M Coupe Clownshoe, V8 M3 and 944 fun
Discussion
Inspired by MDifficults thread and dedication to detail I thought I’d give it a go and catalogue my driving past. I’m 34 and I’ve not owned millions of cars but I like to think it’s a thoughtful collection with a few interesting points along the way.
So here we go.......
1991 BMW e30 320i se
Just as my mates were all getting excited by their 106s Quicksilvers and fiesta zetec S’s I knew my first car could only have one layout. RWD and packing a straight 6ix. My dad had always had beemers and from a young age I knew they were the car for me.
I picked H221 YGC up from the Isle of Sheppey and can still remember the drive home. It was already lowered 20mm and had a Scorpion Le mans exhaust, se side skirts and 15” bbs alloys - I was in heaven. Spent the whole journey overtaking my dad on the M25 and M4 and then letting him past again to repeat the process!
It may have only pumped out 136bhp but the 2 litre 6ix was a real engine, strong and smooth. With the exhaust it sounded like I was travelling a lot quicker than I was! With an interesting light blue interior and a sun roof it was a pleasant place to be and as a first car I absolutely loved it.
1988 BMW e24 635csi
Bought with my dad this was an immaculate 635 which I wished we’d kept. Beautiful in Royal Blue with Lotus white leather interior this was the only car I could think of to drive my new wife off on honeymoon in!
1995 BMW e34 525i Sport
Having sold the e30 (to afford a honeymoon) and driven my new wife’s micra for a few months the need for a real car became more than just a nagging feeling. I went looking for a 318is but couldn’t resist the lure of the bigger 5.
N758 XDP had 80k on the clock and was super smooth. In Avus blue with the sport body kit, full black leather and black piano wood trim it felt like a real adults car. I bought it with ridiculous 15” 5spoke alloys on ballon tyres and they had to go first. My favourite wheel of all time is the Rondell 058 and a set quickly made the car look much meaner. Smoked lights, M5 back plate surround and a subtle iS badge on the rear finished it all of nicely.
The 2.5l M50 straight 6ix developed a healthy 189bhp and is still the smoothest engine/gearbox combo I’ve ever driven.
I loved this car and the way it looked and drove - you don’t see e34s out and about anymore and it’s a fabulous shape.
1986 e28 M5 008/168 (the one we should have kept!)
Now here it all gets a bit silly as this is not the most obvious candidate for your third car but the opportunity come up for me and my father to buy this original M5 for a cheap price and you don’t say no! The e34 had gone as my son had arrived and a Pug 307sw was doing the family duties so I had been feeling a little bmwless!
We flew up to Scotland to pick D901 MCL up and the drive back from Edinburgh is still a pleasure I remember: the next day I wrapped it around a lamp post.
The combination of 286bhp, no traction control, worn tyres and me being a fair bit greener than I am today ended in near disaster.
But the insurance paid out far more than we’d paid for it and allowed us to have it rebuilt exactly how we wanted it.
This is a cool one with a 1986 M635 at a Sunday service at BMW Bracknell
The M5 was never mint and had 187k on the clock but I wished we’d kept it. The interior was a lovely half leather/hounds tooth affair and the sound of the M88 hammering along was epic! We had it for a couple of years, enjoyed taking it out to shows etc and then sold it for a profit to a man from Germany.
1992 BMW e30 318iS Touring
As the M5 wasn’t an everyday car and the pug 307 not really a track day candidate, So I bought J538 VFA, or Jaffa as I called it, off a bmw5forum pal for £1100.
Now before you all shout “they never made an iS touring”, Jaffa started life as a well spec’d 316 lux touring and had the running gear of a 318iS put in later. Strangely it had had an lsd optioned from new and with some upgrade pads and wheel/tyres was huge huge fun!
Plenty quick enough, if you haven’t sampled the M42 16v 4pot in the iS then it’s a cracking engine which does a fairly good vtec impression when you rev it passed 3k. In the light touring shell Jaffa was an absolute blast to drive on track or across country (if not particularly on long journeys!)
I should never have sold it but a guy got in contact who had owned it as a 316 and offered to double my money. At the time it seemed useful but I wish I still owned Jaffa!
2003 e39 530d msport touring
The 307 ate its electrics on the m40 on the way to a wedding, leaving us stranded with a 6month old on the side of the motorway and ending my relationship with French, or even sensible, family cars. I had tried to be sensible and it had been more costly than all the interesting metal put together!
I consider GF02 SPV to be my first proper adult modern car. When I first drove it it felt a million years newer than anything I’d owned before and it was probably the best all rounder I’ve ever owned. The e39 is simple just a superb car, probably the best car ever made. The package just works so so well, the interior is driver centric and attractive, the exterior taut and sporty and the 3.0 diesel the first proper performance diesel! Remapped to a whopping 225bhp with lot is lovely torque it shifted the growing family of 4 now beautifully. I particularly remember it having lovely ride and steering.
With 18” 10j Rondell 058s fitted it looked proper mean and if it hadn’t eventually lunched its gearbox it would probably be serving somewhere in the family still!
1986 BMW e24 635csi
During this time my father bought D180 PGF as a runaround. The e24 is such a fabulous looking car and I never tire of looking at one! This one was a bit leggy but I challenge anyone to buy something as beautiful for under a grand!
These photos show that there has always been some overlapping of the cars in my life.
2004 e61 535d msport touring
As I said GF02 SPV ate its gearbox and so the obvious replacement was the 535d. I know there is the running joke about a remapped 35d beating everything but it really was a genuinely fast car. LX54 LVW was a pre LCI car so remapped it made 330bhp and 500Nm. The interior was big and comfy with lots of lovely modern gadgets and my now 2 toddlers loved the huge panoramic roof.
Funnily enough, despite being hugely quick and competent, the 35d is the car I forget the most. Perhaps it’s because I replaced it with the e61 M5 that is so similar, yet so so so different that I don’t recall the 35d has fondly as it deserves. Special mention should go though to the way it could throw itself, on a wave of tourqe, fully laden, with a families full holiday gear, past rows of caravans on the A roads of Cornwall!
But the time came when I could afford my dream car, my dream wagon. The 35d had to make way for the daddy of tourings: the V10 e61 M5
2007 e61 M5 touring
The absolute daddy of estates, the apex wagon predator, the M5 touring has been my dream car since someone thought it would be funny to put a 5.0 500 horsepower n/a V10 in a family estate.
The grin on my face the day I bought it says it all!
It’s not perfect (SMG I’m looking at you, fuel consumption you’re not in the clear either!) but that’s why I love it. The whole experience is wrapped around the S85 V10 which is simply one of the great power units of our time. It never grows tiring to rev it through past 8k and the way it lights up at 6k+ is just mental. The SMG is nowhere near as bad as people say, I never use auto and I find it absolutely fine. When you’re ‘on it’ the transmission rifles through gears savagely and S6 mode is so brutal you check your mirror for bits of gearbox on the road behind you!
The steering however is also superb. A proper hydraulic system it was my biggest surprise when moving from a ‘lesser’ e61. It steers beautifully, with plenty of feedback and a lovely feel of precision and balance.
BMW UK brought 198 of the 222 rhd touring made into the uk and spec’d them all up so that there weren’t many options left to tick. With a list price of £87k in 07 mine has the extended leather (which means everywhere), bmw individual hifi (incredible), soft closing doors, Active seats (bolsters move with cornering g to keep you clamped in), comfort (read keyless) access as well as all the other luxuries you’d expect (hud, tv, heated seats, alcantara headling, etc etc)
Mine was fairly standard when I bought her in 2016 and its first duty was a 2000mile tour of Northumberland for me and the misses 10year wedding anniversary. An incredible way to get to know a new car with some stunning scenery and roads to drive on.
Since then I have:
. Lowered it 25mm with H&R springs at the front
. Spaced the wheels out 13mm
. Front number, grills and side grills resprayed
. Haywood & Scott exhaust (back boxes)
. Added plate V10 WGN
. Engine cover matched to the red leather!
. M6 Motorsport edition alloys
. SMG remap and power up to 527bhp
(I have all the original parts and everything is easily removable)
. Replaced the big end bearings/shells as I went passed 100k
I have plenty of ideas and plans for the e61 but I feel like it’s a keeper, a car I’m not sure I could ever part with or replace. Thoughts for the immediate future are just to store it, have a few niggles sorted and then enjoy it. Especially as it’s no longer my daily.
1985 Porsche 944 2.5
p
Latest edition to the fleet is again a joint venture with my father. Surprisingly not a beemer, this was an accidental buy at last years classic car show at the NEC! Try explaining that to your wife!
An early 2.5 lux with only 40k on the clock, a Porsche club concourse winner and in completely original and immaculate condition, 944 FRA came with its original ‘cookie cutter’ alloys as well as the later turbo alloys it’s wearing, a huge history file and a copy of the Peter Morgan book of which it was the car used for all the pictures. It seemed too good a deal to pass up.
Having only just got Frank as its known out from under its cover in the last few weeks I look forward to telling you about how much fun 160bhp can be in a 1980s porker!
And the children who are now 8 and 5 say the 944 is their favourite one yet!
So lots has been happening in the last few months.
1. Dad and I finished our garage (shell) for the 944
2. While we were putting the roof on he casually offered to buy half the e61 off me if I put it away next to the 944 ( took me all of a second To say yes!)
3. I went out and looked for something that would complement the pace and brutality of the V10 Touring and the old skool fun of the classic 944
Hmmmmm - what to buy.........
Requirements were that I would like to get back on track, have more than 25mpg, not lose too much of any money during ownership and make me grin my face off each time I drive it.
So say hello to:
ClioRS 200:
Cup chassis
Speed line wheels
Recaros
Brembos
Akrapovic Evo
Suede steering wheel
Absolutely loving it so far - handling is other worldly and it just loves corners like nothing I’ve ever owned. Exhaust pops and crackles and sounds like a cup racer and the engine is lovely and tourqy - pulls hard right though the Rev range, then bang, pop, and you’re into the next gear! Front axle just grips and grips and begs you to try harder!
Looking forward to a first run out with MDifficult and his Mini GP tomorrow morning!
So here we go.......
1991 BMW e30 320i se
Just as my mates were all getting excited by their 106s Quicksilvers and fiesta zetec S’s I knew my first car could only have one layout. RWD and packing a straight 6ix. My dad had always had beemers and from a young age I knew they were the car for me.
I picked H221 YGC up from the Isle of Sheppey and can still remember the drive home. It was already lowered 20mm and had a Scorpion Le mans exhaust, se side skirts and 15” bbs alloys - I was in heaven. Spent the whole journey overtaking my dad on the M25 and M4 and then letting him past again to repeat the process!
It may have only pumped out 136bhp but the 2 litre 6ix was a real engine, strong and smooth. With the exhaust it sounded like I was travelling a lot quicker than I was! With an interesting light blue interior and a sun roof it was a pleasant place to be and as a first car I absolutely loved it.
1988 BMW e24 635csi
Bought with my dad this was an immaculate 635 which I wished we’d kept. Beautiful in Royal Blue with Lotus white leather interior this was the only car I could think of to drive my new wife off on honeymoon in!
1995 BMW e34 525i Sport
Having sold the e30 (to afford a honeymoon) and driven my new wife’s micra for a few months the need for a real car became more than just a nagging feeling. I went looking for a 318is but couldn’t resist the lure of the bigger 5.
N758 XDP had 80k on the clock and was super smooth. In Avus blue with the sport body kit, full black leather and black piano wood trim it felt like a real adults car. I bought it with ridiculous 15” 5spoke alloys on ballon tyres and they had to go first. My favourite wheel of all time is the Rondell 058 and a set quickly made the car look much meaner. Smoked lights, M5 back plate surround and a subtle iS badge on the rear finished it all of nicely.
The 2.5l M50 straight 6ix developed a healthy 189bhp and is still the smoothest engine/gearbox combo I’ve ever driven.
I loved this car and the way it looked and drove - you don’t see e34s out and about anymore and it’s a fabulous shape.
1986 e28 M5 008/168 (the one we should have kept!)
Now here it all gets a bit silly as this is not the most obvious candidate for your third car but the opportunity come up for me and my father to buy this original M5 for a cheap price and you don’t say no! The e34 had gone as my son had arrived and a Pug 307sw was doing the family duties so I had been feeling a little bmwless!
We flew up to Scotland to pick D901 MCL up and the drive back from Edinburgh is still a pleasure I remember: the next day I wrapped it around a lamp post.
The combination of 286bhp, no traction control, worn tyres and me being a fair bit greener than I am today ended in near disaster.
But the insurance paid out far more than we’d paid for it and allowed us to have it rebuilt exactly how we wanted it.
This is a cool one with a 1986 M635 at a Sunday service at BMW Bracknell
The M5 was never mint and had 187k on the clock but I wished we’d kept it. The interior was a lovely half leather/hounds tooth affair and the sound of the M88 hammering along was epic! We had it for a couple of years, enjoyed taking it out to shows etc and then sold it for a profit to a man from Germany.
1992 BMW e30 318iS Touring
As the M5 wasn’t an everyday car and the pug 307 not really a track day candidate, So I bought J538 VFA, or Jaffa as I called it, off a bmw5forum pal for £1100.
Now before you all shout “they never made an iS touring”, Jaffa started life as a well spec’d 316 lux touring and had the running gear of a 318iS put in later. Strangely it had had an lsd optioned from new and with some upgrade pads and wheel/tyres was huge huge fun!
Plenty quick enough, if you haven’t sampled the M42 16v 4pot in the iS then it’s a cracking engine which does a fairly good vtec impression when you rev it passed 3k. In the light touring shell Jaffa was an absolute blast to drive on track or across country (if not particularly on long journeys!)
I should never have sold it but a guy got in contact who had owned it as a 316 and offered to double my money. At the time it seemed useful but I wish I still owned Jaffa!
2003 e39 530d msport touring
The 307 ate its electrics on the m40 on the way to a wedding, leaving us stranded with a 6month old on the side of the motorway and ending my relationship with French, or even sensible, family cars. I had tried to be sensible and it had been more costly than all the interesting metal put together!
I consider GF02 SPV to be my first proper adult modern car. When I first drove it it felt a million years newer than anything I’d owned before and it was probably the best all rounder I’ve ever owned. The e39 is simple just a superb car, probably the best car ever made. The package just works so so well, the interior is driver centric and attractive, the exterior taut and sporty and the 3.0 diesel the first proper performance diesel! Remapped to a whopping 225bhp with lot is lovely torque it shifted the growing family of 4 now beautifully. I particularly remember it having lovely ride and steering.
With 18” 10j Rondell 058s fitted it looked proper mean and if it hadn’t eventually lunched its gearbox it would probably be serving somewhere in the family still!
1986 BMW e24 635csi
During this time my father bought D180 PGF as a runaround. The e24 is such a fabulous looking car and I never tire of looking at one! This one was a bit leggy but I challenge anyone to buy something as beautiful for under a grand!
These photos show that there has always been some overlapping of the cars in my life.
2004 e61 535d msport touring
As I said GF02 SPV ate its gearbox and so the obvious replacement was the 535d. I know there is the running joke about a remapped 35d beating everything but it really was a genuinely fast car. LX54 LVW was a pre LCI car so remapped it made 330bhp and 500Nm. The interior was big and comfy with lots of lovely modern gadgets and my now 2 toddlers loved the huge panoramic roof.
Funnily enough, despite being hugely quick and competent, the 35d is the car I forget the most. Perhaps it’s because I replaced it with the e61 M5 that is so similar, yet so so so different that I don’t recall the 35d has fondly as it deserves. Special mention should go though to the way it could throw itself, on a wave of tourqe, fully laden, with a families full holiday gear, past rows of caravans on the A roads of Cornwall!
But the time came when I could afford my dream car, my dream wagon. The 35d had to make way for the daddy of tourings: the V10 e61 M5
2007 e61 M5 touring
The absolute daddy of estates, the apex wagon predator, the M5 touring has been my dream car since someone thought it would be funny to put a 5.0 500 horsepower n/a V10 in a family estate.
The grin on my face the day I bought it says it all!
It’s not perfect (SMG I’m looking at you, fuel consumption you’re not in the clear either!) but that’s why I love it. The whole experience is wrapped around the S85 V10 which is simply one of the great power units of our time. It never grows tiring to rev it through past 8k and the way it lights up at 6k+ is just mental. The SMG is nowhere near as bad as people say, I never use auto and I find it absolutely fine. When you’re ‘on it’ the transmission rifles through gears savagely and S6 mode is so brutal you check your mirror for bits of gearbox on the road behind you!
The steering however is also superb. A proper hydraulic system it was my biggest surprise when moving from a ‘lesser’ e61. It steers beautifully, with plenty of feedback and a lovely feel of precision and balance.
BMW UK brought 198 of the 222 rhd touring made into the uk and spec’d them all up so that there weren’t many options left to tick. With a list price of £87k in 07 mine has the extended leather (which means everywhere), bmw individual hifi (incredible), soft closing doors, Active seats (bolsters move with cornering g to keep you clamped in), comfort (read keyless) access as well as all the other luxuries you’d expect (hud, tv, heated seats, alcantara headling, etc etc)
Mine was fairly standard when I bought her in 2016 and its first duty was a 2000mile tour of Northumberland for me and the misses 10year wedding anniversary. An incredible way to get to know a new car with some stunning scenery and roads to drive on.
Since then I have:
. Lowered it 25mm with H&R springs at the front
. Spaced the wheels out 13mm
. Front number, grills and side grills resprayed
. Haywood & Scott exhaust (back boxes)
. Added plate V10 WGN
. Engine cover matched to the red leather!
. M6 Motorsport edition alloys
. SMG remap and power up to 527bhp
(I have all the original parts and everything is easily removable)
. Replaced the big end bearings/shells as I went passed 100k
I have plenty of ideas and plans for the e61 but I feel like it’s a keeper, a car I’m not sure I could ever part with or replace. Thoughts for the immediate future are just to store it, have a few niggles sorted and then enjoy it. Especially as it’s no longer my daily.
1985 Porsche 944 2.5
pLatest edition to the fleet is again a joint venture with my father. Surprisingly not a beemer, this was an accidental buy at last years classic car show at the NEC! Try explaining that to your wife!
An early 2.5 lux with only 40k on the clock, a Porsche club concourse winner and in completely original and immaculate condition, 944 FRA came with its original ‘cookie cutter’ alloys as well as the later turbo alloys it’s wearing, a huge history file and a copy of the Peter Morgan book of which it was the car used for all the pictures. It seemed too good a deal to pass up.
Having only just got Frank as its known out from under its cover in the last few weeks I look forward to telling you about how much fun 160bhp can be in a 1980s porker!
And the children who are now 8 and 5 say the 944 is their favourite one yet!
So lots has been happening in the last few months.
1. Dad and I finished our garage (shell) for the 944
2. While we were putting the roof on he casually offered to buy half the e61 off me if I put it away next to the 944 ( took me all of a second To say yes!)
3. I went out and looked for something that would complement the pace and brutality of the V10 Touring and the old skool fun of the classic 944
Hmmmmm - what to buy.........
Requirements were that I would like to get back on track, have more than 25mpg, not lose too much of any money during ownership and make me grin my face off each time I drive it.
So say hello to:
ClioRS 200:
Cup chassis
Speed line wheels
Recaros
Brembos
Akrapovic Evo
Suede steering wheel
Absolutely loving it so far - handling is other worldly and it just loves corners like nothing I’ve ever owned. Exhaust pops and crackles and sounds like a cup racer and the engine is lovely and tourqy - pulls hard right though the Rev range, then bang, pop, and you’re into the next gear! Front axle just grips and grips and begs you to try harder!
Looking forward to a first run out with MDifficult and his Mini GP tomorrow morning!
Edited by MrTouring on Thursday 19th April 00:29
Edited by MrTouring on Thursday 19th April 00:56
Edited by MrTouring on Thursday 19th April 01:00
Edited by MrTouring on Thursday 19th April 19:59
Edited by MrTouring on Thursday 19th April 20:14
Edited by MrTouring on Wednesday 23 January 23:10
MDifficult said:
So many mixed emotions!
On the one hand, I’m delighted to have inspired such a cracking post.
On the other, yet more crippling envy over your car history! 90% of you back catalogue sits in my ‘I really want to have one of those’ list.
Sod.
Reflecting this morning my lovely wife gently reminded me of a Citroen Xsara between e34 and e39. It was silver with a red bonnet and that I put two white cobra stripes on (ironically of course!)On the one hand, I’m delighted to have inspired such a cracking post.
On the other, yet more crippling envy over your car history! 90% of you back catalogue sits in my ‘I really want to have one of those’ list.
Sod.
I’ll see if I can dig a photo out!
MDifficult said:
So many mixed emotions!
On the one hand, I’m delighted to have inspired such a cracking post.
On the other, yet more crippling envy over your car history! 90% of you back catalogue sits in my ‘I really want to have one of those’ list.
Sod.
Reflecting this morning my lovely wife gently reminded me of a Citroen Xsara between e34 and e39. It was silver with a red bonnet and that I put two white cobra stripes on (ironically of course!)On the one hand, I’m delighted to have inspired such a cracking post.
On the other, yet more crippling envy over your car history! 90% of you back catalogue sits in my ‘I really want to have one of those’ list.
Sod.
I’ll see if I can dig a photo out!
Nice selection, of which I've had quite a few myself. Also regret selling my E28 M5!
I always liked the 944 but only had a 924 myself. It was an S so nice enough but I always preferred the muscular 944 styling.
The V10 wagon is awesome. I don't think there's a better family car. Actually, a Schultz E28 M5 touring would be the absolute dream there.
I always liked the 944 but only had a 924 myself. It was an S so nice enough but I always preferred the muscular 944 styling.
The V10 wagon is awesome. I don't think there's a better family car. Actually, a Schultz E28 M5 touring would be the absolute dream there.
e30m3Mark said:
Nice selection, of which I've had quite a few myself. Also regret selling my E28 M5!
I always liked the 944 but only had a 924 myself. It was an S so nice enough but I always preferred the muscular 944 styling.
The V10 wagon is awesome. I don't think there's a better family car. Actually, a Schultz E28 M5 touring would be the absolute dream there.
Agreed, the 944 has great boxy flanks! Love looking at it from the rear 3/4I always liked the 944 but only had a 924 myself. It was an S so nice enough but I always preferred the muscular 944 styling.
The V10 wagon is awesome. I don't think there's a better family car. Actually, a Schultz E28 M5 touring would be the absolute dream there.
the smiles per miles is what it's all about.... great collection you have there
my boy is car mad (obviously as he takes after me, although still working on him for liking bikes) and the look on his face every time he's allowed to sit in the front as me and him are going for a drive is priceless...
my boy is car mad (obviously as he takes after me, although still working on him for liking bikes) and the look on his face every time he's allowed to sit in the front as me and him are going for a drive is priceless...
89forever said:
the smiles per miles is what it's all about.... great collection you have there
my boy is car mad (obviously as he takes after me, although still working on him for liking bikes) and the look on his face every time he's allowed to sit in the front as me and him are going for a drive is priceless...
Start them young!!!my boy is car mad (obviously as he takes after me, although still working on him for liking bikes) and the look on his face every time he's allowed to sit in the front as me and him are going for a drive is priceless...
Mystery solved on my random wheel purchase:
Guy swore they were special M6 motorsport wheels that were wider than standard M6 167 wheels.
I googled a few things and nothing turned up so decided he didn’t know what he was on, but bought them anyway for £700.
They arrive and he’s right - definitely genuine oem, but fronts are 9j and rears 10j both bigger than they should be?
Bit more googling and it turn out they’re rare M6 competition wheels which were forged and wider than normal M6 167
Offsets are even more aggressive so be interesting to see if they fit the touring but bit of result I reckon for £700
See if I can try them on some time this week
Guy swore they were special M6 motorsport wheels that were wider than standard M6 167 wheels.
I googled a few things and nothing turned up so decided he didn’t know what he was on, but bought them anyway for £700.
They arrive and he’s right - definitely genuine oem, but fronts are 9j and rears 10j both bigger than they should be?
Bit more googling and it turn out they’re rare M6 competition wheels which were forged and wider than normal M6 167
Offsets are even more aggressive so be interesting to see if they fit the touring but bit of result I reckon for £700
See if I can try them on some time this week
Edited by MrTouring on Monday 30th April 11:04
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