How many E30 M3s are left???

[archie]

There is a well known BMW shop here in The Orange County,Cal area. I spoke to the owner of the shop few weeks back when I stopped in for a visit. They have like 5 or 6 E30 M3 track cars under the shops name. He told me it was a big mistake that he made all his M3's into track cars.

[F34R]

I agree with the OGs above me, only way I could see swapping an e30 m3 would if it was just a roller.

[nando]

the real question is how many s14 cars are there left intact. Those are the ones that will be worth something. im no purist and appreciate power but i left mine s14 powered because there are hardly any left. I came very close to making it a twin cam turbo car but came to my senses..Outside of message boards or e30 picnics you just dont see them

i want one eventually. does it count if the S14 is turbo? :p

[mikeedler]

here in germany it is the opposite. there are very few swap e30 M3s, and when it is, it is a 6 cyl. real M motor. of all the shows I've attended over the years, I would say roughly that only about 5% of the cars over here are swapped.
Sometimes I think there are more e30 M3s in the U.S. and the U.K. than here in Germany.
but most of the owners over here are alot like me, only pull em out once a year.

[mikeedler]

true story----- 6 months ago I got a call doing BMW Servicemobil (free BMW AAA service in Germany) I need to go to a small village about 15 miles from my house to try to get an E30 started. arrive and its a E30 M3 with less than 30,000 miles (47,000km) on it. couldn't get it to start, (turned out to be corrosion in the wiring harness).
moral of the story---- 15 miles away was an E30 M3 that I have never seen in the last 15 years of living here. owner says he hasn't driven it in over 10 years, and it isnt registered.
that means that in a 20 mile radius I know of atleast 4E30 M3s that arent even listed as being around anymore.

[blunttech]

true story----- 6 months ago I got a call doing BMW Servicemobil (free BMW AAA service in Germany) I need to go to a small village about 15 miles from my house to try to get an E30 started. arrive and its a E30 M3 with less than 30,000 miles (47,000km) on it. couldn't get it to start, (turned out to be corrosion in the wiring harness).
moral of the story---- 15 miles away was an E30 M3 that I have never seen in the last 15 years of living here. owner says he hasn't driven it in over 10 years, and it isnt registered.
that means that in a 20 mile radius I know of atleast 4E30 M3s that arent even listed as being around anymore.

I hear ya but if 5k is an accurate number in the USA I cant imagine there are 1/2 left. The sheer amount of videos ive seen where they get totaled in rallys and on the track seems astronomical. and if there were indeed 1/2 left a huge portion of those are swap cars. i dont know, I just think we may be a little out of touch with reality as we see pics every day of them and talk about them every day.

[blunttech]

i want one eventually. does it count if the S14 is turbo? :p

I think that would be so sweet. Ive just butchered so many valuble cars modding them over the years. As soon as i get a few more parts im going to start the resto of mine and it will be all stock except for appearance items like wheels and suspension

[nando]

I think that would be so sweet. Ive just butchered so many valuble cars modding them over the years. As soon as i get a few more parts im going to start the resto of mine and it will be all stock except for appearance items like wheels and suspension

I'd probably start with a roller/broken car to begin with, rather than a mint/stock one. Somehow I don't see my wife ever approving of me spending $15-20k to buy a 20-25 year old car, even if I spend triple that over a couple decades restoring it. :p

[!kid]

one of the guys that owns Live Sockets bought an E30 M3 early this year. He told me that he bought it for like 13,000$ or somthing around that. And my buddys coworker has one sitting in his garage and almost never drives it. (so iam told)

so far since i have been into E30s ive only seen 4 in real life. 2 of them where stock and the others are street/track cars.

[e34john]

Theres one near my house, my buddy's car actually. It's been sitting for a decade in his garage. Motor is frozen and I bet all the rubber is dry rotted, but the body and interior is mint. Waiting for his wife to get pregnant before I lowball him.

[e30rapidic]

a buddy nearby has 2. There is also an Alpina M3 about 1/2 mile from my house. Some doctor owns it.

[M-technik-3]

I'd say there are at least a minimum of 30 on this site alone. And these are owned by E30 owners that have standard E30's. Not just collectors.

[u3b3rg33k]

There's definitely something to be said for an S14 powered M3. However, I would not be above a 2.5L S14 (+ cams, misc. airflow work) conversion. Still looks OE and has that wonderful S14 sound, but all the fun of 25% more umph. I have an acquaintance who has done so with his, and it's really something.

Related:

[Luis325]

I have a roller e30 M3 hidden in my garage...LOL never registered in PR (came from Florida in 1994)... Someday ill hame the money and time to fix it up like it deserves!

[RainierHooker]

Well, the VINs are all by blocks, so someone with a carfax account should be able to find out.


...after a few weeks of exploding carfax's servers