Back in 1997 I bought a Goodmans 400W car amplifier, and a few years later I bought a comically named ‘Vented Innovative Bass Enclosure’ (VIBE) bass box. These have been lying around gathering dust, so after yesterday’s wiring, today I’ve shoved them in the M3’s boot. There’s still a bit of wiring to be tidied when I get some better leads, but here’s a quick photo anyway.

The amplifier is stuck to the top of the bass box with Velcro, and the box is screwed down into the boot carpet (not the boot floor itself). The amplifier is bridged into the box, and has a 120Hz low pass filter applied. I’ve no idea of the steepness of the filter or the actual power available, but with a bit of tweaking on the head unit the sound is now more than acceptable. I’m really impressed with the components in the front of the car – having reduced their low frequency load they’re keeping up well with the sub.

This afternoon a visitor arrived in his new M car.

The E39 M5 is an awesome car. While it’s the polar opposite M car when compared to the E30 M3, it’s good to see how the concept has evolved.

After a good blat around the countryside in the M5 we returned to base and I finished painting my spare set of wheels for the 330d. This is relevant to the project because now they’re finished, they’re on eBay, and hopefully they’ll fund some new wheels for the M3.

At the end of the day, while reflecting on how good a weekend I’d had, I realised I’d left the 330d key in the M5. This meant I was forced to take the M3 on a proper drive to collect that key, which in a way was good because it needed a run. The journey was really enjoyable; the defining moment being an open 90 degree left hander I took right at the top of second, engine and tyres singing with a twist of opposite lock – ahhh, what a weekend!