New owner, familiar E86...

P

pauliebuttons

Member
 London
Hello everyone!

First-time BMW owner (do Mini's really count?) and last weekend I picked up @AdyBish's beautiful E86.

This seems to be a true forum car as I'll be the 4th forum member to own it after Ade, @W63, and @Unitedleeds1919. I guess at this point you just become custodians to these cars.

I used to have an MR2 SW20 as a second fun car about 10 years ago and then life got in the way. The low point of my car ownership history during this time was a terrible diesel fiesta. I've always wanted a replacement to my MR2 (with a bit more refinement) and am now in a position in life where I can have that again. Fell in love with the E86 about 6 months ago — it's the last of an era and I wanted to experience owning one before they become unobtainable.

Been searching ever since, knew I wanted black on black, manual, good providence. Was searching all the usual places and nothing really took my fancy, was affordable, or gave me confidence it had been looked after. In a flash of inspiration I found these forums and found this car within 5 mins. 3 hours of researching everyone's post history later, I knew I had to see it. Viewed it the next day and knew I had to buy it. Broke the cardinal rule of buying the first car you view, also having never driven any type of Z4, and also I should mention I've never even seen a E86 in the wild before?

Wasn't sure I'd be a fan of the wheels but they look awesome in person. Carbon Black is such a beautiful colour too.

Thank you to Ade for being a great host and just generally a really nice guy. Part of my decision in purchasing was my confidence in him (and jenks for piping in too!).

VSKrOMZ.jpg

Short-term plans
  • Get a 4-wheel alignment ✅
  • Replace valvetronic motor gasket
  • Figure out a good phone solution
  • Replace a few loose/scratched interior trim panels
  • Try all black front grills as it's the only chrome left on the car and I think it would tidy it up
  • Polish up the headlights, bought some Osram Nightbreaker lights too to try out

Mid-term plans
  • Trackdays! (Are there any group outings planned?)
  • CDV delete
  • A good machine polish
  • Front fogs are destroyed, and front bumper has been through the wars a bit.
    In an ideal world, delete the fogs and replace with Z4M bumper - but they're quite rare so I'll see what comes up.

Longer-term plans
  • LSD swap
  • Some kind of brake upgrade

That's it, thanks for attending my Ted Talk.
 
Welcome to the forum, nice car. :thumbsup: Like you I bought mine from the forum as it had been looked after by the owner and cared for like his baby. Like you nothing on AT etc, that was almost 3 years ago and I still love it. That exhaust, hell its nice.
 
Nice one! My coupe is also my first BMW (Mini does not count). Plans look good. I’d just move the CDV delete to short term as it makes a huge difference, definitely worth it :thumbsup:
 
Micke said:
Nice one! My coupe is also my first BMW (Mini does not count). Plans look good. I’d just move the CDV delete to short term as it makes a huge difference, definitely worth it :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

It's very smooth to drive, but every now and then you disengage the clutch in particular way and it 'jerks' for lack of a better word. Hoping that will fix that problem.
 
Love the color combo with the wheels. As for the "phone solution" you have a few popular options you'll find on the forum. Personally, I went with a CD slot magsafe charging mount from Mighty Mount and power it from the cigarette lighter with a short red cable to play off the color of my seats.
 
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