Owner Introduction

Garage

Current:

  • 2001 BMW 330Ci, Titanium Silver (2017-)

  • 1997 Mazda Miata, Classic Red (2018-)

  • 2015 Mazda 3i 2.0 Hatchback (2015-)

 

Past:

  • 2003 Honda Civic EX coupe (2014-2015)

  • 2002 Honda Civic EX coupe (2012-2013)

  • 1994 BMW 318i (2011-2011)

 

Occupation:

Management consultant (day job)

BMW tinkerer

Racer

 

So… BMWs?

My first car was a 1994 BMW 318i. It was Boston Green, and though it was a complete rust-box, it was great by the virtue of being mine. However, as you can imagine, rear wheel drive, bald tires, and teenage overconfidence is a risky combination, and eventually, I got my bell rung and put the BMW squarely into a traffic light. No injuries, but the car was toast.

After a few-year-stint of either being without a car entirely or driving Hondas (separate story on those later), the moment finally came to buy another BMW. And so, in 2017, I found a nice, clean E46 330Ci coupe.

 

What have you done to your cars?

Let’s focus on the BMW for this post. We’ll talk about the other ones later.

 

I bought the BMW with 241 thousand miles on the odometer. Since then, I’ve:

-          Replaced and upgraded the cooling system

-          Repaired all most oil leaks

-          Upgraded suspension

-          Replaced differential and axles with more aggressive setup

-          Upgraded braking system

-          Caught up to overdue maintenance

-          Replaced broken exhaust manifold (blown cats) with headers and DME tune

 

With few exceptions, I’ve performed the work myself. It’s still got a long way to go before I’m truly happy with it, but it’s slowly getting there.

It’s my vision that this blogspace will eventually be populated with useful links and DIYs that I perform. Maybe. Maybe not.

 

 

Sam Aleksanyan