Long overdue to write something down but here I go. Things started to happen in 2018.

In a quest to get better suspension geometry for 02 race car and all good things that comes along I started to investigate the subject. I had bought myself two E30 M3 rear axles earlier. Now my current front end works pretty well but rear seems to be harder to grasp - atleast for me. At this point I was thinking of replacing current 02 based rear axle with something a) not hacked b) more modern to start with. 02 rear axle design was penned, what, late 50's or early 60's? So no E30 stuff albeit it can be made fast. Next thought was it could be something that has more modern engineering behind it. So then I sourced all aluminium E39 sedan (lightest version of those mind you) rear axle. After some more investigation I came to conclusion that while it's plausible there are some issues regarding wheel control and I abandoned this route. More thinking was required. At that time I had driven two E36 race cars and one of them was M3 version. Now those things handles quite well I must say. So how to put E36 axles to an 02? Front wouldn't be that much of a problem but the rear. Now there is some challenge to be honest. But the thought persisted. Internet is your friend (at times) and look and behold: E85 Z4M has almost the same axle base (2497 mm) than 02 (2500 mm). Normal E85 Z4 has more difference (2494 mm). Pretty darn close. What if I take whole E85 floor with axles (all in correct factory places) and just put 02 chassis (sans floor) on top of it? Now that's neat idea! Lets roll with that.

Soooo where to get dirty cheap, no accident Z4? RHD's are cheaper than LHD's so where are lots of rhd cars to choose from? In UK! But Brexit was looming over so I had to act quickly. Me and my buddy bought plane tickets to London and off we went. Had looked the market and made contact with one seller. Car had to be in shape for a long road trip. First car had some issues with documents and I called next potential seller. Off to other side of London to meet him. The car was ok, nothing major so we did the paperwork and I bought that car. 2003 Z4 2.5i with about 186 000 km's on clock was mine. Seemed that we had some brake bads, fluids - enough, tires had air - road trip here we go!

At London about to view first car. This was 24.7.2018

1st stint took us from London to Dover. It was pretty late and train was booked and no ferries avaiable. There was one room vacant in Dover so we took that and spend the night there. Next morning tickets to ferry and to France.

Near Dover docs. No way to cross over to main land.

Dover by night.

About to board.

In a ferry to France.

Bye UK.

From ferry we hit the road and I though what's wrong with these ppl as evereybody was driving so slowly. Took me few km's to figure out that I was driving by miles rather that km/h. Now that calmed things down. Long story short next Belgium, Netherlands and Germany.

Pitstop in Germany. I think.

Another stop. I think this was Denmark.

Next night in northern Germany. Then Danmark, we had time to visit a small viking boat museum at Ladsby. Nice sunny day & icecreams. Then to Sweden.

Sweden. Somewhere between Malmö and Jönköping.

Morning in Stockholm. Waiting to get to ship.

We were about to sleep in car near Mantorp but Z4's aren't that comfy so that was a bust. Drove all night to Stockholm, bought tickets to a morning ship to Finland, got in and crashed to bed as soon as it was possible. Next day was last stint to hometown. All and all it was 2520 km trip in 5 days. The car worked just fine all we did was we put more gasoline in it at times. What a nice car to drive. I enjoyed every minute that I was behind the wheel.

Home sweet home.