The 2005 BMW 325Ci that was Almost Mine

At an auction north of the city I found one of my dream cars. Remember when I almost bought that Dodge Magnum?  Same place. That 279 is my bidder number, that’s how close I came.

This 3-series BMW is one of my all-time favourite cars, specifically the E46 body in production from 1999 – 2006.

So beautiful.  Even the colour I want, windows already tinted good and dark.

And manual obviously, I would only.

230 hp
221 ft·lb
6-speed manual
0-100 km/h in 6.5 s

It’s ridiculous how good I am with this car.

No touch controls, no dash screen, so minimal inside, so me.

When I climbed inside though, it had an overwhelming feeling of having had the crap driven out of it. So those 220,000 km were likely very hard ones.

Plus there were several buts…

Clockwise from top left: 

– oil looks okay
but those rust spots found all around do not
– winter tires okay fine
but the car’s history report says thousands of work done, likely from an accident, and that’s the front bumper’s pressure release not sitting flush.

After leaving the auction floor Friday afternoon I stopped to take photos of my Land Rover outside an abandoned log cabin, when a stranger with a huge moustache pulled up and warned me against the car. It was weird.

Auction was Saturday morning, and still late into Friday night I didn’t know what to do, until I realized I was breaking my own rule – when there’s doubt, there is no doubt.

So I let it go.  And declared I am done with car auctions.

The end.

 

 

Almost Bought this Car but Didn’t

It’s a Dodge Magnum (not the Hemi), on sale at an auction, came very close, it sold on Saturday for $2,200, happy with my decision.

It’s a cool car that needs to be black and a Hemi though. Plus, it’s better suited to being in my dream fleet, as opposed to my daily driver.

 

 

Almost Bought One of These

Since I had to junk my Jetta, I’ve been looking with what to replace it.

They’re sold regularly at auctions. Of course the decals must be removed before putting it on the road.

Come on, of all the people you know who should be driving one of these…

 

 

Canada’s Biggest Classic Car Auction is Coming Up

It’s the ‘Toronto Spring Classic‘ this weekend, out by the airport.

It’s car candy everywhere.

And amphibious vehicles.

Like this 1963 Amphicar.

These cars brighten up a blog, but don’t interest me.

This does.

I love the super cars of when we grew up.

26 years ago this was IT.

But the best part is hearing the auctioneers talk.

Ahah guy at the end.

The auction happens this weekend, go too; it’s a fun afternoon, that’s different from the norm, wandering around hundreds of different cars…

Company spokesperson Terry Lobzun gave me the scoop on what’s coming up… 

“Got a fabulous line up – a lovely art deco ’35 De Soto Airflow, barn-find ’36 Packard hotel limo, ’52 Chevy ice cream truck, ’58 Ford Ranchero, a sweet as pie ’64 Mercedes 230SL, and the usual hot rods, sports and muscle cars.”

***

‘Toronto Classic Car Auction’ this weekend – Friday – Sunday / April 4 – 6

Where – International Centre in Mississauga
When – this Fri-Sun, April 4-6
WebsiteCollectorCarProductions.com
Facebookhere

 

 

700 MHz Is All The Rage

Tuesday I attended the Canadian Telecom Summitt 2011 #CTS11… Canada’s leading and largest telecommunications industry event.

Media sits at the back.

There were big-name keynote speeches all day, heads of Telus, HP, Rogers, Microsoft, Bell and CRTC people.

This is how I learned we got a new Minister of Industry two weeks ago, Christian Paradis.

Congratulations on your new job! Please protect Canada.

Made some new friends both IRL and online during it, hi guys! Keep in touch.

The most interesting topic of today was the 700 MHz Spectrum.

You can’t just go around blasting signals haphazardly, where and whenever you wish.  Depending on what you’re doing, depends on which frequency you transmit/broadcast/communicate on.

Below shows (some) of the MHz spectrum and its allocations.  See the band where I added the text, flanked by ‘mobile’ and ‘broadcasting’?

That’s the 700 MHz band, and it’s soon up for sale.

(See the full diagram here)

It was once owned by the broadcasters, and was used to broadcast analog TV.

Now the government owns it, and is about to sell it.

The auction will take place late 2012.  The gentleman above is in charge of said auction.

It’s a powerful spectrum which can penetrate walls. This makes it ideal for broadband communication. It also has a great range and can travel long distances; one tower broadcasting 700 MHz can cover 20 miles.

Think of it like… it’s the Ferrari of spectrums.

Tweets and fun facts from today.

Many of the talks re-inforced my theory about how the future internet will be designed, I talk about it in my video, About UBB – Usage Based Billing, fast-forward to 0:31.

Then I invited myself to the stage.

And gave an impassioned speech.

While everyone was at lunch.