E30 Zone

How do you tell quickly wether an E30 is Mtech or not? any clues (before I pick my car up), any surefire way of telling? What all does it consist of despite obvious steering wheel and gear knob.

do you mean if its a sport or not?

if you mean how to tell if its a sport or not, it will say SPORT on the log book.

At a glance i guess the biggest giveaway would be a black headlining. It would be easy to replicate a sport with the steering wheel etc, but quite a pain in the ass to swap headlinings

Maybe got the wrong end of the stick here, i thought an E30 could be Mtech yet not be a sport model... for instance the car i am buying is advertised as a 1985 323i Mtech Baur, I also had a 1985 323i mtech years ago, I was under the impression neither is a sport.

Im not 100% sure but a BAUR isnt an Mtech.

just sounds like someones chucked on the kit or the suspension and saying its called an mtec

any customer ordering a new car could ask BMW to 'chuck on the M-Tech suspension' at the factory....

if the question is 'how do I tell if it has M-tech suspension?', the answer is that the car sits 15mm lower. In practical terms, that's difficult to measure, unless you have a stock suspension E30 parked next to it.

Take the chassis number to any BMW dealer, and they can tell you the options that were fitted at the factory.

orangecurry wrote:any customer ordering a new car could ask BMW to 'chuck on the M-Tech suspension' at the factory....

if the question is 'how do I tell if it has M-tech suspension?', the answer is that the car sits 15mm lower. In practical terms, that's difficult to measure, unless you have a stock suspension E30 parked next to it.

Take the chassis number to any BMW dealer, and they can tell you the options that were fitted at the factory.

Ahh now thats what I thought! great stuff thanks, I'll get the chassis number.

So it doesnt have to be a sport to be an Mtech. So the car may or may not have LSD and Mtech bodykit etc but still have mtech suspension.

See I'm learning

325i Sports and Mtech equipped cars are different things. The Sport is an Mtech car, but any of the E30 range could of had Mtech bits fitted as an option from the dealer.

As has been said, the only clear way to tell is by giving the chassis number to the dealer - but dont forget that will only tell you what it was when it was sold, parts may have been changed/added to the car in its long life.

jon_pure_british wrote:if you mean how to tell if its a sport or not, it will say SPORT on the log book.

Not always. Unfortunately the log book (V5) can say whatever you (or previous owner) has written in the little box - the DVLA just changes it when the V5 gets sent to them.

Ive seen '325iSE Motorsport' on a V5 before and in the non-BMW world, a friend of mine has 'Astra GSiV6' on the V5 for her Astra V6 conversion.

Cheers

orangecurry wrote:
Take the chassis number to any BMW dealer, and they can tell you the options that were fitted at the factory.

Even that assumes it's not a ringer, of course.

I'd agree with the above comments. Chassis number and log book. Your dealer should have everything noted on the computer.
Alternatively If it doesn't look anything like the pics below. Walk away

it won't look anything like that - it's a 1985 Baur, so it's not a Sport, there'll be no Tech2 bodykit (post 1987), and less of a roof