Figured it was about time for an update. Still love the car after putting about 7k miles on it. More power than I can realistically use and its comfortable enough on long drives, if a bit loud. I've gotten tons of compliments on the car and the color, but I've gotten just as many "oh you drive a BMW" comments. I really want to start responding with "yes, I drive a 5 year old BMW which I bought for less than you paid for your new Altima with cloth interior and financed for 8 years."
Was looking to get out to a few autocrosses this summer but the only ones I could find in North Carolina were in Wilmington and ZMax and my schedule never lined up for any of them. If anyone knows of a group hosting some in the Raleigh area that would be perfect. I know there has to be some but the only ones I could find were from "GoodGuys" who only allow american cars
Did make it out to the VIR charity laps with my dad in his c5 and my uncle in his '18 mustang GT with 200 miles on it that he bought 2 days before. Its nothing intense as its behind the pace car and no passing, but its only $25 for ~5-6 laps, goes to a good cause, and its at a decent pace for random people out there with no instruction or safety equipment. Its really funny how serious some of the older guys take this event and think its "real racing".
I'm only 45 minutes from VIR so I've been every year since I got my license, and I've made it a point to always get a picture from one of the professional photographers they have there:
![[Image: J0XnptY.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/J0XnptY.jpg)
![[Image: ZhUryrt.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/ZhUryrt.jpg)
I also finally got the windows tinted at the VA legal limit as its still registered at my parents house until I get done with pharmacy school. Definitely not dark enough for me but it looks much better and will hopefully protect the interior a little more.
![[Image: OYklxbv.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/OYklxbv.jpg)
Going to pick up some smoked led side markers soon since they're pretty cheap and these are starting to yellow a bit. Considering a small trunk lip spoiler and small front splitter/lip but I'm torn between paying the carbon tax or just going gloss black like the rest of the trim. The only lip spoiler I've found that I like so far is carbon so that may decide it for me, and I want the two to match.
Currently the only problems with the car are stuff I've been too lazy to fix. The tpms is still missing one if not all of the sensors which I should just go ahead and do.
Alex Peery hooked me up with a really cheap adpative headlight module that I replaced, then I found out it has to be coded to the car... of course. I went in for the Takata airbag recall Friday and figured I'd ask the dealer if they could do it. Service advisor on the phone had no idea what I was talking about so he just said explain it when I came in. They quoted me THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS for what should be a 10 minute coding job.
They also said my brake fluid needed to be flushed and the cabin air filter replaced. $500 quote for that, I chuckled and said I'd take care of it myself and the guy looked at me like I had 2 heads. Do people really pay this much for out of warranty basic maintenance?
I guess I'm gonna have to do some more research and try to learn NCSexpert. Bimmercode only supports F series cars, and carly doesn't look like it has the option to do this, plus them moving to a $60/year subscription service makes me not want to support them.
The only guide I've been able to find at this point said the new module has to have the car's vin or vehicle order # written to it. I've never done any coding and I'm kinda scared to break something so I may just code out the adaptive headlight check, which is really easy, common, and also gets rid of the error, and I couldn't care less about if my headlights turn as long as they auto-level and aren't blinding people.
Stay tuned to find out if I manage to make this thing a 3400 pound paperweight.
