It was mid-2011, and a super cheap E30 came up for sale in Cornwall. A four door Chromie with rusted out arches and chrome bits EVERYWHERE. But it was cheap. I arranged the buy and collection with my family and was all set to go, at which point I received a message saying it had been sold to someone else. I was not happy, but now had it in my head that I must own an E30.
Shortly after, a decent looking 318is came up for sale just down the road in Sunbury -on-Thames so I got a bit more cash together and arranged to view it, having no idea what I was getting myself into.
The plan of attack for the eveneing was for my mate to drive to my house, get in my sisters mates car and have him drive the is back to mine with his trade insurance. Simples. Well actually not, no. On the way to mine, my mate from college (the guy driving the car home for me) was in a crash on the way to my house, getting rear ended at a roundabout. He eventually got here though and we all loaded into my sisters mates car and set off. Just s we were getting onto the M3, her auto Astra started to lose power and smell a bit funny.
And then it exploded. As I investigated under the bonnet I noticed a hole in the side of the block that I could probably fit my fist in. I later found out that she thought they added oil to your engine at every M.O.T, and when informed her otherwise, she said that she hadn't had it serviced on her four years of ownership. Great.
I thought I should put a call through to Vince, the seller (sorry, can't remember your username!) to tell him that after all this I wasn't sure if I would be able to get there, and he was very understanding. Eventually we had my sisters mates mates mum
come to our rescue and drop us at Vince's house some time in the late evening (roughly half eight, nine-ish if my memory serves) and gave the car a look around. Does everyone remember the golden rules for viewing cars? Clear daylight, dry conditions? Well, AIN'T NOBODY GOT TIME FO' DAT. It had rained all day and was pitch black, but truth be told I was fed up and wanted to buy it really badly. So without a poke-around, test drive or VIN check, we headed inside and did all the paperwork, handed over the cash, and it was mine.
We ragged it home, stopped for petrol and parked it up for the night. My day was over, after a very eventful day (four hour drive there, about 40 minutes back, from Bracknell, roughly 20 miles away!).
I came outside the next day to give it a proper look over, and much to my relief, it was pretty tidy. It obviously had some rough bits here and there, but what car doesn't? Especially an E30 sport bought for under £500!
I'll update it soon with some of my recent activity, but until then, have some lovely pictures, and LOOK HOLY SHIT A MOTHERFUCKING RAINBOW!
