Well I've finally made it into 4 figures after 25 months of membership !
It all started back in March 2010 when despite having already owned a Zed for nearly 5 years, I stumbled across this forum and joined.
At that point I was temporarily Zed-less having sold this..........
which I'd covered 85k very enjoyable miles in during my ownership, and was waiting to collect this..........
It was a 13k miler, Individual Midnight Blue Z4MC with Individual leather with heated seats, cruise, sun protection glass, privacy glass, Logic 7, bluetooth, voice control and probably other stuff I've forgotten about. It now has 30k miles on it, having been used as a daily driver for the first year. It is now enjoying a more sedate existence and mileage has dropped to circa 2-2.5k pa.
I'd been a keen Zed fan since 2004, when I first borrowed a 3.0i SMG for a weekend, courtesy of Stratstone Derby. I was hooked ! :wub:
In May 2009 I attended an official BMW launch day at Bedford Autodrome of the new E89, and got to drive a very nice fully loaded 35i around the country roads around Bedford, before being let loose on the track in the M3's they have there.
On the 8th April 2010 I finally got my hands on my Z4MC. I picked it up from Williams Stockport and had a fantastic drive back over the peaks in glorious sunshine to the East Midlands. There was one particularly funny moment during the drive home, where a bloke in an E46 330 Convertible with a very attractive blonde female in the passenger seat, thought it would be a good idea to mix it with the M on a rare stretch of dual carriageway. This was my first taste of M Power :evil:
In my first year of Forum membership I discovered the joys (and expense) of detailing. In May 2010 the car had a professional detail........
and I also discovered cleanyourcar.co.uk and other such sites and have been rather lighter in wallet ever since.
I also attended my first meets - both expertly led by Sammyz with some fantastic driving roads. The first was the National meet in July 2010 in the Lakes, which Craig organised brilliantly and which I will be returning on in 2012. On the Saturday we were blessed with blue skies and temperatures in the 20's. I didn't do the Sunday where I don't think the weather was quite as forgiving!
(I think that's CJ Jeeper perched on the wall!)
The second was the North Wales run in September 2010 where amongst many great routes, we covered the Evo Triangle. I can't remember many more exhilarating half hours driving during my time behind the wheel.
Since then I've attended two more meets, both covering the Peak District area, where we've had some great weather, stunning roads and scenery and good camaraderie.
I've met loads of smashing people at these meets, too numerous to mention, but needless to say I am looking forward to both making new acquaintances and reacquainting with those of you I've already had the pleasure of meeting, during the summer at both the Lakes meet and for those of you going, at Zedfest.
Now as some of you know, I'm not the worlds most prolific modifier - in fact I haven't done any, zilch, diddly squat. My car is 100% stock, even down to the aerial (a stubby is no use to me because I only ever listen to 5-Live these days now I'm getting old). However, I do have my eye on the bypass valve mod and when Mr Slone has had his done I may be tempted to take a small, tentative step into the modifying abyss. There is also the possibility of OEM CSL's which I think would look fantastic with my cars' colour scheme. The only other things I'd consider doing are too expensive (i.e converting my S54 to full CSL spec with cam change, carbon air box, re-map etc).
It hasn't all been plain sailing. In July last year I gave myself a VERY, VERY big fright when I unexpectedly hit a large pond of storm water just over the crest of a hill in the middle of a dual carriageway at 70mph. The car aquaplaned and my nearside rear wheel hit the near side kerb, throwing me across into the outside lane where my offside wheels hit the offside kerb. Mercifully the traffic was very light and I managed to keep control and bring the car to a halt. Unbelievably all of this did not put a single scratch on the bodywork, but the wheels and suspension didn't fare quite so well. Following two new wheels, two new track control arms, 1 spring strut and an absolutely top notch, thorough going over by Williams Manchester bodyshop the car was returned to me in fantastic condition and it drives even better now than before. Needless to say in heavy rain or following heavy rain I am now very careful.
So i'd like to finish off by thanking all of you for contributing in making this the fabulous Forum it is, I hope to meet many more of you this year and here's to the next 1,000 posts
It all started back in March 2010 when despite having already owned a Zed for nearly 5 years, I stumbled across this forum and joined.
At that point I was temporarily Zed-less having sold this..........
which I'd covered 85k very enjoyable miles in during my ownership, and was waiting to collect this..........
It was a 13k miler, Individual Midnight Blue Z4MC with Individual leather with heated seats, cruise, sun protection glass, privacy glass, Logic 7, bluetooth, voice control and probably other stuff I've forgotten about. It now has 30k miles on it, having been used as a daily driver for the first year. It is now enjoying a more sedate existence and mileage has dropped to circa 2-2.5k pa.
I'd been a keen Zed fan since 2004, when I first borrowed a 3.0i SMG for a weekend, courtesy of Stratstone Derby. I was hooked ! :wub:
In May 2009 I attended an official BMW launch day at Bedford Autodrome of the new E89, and got to drive a very nice fully loaded 35i around the country roads around Bedford, before being let loose on the track in the M3's they have there.
On the 8th April 2010 I finally got my hands on my Z4MC. I picked it up from Williams Stockport and had a fantastic drive back over the peaks in glorious sunshine to the East Midlands. There was one particularly funny moment during the drive home, where a bloke in an E46 330 Convertible with a very attractive blonde female in the passenger seat, thought it would be a good idea to mix it with the M on a rare stretch of dual carriageway. This was my first taste of M Power :evil:
In my first year of Forum membership I discovered the joys (and expense) of detailing. In May 2010 the car had a professional detail........
and I also discovered cleanyourcar.co.uk and other such sites and have been rather lighter in wallet ever since.
I also attended my first meets - both expertly led by Sammyz with some fantastic driving roads. The first was the National meet in July 2010 in the Lakes, which Craig organised brilliantly and which I will be returning on in 2012. On the Saturday we were blessed with blue skies and temperatures in the 20's. I didn't do the Sunday where I don't think the weather was quite as forgiving!
(I think that's CJ Jeeper perched on the wall!)
The second was the North Wales run in September 2010 where amongst many great routes, we covered the Evo Triangle. I can't remember many more exhilarating half hours driving during my time behind the wheel.
Since then I've attended two more meets, both covering the Peak District area, where we've had some great weather, stunning roads and scenery and good camaraderie.
I've met loads of smashing people at these meets, too numerous to mention, but needless to say I am looking forward to both making new acquaintances and reacquainting with those of you I've already had the pleasure of meeting, during the summer at both the Lakes meet and for those of you going, at Zedfest.
Now as some of you know, I'm not the worlds most prolific modifier - in fact I haven't done any, zilch, diddly squat. My car is 100% stock, even down to the aerial (a stubby is no use to me because I only ever listen to 5-Live these days now I'm getting old). However, I do have my eye on the bypass valve mod and when Mr Slone has had his done I may be tempted to take a small, tentative step into the modifying abyss. There is also the possibility of OEM CSL's which I think would look fantastic with my cars' colour scheme. The only other things I'd consider doing are too expensive (i.e converting my S54 to full CSL spec with cam change, carbon air box, re-map etc).
It hasn't all been plain sailing. In July last year I gave myself a VERY, VERY big fright when I unexpectedly hit a large pond of storm water just over the crest of a hill in the middle of a dual carriageway at 70mph. The car aquaplaned and my nearside rear wheel hit the near side kerb, throwing me across into the outside lane where my offside wheels hit the offside kerb. Mercifully the traffic was very light and I managed to keep control and bring the car to a halt. Unbelievably all of this did not put a single scratch on the bodywork, but the wheels and suspension didn't fare quite so well. Following two new wheels, two new track control arms, 1 spring strut and an absolutely top notch, thorough going over by Williams Manchester bodyshop the car was returned to me in fantastic condition and it drives even better now than before. Needless to say in heavy rain or following heavy rain I am now very careful.
So i'd like to finish off by thanking all of you for contributing in making this the fabulous Forum it is, I hope to meet many more of you this year and here's to the next 1,000 posts
