it shortly after the trip due to paranoia that the engine or some other expensive bit may let go on me. Here are some pictures of the old girl.
I regretted selling it massively and almost immediately began looking for another car. The initial thought was to buy an alpine white E92 but having test driven one (along with other similar priced porsches, TVR's and Lotii) I felt it lacked the rawness and fun factor that the '46 had. It would have been a great all rounder, but with the low miles that I do, I felt i could justify something a bit more raw and unique but still with the BMW build quality and reliability. Having visited and spoken to a local CSL owner I was totally smitten, and went about the search to find the right car.
I ended up settling on a SB car down in manchester, with 55k on the clock and FBMWSH.
Some photos from the for sale add.
For the first couple of weeks of ownership the roads were wet and couldn't really get to grips with it. But a couple of recent dry runs have built up my confidence with the car, and am now fully in love with it. From the incredible noise, beautiful seats and interior to the superb standard suspension and M-track traction mode. The car just comes alive on B-roads of which there are plenty around me. I now find myself constantly making detours and a 12 mile journey home will often become a 40 mile afternoon of B road blasting. Even the SMG box which I was fairly worried about getting along with, is great, with lovely auto blips on down change and brutally fast upshifts even in S5.
Here are some pictures from my first 3 weeks of ownership. (If anyone fancies editing any of the photos to bring them up a bit better let me know and I can send the originals over, would be much appreciated).
The other M3 is a lovely SMG that my sisters other half has just bought.
Heres a small video to give you an idea of the sound. Obviously the clip was taken on a private road at no more than 70mph!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0Bcjme5jIc
(I am aware that there is slight clutch slur, hopefully having it reset when the cable and software arrives next week as it has recently had a new clutch)
Future plans are;
- Remove the front tints and put a full size front plate, as recommended at a £60 fee by a nice chap from the grampian police!
- Fit ap's to the front or at least better pads and fluid as they are fairly inadequate at the moment.
- Try and keep it clean on our mucky roads
- Attend the CSL homecoming tour round Europe at the end of May!
Edited by Gingernuts on Thursday 7th March 11:11
Edited by Gingernuts on Thursday 7th March 11:11
Edited by Gingernuts on Thursday 7th March 11:28
Wow what a purchase for just one trip. Personally I feel you took the biggest gamble buying a CSL with a 129,000 miles on the clock but if it behaved during the trip and felt like a good tight car, then I think I would have been very tempted to have kept it.
I’d like one of these to park next to my MK1 Focus RS in my garage of fun!
Nick
I’d like one of these to park next to my MK1 Focus RS in my garage of fun!
Nick
Ah, you got one then, that's lovely 
I remember chatting to you at the karting day up near Banff last year, I thought your old one was a CSL cos of the front splitters. I was the guy with the red Leon Cupra R. I thought your old one looked pretty mint, never have known how many miles it had done!
Hopefully see this one on another run sometime soon.
I remember chatting to you at the karting day up near Banff last year, I thought your old one was a CSL cos of the front splitters. I was the guy with the red Leon Cupra R. I thought your old one looked pretty mint, never have known how many miles it had done!Hopefully see this one on another run sometime soon.
Cheers for the comments guys.
Lovely E92 there! Best colour too!
The old one got a good going over to bring it up to scratch when i got it, new indicators splitters, grilles etc. The interior was far better than many of the low mileage examples i had driven. Drove really well to, and was sold with 142,000 on it and no subframe issues (just to prove that it didn't happen to all of them!).
The helicopter is a friend of the old owners, apparently one of the previous owners was Noel Edmunds haha!
I remember the Cupra, still love the shape of them, and looked mean in the rear view!!
I'm always up for a hoon, pretty much all I do when Im home from work is go hunting for back roads (and then refuelling!! Seems a bit thirstier than the standard M3, that or it just begs to be driven hard more!). If you are down my way give me a shout.
Lovely E92 there! Best colour too!
The old one got a good going over to bring it up to scratch when i got it, new indicators splitters, grilles etc. The interior was far better than many of the low mileage examples i had driven. Drove really well to, and was sold with 142,000 on it and no subframe issues (just to prove that it didn't happen to all of them!).
The helicopter is a friend of the old owners, apparently one of the previous owners was Noel Edmunds haha!
I remember the Cupra, still love the shape of them, and looked mean in the rear view!!
I'm always up for a hoon, pretty much all I do when Im home from work is go hunting for back roads (and then refuelling!! Seems a bit thirstier than the standard M3, that or it just begs to be driven hard more!). If you are down my way give me a shout.
8bit said:
Cool, will do. I'm likely to be changing car in a couple of months so will be looking for some nice new roads, I do know a wee bit of the ones just south of the Cairngorms national park - I'll shout you up if I'm going to be down that way 
Give us hint what your changing to? Yeah I know where you mean. My current favourite is between dunkeld and blarigowrie or the kirkmicheal road.
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