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SOLD 2003 3.0i fast road/trackday car - £4800

Buying and selling Z4's (VEHICLE SALES ONLY) (private sales only, no traders)
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DaveP
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2003 3.0i fast road/trackday car - £4800

Post by DaveP » Fri Jan 17, 2025 12:10 pm

The time has come to upgrade to a 35i to build as a Ringtool, so my much-cherished E85 needs to go to a good home.

For Sale: Mechanically perfect, money-no-object maintained 2003 BMW Z4 3.0i manual. £4,800 (plate not included). Car can be viewed in Norfolk or London.

I’ve owned this car for 2 years after buying from another enthusiast owner, and have made the decision to sell to upgrade to a more focused track car.

Over the past 2.5 years, every single common issue has been resolved (with receipts) and around £3000 has been spent on upgrades (with receipts) to make it go, handle and stop much better than the standard car. I’ve used it on track and on multiple trips to the Nurburgring, and it would make an excellent fast-road/track car without compromise. It’s completed a 2000 mile Eurotrip and a two-day Nurburgring trackday without a single issue since I’ve owned it.

If you’re looking for a Z4 that can be enjoyed properly straight out of the box without any modification, and without any worries about common issues, this is the car for you. I suspect there’s probably not another Z4 for sale with such a comprehensive recent history of work. The beauty of this car is that you get the mechanical bits from an E46 wrapped up in the lighter body of a two-seat convertible. At less than half the price of an equivalent S2000, it’s a bargain too.

You can read more about my ownership and see lots more photos here (start about halfway down the page): viewtopic.php?t=134751&start=30

Spec:
  • 2003 3.0i manual SE
    104k miles
    MOT until December 2025 (no advisories)
    Heated seats
    Cruise control
    Wind deflector
    Two keys (both with <2yr old batteries)
Recent (past 2.5 years) maintenance:
  • DISA Valve replaced
    Vanos rebuilt
    Entire cooling system replaced with carefully selected parts (radiator, thermostat, metal water pump upgrade, genuine BMW expansion tank, and all pulleys/tensioners)
    Oil filter housing gasket replaced
    Sump gasket replaced
    Rocker cover gasket replaced
    Oil analysis done by Miller Oils with zero bearing material or coolant/fuel detected (basically a clean bill of health for the engine - printouts supplied)
    Lighting Control Module replaced
    Engine mounts x2 replaced with OEM
    Gearshift bushings rebuilt with OEM parts
    Gearbox oil changed
    Brake fluid upgraded to ATE Typ200 high temp Dot4
    Rear hard brake lines replaced
    Inner and outer front track rods both sides
    Run on 5w50 oil, with the most recent change around 800 miles ago
    Bosch Silver battery fitted last year
Upgrades (all added in the past 18 months/4000 miles, and all mechanicals fitted by www.ap-tuning.co.uk and enuff_zed):
  • BC Racing coilovers (£1100), with fast-road alignment (coated in ACF to prevent seizing)
    Front brakes: Carbotech XP8 pads (the best road/track pads - £300 alone) and Brembo high carbon discs
    Rear brakes: EBC Yellowstuff pads
    3.64 ratio diff (from a 3.0si - up from 3.07 stock, and a huge improvement to acceleration), fully rebuilt with new seals and bearings and installed with Powerflex polybushes
    Powerflex lower control arm polybushes
    Powerflex rear trailing arm polybushes
    Braided brake hoses all round, with high-temp fluid (ATE Typ200)
    17” E89 wheels, with Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres (plus an unused spare - 4S, not 4, and basically impossible to get hold of in this size)
    Heated, leather E89 Sport seats fitted with adaptors (rare!)
    MOMO Mod.78 steering wheel (original supplied spare for MOTs)
    Weighted gearknob (improves shifting feel massively)
    Pioneer bluetooth single DIN head unit, with hands-free microphone

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DaveP
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2003 3.0i fast road/trackday car - £4800

Post by DaveP » Fri Jan 17, 2025 12:10 pm

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DaveP
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2003 3.0i fast road/trackday car - £4800

Post by DaveP » Fri Jan 17, 2025 12:11 pm

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2003 3.0i fast road/trackday car - £4800

Post by enuff_zed » Fri Jan 17, 2025 1:01 pm

Is this still available? :D





Sorry, had to be done. :wink:
HQ of 'Norfolk Zed Rescue'.
Always happy to help if I can.

If the forum helped you, why not help the forum back. Thats the Z4 way! :thumbsup:
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DaveP
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2003 3.0i fast road/trackday car - £4800

Post by DaveP » Fri Jan 17, 2025 6:07 pm

enuff_zed wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2025 1:01 pm Is this still available? :D





Sorry, had to be done. :wink:
Swine. :D

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Mr Tidy
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2003 3.0i fast road/trackday car - £4800

Post by Mr Tidy » Sat Jan 18, 2025 12:25 am

Nice wheels. :lol:

GLWTS. :thumbsup:
Coupes because stunning!
Current - Silver Grey MC, Imola Red heated Nappa & carbon trim. Aeros, H & R Coil-overs, 224s, OE Strut brace, Nav, cup-holders, DSP Hi-Fi, pdc, cruise, MFSW, no CDV! E90 330i daily
Gone - Montego Blue
Gone - Ruby Black

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DaveP
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2003 3.0i fast road/trackday car - £4800

Post by DaveP » Mon Jan 20, 2025 4:39 pm

Had a nice man come and clean the car today, because I thought it deserved some better photos.
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DaveP
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2003 3.0i fast road/trackday car - £4800

Post by DaveP » Mon Jan 20, 2025 4:41 pm

No idea why the camera has made the driver's carpet look so bad. Perhaps over-exposure, as the photo looks quite light? Either way, it's barely noticeable in person.
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2003 3.0i fast road/trackday car - £4800

Post by bigwinn » Mon Jan 20, 2025 6:26 pm

The seats look superb

Does the diff make a big difference?
If the forum helped you, why not help the forum back. Thats the Z4 way! :thumbsup:

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DaveP
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2003 3.0i fast road/trackday car - £4800

Post by DaveP » Tue Jan 21, 2025 11:38 am

bigwinn wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 6:26 pm The seats look superb

Does the diff make a big difference?
All credit goes to Usel for the seats. If you could be bothered to wade through the pages of drivel on my thread, you'd see that I was on the verge of selling because I hated the Sport seats so much. The E89 seats are a complete gamechanger if you're taller or wider. I did the drive to the Ring and back plus 40 laps over two days, and had no aches or pains. They are a big part of the reason I'm looking at an E89.

On the diff, I'd say it was the best modification I've done, slightly ahead of the coilovers. I found the standard car sluggish and not keen to rev (consistent with my previous M54s), and going for the 3.64 feels like I've liberated a bunch of power and lightened the flywheel. It revs so much more keenly, it pulls harder, and the dropoff between upshifts is so much smaller. Everyone with a 3.0i should do it.

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2003 3.0i fast road/trackday car - £4800

Post by DaveP » Wed Jan 22, 2025 11:52 am

The paintwork isn't mint, because the car is 21 years old and I'm not particularly obsessive about that sort of thing. But it does bead very nicely, thanks to Autoglym ceramic wax.
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2003 3.0i fast road/trackday car - £4800

Post by ssimp » Wed Feb 05, 2025 7:57 pm

Looks fantastic and very keenly priced considering all of the work involved!
2006 E85 3.0si manual - Monaco blue

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2003 3.0i fast road/trackday car - £4800

Post by DaveP » Thu Feb 06, 2025 9:01 am

ssimp wrote: Wed Feb 05, 2025 7:57 pm Looks fantastic and very keenly priced considering all of the work involved!
Thanks kindly.

Have a chap coming to see it this weekend, with a view to taking it away if he's happy.

I'm going to need to be patient on my next purchase, I suspect. The Z4 35i is rare enough in decent condition, but I'm looking for a car that's already had some of the bits I'm planning to do fitted and that's making it into a bit of a unicorn hunt.

I'm trying my hardest not to just buy an M4 convertible, but it's not easy to resist something that works so well out of the box.

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2003 3.0i fast road/trackday car - £4800

Post by DaveP » Tue Feb 11, 2025 11:26 am

SOLD

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