Purple Tag Steering Rack

Given the age of the car and the condition of the steering rack I decided that I should investigate a rebuild or upgrade. My research brought me to a great thread over at M3Forum written by forum member Volke - Comprehensive Steering Information Thread (updated to NAM3Forum link). It seems as though the dead feeling I had been experiencing on my stock rack was due to the progressive nature of the stock E46 M3 rack. An "upgrade" or remedy to this would be the CS/CSL steering rack, E46 330i steering rack or a few options from the Z cars. Taking my research back over to M3Cutters (as M3Forum better serves LHD cars and my car is a Euro, hence RHD) I found that the E46 330i Steering Rack is normally noted with a "Purple Tag" on RHD cars and so a common upgrade is the Purple Tag Steering Rack upgrade.

As I dug further it seems that as this steering rack came off a more standard car they were cheaper and easier to come by - especially refurbished/rebuilt - and showed comparative value over getting my stock M3 rack rebuilt. It only took me a quick search on GumTree to find a local Steering Rack re-builder that was trading in rebuilt BMW steering racks to find a rebuilt ready-to-go Purple Tag rack for a good price.

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Goodridge Fuel Sample Point

As part of the Targa Australia Regulations the car must be fitted with a Goodridge G-Link quick disconnect coupling (shown above) for fuel sampling as per M5 of the Targa Australia Regulations: Luckily thanks to my previous install of the Radium Automotive Fuel Rail I now had an AN connection at the back of the fuel rail and at the outlet of the Fuel Pressure Regulator. Now due to the clearance it was not possible to neatly install a take-off at the rear of the fuel rail where the current AN fuel line connects to so the easiest place to setup a take-off for a fuel sample point was off the Fuel Pressure Regulator. So to achieve this I purchased a SpeedFlow Tee-Piece (-06AN female to male with a male off-take). As you can see in the below photo I was then able to off-take from this point for the fuel sample connection. The fuel sample line then follows the fuel rail line out from the Fuel Pressure Regulator and then splits off and follows the Oil Dipstick Tube up to the Left Hand strut t

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///M Clubsport Door Sills Search

Whilst starting the preparation and install for my Karbonius CSL Carbon Fibre Roof I started thinking about the final overall style of the car again. It particularly came to the front of my mind when a friend, who was working with me on the roof install, asked what the deal with the CS badge on the boot was. I realised tat whilst that choice had made sense to me it may not really land with others who are unfamiliar with BMWs and understand the history of the CS badging or the idea of what the Clubsport moniker encapsulates. From previous research and investigations into Clubsport branding from BMW that I could use to keep the style I knew of the somewhat rare E46 330i Clubsport so i thought I should take another look to see if there was anything from that that might help pull the theme together at all. It was at that point that I came across the ///M Clubsport door sills that are used on the E46 330i Clubsport. They struck me as perfect to help tie the theme together. They are an off

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