For those who don’t know, I’m buying my parents’ garage and driveway. Apparently there’s a house in the deal too, but that’s less interesting. I decided that in order to make it (the garage) into a good home for my toys I should clear it out, so I emptied the contents into the garden: Over […] Read more »
Last weekend I went to Rock äm Ring – a German rock festival held at the Nűrburging. It proved to be a great boys weekend, with a squad of Bens, Brenden, Jonny, Pete, Richie, Steve and me. We took the Shaguar and the 330d: I was pleased to make it from the ferry to Germany […] Read more »
The M5 passed its MOT first time without advisories today. Woohoo! Etc. :P
The M5’s native navigation system is incredibly slow and ugly. All the graphics for the computer and radio functions look rather 90s. I had acquired a widescreen unit for the front of the car, but this didn’t really improve the on-screen graphics, and the navigation was still so very slow. The navigation computer is a […] Read more »
Diane kindly collected the widescreen surround from BMW today for me, so the M5 widescreen installation is now complete. Here’s how it used to look: And now! Much better! So this just leaves the small matter of flogging off my old monitor and trying to recover some money from the needless purchase of another TV […] Read more »
As mentioned, the rather ancient looking radio/monitor in the M5 was bugging me, so I’ve sourced a widescreen. It is from an X5, which means that the contrast isn’t quite right when viewed from an E39 angle, but it is completely usable and when I get time, I plan on following these crazy instructions to […] Read more »
Since my last post I decided that the M5’s “GALA” system left quite a bit to be desired. The Graduated Audio Level Adjustment is supposed to maintain a consistent audio experience within the car, irrespective of road noise. Sadly, while it is a good idea in theory, it makes quite obvious ham-fisted adjustments to not […] Read more »
I’ve had a good day. Got loads of chores done this morning (like arranging for an estate agent to come and look at the house), and then set about trying to improve the audio in the M5. It has a fairly standard audio setup, with components in the front doors and some additional speakers on […] Read more »
The remainder of the holiday was somewhat of a blur. Around lunchtime we arrived back in California, but didn’t reach our hotel in Pasadena until gone 3pm. Once checked in there was no time to rest. We had to collect our suits, wash, rehearse the wedding a few times and then have a meal with […] Read more »
A new bridge is being built just downstream of the Hoover dam – pretty impressive stuff! Yet not as impressive as the Hoover dam itself. Over 70 years old – quite something! We took a tour of the power plant – about 2,000 Megawatts in total! Then we had a good walk along the dam […] Read more »