Well, i have been lurking for some time so figured i may as well throw up my pile for you to eyball.
With another child on the way i needed to have my sensible head on and either keep the AMG Wagon or maybe even look at something newer and more sensible like an m5 touring or something.
But then i spotted this on ebay and thought i would have a look being that I was popping over to the Uk for a few weeks.
So, story goes that I had swung by to stay with Herr Smith (ollie) for a few days so with one mention of an e30 m3 we were blazing a trail through the December snow to Bicester where we finally arrived in the snow tyre equipped C32 in fine spirits to a yard full of old WW1 and WW2 tanks and rotting Alpha's. hopes were not high at this point as generally piles of rusty rotting machinery are accompanied by other piles of rotting machinery.
Anyway upon meeting the owners father he pointed to a pile of e30 shaped snow and produced a broom which after some action produced a very blue e30 m3.
At this point the car had no plates, so after cranking it over myself and Ollie did the kind of ultra through inspection that you do in minus 6 degrees in a load of snow, namely mooched round it while it warmed up and tried to put our hands through any of the standard e30 rot spots (if i remember correctly Smith did the Mclaren approved "jump up and down in the back and see if you fall through or anything falls off" test. The other issue was the car was still registered in Holland and had no MOT or proper title documents.
Being that neither of us were able to put a hand through the body and Smith hadn't shot through the boot floor i took it for a spin, in the ice on aged "champiro" tyres. Much to our surprise other than being biblically loud, way too low, switching its self off randomly and having no real traction it was ok.
We subsequently curse word off to thaw out drink booze and watch the DTM golden years while I gnawed away at the idea of making an offer, with one project already well underway and another child immanent I really didn't need this thing. However they are only getting more expensive and if i am going to have one I am not going to pay through the nose for it, so it was a bit now or never.
A few days passed and I caved, persuaded my long suffering partner to sell her 320d, have my C32 until she wanted something else and i would use the e30 m3 daily, it was the only way buying it really made sense. That said i was still not fully committed so made a low (ish, low is a relative number when it comes to e30 m3's) offer on the basis that the car was MOT'd and delivered to Smiths folks house in the price.
The seller agreed,
A week or so later the car arrived, it had needed a few rubber brake pipes for the MOT, but had a 12 month ticket, which was the important bit as it allowed me to get it registered and taxed and therefore mobile.
Smith did some sterling work in coordinating the registration of the car (without his help i wouldn't own it, so much of the blame / credit goes to him for getting it into the uk) suffice it to say that it needed to be trailer to the DVLA office for an inspection before we could get documents produced for it despite it having been registered previously in the uk.
While it had sat on Smiths parents drive, the brakes had failed totally (always a good reassuring start) so having kicked about the options it was decided that it would go directly from the DVLA offices to Mosley Motorsport to get a check over and the brakes fixed so that when i flew in it was in some sort of running order.
Mosleys fixed the brakes (hoses not properly done up (thanks whoever did that, you are a dick)) fixed the cutting out issue, dodgy pin on the ignition, fitted new front drop links, a new uprated rear diff bush, balanced the throttles, replaced a load of rad hoses and gave it a full set of fluids. After that little lot, it received a gushing from Nigel Mosley.
At this point i flew in to pick the curse word up, and attend a wedding / see family and friends what this meant was that the car went from sitting about doing nothing to doing over a thousand miles in a week, a bit of a baptism of fire. The car performed admirably for an old bus and never let me down though it did reveal a few niggles, the most annoying of which was that it randomly main beamed other cars at night, this was temporarily resolved by wedging a costa coffee receipt behind the wiper stalk, though not before i had indicated to every chav and dickhead in a 200 mile radius of Birmingham that i wanted a drag race.
So after that epic a bit about the car:
Its a late (December) 88 car and is unusual for a few reasons: it has no sunroof, it has cruise control and it has an american spec front bumper. it was bought in Dingolfing in germany, where bmw also have a very large plant, so it may have been a employee car hence the weird spec? Or possibly a US soldier (cruse, us bumper). The US bumper is a bit of a plus as the side markers mean i don't have to make any holes in the wings.
The car also benefits from a map light mirror, upgraded (for 1988) sound system and a full OBC.
It was originally red, but was repainted in 1998 in Germany, the colour may not be everyone's taste but its a proper engine out job with everything having been painted (engine bay under the sound deadening, under the carpets, the lot) so it will be staying blue while i own it, unless i have some sort of Arianism and decide to do a full factory resto.
Now, onto the work and whatnot:
With another child on the way i needed to have my sensible head on and either keep the AMG Wagon or maybe even look at something newer and more sensible like an m5 touring or something.
But then i spotted this on ebay and thought i would have a look being that I was popping over to the Uk for a few weeks.
So, story goes that I had swung by to stay with Herr Smith (ollie) for a few days so with one mention of an e30 m3 we were blazing a trail through the December snow to Bicester where we finally arrived in the snow tyre equipped C32 in fine spirits to a yard full of old WW1 and WW2 tanks and rotting Alpha's. hopes were not high at this point as generally piles of rusty rotting machinery are accompanied by other piles of rotting machinery.
Anyway upon meeting the owners father he pointed to a pile of e30 shaped snow and produced a broom which after some action produced a very blue e30 m3.
At this point the car had no plates, so after cranking it over myself and Ollie did the kind of ultra through inspection that you do in minus 6 degrees in a load of snow, namely mooched round it while it warmed up and tried to put our hands through any of the standard e30 rot spots (if i remember correctly Smith did the Mclaren approved "jump up and down in the back and see if you fall through or anything falls off" test. The other issue was the car was still registered in Holland and had no MOT or proper title documents.
Being that neither of us were able to put a hand through the body and Smith hadn't shot through the boot floor i took it for a spin, in the ice on aged "champiro" tyres. Much to our surprise other than being biblically loud, way too low, switching its self off randomly and having no real traction it was ok.
We subsequently curse word off to thaw out drink booze and watch the DTM golden years while I gnawed away at the idea of making an offer, with one project already well underway and another child immanent I really didn't need this thing. However they are only getting more expensive and if i am going to have one I am not going to pay through the nose for it, so it was a bit now or never.
A few days passed and I caved, persuaded my long suffering partner to sell her 320d, have my C32 until she wanted something else and i would use the e30 m3 daily, it was the only way buying it really made sense. That said i was still not fully committed so made a low (ish, low is a relative number when it comes to e30 m3's) offer on the basis that the car was MOT'd and delivered to Smiths folks house in the price.
The seller agreed,
curse word, curse word curse word, curse word i have bought a old car i don't need, curse word.
A week or so later the car arrived, it had needed a few rubber brake pipes for the MOT, but had a 12 month ticket, which was the important bit as it allowed me to get it registered and taxed and therefore mobile.
Smith did some sterling work in coordinating the registration of the car (without his help i wouldn't own it, so much of the blame / credit goes to him for getting it into the uk) suffice it to say that it needed to be trailer to the DVLA office for an inspection before we could get documents produced for it despite it having been registered previously in the uk.
While it had sat on Smiths parents drive, the brakes had failed totally (always a good reassuring start) so having kicked about the options it was decided that it would go directly from the DVLA offices to Mosley Motorsport to get a check over and the brakes fixed so that when i flew in it was in some sort of running order.
Mosleys fixed the brakes (hoses not properly done up (thanks whoever did that, you are a dick)) fixed the cutting out issue, dodgy pin on the ignition, fitted new front drop links, a new uprated rear diff bush, balanced the throttles, replaced a load of rad hoses and gave it a full set of fluids. After that little lot, it received a gushing
not a bad car that
At this point i flew in to pick the curse word up, and attend a wedding / see family and friends what this meant was that the car went from sitting about doing nothing to doing over a thousand miles in a week, a bit of a baptism of fire. The car performed admirably for an old bus and never let me down though it did reveal a few niggles, the most annoying of which was that it randomly main beamed other cars at night, this was temporarily resolved by wedging a costa coffee receipt behind the wiper stalk, though not before i had indicated to every chav and dickhead in a 200 mile radius of Birmingham that i wanted a drag race.
So after that epic a bit about the car:
Its a late (December) 88 car and is unusual for a few reasons: it has no sunroof, it has cruise control and it has an american spec front bumper. it was bought in Dingolfing in germany, where bmw also have a very large plant, so it may have been a employee car hence the weird spec? Or possibly a US soldier (cruse, us bumper). The US bumper is a bit of a plus as the side markers mean i don't have to make any holes in the wings.
The car also benefits from a map light mirror, upgraded (for 1988) sound system and a full OBC.
It was originally red, but was repainted in 1998 in Germany, the colour may not be everyone's taste but its a proper engine out job with everything having been painted (engine bay under the sound deadening, under the carpets, the lot) so it will be staying blue while i own it, unless i have some sort of Arianism and decide to do a full factory resto.
Now, onto the work and whatnot:
, i wanted something that would cover, Navigation, media, Bluetooth and CD. So a Becker it was ,i really wanted a cascade, but i don't want to pay £750 for a second hand unit, if one pops up for sensible money i will be on it.
They wired the ASD and ABS lights together hiding the fact the ASD didn't work. It must have taken them hours to do the bodge when all that was needed was 5 mins with a soldering iron on the ASD relay and all was fixed. It really makes me wonder how these people know how to walk talk and breath all at the same time !
