I know it is a cliché, but it is absolutely true in my case….. I really hate to sell this car! I have poured a lot of time and money in to it over the last 2 years. I am not looking to unload it for cheap and will only sell it if I can recover a reasonable amount of my expenses. The only reason I am considering selling it, is because I am looking to free up cash for a new house. One of those unexpected things life throws at you. If you are looking for a stock or collector car, move on, this won’t be for you. If you are looking for a cheap car to build up yourself, this isn’t the car for you either. I realize that my car is not for everyone, but to the right person it could be just what they were waiting for.
In short
This E30 M3 is a S52 swap engine car that I’m using as my HPDE/Auto-X toy and also as a “classic street car”. I am a long time BMW owner and got tired of the new heavy models and wanted to get a lighter and nimbler BMW, and the E30 M3 was always my favorite model. My goal was to make it perform as good as possible for the track, while retaining as much of the stock look and still keep it street (CA smog) legal, so I could still use it occasionally for some spirited driving.
History
The previous owner (who did the swap) did not have any records on the history of the car. According to the Carfax, I fount out that it was registered in two different states on the east coast for ~15 years. Based on the low mileages during that period (~6k/yr), and the absence of rust, it’s probably save to say that it was a summer car only. After that period it must have sold to somebody else, as the PO bought it from a person that had 2 other e30 M3’s who sold this one to him without the S14. That person might have bough it just to get the S14 from it, which would explain why he sold it to somebody looking to do a swap.
The PO then repainted the car in AW III and installed the drive train from his friend’s wrecked 2000 M coupe. All the body panels match except for the trunk lid. There is no evidence of any body work ever being performed other than the re-spray, so it is safe to say that the car never had an accident. The PO showed me a picture of the car before he repainted it and it basically it was just faded paint.
When I bought the car, I knew it would need a few things cleaned up, as the previous owner made some short cuts when performing the swap. I also needed to get the car certified by the Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR) in order to get it CA smog legal. This turned out to be a nightmare and caused a lot more expenses than anticipated. Also, my OCD took over and rather than just keeping things OK, I started going down the road of replacing one thing after another, in the name of appearance and reliability.
Current situation
Recently I blew the motor at the track. It’s a long story, but FWIW it was all caused by the idiot referee at the BAR, who decided to dyno the car without a fan in front of it, thus overheated the engine. It started a chain reaction, which eventually lead me to replace the whole engine, rather than chasing my tale with the problem S52 that I had. I found a perfect S52 from a 99 M3 convertible (CA car) with automatic transmission and only 103k miles on it. That car was salvaged due to a minor accident, but was otherwise extremely clean. The fact that it was an automatic gave me peace of mind that it was never raced or over-rev’d. I got a chance to hear the motor run in that car before I bought it and after getting very good compression/leak down results I bought it. I had Valley Motorwerks in Rancho Cordova install it, along with all the OBD1 stuff and all the new parts I had acquired before (Water pump, Alternator, P/S etc). While at it, I also installed a UUC lightweight flywheel and M5 clutch and the TMS oil cooler kit (S54 oil filter housing and oil cooler from M coupe). I should have done the oil cooler from the get go. A must on a S5X! So, the car is back, running strong with a solid S52 engine. With the added oil cooler the oil temperature stays remarkably low! I had one HDPE event since, a couple of weeks ago, and on a 95 degree day and the oil never got over 200 degree while on track.
Details on the car
1988 Alpine White M3, 159,XX miles on chassis. All numbers matching except trunk lid, Complete S52 OBD1 conversion, CA smog legal, with lots of expensive upgrades.
Interior color was Cardinal red, but I have replaced the carpet with a new factory black one, front seats are aftermarket, and the rears are pulled, so there is not a lot of red left. I started acquiring black door cards and have swapped the fronts out. I still have the red ones also.
DRIVETRAIN:
Engine S52 (103k miles)
Full conversion to OBD-1
M50 Manifold
TMS chip
24 lbs injectors
Riot Racing BBTB
3.5” Euro MAF, Bimmerworld intake Elbow, Cold Air Intake, K&N air filter
TMS Under-drive pulley with new belt
EVERY accessory has been replaced in the last year (Alternator, WP, PS)
Stewart High Performance Water Pump
New Mishumoto Radiator and Summit Racing Electrical Fan
TMS Oil cooler kit
TMS OBD-1 chip
UUC Stage 2 Lightweight Flywheel with E34 M5 clutch
Custom dual piping exhaust with new Catalytic Converters
Stromung Muffler
Short shift kit
Instrument cluster properly coded
3.46 LSD (also have a 3.25 diff from 2000 M coupe)
Fresh fluids
SUSPENSION:
Ground Control Coil Over Suspension
GC adjustable camber plates
Z3 Steering Rack with AKG conversion
New Urethane Sway Bar Bushings and GC rear links
(Converted the sway bars back to stock, due to the thicker bars making the car too stiff)
Custom Roll Center spacers up front
New Front bearings
New Rear bearings
New Condor Rear Sub-frame Bushings (Raised 12mm), Trailing Arm and Diff bushings
Welded in Camber and Toe Kit
Freshly Powder coated and reinforced Sub-frame
New Rear drive shaft boots and brake backing plates
Z3 Diff Cover
New Light Weight (15 lbs) Odyssey 680 Battery with charger
BRAKES:
Custom BMW 135i Performance Big Brake Kit (Brembo 6 piston calipers front, 2 piston rears)
Racing Brake Rotor Rings (Both front and rear are floating rotors)
Forged Aluminum front hat
Rear 6061 Aluminum hat with 303 Stainless Steel E-brake ring
New Hawk HT-10 Track Pads
All new SS Brake lines
Fresh Brake Fluid
Tilton Adjustable front to rear bias valve (ABS is deleted and removed)
WHEELS:
Street:
BBS 18”x8” LM’s with Goodyear Eagle F1 tires (~80% thread left)
Track:
APEX ARC-8 17 x 8.5 with 235-40-17 Nitto NT-01 (still have a few more events in them)
INTERIOR:
Corbeau Seats
Black or Cardinal interior. Personally I like the black better and have changed the front door cards, but not the rears yet, as I would need to remove the roll bar to swap them.
Shroth 6 Point Harness
New Factory BMW Carpet (Black)
BMW M-Tech II (365mm Steering Wheel) with new leather and M try-color stitching Perfect, crack-free dash
New Floor and Trunk mat with M Logo
Tinted Windows (Medium Tint)
Roll bar
EXTERIOR
Complete re-spray in AW III by previous owner. This is not a show quality paint job, but looks decent. I was planning on color sanding the car and repainting the bumpers. Front bumper has stone chips and also needs the Euro Tow Hook covers and Brake ducts color matched. The rear bumper was perfect but the old muffler burned the paint around the exit when the car blew the head gasket.
EVO 3 Undertray and front splitter (the real deal).
EVO rear wing with adjustable flap (Not OEM)
Smoked signal lenses
New Tail lights (Not OEM, but high quality)
New Euro Grill
Noteworthy comments
The Good:
In addition to replacing the engine, I had just prior completed an overhaul of the rear end, mainly because I wanted the stiffer sub-frame bushings and camber/toe kit welded in. While I was at it I had the sub-frame powder coated and installed new rear wheel bearings, drive shaft boots and brake backing plates and bead blasted the diff cover. It loosks better than new!
The Big Brake kit is probably the most unique and expensive upgrade on this car. I have documented it on S14 on several occasions. I own a machine shop and spent a lot of time developing and machining the components for it. It is easily worth $4-$5k by itself. It is track proven and tested and works flawlessly. Zero fading and one of a kind looks wise. I also removed the ABS pump (still have it) and installed a Tilton front/rear brake bias valve.
I tried to reduce the weight as much possible on the car and have done so by removing sound deadening from under the carpet and rear seats, stereo delete, rear seats and seat belts delete, ABS pump delete, AC delete and installed a CF hood. As is, the car weighs 2660 lbs (3/4 full tank) with an engine that makes 270hp+. So needless to say it is pretty quick.
The way the car is set up right now feels perfect for the track. At the last event, I was lapping exactly the same as my buddy in his new 2013 Caymen S with ceramic brakes. This e30 M3 will keep up with modern hi-performance cars. The chassis and the steering are even more predictable than in stock form. The quicker steering rack is a must if you want to auto-x. I did two auto-x’s and finished 3rd both times, amongst a group of about 35+ entries. This was with the local Porsche club and lots of fast cars including GT3’s.
The Bad:
Windshield was replaced with non stock
There is one freak rust spot on the left inside of the trunk/wheel well. It is exactly where the pad from the jack rests. I think what happened was that the jack rubbed the paint off and some moisture got trapped. It needs to be cut out and a new piece welded in to make it right. This is the only rust on the whole car and is only a 3” area.
Paint has orange peel and lacks the shine of show car. However, it has 3 coats of clear coat and just needs to be color sanded or cut/buffed. The previous owner who painted it just didn’t finish the job, that’s all. As stated front bumper has lots of chips and rear bumper some burned paint around exhaust.
The Corbeau Seats are not up to my quality standard and I would get some Recaros. I just have not gotten around to it. They do not look great but do the job for now.
Price:
$35,000.-
I’m not going to consider any low ball offers. I’m also not looking for any trades.
I have all the receipts for all the above mentioned parts and work. I will lose plenty of money at the asking price. The custom BBK, Evo undertray/splitter,18 BBS LM’s, M-Tech II Steering Wheel, Carbon Hood could easily be parted out for and around $10k. Most of those parts are made from "unobtainum". Taking them in to consideration, one quickly can see that the “base price” is only around $25k, for what would still be an accident and rust free e30 M3 with lots of new parts and upgrades. I can attest to the fact that anybody that wants to have an e30 M3 swap car similar to this will want the faster steering rack, the suspension set up like it is, second set of wheels and on and on. You will be hard pressed to put it together for less. I also have lots of spare parts. The stock hood, door cards, rear seats, ABS pump and the second set of wheels are all included in the sale.
Pictures:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/94259886@N05/
In short
This E30 M3 is a S52 swap engine car that I’m using as my HPDE/Auto-X toy and also as a “classic street car”. I am a long time BMW owner and got tired of the new heavy models and wanted to get a lighter and nimbler BMW, and the E30 M3 was always my favorite model. My goal was to make it perform as good as possible for the track, while retaining as much of the stock look and still keep it street (CA smog) legal, so I could still use it occasionally for some spirited driving.
History
The previous owner (who did the swap) did not have any records on the history of the car. According to the Carfax, I fount out that it was registered in two different states on the east coast for ~15 years. Based on the low mileages during that period (~6k/yr), and the absence of rust, it’s probably save to say that it was a summer car only. After that period it must have sold to somebody else, as the PO bought it from a person that had 2 other e30 M3’s who sold this one to him without the S14. That person might have bough it just to get the S14 from it, which would explain why he sold it to somebody looking to do a swap.
The PO then repainted the car in AW III and installed the drive train from his friend’s wrecked 2000 M coupe. All the body panels match except for the trunk lid. There is no evidence of any body work ever being performed other than the re-spray, so it is safe to say that the car never had an accident. The PO showed me a picture of the car before he repainted it and it basically it was just faded paint.
When I bought the car, I knew it would need a few things cleaned up, as the previous owner made some short cuts when performing the swap. I also needed to get the car certified by the Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR) in order to get it CA smog legal. This turned out to be a nightmare and caused a lot more expenses than anticipated. Also, my OCD took over and rather than just keeping things OK, I started going down the road of replacing one thing after another, in the name of appearance and reliability.
Current situation
Recently I blew the motor at the track. It’s a long story, but FWIW it was all caused by the idiot referee at the BAR, who decided to dyno the car without a fan in front of it, thus overheated the engine. It started a chain reaction, which eventually lead me to replace the whole engine, rather than chasing my tale with the problem S52 that I had. I found a perfect S52 from a 99 M3 convertible (CA car) with automatic transmission and only 103k miles on it. That car was salvaged due to a minor accident, but was otherwise extremely clean. The fact that it was an automatic gave me peace of mind that it was never raced or over-rev’d. I got a chance to hear the motor run in that car before I bought it and after getting very good compression/leak down results I bought it. I had Valley Motorwerks in Rancho Cordova install it, along with all the OBD1 stuff and all the new parts I had acquired before (Water pump, Alternator, P/S etc). While at it, I also installed a UUC lightweight flywheel and M5 clutch and the TMS oil cooler kit (S54 oil filter housing and oil cooler from M coupe). I should have done the oil cooler from the get go. A must on a S5X! So, the car is back, running strong with a solid S52 engine. With the added oil cooler the oil temperature stays remarkably low! I had one HDPE event since, a couple of weeks ago, and on a 95 degree day and the oil never got over 200 degree while on track.
Details on the car
1988 Alpine White M3, 159,XX miles on chassis. All numbers matching except trunk lid, Complete S52 OBD1 conversion, CA smog legal, with lots of expensive upgrades.
Interior color was Cardinal red, but I have replaced the carpet with a new factory black one, front seats are aftermarket, and the rears are pulled, so there is not a lot of red left. I started acquiring black door cards and have swapped the fronts out. I still have the red ones also.
DRIVETRAIN:
Engine S52 (103k miles)
Full conversion to OBD-1
M50 Manifold
TMS chip
24 lbs injectors
Riot Racing BBTB
3.5” Euro MAF, Bimmerworld intake Elbow, Cold Air Intake, K&N air filter
TMS Under-drive pulley with new belt
EVERY accessory has been replaced in the last year (Alternator, WP, PS)
Stewart High Performance Water Pump
New Mishumoto Radiator and Summit Racing Electrical Fan
TMS Oil cooler kit
TMS OBD-1 chip
UUC Stage 2 Lightweight Flywheel with E34 M5 clutch
Custom dual piping exhaust with new Catalytic Converters
Stromung Muffler
Short shift kit
Instrument cluster properly coded
3.46 LSD (also have a 3.25 diff from 2000 M coupe)
Fresh fluids
SUSPENSION:
Ground Control Coil Over Suspension
GC adjustable camber plates
Z3 Steering Rack with AKG conversion
New Urethane Sway Bar Bushings and GC rear links
(Converted the sway bars back to stock, due to the thicker bars making the car too stiff)
Custom Roll Center spacers up front
New Front bearings
New Rear bearings
New Condor Rear Sub-frame Bushings (Raised 12mm), Trailing Arm and Diff bushings
Welded in Camber and Toe Kit
Freshly Powder coated and reinforced Sub-frame
New Rear drive shaft boots and brake backing plates
Z3 Diff Cover
New Light Weight (15 lbs) Odyssey 680 Battery with charger
BRAKES:
Custom BMW 135i Performance Big Brake Kit (Brembo 6 piston calipers front, 2 piston rears)
Racing Brake Rotor Rings (Both front and rear are floating rotors)
Forged Aluminum front hat
Rear 6061 Aluminum hat with 303 Stainless Steel E-brake ring
New Hawk HT-10 Track Pads
All new SS Brake lines
Fresh Brake Fluid
Tilton Adjustable front to rear bias valve (ABS is deleted and removed)
WHEELS:
Street:
BBS 18”x8” LM’s with Goodyear Eagle F1 tires (~80% thread left)
Track:
APEX ARC-8 17 x 8.5 with 235-40-17 Nitto NT-01 (still have a few more events in them)
INTERIOR:
Corbeau Seats
Black or Cardinal interior. Personally I like the black better and have changed the front door cards, but not the rears yet, as I would need to remove the roll bar to swap them.
Shroth 6 Point Harness
New Factory BMW Carpet (Black)
BMW M-Tech II (365mm Steering Wheel) with new leather and M try-color stitching Perfect, crack-free dash
New Floor and Trunk mat with M Logo
Tinted Windows (Medium Tint)
Roll bar
EXTERIOR
Complete re-spray in AW III by previous owner. This is not a show quality paint job, but looks decent. I was planning on color sanding the car and repainting the bumpers. Front bumper has stone chips and also needs the Euro Tow Hook covers and Brake ducts color matched. The rear bumper was perfect but the old muffler burned the paint around the exit when the car blew the head gasket.
EVO 3 Undertray and front splitter (the real deal).
EVO rear wing with adjustable flap (Not OEM)
Smoked signal lenses
New Tail lights (Not OEM, but high quality)
New Euro Grill
Noteworthy comments
The Good:
In addition to replacing the engine, I had just prior completed an overhaul of the rear end, mainly because I wanted the stiffer sub-frame bushings and camber/toe kit welded in. While I was at it I had the sub-frame powder coated and installed new rear wheel bearings, drive shaft boots and brake backing plates and bead blasted the diff cover. It loosks better than new!
The Big Brake kit is probably the most unique and expensive upgrade on this car. I have documented it on S14 on several occasions. I own a machine shop and spent a lot of time developing and machining the components for it. It is easily worth $4-$5k by itself. It is track proven and tested and works flawlessly. Zero fading and one of a kind looks wise. I also removed the ABS pump (still have it) and installed a Tilton front/rear brake bias valve.
I tried to reduce the weight as much possible on the car and have done so by removing sound deadening from under the carpet and rear seats, stereo delete, rear seats and seat belts delete, ABS pump delete, AC delete and installed a CF hood. As is, the car weighs 2660 lbs (3/4 full tank) with an engine that makes 270hp+. So needless to say it is pretty quick.
The way the car is set up right now feels perfect for the track. At the last event, I was lapping exactly the same as my buddy in his new 2013 Caymen S with ceramic brakes. This e30 M3 will keep up with modern hi-performance cars. The chassis and the steering are even more predictable than in stock form. The quicker steering rack is a must if you want to auto-x. I did two auto-x’s and finished 3rd both times, amongst a group of about 35+ entries. This was with the local Porsche club and lots of fast cars including GT3’s.
The Bad:
Windshield was replaced with non stock
There is one freak rust spot on the left inside of the trunk/wheel well. It is exactly where the pad from the jack rests. I think what happened was that the jack rubbed the paint off and some moisture got trapped. It needs to be cut out and a new piece welded in to make it right. This is the only rust on the whole car and is only a 3” area.
Paint has orange peel and lacks the shine of show car. However, it has 3 coats of clear coat and just needs to be color sanded or cut/buffed. The previous owner who painted it just didn’t finish the job, that’s all. As stated front bumper has lots of chips and rear bumper some burned paint around exhaust.
The Corbeau Seats are not up to my quality standard and I would get some Recaros. I just have not gotten around to it. They do not look great but do the job for now.
Price:
$35,000.-
I’m not going to consider any low ball offers. I’m also not looking for any trades.
I have all the receipts for all the above mentioned parts and work. I will lose plenty of money at the asking price. The custom BBK, Evo undertray/splitter,18 BBS LM’s, M-Tech II Steering Wheel, Carbon Hood could easily be parted out for and around $10k. Most of those parts are made from "unobtainum". Taking them in to consideration, one quickly can see that the “base price” is only around $25k, for what would still be an accident and rust free e30 M3 with lots of new parts and upgrades. I can attest to the fact that anybody that wants to have an e30 M3 swap car similar to this will want the faster steering rack, the suspension set up like it is, second set of wheels and on and on. You will be hard pressed to put it together for less. I also have lots of spare parts. The stock hood, door cards, rear seats, ABS pump and the second set of wheels are all included in the sale.
Pictures:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/94259886@N05/
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