Nomad - E30 BMW to stay in the family.

[mikeyb]

The M42 1.8L 318i and 318is are wanted for their gas mileage. Plus autox and track junkies want it because its an excellent handing car. The 325e and 325i are good cars and they are going for around the same price as well.

I have not seen e36s going up in price around here. Everyone is dropping them for the newer e46s or the new 3 series. Most e36s are in worse shape then e30s I see come into my work.

 

[Nomad]

They go for about the same as the 325is. They call these the "baby M3" because it is so close to the M3 in weight and handling. All it has is a detuned engine and some differences in body and suspension.

E30 = built like a tank. This thing has such a solid feel to everything. close the door and it's solid. The 318IS has a lighter engine in the front so it's lighter and better balanced than the 6 cyl. sways are good, most come with LSD, has really nice deep bolster seats and the acceleration is close to par with the 325 because of the weight. The 6cyl has more torque to pull out of corners but the 4cyl is like a miata in that you keep the momentum up and revs up.

They are also super easy to work on, and respond well to mods, especially suspension.

E36 is ok, but are falling apart now. I was looking at them for a bit. If I was willing to gut it, remove anything unnecessary and do suspension and engine only then sure, it's fine. But they have a lot of little things you have to constantly keep up with. What annoyed me were sellers who bought them 14 years ago, never did maintenance, never cared for them and now want a lot for the used car because "it's a BMW".

 

[awsmp5]

cool thanks for the info, and i forgot to mention, not that i need to, but yours is lookin haaawwwtt
haha well if i have time/capital over the summer i plan to sink some cash into an good looking e30

 

[jmv]

e30s are sweet, congrats on owning a nice clean example!!

 

[freekwonder]

I love E30s, one of the best looking cars to me. One day I WILL get an E30 M3.

 

[mikeyb]

^You just like the e30 because it looks alot like your 510s.

 

[freekwonder]

^You just like the e30 because it looks alot like your 510s.

(wink)

 

[mikeyb]

e30 + tuned s50 = hawt

 

[Nomad]

Yeah, too much work and too much $ for me though.
318is + DASupercharger = Hawt, with as much power as an M3.

 

[mikeyb]

How much is the DASupercharger? A buddy of mine just did a M50 swap into a 91 320it touring.

 

[Nomad]

I guess $2.5-3K?

The M50 swap is more economical than the S50 because of the cost of the engine.

 

[mikeyb]

My bud bought a whole M50, ECU, trans, and wiring for $2K. On the "for sale" board here at work a customer is selling a M50 with ECU, wiring, and trans for $500.

 

[igni]

I would recommend kw suspension. E30's are really hot in Iceland now a days.

Here are some pictures of a car my friend rebuilt.





87 E30 335 Mtech1.
(Motor from E32)

 

[awsmp5]

i ended up getting myself an e30 finally! looked for a whiiile but finally did it.

not the is or anything but the prev. owner chipped it, bilsteins all around, lsd (naughty), and some other lil odds and ends.

 

[Nomad]

Nice! Just saw this now though... a little bit later ha ha.

I'm slowly getting my E30 done. All new suspension, a little body mod, and stereo slowly being built up.

Just put on some 15x7.5 Ronal LS mesh wheels...

 

[awsmp5]

ooh nice dude i wanna get some weaves for my car, it's been sitting on the bottle caps for a while... are you on the e30tech forum?... if you ever check up your thread lol.

 

[stdntDrvr]

probably a stupid question, but i honestly do not know much about bmw's...i've always liked that style's convertible...what year models are the e30's?

 

[Nomad]

awsmp5 - I'm on all the e30 forums, ha ha, I sell a lot of stuff there too, trying to help out the e30 community with rust free CA parts.

Topher - Yeah e30 style was sold in variants from 84-91.
The 88-91 have the "revised" bumpers which are plastic and smaller than the old chrome ones.

Thanks for the props. I'm about to install some good sound in the BMW and a sub in the P5. This'll be my first time messing with amps and such. Now that I have the suspension and wheels sorted I can worry about the interior. Priorities first.

 

[Scott]

Oh wow, more E30 people here. Starting to piece mine together. The chassis should be here at my house within a couple weeks (having it towed from my friend's shop).

Probably going to start doing Spec E30 racing in it. However, I still may change my mind and decide to build a fun turbo weekend track car.