New Owner (Pic Heavy)

[gingernuts]

Heres my thread from PH about my recent purchase of Mickaldo's old car.

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.

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j55/gingerheadman_2006/D3D68E6B-8CC8-4F11-A821-2564783473A3-767-00000073150A9AA3_zpscd3e2fd9.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j55/gingerheadman_2006/CB654CEE-BA92-4D0B-83F2-D63767F6DE1B-767-00000073100CD402_zps8b38a42e.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j55/gingerheadman_2006/FA703515-544D-4E57-A7E9-D5D16D969827-767-000000730643D8EA_zps5eddd321.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j55/gingerheadman_2006/3EE48A4F-6B95-4A0A-ACF3-4F974FC6F422-767-00000072F8E18C58_zps5cf9fe0c.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j55/gingerheadman_2006/19499BFA-595C-487E-83D8-182D7A026A6C-767-00000072EE12924F_zps3ac9e03e.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j55/gingerheadman_2006/5DB30787-810B-404F-A2B4-2974B16E609A-767-000000730015A27B_zps4fc55e9b.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j55/gingerheadman_2006/M3%20Euro%20Tour/ring_007.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j55/gingerheadman_2006/M3%20Euro%20Tour/ring_002.jpg

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.

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j55/gingerheadman_2006/8404CC2E-F185-46E4-AF90-AFCA8BCF4C17-767-000000733A5FB3EA_zps50384f4e.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j55/gingerheadman_2006/E4173981-4F3C-4C9E-9E61-D777F125B83C-767-000000732D71EBE6_zps81af81e5.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j55/gingerheadman_2006/D18B310C-5A38-46AB-BC97-9FA2F44414C9-767-00000073302AB191_zps02aa1669.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j55/gingerheadman_2006/556E7B69-BCC4-4B2A-8300-2D1C10C07FAC-767-00000073381CB9A1_zps5f617414.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j55/gingerheadman_2006/7B0BDB92-6334-452E-8EB7-6500A578BE19-767-0000007320529C24_zps2f0cfbcb.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j55/gingerheadman_2006/CCCA6EEA-5E6A-4F3C-83CE-B68F95748645-767-00000073168149BA_zpsea94780f.jpg

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).

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j55/gingerheadman_2006/E63DDEDC-6879-4415-86A9-0B126F9B1967-767-00000072E8756808_zpsad34b59a.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j55/gingerheadman_2006/EE65F5EA-5383-4C63-AF21-CBB414725BB3-767-00000072E264EA67_zps36673cec.jpg

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j55/gingerheadman_2006/csl/IMG_2706_zps75e8174b.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j55/gingerheadman_2006/csl/IMG_2715_zpsae02aed0.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j55/gingerheadman_2006/csl/IMG_2711_zps59d35a7e.jpghttp://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j55/gingerheadman_2006/csl/IMG_2721_zpsc40eabd5.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j55/gingerheadman_2006/csl/IMG_2727_zpsd1888a0c.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j55/gingerheadman_2006/csl/IMG_2712_zps1ba9933c.jpg
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!

[Neil M]

Nice set of stills and good to see Mickaldo's car out and about again, even it does now live in Scotland. Looks as though your enjoying it anyway from the vid.
Pagid RES29's and some decent fluid, say AP660 would be a good interim move before going down the AP route.

[Mark CSL]

Love this picture look at the nearside mirror :hahaha::hahaha::hahaha::hahaha:

[Mike R]

Lovely!

Tell me more about the available software and lead to play with the SMG?

[gingernuts]

haha Yeah the photo was intentional, up at Cockbridge. Not childish at all :)

Going to buy the cable from chris on Cutters and use the INPA software that comes with it to do a SMG reset to get rid of the slur.

[LeinsCSL]

Doesn't disconnecting/reconnecting the battery also reset it?

[gingernuts]

not sure on that tbh, but will look into it

[digi]

worked on mine, disconnecting battery. but will come back when Pussy footing.

[Jon8710]

go out and grab the car by the balls,

set it in S6 and thrash it for 30 mins or so dont lift on gear change and this will fix the slur !!

[dave wilkinson]

haha Yeah the photo was intentional, up at Cockbridge. Not childish at all :)

Going to buy the cable from chris on Cutters and use the INPA software that comes with it to do a SMG reset to get rid of the slur.

don't buy the cable CAN be nothing but trouble! 40mph put car into neutral and pull both paddles back at the same time. then traction off s6 mode and drive it like its intended! if it persists take it the dealer and get them re set it. they shouldn't charge much more than you'll be paying for a cable.

[gingernuts]

I have tried the soft reset (neutral and both paddles) and it made no difference. as far as I'm aware thats just for resetting the smg calibration, not the clutch bite point. That like you say needs the dealer or the cable. There is no where near me thats one dry enough or two smooth enough without cameras that I can drive for any period of time in s6 with dsc off. I think Ill give the battery disconnect a try next before I get the cable.

[Jimbo]

What did you use to make the vid?

When I stick my gopro on the outside of the car, the wind noise is terrible, even in the full housing.

Is there a trick of the trade i'm missing?

[gingernuts]

I bought a cable and an extension with an external microphone. Cable was from go pro for about £20 and the mic was £20 on amazon, olympus one if I remember correctly.

You either then spend £50 on a new case with a hole in it for a cable coming out the side, ir you do what i did and took a drill to the original case!!

[gingernuts]

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j55/gingerheadman_2006/7F9996F1-6CDC-4FFD-BDC3-E7D92B38803F-1023-000000B116ACA1C1_zps9d8eb8c2.jpg

Scary drive into work this morning! Car was fine, was more worried about other people!

[grkm3]

Beautiful car. Would take that over an E92 M3 any day of the week.

[Loaded]

Congrats.! Enjoy it in good health.