u/MomsFavouriteRetard

I recently bought this Z3 for a steal from a friend as me and my wife were planning a road trip down the west coast of Italy later on this year.

They are really not my cup of tea but my wife fell in love with it on the first sight, so I couldn't say no.

I am no stranger to BMW as I run a shop building race cars and track tools for vehicles in Europe, however this is my first ever roadster/convertible vehicle I have ever owned and a little bit different from the M3's, M4's & M5's I have or have owned previously 😅

I have already order a bunch of new parts to keep her reliable for the road trip, (including but not limited to..) all new power steering hoses, all new coolant hoses, new rear window, front and rear axle bushings, joints and arms, fresh tyres and more.

She is booked in next week for some bodywork TLC as the lacquer has peeled like crazy considering it is only on 44,000 miles. (Backed up by service and vehicle test history.)

I do have some questions regarding the Z3 if someone would like to chime in....?

I would like to make it the wider 2.8 body but is there much of a difference between in regard to wheel sizes?

I also have a spare S50B52 3.2, 5 speed gearbox with ancillaries and engine control. Apart from the usual upgrades needed (prop, diff, brakes rear axle.) do these fit well or is there anything I should know before?

We honestly can't wait to road trip in August/September with the top down through parts of Europe and the coast of Italy, it's going to be awesome.

Thanks for reading and I can wait to share more on this resto project with potentially major upgrades!

I recently sold my XD4 and it was production number 001, so the very first one.

The new owner did not want the 22" wheels and said I can keep them if I lower the vehicle price. (I said "what the hell.")

Anyway, I decided to clean them up and list them online and they fetch quite a fair bit in Europe.

The first person that came to view them stated that they have no numbers on the front wheels, which means they are fake... I said that is not possible as I bought the vehicle with the wheels on from BMW.

Upon further inspection of the front wheels, I can see there are no markings whatsoever and it's leading me to believe they "might" not be genuine.

I never had any issues with TÜV which is also strange.

Can anyone chime in and tell me if they have experienced anything similar?

I have just bought what looks like a terribly crash repaired SRT8 from 2012.

It was a blind buy as I got it for 12000€

It is on 48k miles but is also a UAE export which doesn't inspire confidence.

Motor is good and so is the transmission, it is in need of a lot of body work as the paint job is complete trash and the repair work is no better.

I have joined the community for some help as I would like to know any insider bits about these cars and if there are any reputable places in the EU or Europe that sell new or used parts. (I am located in Germany.)

This is my first American V8 but not my first V8 and I am hoping to restore it for road trips across Europe with my wife.

If anyone has any advice i would be super thankful ✌🏼