I've had a few people ask to keep them updated on various projects I have going in my shop. If it's ok with the admins I thought it might be easier to chronicle everything in one thread, I'd keep my current project threads going but just update this thread on new cars and projects that some might find interesting.

If so, here goes.

I've converted some friends from the idea that to have fun with a car it needs to be a muscle car and big horsepower. These guys are now BMW fanatics as well, between the three of us we have (8) Wagons, (3) ZHPs, (2) E46 M3s and a 330ci. One of them has a S54 powered wagon we built last year and with my S54 wagon the third guy was feeling left out.

He had been looking for a slicktop wagon, but ended up finding a slicktop ZHP. So Monday he and I flew out to Long Beach and picked it up. The car is a '05 Alpine on Alcantara with a slicktop and is stick shift. We landed in LB made the deal in the air port packing lot and hit the road. First gas stop.




We ended up driving straight through the night to get back home. The little car did great. 25+mpg running a bit on the high side of the speed limit. Needless to say I am jealous of his find. Future plans are to marry it with the best of this:



He is a deal hunter like I am and the plan was to buy anything and everything we could fit into the car on the way home (and/or possibly another car if we found one decent enough). The ZHP was supposed to have fold down rear seats so we were going to drive to Denver and pick-up a NB wagon interior since it was "on the way" lol. The ZHP ended up not having fold down seats and we just didn't think it would fit as is. BUT we did locate this lot of S54 items. The seller had it listed for weeks on craigslist in LA and no one snagged it. These are all S54 parts, highlights are new rod bearings and ring set, oil pan, valve cover, 6spd trans minus bell housing (might be junk then) a SS braided Vanos oil hose and a BRAND NEW Rogue Engineering M3 shifter setup ($425 on RE website!) all of this for.... $40. YES!