Well, much fun as the Mazda MX-5 was, its limited practiallity finally got the better of me, hence I went out and chopped it in for this, a BMW 330d Tourer.

Its the SE spec, with the sports trim 184bhp std - will be soon chipped to approx 215bhp. Std 0-60 comes up in 7.6 secs and it pulls like a train in every gear, and still returned 52mpg on a spirited trip back from Wolverhampton with it

Can you keep a car longer than 5 mins!?!

Obviously not

Tis very nice matey, looks well tidy.

Glad to see your driving another beemer

What happened to keeping the Mazda for the summer months though?

I give it a month before you have somthing else on the drive stu

Looks nice though good choice of car.

i love it, nice classy mobile, what you got planned for it chew

love it mate, nice colour too, tidy motor...

They are WONDERFUL cars! Even if you picked the grandad version!(touring)
Nice colour mate

Well, I hope this one is for keeps

The Mazda, despite being a fantastic hoot, just wasnt practical enough, it was also pretty thirsty, mainly because you just couldnt help driving it like a loon

The BMW is faster, more economical, has more seats and a boot.

I will miss the Mazda, and despite their reputation, if the Nissan wasnt my play car, there would deffo be an MX-5 on the drive!!!

K&N Fitted - what a job this was!!



Remap coming on Tuesday

Fook me, size and shape of it!

Where you gettin the remap done matey?

Guy comes round to the house to do it

Hes doing Chris's Seat, and Andys Berlingo at the same time which helps keep the cost down as he is coming from Coventry and all the cars will be in the same place for the remapping

how much?

The filter was £55 and the remap is £200 a piece

217bhp though ... and still 45mpg

Right, it got it remap on Tuesday, and the difference is amazing.

The throttle is more responsive, and there is a lot more go in the car now - the traction control light flickers in 2nd gear in the dry now

nice one! pop it on the next RR

Got some new 18" MTEC wheels for the car yesterday

Nice them stu look better then the other ones.

Your doing well with this car you have it for a while now.

Good stuff, I'm not a big fan of them myself, so I'd prefer you're old ones.

I agree with Tony, don't go getting rid of it yet lol

what you got planned for it next?

Well, Ive also fitted an EGR valve replacement pipe, this has made the car rev better, pull harder, and there is damn near no black smoke now (this smokes less than when it was std, never mind following a re-map)

Next Thursday its booked in to Peco, as they are using the car to make a stainless backbox and take a pattern from it

....apparently, other backboxes for the 330's free up about 10bhp

...oh, and the trip computer is showing an average of 48mpg with combined motorway and town driving

Id make a very confident bet that your works car gets driven slightly differently to mine

Captian slow every car gets driven harder than yours

C u 2night

Nice colour... and nice wheels! lol.

Copy cat!



Is it the same colour? Mine is called "Ruby Red II" - was lead to believe I have the only coupe in the country in the colour, so yours may be one of the few estates?

Or it may be slightly different?

His seems a bit darker mate. Think its maroon?

i'm laughing to think BMW's colour chart has Maroon on it lol.
I like the words Ruby Red II lol

They look very similar allowing for the different light conditions.

I think his is either madeira or malaga as they're the only bmw maroon colours i know

Colour code of mine is Sienna Red, so it is different, but a rare colour in the tourers...

As for the copy cat - I belive I had mine first

lol

nice car

ooo, ive had mine a few months now so could be close?? lol.

As part of an SXOC rolling road I got the BMW on there. Not yet had the 180 mapped, so this was the next choice.

Pretty happy, 219bhp and 410lb/ft torque - which was the highest torque figure of the day - even beating some 400bhp 200's

Not sure of the std torque figure, but the std bhp is 184, so 35 over std - Im pretty happy - especially when its doing 45mpg round town