E30 Zone

What is your earliest E30 memory / what got you into them? Mine is 1994 when my Dad bought a gorgeous 1988 Zinnobar 318i. It was a stunning car but had a fairly odd spec of alloys, fogs, tech 1 spoiler, sports suspension, but had no power steering, had manual windows and a manual sunroof. He cosseted that car until he retired in 2000 when he bought a brand new E36 Compact Sport but he never liked it half as much as his E30. I passed my test in 2001 and begged him in 2000 to hold onto it for me till i could drive but alas he sold it in 2000. Roll on to 2006 i saw it parked up on a road and i left a note under the wiper asking to call me and id buy it (in hindsight i wish i had chapped a few doors to see if anyone knew who owned it)...3 weeks later i saw it on the back of a scrappy wagon with the jib through the glass, i was gutted. Ive had loads of E30's since then and will call it a day on my current 325iSE as i love it. But thats my earliest E30 Memory, whats yours (any period photos?)??? Pics below of me with the car circa 1995....





Kind Regards,

Mr-Lachs

earliest memory of e30? seeing a chromie 2 door parked in the pub car park across from home most sundays.

what got me into them?? so many to choose from mainly a black as night m-tech 1 sport on bbs rs in the mid 90's there were a few in the town i grew up in.

Excellent!! Sounds like the memories have certainly stuck with you - the tech 1 sounded gorgeous!! Back then you saw tons and tons daily i recall mid 90s but its a rare sight these days if i see one out and about.

I remember my dad having a blue E30 convertible, I was only young at the time. Seem to think it was Maritius blue and had black leather interior, lowered, m-tech 2 kit and Azev As on, but that is a very vague memory.

Other than that I can remember him buying his M3 from Sytner in Nottingham when it was on Huntington street. It was sat in the window with 16" Alpinas on and the £10,750 price tag, that would of been about 1999. (I'd of been 8 at the time)

Outstanding with both memories there mate, my word the M3 sounded lush and great to have been bought from somewhere with so much Pedigree as Sytner, if only you could get them for that now!!!

fecking hell jamie thats going back awhile, syntners on huntingdon street, i remember going past there as a kid in the 80's & seeing my first tech 2 sport & vowing there & then to own one one day, & it was white aswell

i remember being at school (junior school), must have been about 8 years old (1984/5 is). Opposite my school was a pub and restaurant. The owner of the restaurant had a black/dark blue E30 and i remember if just looked so nice. Funnily the headmaster of my school had a Merc 190 which i also really liked the looks of.

Move on to present and i one of each.

Similar to the above. The walk home from Primary school, 1998 ish, took me through a rough council estate, a chavtastic tech 2 used to park beside the alley way I'd cut through.


I remember he invited me in for sweets, O, not a repressed memory thread, never mind.

Superb Steve!! At least you got to fully realise the dream...in White!!

Excellent Paul some cracking memories there. Ive had more 190E's than you could shake a stick at as well so know them inside out Both outstanding cars!!

bab-91 wrote:Similar to the above. The walk home from Primary school, 1998 ish, took me through a rough council estate, a chavtastic tech 2 used to park beside the alley way I'd cut through.


I remember he invited me in for sweets, O, not a repressed memory thread, never mind.

Superb (well minus the sweets!!), genuinely can't recall seeing many tech 1 or 2's around my way, they were all lower spec models.

My dad had a ford granada when I was around 6 years old. Then one morning he went out and returned with this bad boy:




From that moment on I was in love with this machine!
I loved everything about it from the howl the engine made to the all famous "E30 smell" (which funny enough EVERY E30 I've been in since still smells the same! )

He sold it many years later and eventually bought another which was a baur convertible..



My uncle in Cyprus had spoke to my dad and decided he needed an E30 in his life too and bought a 325i Sport:



As you can see E30's were in my blood and soul from a young age..and from the day I sat in that black and chrome beauty I knew I would one day own one!

Mr-Lachs wrote:

bab-91 wrote:Similar to the above. The walk home from Primary school, 1998 ish, took me through a rough council estate, a chavtastic tech 2 used to park beside the alley way I'd cut through.


I remember he invited me in for sweets, O, not a repressed memory thread, never mind.

Superb (well minus the sweets!!), genuinely can't recall seeing many tech 1 or 2's around my way, they were all lower spec models.

In 1998 many/most Council Estates in NI were still a no go area for the police.

Lots of money in the hands of undesirables!

One of my friends Dad had a grey 4 door 325i and a mk2 golf gti and I used to see them pick him up from school. Both were nicked and written off at some point!

Coincidentally we were looking through some old photo albums at my Mums today and saw some photos of a picnic we went on in 1986 and there was the front of a white e30 in one of the pics

Superb photos and fabulous memories thanks for putting the photos up, i can tell they are in your blood alright And your right about "that smell" they do all smell the same - i refuse to put an air freshener in mine in case it diminishes that gorgeous odour

I can imagine it must have been quite a tense time bab-91

viz007 wrote:One of my friends Dad had a grey 4 door 325i and a mk2 golf gti and I used to see them pick him up from school. Both were nicked and written off at some point!

Coincidentally we were looking through some old photo albums at my Mums today and saw some photos of a picnic we went on in 1986 and there was the front of a white e30 in one of the pics

Superb!!! My 4 door 325i is Lachs which can look grey at times. Must have been great seeing that picking your friend up Love catching glimpses of E30's in period photos!!

When I was a young kid (circa 1986, age 4/5) a neighbour had a white 2 door, I think it was a 320 as I remember the sound it made had me hooked, had bottle tops and I loved it! At the same time my Dad announced that he was getting rid of the Rover SD1 and was getting a 3 series!! I was beside myself with joy.........until the e21 turd rocked up on the drive! Very un-cool! Not even a six pot!! It lasted about a year until it failed an MOT heavily due to rot (8 years old!) he never did get an e30 after that, pretty much put off BMW for life

First memory of E30s was in the mid '90s, when I woke up one morning to find a black 316 had mysteriously appeared in the middle of my workshop overnight.

Thats an outstanding memory and i can hear how gutted you were regarding the E21!! Such a shame, i bet you couldn't believe it when it rocked up!! At least you have made up for it since!!!

Brianmoooore wrote:First memory of E30s was in the mid '90s, when I woke up one morning to find a black 316 had mysteriously appeared in the middle of my workshop overnight.

Excellent Brian!!! And things have never been the same since.... We are all grateful for that day as now the help you provide us all is invaluable and appreciated greatly

First memory for me was driving to town with my grandma in my grandads red 316 chromie, complete with tiger stripe seat covers, not tall enough to see over the dash and going over the top of clarbrough hill and it scaring the life out of me as I could only see sky and no road from being low down and thought we were going to crash.

What got me into them was watching very very early videos of gatebil festival in the bonus content on some of the very early " getaway in Stockholm" dvd's.

Thats a superb memory, funny how things like that stick with you eh? And now you have your very own red E30, alas just a tad quicker than the 316 would of been!! Not at all related but that scared feeling in your granddads car when being very young - i mind being in my Grandads D reg MK4 Escort circa 1987 and he bumped it in a carpark and i was hysterical as a 4 year old thinking a big rock had came through the window and was going to hit me...in actual fact it was a potato that had came off the parcel shelf out his shopping bag lol

My first proper memory was when I was 19, in 1994, the boss of a firm I worked for had a 325i SE, every morning he would back it up to the roller door, that was when my ears were first blessed with BMW's finest 6 of the best , he sold the the firm and moved to Spain 2 years later and I bought the car the off him
This car had a very hard life in my hands, all horse powers were used, everywhere, all the time, and with f uck all servicing for the 4 years I owned it.
It nearly killed me too, it still holds the record for being the closest point to death i've been and taught me to expect the unexpected when doing 100+ on minor (private !) roads it pays to be a little bit careful

Here is the beast, early facelift, low comp motor too

Ropey photo of a photo

Beig driven to school by a friends dad in a white 320i cabby, roof down heating up in winter.

The red Morgan in he summer

Jesus325iTouring wrote:My first proper memory was when I was 19, in 1994, the boss of a firm I worked for had a 325i SE, every morning he would back it up to the roller door, that was when my ears were first blessed with BMW's finest 6 of the best , he sold the the firm and moved to Spain 2 years later and I bought the car the off him
This car had a very hard life in my hands, all horse powers were used, everywhere, all the time, and with f uck all servicing for the 4 years I owned it.
It nearly killed me too, it still holds the record for being the closest point to death i've been and taught me to expect the unexpected when doing 100+ on minor (private !) roads it pays to be a little bit careful

Here is the beast, early facelift, low comp motor too

Ropey photo of a photo

Fantastic memory and photo mate thanks for sharing!! Really made me smile this post, your then car looked great and it sounds like you had some almighty fun times in it although it sounds like it was a close one (what happened?), does the low compression motor make a difference to the performance? Wonder if mine is being an E reg early facelift too. I can imagine how that sounded each morning backing up to the roller door and reverberating off it, magic I'll bet!!!

Superb, I'll bet that was a great way to start the day, sounds like the memory has firmly stayed with you. I can just picture the scene

Outstanding collection of memories so far, keep them coming please!!

Kind Regards

Mr-Lachs

My incident involved, a line of ten cars, a JCB Fastrak at the front, a sharp bend and an oncoming car. In short I overtook the lot, but only when I approached the Fastrak did I discover it was towing a forty foot flat bed trailer, this now reduced the time I had to get past before the bend, which now had a car come around it, I went between the Fastrak and oncoming car at over 100 missing both by inches, and then still had the bend to contend with. How I never killed myself or anyone else that day is a mystery.

Another memory of that car was bottoming out at 120, the spark display was excellent!

Another one, off roading in it, surprisingly capable is an E30 at tackling a bit of green laning, oh and abusing it in the style of Colin Mccrae, though 80 on dirt tracks was as much as I was brave enough to go up to.

There are many more, but yes, this E30 was great fun. Oh and the pictures make it look better than it was, it had rust, was scruffy inside and by the time I finished it with it was proper knackered.

Everything got sorted when I sold it though, the chap I sold it too lived in London and it got wrote off there simply parked on a side street when some dimwit crashed into it.

Oh and I had fitted twin straight through Cherry Bomb silencers on it, sounded the business

In 1987 a mate inherited an 86 chrome bumper karmin 320i as a company car which was my first dabble with e30's. Then in Aug 88 he took delivery of a brand new 325i Manual 2 door in Royal blue which was thrashed mercilessly for the next 3 years! That same year my sister in law took delivery of a new solid black 316i and my brother a white 525i e34. Theres been BMW's in various guises ever since. So the best part of 30 years I've been around them.

Not sure of the first one, but I remember some old codger in the street taking his pal home from the pub at nights. Maybe mid to late 90s. I just remember that it was a rare sight even then but thought it still looked good. Would have been a facelift coupe in silver with all the body kits. In the end I would recognise it by sound rather that sight as it was so distinctive.

A Fiat Uno was the ride of choice 20 years ago, but one day I drove past a used car showroom in Southampton. Bowers of Swaythling if you remember it. There was this red BMW on the display ramps in the prime spot in the show room. This was 1996 and I was 20 or 21 years old. I turned back, parked up and went to look at the BM. It was in factory fresh condition and I totally fell for it. The car was £5k and i had zeroK so i promptly borrowed £5k from the bank and bought the BM.

I felt like i'd won the lottery back then and loved the car.

Scothall was the local BM dealer and they had plenty of 635i and e30s outside the dealership back then including some nice cabrios which i never thought i'd be able to own.

Anyone know "Bartley BMW", i was one of his first customers for a cam belt change when he left the dealership and set up on his own out of his Mum's shed on the Winchester road.



http://www.bartleyuk.com/

Jesus325iTouring wrote:My incident involved, a line of ten cars, a JCB Fastrak at the front, a sharp bend and an oncoming car. In short I overtook the lot, but only when I approached the Fastrak did I discover it was towing a forty foot flat bed trailer, this now reduced the time I had to get past before the bend, which now had a car come around it, I went between the Fastrak and oncoming car at over 100 missing both by inches, and then still had the bend to contend with. How I never killed myself or anyone else that day is a mystery.

Another memory of that car was bottoming out at 120, the spark display was excellent!

Another one, off roading in it, surprisingly capable is an E30 at tackling a bit of green laning, oh and abusing it in the style of Colin Mccrae, though 80 on dirt tracks was as much as I was brave enough to go up to.

There are many more, but yes, this E30 was great fun. Oh and the pictures make it look better than it was, it had rust, was scruffy inside and by the time I finished it with it was proper knackered.

Everything got sorted when I sold it though, the chap I sold it too lived in London and it got wrote off there simply parked on a side street when some dimwit crashed into it.

My word mate you were lucky to come out of that unscathed!! A memory that will stay with you I'm sure!! I bet your eyes about popped when you saw the oncoming car!! The spark display I can only imagine!!! Shame it didn't survive, but to go through all that and just get written off parked up seems such a nun dignified end somehow!! I bet the cherry bombs could be heard a mile away!! "Here comes Jesus" !!

B7 wrote:In 1987 a mate inherited an 86 chrome bumper karmin 320i as a company car which was my first dabble with e30's. Then in Aug 88 he took delivery of a brand new 325i Manual 2 door in Royal blue which was thrashed mercilessly for the next 3 years! That same year my sister in law took delivery of a new solid black 316i and my brother a white 525i e34. Theres been BMW's in various guises ever since. So the best part of 30 years I've been around them.

Some excellent sounding machines there!! One can only imagine what it must have been like to take delivery of a blank spanking E30, especially a Royal Blue 325i: I had a Royal Blue 525i that was an excellent car loved the purely hues in sunlight. I'd say they were in your blood now alright!!

Sonatine wrote:Not sure of the first one, but I remember some old codger in the street taking his pal home from the pub at nights. Maybe mid to late 90s. I just remember that it was a rare sight even then but thought it still looked good. Would have been a facelift coupe in silver with all the body kits. In the end I would recognise it by sound rather that sight as it was so distinctive.

Superb, sounded a gorgeous machine! The sound of them is so distinctive your right, cars now just don't sound and you can rarely play the guess the sound game!!

jimbom30cab wrote:A Fiat Uno was the ride of choice 20 years ago, but one day I drove past a used car showroom in Southampton. Bowers of Swaythling if you remember it. There was this red BMW on the display ramps in the prime spot in the show room. This was 1996 and I was 20 or 21 years old. I turned back, parked up and went to look at the BM. It was in factory fresh condition and I totally fell for it. The car was £5k and i had zeroK so i promptly borrowed £5k from the bank and bought the BM.

I felt like i'd won the lottery back then and loved the car.

Scothall was the local BM dealer and they had plenty of 635i and e30s outside the dealership back then including some nice cabrios which i never thought i'd be able to own.

Anyone know "Bartley BMW", i was one of his first customers for a cam belt change when he left the dealership and set up on his own out of his Mum's shed on the Winchester road.



http://www.bartleyuk.com/

Thanks for sharing the photo, it looked like a gorgeous 318i, I see by the DVLA site that it lasted until 2004. Really cracking looking car and reminds me so much of my Dads, his too was up on the ramps in the prime spot at the front of the dealership, I'll never forget seeing it for the first time!! My first one was a Brilliant Red 316i Lux in 2002, looked like yours but a 2 doors. You must have felt king of the road indeed and quite a jump up from your Uno, as it was for me from my Nova!!!