E30 Zone

Ok, so some of you remember my old 325i sport which I sold 2 days before the annual national BMW festival!! I had a space reserved on the E30 30th year anniversary stand and everything!!

Anyway, I vowed to be back in an E30 for the next show, and promised myself my next E30 would be the one i've always lusted after........here it is, and of course it is an ALPINA!

I was hoping to finish it before posting pics but as with these cars nothing is ever finished...

So, when I found the car, it was sitting in a garage forgotten, and had not been driven for 7 years. The bodywork was decent enough for an old E30 bar being caked in dust, filth knocks and scratches. The engine was in pretty good nick and sounded nice. Good points were, engine stamped correctly, big history file, fully stamped service book as well as the morsels of staggered alpinas, recaro LS seats, aircon (although dealer fit scrap that didn't work), 4 spoke alpina steering wheel (shabby so ebay'd) and the gearknob was looking distictly under par (refurbed – thanks joe), cruise control. This car was not exactly a peach now but with a bit of TLC could be!

I handed the car over to a genius named Barry to do the more serious work so I could do the details later....I wanted this car to be better than my sport, so saved up my money and went for the best options. Here's what followed....


Bodywork
replacement bootlid
repaired bonnet (old one was dented in a few places)
New side mouldings
New bumper mouldings

Suspension
B12 Bilstein/eibach suspension
Eibach adjustable ARB
New bushes all around including M3 eccentric wishbone bushes
new rear top mounts (E46 CABRIO PLUS Z3 REINFORCEMENT PLATES)
Tracking
All new drop links
All new discs pads and brake hoses

Cosmetic/Detail
3 spoke alpina steering wheel (NEW (ouch!!))
Lepsons refurbished wheels & caps
New wheel locks/caps...etc
Replaced worn carpet
shadowline trim
new rear seats
premium rear speakers and tweeters
black headlining
New ALPINA boot badges
New C2 2.7 grille/boot badge
SE bootliner
replacement of cracked dash
newly painted inlet/rocker (cheers trev (B7))
new bonnet sound foam
new dealer plates, tax disc holder, keyring, rear window sticker
new alpina wheel badges (pukar designs versions!)

Other work
replacement aircon (factory fit style) including R134a conversion, new condenser and drier


The car is now really amazing to drive, so much better than I expected (although I have been driving a Rover 200d hatchback 4 door for the past few months). The road holding is really sharp and handles like a new car. The suspensions setup is firm without being “crashy”.....really nice. The engine sound is great!!! Needless to say as mentioned before, it has been an expensive journey, but totally worth it!....its good to be back!!


just iphone pics for now, hope you like it!

This was probably one of the best looking e30's at Gaydon

A real credit to you mate.

Wow, that is timeless, credit where credit is due.

A fine chariot

White E30 = Cool
White Alpina E30 = Very cool and rare!

The only true BMW motorsport colour

Very Nice indeed Atul, looks stunning

Atul, it looks awesome.

THIS is what an E30 should look like

Health to drive.

Beaut!

Looks great now it's finished. I saw it on severeral occasions during its recommissioning. Epic car.

Re the exhaust. I know Powelly Steve was looking into options for the touring.

Awsome, sounds like a great car, any interior/bay shots ?

Putting alpina decal on front valance ? You should photoshop n post a few pics of different color alpina stripes, I think the blue/green would be absoloute killer on it !!!

Wonderful looking car.the only white alpina I ever saw was at ants,a tech garage.i wonder if that still lives on?

Blue green is not correct for facelift E30 Alpina's, only gold or silver thin stripe.

It drives as well as it looks!

nice work Atul

needs some nice stickers now ,do you know any body that could do them??

This is Ants old car it looks fantastic.

brettski wrote:This is Ants old car it looks fantastic.

Wow.very very nice.im sure this is a non sunroof aswell.

bss325i wrote:Blue green is not correct for facelift E30 Alpina's, only gold or silver thin stripe.

It drives as well as it looks!

Silver! Very subtle and ties in nicer than the gold I reckon.

it is rather nice, the opposite to mine. I'll have to get my finger out they'd look good together

Very nice Atul, wondered where this one had gone, always liked the spec on it...2dr, air con, non sunroof.

Did you manage to track down any Alpina seat fabric?

All those Alpina spec stickers you made up from my originals will come in handy now...

No stripes IMO

Looking great Pukar

What does the sound like from the exhaust ? Does it reverb in tunnels, bridges, narrow streets ?
If you can get the original new Alpina exhaust that's probably worth it provided is available ?

And nice New Genuine BMW mouldings

pony wrote: If you can get the original new Alpina exhaust that's probably worth it provided is available ?

They are only available if ordered in a minimum quantity. Si knows that quantity as I cannot remember but they are mega bucks.

Getting a company to replicate an original in stainless it the way to go I reckon. I'd love one on mine.

B7 wrote:

pony wrote: If you can get the original new Alpina exhaust that's probably worth it provided is available ?

They are only available if ordered in a minimum quantity. Si knows that quantity as I cannot remember but they are mega bucks.

Getting a company to replicate an original in stainless it the way to go I reckon. I'd love one on mine.

What does New a Genuine Alpina exhaust for this sound like ? Fruity ? Reverb ?

thanks guys for all the positive feedback! it has been so frustrating seeing so many e30s on here and having to drive a rover, but soooooo good to be back in a proper car again.

the first sticker on the car was the castrol one on the rocker cover

yes, great options on this one...white and non-sunroof being a big win!

pony - i'm only going to answer 1 question, so choose it wisely ;)

i am out of bucks, so no exhaust change at the moment. the 325i exhaust sounds lovely anyway, really refined but gives a nice growl when you put your foot down. a genuine one would be awesome but i reckon the bits would be about £3k, so maybe not. my brother has an original so could get that copied....i think the manifold is the trickiest part anyway which i already have.

gold stripes on a white B6...albeit the earlier design

the alpina system sounds like a 325i with big bollocks. The standard system noise but with alot more noise and bass low down. Fantastic is the word. I'm going scorpion on mine and she will howl with the racing dynamics 6 branch too proper lairy

Simon13 wrote:the alpina system sounds like a 325i with big bollocks. The standard system noise but with alot more noise and bass low down. Fantastic is the word. I'm going scorpion on mine and she will howl with the racing dynamics 6 branch too proper lairy

Yeah night consider scorpion in the future
The louder the better IMO

The Alpina system from what you say looks as sounds pretty good

heres mine in action showing an e36 328 the way in my old war horse C2 touring. With the exhaust im using

[youtube][/youtube]

not working for me

Gold looks ok, may not be facelift as Barry says, but the older alpinas with lairy looking color/stripe combinations just look incredible, I'd still go green/blue would look amazing, or just blue looks great, I think a bright color would really set the car off

a white one ...it looks amazingly clean !

Great looking car there Pukar and very nice work indeed there Barry, another top job