Richard Bernau Posted May 7, 2020 Author Share Posted May 7, 2020 So this is nice. Being part of the CSL owners community I have managed to get my original build info. My CSL was built on 8 November 2003 and was one of 106 UK RHD cars built that month. But here is the lucky/cool bit. Mine is one of only 38 UK Silver Grey cars that was factory top speed delimited. Its a very rare option in the UK as you had to provide a valid race licence in order to spec this. How good is that!! Now just waiting for the borders to open and its time to hit the Autobahns 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jevvy Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 15 minutes ago, Richard Bernau said: How good is that!! Now just waiting for the borders to open and its time to hit the Autobahns You really are a lucky chap - reminds me of when the UK reg came through for the boosted car! Can I get some lottery numbers from you please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
World Citizen Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 Gave your post the 'winners cup', 1st one I've given out and reserved only for the big wins in life! RB you need to find out if the race license owner was a successful racer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Bernau Posted May 7, 2020 Author Share Posted May 7, 2020 I do indeed need to find out and that was the first thought I had. I am not sure it’s possible to get that info any more though. Any ideas? 5 hours ago, jevvy said: You really are a lucky chap - reminds me of when the UK reg came through for the boosted car! Can I get some lottery numbers from you please? I could bore you with my bad luck story today as well if you like. I think I am almost breaking even for the day, but I will take the win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndglynn Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 14 hours ago, Richard Bernau said: My CSL was built on 8 November 2003 and was one of 106 UK RHD cars built that month. But here is the lucky/cool bit. Mine is one of only 38 UK Silver Grey cars that was factory top speed delimited. Its a very rare option in the UK as you had to provide a valid race licence in order to spec this. This is cool - good luck with the autobahns. I love this lucky provenance stuff. After I bought my M3 saloon, someone from the BMW Owners Club got a printout from BMW GB records of VIN numbers and options. Turned out mine is the last RHD 3-litre saloon manufactured, which I like. The previous owners lottery is also interesting. I bought a truly filthy VFR 800 which I had to clean with two litres of unleaded and a half inch brush but turned out that it had been owned by a factory Honda MotoGP rider - had his original warranty card in the history folder that the seller had never opened. Made no differenmce to resale but I liked it. I think your discovery has certainly helped resale. Nice one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roy M Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 The old V888 form doesn't work any more - you'll get a GDPR letter back (eventually). Best way if tracing owners is service records or owners forums or both. You may get somewhere just putting the registration number (s) into Google. Do BMW service books not have the first owner details in the same way Porsche ones do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
World Citizen Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 47 minutes ago, johndglynn said: This is cool - good luck with the autobahns. I love this lucky provenance stuff. After I bought my M3 saloon, someone from the BMW Owners Club got a printout from BMW GB records of VIN numbers and options. Turned out mine is the last RHD 3-litre saloon manufactured, which I like. The previous owners lottery is also interesting. I bought a truly filthy VFR 800 which I had to clean with two litres of unleaded and a half inch brush but turned out that it had been owned by a factory Honda MotoGP rider - had his original warranty card in the history folder that the seller had never opened. Made no differenmce to resale but I liked it. I think your discovery has certainly helped resale. Nice one. More cool ownership stories 😎 My 4Runner was a one owner rescue vehicle for Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital It's got a few scratches in the rear load area so it must have seen a lot of sick hedgehogs rolling around back there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndglynn Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 4 minutes ago, World Citizen said: It's got a few scratches in the rear load area so it must have seen a lot of sick hedgehogs rolling around back there Look at the spec of the replacement. Do they do callouts to North Africa? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
World Citizen Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 6 minutes ago, johndglynn said: Look at the spec of the replacement. Do they do callouts to North Africa? That's not Africa spec but Oxfordshire B-Road spec. 😩 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roy M Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 My Marcos GT was supposedly owned by Andy Fairweather-Low - not so sure myself but that's what the history file says! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Bernau Posted May 8, 2020 Author Share Posted May 8, 2020 Michael Thornhill judging by earliest correspondence I can find. MD of Thornhill Heat Exchangers. So not exactly a Michael Schumacher. Should be able to get in touch via LinkedIn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Comerford Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 1 hour ago, Roy M said: My Marcos GT was supposedly owned by Andy Fairweather-Low - not so sure myself but that's what the history file says! Wide eyed and legless, great song title! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sopor Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 My targa was owned by Marigold Newey, (now ex) wife of Adrian Newey. No indications he ever had anything to do with the car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Bernau Posted June 11, 2020 Author Share Posted June 11, 2020 Moving forwards. I had the CSL up on a ramp earlier in the week to assess the state of bushings a little better. The CSL has a ferocity of acceleration that is a notch or 3 above the 987, and I have felt a slight sensation of the rear end walking slightly under full bore second gear, even on good, flat, straight, grippy tarmac. It doesn't have the tq of my old 996TT obviously, but when wound up and with ITB throttle response and relatively LW, it punches pretty hard. This movement/feeling was enough to make me check rear tyre pressures for a slow leak. I don't know M3s, but this felt like a rear end bushing issue leading to unwanted rear steering more than anything else and I had heard of the RTABs (rear trailing arm bushing) as a source of sloppiness. So, up on the ramp and with an 18 inch pry bar, it was easy to see the movement in that bushing. They weren't visibly worn or torn just a bit soft. Put leverage on the bushing and it looked like 3-5 degrees of rear steer at the tyre. Blimey. We checked further and could see the rear sub frame bushings have visible wear as well, but no untoward movement. Long story short and I now have a date for the rear RTABs to be replaced along with the subframe bushings. If you are still reading, I was inclined to poly bush it all and call it done. Proflex even sell a "handling" kit with all the bushings. But it seems unless you want a real race car, you are fine with a std RTAB and a limiter kit to prevent lateral movement. Even good club race cars are using that. And it means no NVH increase. On the subframe, it seems the poly bushes are preferred as they have a wider flat surface facing the rear chassis floor vs the std bush. Wisdom is that this reduces movement (stiffer bushing) and spreads the loads into the floor so it helps to prevent the almost inevitable cracks in the floor that all E46s get. My car got the BMW "fix" of a new floor and having the void filled with hard foam/resin under warranty in 2013, so having "better" bushings should make the fix last longer. It is still possible that I get cracks again and need to have them welded and reinforcing plates added at some later point, but fingers crossed that will never be needed with the bushing improvement and its unlikely I will be adding major track and kerb based loads if I stick to road usage. Looking forward to having all this done in maybe a couple of weeks. Then its a proper M3 specialist alignment and feeling happy its ready for anything I have planned in terms of drives and learning it a bit better. *End* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndglynn Posted June 11, 2020 Share Posted June 11, 2020 Excellent. What's the ballpark cost of replacing the rear bushes plus specialist alignment? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sopor Posted June 11, 2020 Share Posted June 11, 2020 Pretty sure I still have my E46 RTAB remove/replace tool if you fancy getting your hands dirty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Bernau Posted June 11, 2020 Author Share Posted June 11, 2020 (edited) 3 hours ago, johndglynn said: Excellent. What's the ballpark cost of replacing the rear bushes plus specialist alignment? I have another CSL owner who is an indie BMW mechanic doing the work. He is in Bermondsey. Its a day's labour to do the full strip, replace and re-assembly and its slightly mate's rates for another CSL owner. I don't know the cost to do the set up, but it will be elsewhere. If Abbey Racing near me re-open I can use them - they did the Boxster and it handles pretty well or I have another Hunter alignment rig place in East Grinstead who will set up to supplied specs or I go to one of the M3 specialists somewhere (not Munich Legends). 3 hours ago, sopor said: Pretty sure I still have my E46 RTAB remove/replace tool if you fancy getting your hands dirty. Its too much like hard work without a lift. And day job is busy, so not a lot of time. But thanks for the offer. Edited June 11, 2020 by Richard Bernau Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hagarep Posted June 12, 2020 Share Posted June 12, 2020 (edited) Emlyn set my car up and is not far from you Richard. He is actually just off the B2173 as you head in to Swanley. Edited June 12, 2020 by hagarep Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Bernau Posted June 12, 2020 Author Share Posted June 12, 2020 Many thanks - will look him up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GimmeShelter Posted June 12, 2020 Share Posted June 12, 2020 I had all those rear bushes replaced with polybushes on my E46 M3. The movement on the old bushes had become noticeable in the manner you describe, probably at about 60k or 70k miles, I can't remember for sure. (I had the car for 11 years and 109k miles in all.) I didn't bother dealing with BMW for the floor repair, I went to Sean at Iridium Engineering in Eastleigh who fitted the Redish repair plates - a thoroughly convincing job - at roughly 90k miles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Bernau Posted June 12, 2020 Author Share Posted June 12, 2020 It seems like one of those things that needs to be done on all of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beaky Posted June 12, 2020 Share Posted June 12, 2020 3 hours ago, Richard Bernau said: It seems like one of those things that needs to be done on all of them. A silly question, but is it better to have it done now thereby limiting the damage, potenrial distortion, etc. it may casuse, e,g use the as strengthing plates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Bernau Posted June 12, 2020 Author Share Posted June 12, 2020 Not silly at all. I was referring to the bushings as the thing they all need. The subframe cracking is common but not every car suffers from it. Mine has had a whole new subframe from BMW already and they inject resin/foam into the cavities to create a solid area in the middle of the "box". IIRC, I have only heard of one car that needed plating after it had the BMW fix done. Certainly, check for cracks will get done when its apart and we deal with what we find, I just don't expect to find anything. If so, the Redish plates are the way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oliverjamesthomas Posted June 13, 2020 Share Posted June 13, 2020 On 08/05/2020 at 09:59, Richard Bernau said: Michael Thornhill judging by earliest correspondence I can find. MD of Thornhill Heat Exchangers. So not exactly a Michael Schumacher. Should be able to get in touch via LinkedIn. Sorry, only just spotted this. Small world. Very much a Michael Schumacher actually and a ‘Ring regular on the two day DN events. Glenn and I spent a very enjoyable evening with him in the Pistenklause a couple of trips a go. The drinks bill, as I remember, was significant 😂 His Company was based in Barnsley at the time and his car ownership history was quite interesting; read exclusive 😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Bernau Posted June 14, 2020 Author Share Posted June 14, 2020 Small world indeed. I haven't sent a message to him. Maybe I should, particularly now its only 2 degrees of separation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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