If money was no object,which E30

[martauto]

Just wondering...If money was no object would I do a few subtle tweaks ( change the shape of every panel for instance ) to the original design?

E30_final_Mod.jpg

Mart.

[Ukhozi]

The one I have,
4 door, so I can open it in car parks,
automatic, as I am a lazy bugger.
No A/C, I prefer the window open. simple.
No ECU to bugger things up just simple monotonic unit.
No ABS,
Power steering.
Electric front window
Cloth seats, or it is just a sweat pit.
No sunroof, no leaks.
2Ltr big enough to cruise, lower insurance and better fuel.
Chrome, I love it.

So 1987 320i automatic saloon.

[Satan]

The one I have,
4 door, so I can open it in car parks,
automatic, as I am a lazy bugger.
No A/C, I prefer the window open. simple.
No ECU to bugger things up just simple monotonic unit.
No ABS,
Power steering.
Electric front window
Cloth seats, or it is just a sweat pit.
No sunroof, no leaks.
2Ltr big enough to cruise, lower insurance and better fuel.
Chrome, I love it.

So 1987 320i automatic saloon.

2 door has the same size doors, and don't you want a 2.5 as it will be cheaper to run and sound nicer?

[Ukhozi]

Nope. 2 door doors are a lot longer than 4 door, (to allow ingress by rear seat passengers, I have an Opel Corsa B as well and it's a pig in a car park.
Cheaper to run, how? Apart from increased MP gallon. a LOT more insurance and road tax, (goes on emissions, engine size, etc here) and for not a lot more grunt.
Here, four door are actually rarer than two door, at least in Spain every other E30 is a 318 convertible. 325 is rarer. Academic anyway, I can't afford to change cars and at 74 not need to.

[Brianmoooore]

Doors on a four door/touring are much smaller than those on a 2 door, as Ukhozi says, and give the side profile of the car a much more balanced look. The doors on a 2 door look out of proportion to the rest of the body.
The buying public back in the day thought so as well. The 'sport' was only introduced to stimulate sales of 2 door models.
The 320 engine note can actually be marginally better than that of the 325, but Satan's right about the MPG. The 325i has a drink problem, but the 320i is just as bad, largely because of the lower gearing.
Road tax (for older cars) is based on engine size in the UK, but even the smallest E30 engine (i.6i) is just to big to be in anything other than the band for the largest engines.

[e30Passion]

If money were no object.. i would execute my fantasy on e30 by building an e30 with Pigani or Koenigsegg levels of construction.

I would strip an M3 until bare chassis like in a nut & bolt restoration when the chassis goes for e-coat. Drill every spot-weld and take the panels apart that make the chassis until the entire chassis is in bits also. Then copy each of those panels in Carbon Fiber and glue everything a la lotus Elise back together to end up with a unrustable Carbon Fiber BMW e30 probably 250kg lighter & 10 times stronger and safer then the original.

Before doing so i would first design a Titanium roll cage that runs through the entire chassis like the a, b & c pillars, sills, floor, roof, doors etc. The titanium roll cage will begin & end with the front & rear shocktowers where the top mounts bolt on to. The copied carbon fiber panels will be bonded around the titanium roll cage to eventually form the chassis.

All the outside panels, including the front radiator carrier, outer wheel arches, quarter panels, roof and trunk floor area will be bolt on bolt off in case of accident damage. Even if the car rolls it could be repaired as long as the chassis is not bend or damaged to much and the structural rigidity is not compromised. You could take the damaged panels off and put new ones on. No cutting metal.

Everything metal will be copied using exclusively titanium.. All nuts & bolts, entire front & rear suspension, exhaust, fuel-tank, wheels, diff housing, bracketry, everything. If CF is better for the job then that will be used. All hoses to will be braided titanium or stainless.

Last but not least.. The engine. I would probably want to have the E60 V10 in there or at least an e92 V8. Of course bored, honed to best specifications possible with lightweight pistons & con rods, cams, custom engine management etc..

All of course with the entire car accessory'd to FULL options with some design changes like comfort & sportmode in terms of ride height & damper settings, adjustable steering wheel with adjustable steering ratio, huge brakes worthy of trackdays, better audio setup like 17cm speakers all round with build in hidden subwoofer, modern remote central locking, adjustable steering ratio, much better insulation, custom improved oem looking sport-seats, cupholders and storage space etc.

In other words.. a modern multi million pound hyper-car version of e30 M3. Probably Red or Black with tan leather interior.

Yes i'm crazy and i need to hit the lottery jackpot!

If i ever do i'll make a business out of it by selling those Carbon Fiber reproductions of classic cars. People could just buy one of those re-incarnated CF chassis and swap everything over from their old rusty original. Would be a fun project

[coopman]

Alternatively you could turn your E30 into a ute...

[Tzantushka]

I suppose if I had the money I could have both??

Just needs suicide doors!

Lambo doors aren't really our thing.

[ah]

Ok I’m going to try again WHICH E30 WOULD YOU BUY ? I.E. ALPINA,HARTGE,MOTORSPORT,TOURING,CAB,SALOON, etc i’m not talking about other makes of cars.

[Dlb26]

This

[flybynite]

For me, this:

But: in Dolphin Grey or Alpina Blue
Minus the side skirts
Recaro LS seats (Heated)
Cruise, Aircon, HLWW and anything else I could spec

Edit: This is the one I would buy, now , What I would have bought then would be different (as I thought Chrome looked dated back then)

My ideal E30 is what I am building, not quite money no object but not far off so far but an E30 like that was never sold.

[HenryM3]

I have my dream E30 , the m3 with s50b32. I say that because I couldn’t even dream of buying one today. Had this one 21 years and bought for 4.5k. It wasn’t a smart move, it was luck and 21 years ago it made me skint. If I’d had 1/2 a brain cell I’d have bought an evo sport for an extra 2k.

[flybynite]

I have my dream E30 , the m3 with s50b32. I say that because I couldn’t even dream of buying one today. Had this one 21 years and bought for 4.5k. It wasn’t a smart move, it was luck and 21 years ago it made me skint. If I’d had 1/2 a brain cell I’d have bought an evo sport for an extra 2k.

Out of interest how do you find it around corners? The only reason I ask is I bought one of the last E36 M3 evo's new and drove it daily for over 8 years. Although I absolutely loved that engine and the way it went, I was always aware of it going around just about every corner.

I never admitted it at the time, I thought my mate's E36 328i Sport (same age) always drove and handled much better than the M3 and it was all down to the weight of that lump up front.

It weighed very heavily (no pun intended ) on the decision as to what engine to put in the E30

[HenryM3]

In answer to that question I have to tell a story. When I did that conversion a long time ago the car appeared in Total BMW and I was invited to Bruntingthorpe to get some figures. At the time there were no engine mods. It topped out on the straight at 158.6 just slightly over the 155 limiter. They got the 0–60 down to 4.9 seconds until I stopped them as I didn’t realise how brutal you have to be to get the best out of it including warming tyres. I then drove it round the track for about 10 laps wondering why nobody was paying me to do this as I was just brilliant? Came in and asked a bloke dressed in a race suit an carrying a helmet if he would take me round for a few laps. After one lap I knew why nobody was going to pay me to drive their car, these blokes are just in a different league to the average bloke who thinks he’s a good driver. Down the straight he’s talking casually as we approach the bend, still flat out on road speed limiter, I had started braking two weeks before he even thought about it.
So in answer to your question, I can’t, I haven’t got the talent to get to where the limits of this car are. Sorry.
The car is/was fitted with eibach arb’s and adjustable Koni dampers

[Acaciastrain360]

Grey Evo III

[tha881]

It just has to be the sport evo for me, a nice alpina c2.7 is a very close 2nd, especially the later one with tech 2 kit and alpina front valance and rear spoiler