I bought another E30.

[S14]

Back in 2006 I was stationed in Germany and purchased an E30 sedan with one mission, to lap the Nurburgring as often as possible. My goals with the car were to put good springs/shocks and sticky tires on the car and pile on the laps. Well, it got a bit carried away after a bit. You can read it's journey here: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...3-E30-ring-toy





The sedan was a blast on track, but sucked horribly at every other type of driving. So this will be it's replacement... a bit more civil but still plenty fast. Here is the story of how it begins with my new E30. Disclaimer: I enjoy taking and posting photos. There will be a lot of photo's below. 56k at your own risk.









10 years ago my E30 M3 met an untimely demise. Ever since then I've been casually wanting another one. A few peaked my interest enough to make offers on them, but these came up while I was stationed in Germany and the logistics of getting me to it, or it to me never really worked out.

I had a short fling with a bare shell.
http://www.s14.net/forums/forum/s14/...ak0311lae33503


The idea was that since it needed paint, I'd do a DTM replicated roll cage + a paint job, then swap all the cool bits from my E30 sedan to the pretty E30 M3. I wanted to paint it BRG like the 1994 E36 M3 GT.

About a month after dragging the shell home, my wife and I decided she should seperate from the Air Force, and use her G.I. Bill to complete her nursing degree (BSN). Cutting 1/2 our income meant that the shell wouldn't be touched as long as she was in school, so it went to a new home in Tennessee.

Fast forward to 17 Jan, 2014. I took the week off to study for promotion, my books were open, my notepad, pens and highlighters were out... and I was perusing R3v. : This guy popped up, and I immediately sat up in my chair! http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=311012


It was exactly everything I wanted to do to the shell minus the cage and the BRG paint. To be honest, Hennarot is by far my favorite E30 M3 color, with Sterling silver in a close second, and Alpine white a distant 3rd. Plus this didn't have the tan interior which I very very much dislike.

I PM'd the seller, then talked to him on the phone within an hour of him posting the add. It sounded like a solid car, perfect for doing HPDE's/autox, driving on nice days, and overall E30 M3 drooling. It's not a perfect car, so I wouldn't be worried about bonking into a cone, or getting a few more stone chips.



Then I phoned my wife...



Surprisingly she didn't immediately dismiss my sales pitch! However there were a few areas of concern for her. Mainly that I'd have the track car (E30 sedan) the nice car (E28 M5) then this thing. She's still in nursing school, so the thought of 3 toy BMW's plus our normal DD's was just too much. We agreed that I'd sell or part out the sedan in the next 12 months, and when my iphone dies, I have to revert back to dumb phones (she hates them). I deemed these fair constraints for the possibility of getting back into an E30 M3, and not just any regular one too... a really fast one!

Throughout the day, I was also texting a few friends. I knew Yan (yan-3) was stationed in the D.C. area, so he could possibly take a look at it for me, and Alex (cloudbase) is always down for an adventure.



After a few weeks of complications, the date was set, we were going to meet up in Arlington Virginia Tuesday 4 March and drive it back to Colorado by Friday.









Tuesday, 4 March:
This winter might be one that east coasters remember for years. Saturday Colorado got slammed with a snow storm, which means that the east coast should get our scraps by sunday night or Monday. Somewhere between here and there, the storm grew and the D.C. area was shut down that Monday because of and inch or two of snowpack. I was a bit worried about the snow, not because of rust, or getting stuck. No, I was worried about driving 1/2 worn Dunlop Star Specs on freezing, ice covered streets! Alex was worried too, and we talked a few times leading up to our flights about alternate plans if the weather was shit.

-Plan A: Drive south to I-40 and get as far south as we could as quickly as possible.
-Plan B: Plan A + buying a set of winter tires and stick the star specs on a greyhound bus since that is the cheapest way to ship large objects.
-Plan C: Wait out the weather and marathon drive it home.




After flying out and finalizing everything with the seller, I was on the phone with Yan for some long overdue catching up. When we met up in some random wall mart parking lot though, the battery decided it was too cold to work.



Once we got her running, I demanded Yan drive it to his place! I knew he hadn't driven his much since the whole Vlad ordeal (seeing it in person... wow, what a mess!), and I thought it might re-ignight his passion for the E30 M3.




After a lovely dinner prepped by Yan's new wife, we exchanged a few parts (thanks!) and I headed over the DIA to pick up Alex as he was on a later flight. Somehow the place wasn't a madhouse, and I stood in the middle of the arrival ramp to snag this shot.




Alex did a write up on our trip that sums up the experience better than I could, so click here for a good read! http://cloudbaseimaging.blogspot.com...road-trip.html

Seriously, read his blog, it's worth it.


- - - Updated - - -

After our 2200 mile trip home, this is the M3's new parking spot.




The next day, the fam had to check out the new "race car" as my 5 year old calls it.




After approval from the small humans, I had a bit of things to sort out right away, specifically the horrible euro headlight conversion, and why the tires were shredded down to the chords in such a short time.

This is how we jerry-rigged the headlights in a truckstop somewhere on the east coast.


And this is what the tires looked when the car arrived in the garage.


Front drivers on the left(best), rear passenger on the right (worst).



While fiddling around, I saw these...


These could be the reason the rear tires self destructed, or they could help tune the rear which is normally unadjustable.




As for the headlights, I found more reasons why the install was shit.
- Broken mounting tabs on the frames
- Zip tying the old headlight adjusters to the adjuster frame instead of installing proper non adjuster rods.
- Broken plastic nubs that hold the adjusting rod to the headlight bucket.
- High beams not even hooked up. I'm talking zero attempt to connect the old headlight harness to the new bulbs.


So, what to do? Good thing I have some options.







Which do you think is best?

1. OE clear smilies


2. Hella smoked


3. OE frenchies I picked up while in Germany






I also added a bit of visual flare with an OE euro plate filler.




Oh, why is the muffler crooked? Bailing wire and dog leashes as muffler hangers... not what I'd say is a quality fix.




After a few days I decided that the garage needed a bit of organization. I also wanted to add more lighting & turn the white car sideways so I could fit 4 cars in the garage.

Before:


After (still needs a clean):


Once the sedan turned itself sideways, I added a bit of lighting. The house is a rental, and my landlord didn't want to pay for more than 3 lonely bulbs, so my solution was a little bit ghetto, but still throws tons and tons more light.


More light is a great thing!

[RyansBMW]

Cant say I ever saw a dog leash used to mount something

Great looking car otherwise!

[2002hopeful]

Really enjoyed following the last build. This one will be just as awesome.

[oldskool racer]

cant wait to see this thing in person!

[Frank@AchillesMotorsports]

Wow, definitely looks beautiful! That garage is filling in quite nicely, too!

[stealthbeam]

Awesome! Great find!!

[notMpowered]

Looks like some interesting jimmy rigs on it, however the car looks incredible! Jealous!

[525iT_Feen]

Glad you found another one. Enjoy it man!

[Frank@AchillesMotorsports]

Glad you found another one. Enjoy it man!

Who is this. This was back when the Central Cal Chapter used to hold them at Millerton! Very Cool!

[S14]

Who is this. This was back when the Central Cal Chapter used to hold them at Millerton! Very Cool!

That's me, back in 2000 or 2001!

[richiemind]

your garage looks like a dream, great find.

[Davis318]

Love the color!! Love all the pics!! Keep us posted

[Frank@AchillesMotorsports]

That's me, back in 2000 or 2001!

haha that's awesome! I remember my senior year in HS we used to BBQ there all the time and we saw you guys running! I wish we could get them to let us use that venue again! Where the club runs now is a small lot at the Visalia airport, actually running one this Sunday!

[dasmeth]

awesome car. Good price too IMO. Looks very well setup.

There isn't a single day I regret selling my e30 m3 One day again...

[adept]

Great car and story.

[propcar]

Great car! Go with the frenchies!!

[BimmerBreaker]

Frenched lights dont do any good. Smoked at least add a nice cosmetic benefit. Call me boring but my vote though is for clears

Car is gorgeous, gonna stay tuned to see what happens with it

[S14]

haha that's awesome! I remember my senior year in HS we used to BBQ there all the time and we saw you guys running! I wish we could get them to let us use that venue again! Where the club runs now is a small lot at the Visalia airport, actually running one this Sunday!

Haha cool. Tell Wayne I said hi!


I'll be picking up tires (225/45/16 Dunlop ZII) for these guys Friday.

[Silverdogz]

Definitely voting for the smoked, the frenchies are a little much with the color.

[ahardm3]

Awesome !

[RVAE34]

Absolutely love it!!

[ECSTuning]

The frenchies make me all giggly! Congrats!

-James

[ARMAN]

I cant express how much I love that M3 from the pics, my god I am SO jelly, congrats!

[S14]

New tires were mounted yesterday.
Untitled by ericandshovin, on Flickr

[e30polak]

Congrats on the purchase! A well deserving OG in the E30 community!