peter's Touring project

[///Mark_D]

That is awesome to hear that your touring has come back home.

Sergey was a great steward of this car as well, and I enjoyed following along with his time with it too. It just seems right that it should be in your garage though since you put so much of yourself into building it.

I've probably said this before, but your journey with this car was inspirational and has been an influence on my own E46 projects. That includes the life lessons learned and circumstances you posted about when you made the decision to sell it. I've paused and reflected few times after long nights working in the garage to think about what things in life are important and to evaluate how I'm balancing my time and priorities.

I hope you are in a better headspace today and you are free to enjoy the car without the negative feelings that surrounded it before. Best wishes this time around and looking forward to seeing what's next.

[slater]

That is awesome to hear that your touring has come back home.

Sergey was a great steward of this car as well, and I enjoyed following along with his time with it too. It just seems right that it should be in your garage though since you put so much of yourself into building it.

I've probably said this before, but your journey with this car was inspirational and has been an influence on my own E46 projects. That includes the life lessons learned and circumstances you posted about when you made the decision to sell it. I've paused and reflected few times after long nights working in the garage to think about what things in life are important and to evaluate how I'm balancing my time and priorities.

I hope you are in a better headspace today and you are free to enjoy the car without the negative feelings that surrounded it before. Best wishes this time around and looking forward to seeing what's next.

holy cow, i think i nearly had a tear-up reading this.... that really means a lot to me, mark. thanks for sharing that! we're all in this thing together, so i am glad that it helped you to not go through the same mistakes that i made.

being able to get it back, AND have my wife's blessing was really critical, because yes, it's going to be entirely different this time around. and, ironically, proof positive of that is the fact that it's basically not been touched (other than to move it and keep things working) for 5-6 months.

i have some potentially outlandish plans for it, but we'll see what happens when i dive into rust repair and other things. i have to get my son's car done first, then get this new 2004 ZHP refreshed, and i have a manual swap for my E91 M Sport planned as well.... the E91 will likely go up on BaT or C&B though once that's done. i really like it, but it's no ZHP. who knows, maybe after the manual swap i'll really dig it. it's uber-rare though - they made just 102 E91 M Sport RWD autos, and 48 E91 M Sport RWD manuals, for the north american market. and 2 manuals in space gray over oyster. so it'll be 1/3, sorta.

anyway. thanks for the nice note!!

[///Mark_D]

holy cow, i think i nearly had a tear-up reading this.... that really means a lot to me, mark. thanks for sharing that! we're all in this thing together, so i am glad that it helped you to not go through the same mistakes that i made.

being able to get it back, AND have my wife's blessing was really critical, because yes, it's going to be entirely different this time around. and, ironically, proof positive of that is the fact that it's basically not been touched (other than to move it and keep things working) for 5-6 months.

i have some potentially outlandish plans for it, but we'll see what happens when i dive into rust repair and other things. i have to get my son's car done first, then get this new 2004 ZHP refreshed, and i have a manual swap for my E91 M Sport planned as well.... the E91 will likely go up on BaT or C&B though once that's done. i really like it, but it's no ZHP. who knows, maybe after the manual swap i'll really dig it. it's uber-rare though - they made just 102 E91 M Sport RWD autos, and 48 E91 M Sport RWD manuals, for the north american market. and 2 manuals in space gray over oyster. so it'll be 1/3, sorta.

anyway. thanks for the nice note!!

No problem man. I can tell you invested a lot of time and mental/emotional energy into this project, so to see things come back around to a more positive note made me really happy for you. Glad to hear your wife is on board with the car too, I know first hand what a difference that makes.

I don't post a lot around here, but I do appreciate how everyone seems to have genuine concern for one another. That's kind of a rare thing lately and reminds me of the old days of the internet when more places like this existed. There's a similar vibe in the wagon sub-forum over on E46 Fanatics.

Sounds like you've got some great plans for this car and your other projects. I saw you just picked up that really nice Imola sedan, so congrats on that as well!

I'm also a fan of the E91 wagons and was just reading about how crazy low the M sport production numbers were. I'm interested to see how your opinion of it changes after you swap in a manual trans.

The first BMW I ever drove was an E90 sedan so have a soft spot for those even though they are not talked about as highly as the E46. It was my friends car, and before he handed me the keys he cautioned me and said "Don't drive a BMW unless you want to own a BMW". I've got three of them now, so I guess he was right lol.

[slater]

Sounds like you've got some great plans for this car and your other projects. I saw you just picked up that really nice Imola sedan, so congrats on that as well!

thanks! that one is soooo nice. it's really clean, and will be a great car to enjoy and preserve in an OEM+ type of fashion. it does have some little issues to deal with (like, the VCG/OFHG/OPG all need to be replaced... complete bushing overhaul, etc), but it's overall quite awesome. the seats are sans-lumbar and my back hates that, but i do have some M3 seats waiting to go in.

I'm also a fan of the E91 wagons and was just reading about how crazy low the M sport production numbers were. I'm interested to see how your opinion of it changes after you swap in a manual trans.

The first BMW I ever drove was an E90 sedan so have a soft spot for those even though they are not talked about as highly as the E46. It was my friends car, and before he handed me the keys he cautioned me and said "Don't drive a BMW unless you want to own a BMW". I've got three of them now, so I guess he was right lol.

it's weird, for sure. i started out with hondas in the 90s, and then migrated into VWs and then Audis, which were frankly horrific to maintain (just terrible packaging)... and the driving dynamics weren't awesome. when i bought my first BMW, which was a high-mile (364K KM) 2005 330Ci ZHP back in 2013, it blew my mind - like, i remember thinking on the drive home, "uhhh... WHY haven't i driven one of these before???" it was a revelation. and that one was tired! but now that i know what they are capable of when dialed in, there's really nothing else this side of a Porsche that compares in terms of the entire experience.

the E9x cars i've owned and driven have generally been not as enjoyable as an E46 (especially the xDrive cars.... how BMW could actually produce a car that rode so terribly, i have no idea - they have no front suspension travel!), however my E91 has got a superb suspension setup (all M3 arms and M3 alignment, plus more stuff) and actually is quite fun to drive - and will be much more so once it has a proper gearbox and the right amount of pedals. but little things like the gauges, outward visibility, the way the door sounds when it's opened and closed... are far superior on the E46.

the only other cars i'm really interested in putting on my driveway at this point are a Porsche (997 911 C2S or 987 Cayman), another BRZ (i owned one for 2 years and love love loved it - THAT car has the raw experience nailed and feels unlike any other new car), or a Z3/M (never owned one before and i am kinda itching for a small convertible).

cars, man.... what a pain in the ass.