There are certain inalienable facts that assist you in determining the correct and natural order of things. Spring follows Winter; Tuesday follows Monday; the sun rises in the East and sets in the West; golf is more enjoyable than work. In motoring terms, rear wheel drive is preferable to wrong wheel drive, and, most importantly, a car must not be endowed with more doors than cylinders.
Unfortunately, when it arrived here this 1994 E30 touring suffered from a failure in that last area.
The 4 cylinder Tourings are the only E30 model that can fall foul of this universal truth. All others are either 2 doors (convertibles and saloons - NOT coupes. There is no such thing. It's a two door saloon. Get over it! It's not a coupe. Ever.) or four door saloons. All have a minimum cylinder:door ratio - known as the "wrongness ratio" of 1:1. Not so the 316i and 318i tourings with four cylinders and five doors giving a quite abysmal wrongness ratio of 0.8:1.
On arrival, the wrongness ratio was ignored for a while and this car was seen to be structurally very sound indeed - as so many of the late cars appear to be. These cars - along with convertibles - remained in production after the E36 replaced the E30 in 1991 until 1993/4 as the E36 versions weren't ready for market until then. It has been checked and requires no welding anywhere. One small area at the base of the boot floor/rear valance joint has been repaired properly with any rust being cut out and new metal welded in place. Rustproofing has been applied ensuring no recurrence will spoil the new owner's enjoyment.
E30 tourings, irrespective of model, are all specified from the factory with the 325i's larger 51mm front struts and disc brakes all round - overkill for a 1.6 four cylinder and perfect as a basis for improving that all important ratio.
We whipped out the cylindrically deficient M40b16 and its gearbox and installed in its place an M20b20 2 litre six cylinder engine and five speed gearbox. However, not before it had been fully serviced and had its water pump and timing belt replaced in the interest of preventative maintenance.
A suitable 325i exhaust was fitted and by coincidence we had a quite superb beige sports leather touring interior with rare rear headrests in stock. It was fitted, transforming the interior of the car. It's now bright and airy. The dashboard was replaced by a better one and the traditionally sagging roof lining is very good indeed. A manual sunroof completes the interior. The rear doors were replaced with electric window versions to save any rear seat passengers the ignominy of having to wind down the windows manually to hear the noise from that M20's exhaust.
Ignore the horrendous steering wheel pictured above. It has been replaced by a leather covered three spoke SE sports wheel.
A tidy set of standard 14" BBS cross spokes with good matching tyres was fitted
The car was then prepared for an MoT and a couple of drop links, bushes etc. were replaced. As a consequence, it now drives superbly, light, nimble and no rattles, bumps or clunks. The performance is improved over the 1600 version, and the steering, brakes, ride and road holding are excellent.
Electrically everything works. Stereo fitted.
The whole car was then repainted in its original colour.
So here we have it. Very tidy inside and out, drives perfectly, wrongness ratio upped by 50% to a much more healthy 1.2:1. The perfect, reliable, practical every day classic. 12 months MoT at the time of sale.
Any inspection welcome. Many high resolution photos are available. Video to be shot as soon as the rain goes off.
£1750 ovno. p/ex considered. Transport available.
Other classic BMWs for sale and wanted. Parts for sale and wanted. Servicing repairs and restoration undertaken.
