BMW Idea

Since I viewed the 2006 Subaru Impreza WRX STI, I have been constantly thinking about the downpayment and loan issue. I have been thinking a lot and I definitely do not want to be burdened by a car loan because of these simple reasons: 1. Most of the great JDMs are older than 2005. 2. Any car older than 2005 will not be able to get a loan or have a short loan period. 3. Those newer are just too expensive. So, I came up with a plan to get an old and cheap car but with the potential of being a project car. That is when I was reminded of this interesting idea that was once very very popular. Getting an old BMW and put in a Japanese sports car engine. You get the style and luxury of a Continental car but with the reliability of a Japanese engine. We all know BMW engines are great but it is not easy to maintain one. So with this combination, you would get the best of both world.

E46 3 Series Coupe with CSL front bumper

I have always eyed the BMW E46 3-series especially the 2 door coupe variants. It also helps that these E46s are made in the year circa 2000 and market is of abundance of them. I could easily get a E46 for around RM 25,000 but you would need to fork out more at around RM 40,000 for a 2 door variant. I have already picked a color and the exterior enhancement that I would love. It would either be blue or grey with a M3 CSL front bumper paired with a SRS or M Sports rear bumper with dual exhaust. Put on a nice set of Breyton rims and lower with a M Sports suspension set, it will be great. On the inside, I will have a black interior with silver trimmings, a M Sport 3 spoke steering wheel with control buttons and replace the original audio player with a touch screen just to modernize the inside. Also, I would finally have a reason to take my beautiful alcantara Recaro SR6 seat out of my room and into a car. It would be just like the good old days.

SRS rear bumper with dual exhaust

M Sport rear bumper with dual exhaust

Now that the BMW side of the idea is done, it is time for the Toyota half. You might not be aware of it but transplanting Japanese engines into a European car has always been a popular thing in Malaysia. You will see some 1980s Mercedes Benz or early Jaguars with Japanese engines under the hood. It is popular because of the saying that Japanese engines are more reliable and cheaper to maintain. For the BMW, Toyota's 3 liter 2JZ-GTE and 2.5 liter 1JZ-GTE engines are the chosen one with the 1JZ being the more popular one. I started looking up for parts, engine, manual transmission and the list of mods that would go well with the project. I thought I found the perfect project to satisfy my budget and the need for speed. You could see me going online searching every day especially for a suitable and cheap project car but there was none. I told myself I need to wait. Condition is not important because it is more critical to get one as close as possible to what I want to reduce the amount needed to spend on the project.

Black interior with aluminum trim equipped with M Sport steering wheel and touch screen 

Then that fateful day came when I was chatting with a good friend of mine and told him about my BMW idea. He told me it was impossible and I was surprised to hear that. I asked him why and he told me that the government changed its rules and now it is impossible to endorse a BMW with a Toyota engine. This was a recent change from 3 years ago and I went to check. Indeed it was true and with the new ruling, it is only possible to change engine that belongs to the same brand and an increase of capacity by 25% only. Saddened by this new revelation, I felt that my project ended before it even could start. I quickly thought of another alternative and that is to buy a BMW already endorsed with a Toyota engine. It would definitely take away the fun of modding but it will save a lot of time. So, I began looking for such a car and I was disappointed. Not only were such cars rarely found in the market, even if you do find one it most probably would be 4 doors with automatic transmission and be more expensive than what I could afford to pay for. I could only curse my luck in this matter. In the end, I am forced to wait and plan more in order to fulfill my needs of a having sports car. I need a manual coupe variant and I will not give up !!! Or until I find another more feasible project. :)

1JZ-GTE sitting cozily in a BMW. Prefer the VVT-i model

Its back

It has been a little over 2 years since my Celica was sold. I was glad that the car remains in the Celica Club but to my knowledge, the new owner stays in another state and most likely attends only big events. Since it is still in the club, I could sometime see photos of it and keep track on its updates. There was an last year and I had the chance to come upon the above photo on the club's Facebook page. I thought of posting this just for the sake of reminiscing.

In my opinion, I am glad that the new owner remains the original and rare Thunder Grey color and there is no change to body kit. If you look closely, the new owner installed the same 4 pot brakes I used to have from 6th generation Celica GT-4 model. It is not so obvious because it is grey in color but I obviously prefer gold color because when I had the car, the brakes were gold. He asked me to sell the brakes back to him but we could not agree with the price. When it comes to the decals, I feel it is a personal preference. Some part of it I like some part I do not like. Interior wise, I have no idea whether anything have been changed.

That's it from me. Tell me what you think about the new look on my previous ride in the comment section. Sorry it is such a short post especially since the long hiatus from me. As you know I drive a regular sedan now. So, there will be almost no stories to post but I will come by once in a while if anything catch my attention. Ciao for now.

Dream Car Expo 2015

One week before Christmas, there was an expo in Mid Valleys called the Dream Car Expo 2015. I think it was the last car related event before the year ends and I have been to the last Dream Car Expo in 2014. Let me say that this is not exactly what I would consider as an Expo and the "Dream Car" term is quite misleading. I remembered my first visit in 2014, I had expectations but I was soon disappointed and I even went there on the sole purpose of going to the expo. It was just a small hall filled with your regular every day cars that you can view just by going to any showrooms of each brands. I soon realized the purpose of this Expo and it is to help folks who wanted to purchase a car and get some good deals and maybe freebies on that day. I think calling this expo a sales event for every brand would be much more accurate. So you would most likely ask, why was I there again in 2015 ?

Well, this time I did not go there on purpose but I had to do some last minute Christmas present. I thought since I was already there, I might as well take a look at this year's expo. I went without any expectation but I was shocked, surprised to see something I did not expected. I was greeted by a bright red Audi R8 at the entrance. You would have thought it was the 2nd generation R8 that was said to launch soon and it was because Audi participated in the Expo. As you can see from the photo below, it is the 1st generation V10 R8. I found out that this supercar was brought in by a company that sells reconditioned and used cars.

The same company also brought along a BMW i3 and its written on a paper on the windscreen, "1st in Malaysia". BMW Malaysia happens to only sell the i8 here and so this company might be right about this unit being the first but is it really the only one here ? I definitely do not like the i3 but being curious what kind of car is this electric vehicle and decided to take a look. On the outside, I have to say it is butt ugly. Definitely, you can never ever get me to buy this car, much less see me drive in it especially with that price.  However, I do have to say that the suicide doors are awesome. 

Time to head inside the cabin to see what it looks like because this is the first i-series car of BMW that I am in and I was curious to see how futuristic it would look like. When I finally got in, I had mixed feelings. Sure, there are some cool future elements like the blue accent on the steering wheel (Tron inspired maybe ?) but it sure is boring like how all BMW interiors are (no offense here). After a minute the exciting parts get drowned by the "simple" elements of the cabin. 

Next, I found a sports car that makes regular appearances in many car related shows in Malaysia, the Subaru BRZ. This is a car that I both like and hate at the same time but I have met the BRZ almost every time I go to a car show. If you are happy to see the BRZ, you should thank Subaru for officially selling the car here. Nothing much to talk about it because the BRZ has made it into some of my posts in 2015 and I believe every time I see the BRZ it is the same car. You usually have showroom unit but are you interested in this event unit ? If Subaru is selling it cheap, I might just take up on that offer. 

After some exciting entries, I began to walk around and realize that although this year's expo has the same theme but there are some new cars that was only made available in 2015 that I have yet seen on the road such as the Chevrolet Malibu, the new Peugeot 308 THP and the MK7 Volkswagen Golf R caught my attention as well. I am not a fan of Golfs (GTi and R too) but I liked the fact that Golf Rs are AWD with a 2 liter turbo engine. The MK6 models had nice Recaro seats but I was disappointed to find out that the MK7 does not  have Recaros. 

The expo only took 15 minutes of my time (some of it was to wait so I can sit inside the car) but this year I walked out with some nice photos. Definitely did not expect these cars to show up and this shows that maybe I should check out the expo every since it is free admission and you will never know what would be on display the next year. So, see you again in 2016.