For sale is my mint condition BMW E30 M3. I have owned this car since 2000 and only because I am moving to Japan am I considering selling it. Owning and driving this car for the past 8 years has been an absolute joy.

I’ve driven many high performance cars over the years and I can tell you that very few cars come close to matching the exhilarating experience of driving an E30 M3. From the rawness of the F1 derived motor to the perfect balance of the race designed chassis, this is truly one of the last great homologation special road cars.

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More to come…

Photos taken by Michael Sean & Mananetwork Photography

There can be no doubt as to the race credibility of the E30 M3. From the flared wheel arches that accommodated the 10′ wide race wheels to the aerodynamically designed c-pillar the E30 M3 was designed for racing.

During it’s heyday in the late 1980’s the E30 M3 absolutely dominated the world touring car racing series, even when competing against cars such as the Sierra Cosworth RS which had double the horsepower of the M3.

So how well would a 17 year old race car do against a modern touring car. PistonHeads decided to find out and hired current WTTC champion Andy Priaulx to gives the cars a good thrashing.

Read the article here.

As much as everyone (myself included) complains that Formula 1 is not as exciting to watch as it used to be, let’s not forget that the early days of F1 were filled with violent and horrific accidents. Only in the last 15 years has the governing body of F1 and the manufacturers put a strong emphasis on safety and thankfully there hasn’t been a death since 1994. RIP Senna. This video is a good reminder that as exciting as the crashes are they can also have some very serious permanent consequences. Watching David Purley trying in vain to save his friend Roger Williamson while everyone else just stands around is especially gut wrenching.

Of all the well funded car collectors in the world I think Jay Leno commands the respect of a lot of car enthusiasts. He doesn’t collect cars to speculate and keep them locked away in climate controlled vaults. No, he buys cars to drive and can often be seen blasting around parts of the San Fernando Valley in his 1912 Stanley Steamer.

In this video Jay tests the new Nissan GT-R. I think he is right on about the lack of emotional connection with Japanese cars and sadly I think this is spreading to the European car makers as well. Audi, BMW and Mercedes are so focussed on massive horsepower and over technical cars that the “thrill” of driving is being replaced by how well you can program the launch control. I love how Jay joking takes Nissan to task for their overly complex electronics.

Jay Leno Test Drive 2009 Nissan GT-R

Nissan GT-R Design Video

Nissan GT-R Fast Lap of the Nurburgring

After my tour of the ZAZ Museum I hopped on the Linimo maglev train and went to visit the Toyota Automobile Museum.

I didn’t have high hopes for this museum as I was expecting it would be a showcase of past and current Toyota cars and let’s face it Toyota isn’t exactly known for their exciting design. Fortunately I was completely wrong as they had a huge collection of European, American and Japanese cars from past to modern.

The Benz Velo was Karl Benz’s follow up to his three-wheeled Patent Motorwagen and was one of the first commercially produced cars in history. The Velo features a vertical flywheel engine, and it’s two-speed transmission system of pulleys and belts gave it a top speed of 21 km/h.

1910 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost

I absolutely love old cars from the early 1900’s. I love the “carriage” like look to them, the oil lantern lights, the brass fittings.

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I recently found myself back in Japan and with two weeks to spare I decided to get out of Tokyo and pay a visit to the historical capital of Japan, the city of Kyoto. Hopping on the bullet train my first stop would be Nagoya, a small quiet city between Tokyo and Kyoto.

What brought me here was pachinko, specifically the owner of one of the largest pachinko chains in Japan. It seems that this particular owner has a passion for fast cars and has made his multi-million dollar collection available to the public.

What is pachinko and how does it relate to million dollar cars? Well imagine a game that is a cross between a slot machine and a pinball game. The object is to place the balls in the center hole and the more balls you get in the hole the more prizes you win. What is most interesting about pachinko is that it is a $200 Billion industry, larger than the Japanese auto industry! So you can imagine owning a few pachinko parlors can be very profitable.

Walking into the Zent Motorsports showroom it is hard not to be overwhelmed by the cars on display. Many of these cars I had only ever seen in the pages of EVO magazine and now here they were right in front of me.

The BMW powered McLaren F1 GT one of only three in the world. The McLaren F1 GTs were built from standard McLaren F1 road car chassis. The prototype GT is still kept by McLaren, however demand from customers drove McLaren to build two production versions that were sold.

The McLaren F1 GT featured the same extended rear bodywork as the McLaren GTRs for increased downforce, yet lacked the rear wing that had been seen on the McLaren F1 LM. The downforce generated by the longer tail was found to be sufficient to not require the wing.

The awesome McLaren F1 LM in papaya orange paint. Only five McLaren F1 LM were built in honor of the five McLaren F1 GTR’s which won the 1995 24 Heures du Mans.


The McLaren F1 LM is regarded to be the fastest incarnation of the McLaren F1 roadcars through the gears and in overall track performance. It has a 0-60 mph time of 2.9 seconds, 0-100 mph in 5.9 seconds and was once the holder of many world records, including the 0-100-0 mph record which it completed in 8.5 seconds.

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After my last Thai motor show experience I wasn’t overly looking forward to attending the 2008 Bangkok International Motor Show. The only thing that drew me out of my air conditioned apartment and into the heat of Bangkok is that I heard the local BMW club was going to be having a showing.

One thing that has really surprised me about my time here in Thailand is the amount of cool E30’s I’ve seen. I have seen more modded E30’s with M-Teck II body kits here in the last 6 months than I’ve ever seen in Vancouver. For example check out this guy’s E30 M3 it’s like my Thai twin!

When I arrived I counted around 20 cars in attendance, with 6-8 E30’s and a nice mix of classic and ricer styling. I didn’t get a chance to look under the hood but with all the plumbing poking out the bottom it seems that many of these guys are running boost.

Talk about stretched wheels!

Some more gorgeous Thai E30’s!

After chatting with the E30 owners I decided to head inside to see what else was on display.

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I recntly checked out the Thailand Motor Expo. Due to high import duties new cars are generally 2-3 times more expensive than cars in the West, $250,000 for a BMW X5 anyone?! So I was curious as to what type of cars would be on display?

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The combined stupidity of MovableType and the worlds dumbest hosting company has hosed my site. This WordPress blog will be the temporary garage until the I get the site relaunched this summer.