Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

Non-sport but manual which excites me.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-550i-SE-MANUAL-6-SPEED-TOURING-ONLY-ONE-FOR-SALE-IN-UK-VERY-RARE-CAR-FSH/124636637100?hash=item1d04ec27ac:g:DmwAAOSwhvpgT1bG

Yeah, Morel Virtus 402’s

That is exciting! Nicer colour too. And not tooooo far away.

I thought the M-sport package did wonders for the handling though... seems odd not to spec it on a manual.

That looks very much built to someone's taste. Comfort seats, small wheels and manual.

Surprised its not debadged.

Hard to tell from the photos but it might also have the ‘sport’ suspension and active sway bar, which were shed options on SE looking cars. VIN decoder would be interesting...

Looks a peach

I have requested VIN

brave pill required

Yep. It’s the age old debate. Could just go for a 5 year old diesel Skoda Superb estate and be done with it.

Any E500 avants about? The later engine is a beaut. They are rare amongst the hoards of v6 diesels.

Gone to it's new forever home and back to car shopping!

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• 20210315_170511.mp4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWqjZaH4H5g

looking forward to the next episode dude. hope you have some scoobys in the offing

Is that a Mucoff face mask?

Oh I most certainly do! I actually came dangerously close to going in head first and buying a Lexus LS460 first but decided the practicality of the Forester as a daily for the next while outweighed the lux-appeal of the Lexus. I won't be able to start into the engine swapping fun until after we buy a house which is top of the agenda at the moment but it will give me a good chance to get a feel for the Fozzy and do my homework as to what way I want it to turn out.

Contemplating air suspension but it's rather spendy... anyway I'll report back once the new vehicle is purchased and I'll expound on my thoughts at that stage. It's going to be a bit of a slow burner!

Most likely will have replacement collected this evening in fact!

In all black it looks incredibly similar to an F1 (that's reversed into a turbine). I'm looking forward to when we can hear it at full attack.

love it. gonna be a bit of a slow burner. replacement collected this evening.

excellent. pics when you can dude

Just had a punt up the A414 in that black 550i touring. Very smooth, quiet, supple, certainly covers ground quickly but quite polite... almost underwhelming. Poor torque, but really gets going at higher revs.

Comfortable though and everything seems to work. VIN decoder turned up something interesting though.

I’ve also nerded out and compared it to the blue manual one. Shame the manual isn’t in the black one!

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how did you check that, dude?

Doesn't look LHD in the photos. Maybe someone moved the steering wheel over to the other side.

It’s called mdecoder.com ... and 5 mins in excel

It’s definitely RHD now!

Carbon-black isn't black btw - its dark blue (like old carbon paper).

It's what my G31 is painted. Nice colour in the sun but does show up marks pretty easily.

Cheers , my old e46 was same, bit of a pain

I wonder if the LHD is a mistake, given that they both have the S812 option....