The Official "How did I get into E30's" Thread

[LounsRacingInc]

I figured i'd start this up because its always neat to hear how people answer this question. I'll start;

I didn't ever lust over E30's I grew up on a farm and it was all Cummins and big v8's. But then I moved to the city and my buddy bought this 1984 325E, had some rust issues and he kinda overpaid, but he ended up drifting it into a guardrail and bending the front fender all to h$ll, so I had this wise idea... I'm gonna buy it, fix the body damage, paint it, and sell it. Solid easy plan. But as luck would have it, the kids I got it from never titled it, never had it insured it, and it was in NYS DMV Limbo... The ambitious little sh!t I was, thought this would be easily fixed. Wrong. So I got it all fixed up and puttered around the neighborhood with it. And slowly but surely, I kind of liked driving it, it was a spirited car. A while later I get this phone call, a guy had a 1988 325 Zinno 4 door for sale, no rust, not running, super clean, $600. I gave him the money that day. WE ended up swapping the drivetrain from the 84 into the 88, with no success, in my young non mechanical years, I could not figure out how to make this work. So I did some research and then "borrowed" a m20b25 from a buddy that had the motor but no car. The car ran great, refreshed all the hoses, brakes, interior. And then some a*hole rear ended me and t got totaled. I used the claim money to buy the car back and buy two more e30's; A 86 325es, and a 1988 Luxor 325 (from a good friend and active r3v member, F43r). Long story short, I now have loads of parts, 4 cars, and a boat load of knowledge on these cars. More importantly, I developed an obsession.

[Andy.B]

I originally picked up my brothers derelict project 87 to use as a winter beater to preserve my miata.

I now have 2 e30's and no miata.

[Wschnitz]

I feel like there is a thread already on this but ill participate.

I believe the first time I became interested in E30s is when I saw an E30 M3 in wisconsin, dont remember where it was anymore, but it was Brilliantrot, had the gurney flap, some big wheels, etc. That got me really excited about them and I started to look for them online. (This was like 2011-2012ish) I was 14 or 15 and My first car would by right around the corner.

My parents however were not as into them as i was (this would bite my father in the ass later) I talked about going to look at a ton of them all the time, but they never wanted to go car shopping with me. So i didnt get one until I moved to seattle, and it was a 1987 BMw 325ic. I loved that car, was great, reliable, never broke down, white on red interior.

And thats the start of my E30 craze, ive been through at least 6 of them since.

The part that bit my dad in the ass is E30 M3s were still cheap as fuck, like $12k-16k for an average one. My dad found one, sent it to me, being actually interested in it, but hesitated and didnt let me know he wanted it till later, which ended up being to late. We never found another in budget since.

[TobyB]

Because it's a lot less time- consuming to keep a PRO3 car on the track than an E-Prod 2002...

t

[agent]

My first exposure to an E30 was when I was in my teens. I dated a girl whose dad was a doctor, and he had a (still quite new at the time) black on black '87iS. She'd sneak it out late at night and let me drive it up the mountain to where teenagers go to do stuff that teenagers do when they sneak out. I remember how much fun I had in that car on the winding roads up to the overlooks. I'm glad I didn't wreck it.

A few years later in college, the girl I dated the longest had a bahama beige 318i. My car at the time (a CRX) was having some issues, so she let me drive it the roughly 700 miles round trip home for one of our breaks. It was a great car for long distance drives, as well as fun and easy to slide around - when it was wet, obviously.

After several years of owning various Hondas, I wanted something that was more of a "driver's car" so I could start down the path of doing autocross events, and eventually track days and racing. This led me to my search for what would become Klaus.

After changing tack on Klaus' build and doing a street restoration instead of making a track car, I still needed a "fun" car. So in 2013, Lola was built.

[rturbo 930]

When I was about 15, I was researching for some decent first cars that were RWD. Somehow stumbled on the E30, but it was vetoed by my parents because of it's lack of airbags, and a 90-91 was proving hard to find. Finally got one in 2011.

[Kevinl]

I have always wanted one since I was a kid they were expensive cars back then tried to get one when I was about 17 but couldn't afford it almost bought a E21

Ended up owning a e36 328i at 22 shouldn't have ever sold it

my dad had an e30 m3 in 2004 sold it for $9,000

Finally bought an e30 at the age of 29 I'm 33 now

[RobDog]

When I was a kid my family lived in southern Cali. during the mid 80's to 90's, so you could imagine the amount of new e30s everywhere. I did not care for them. I actually hated them because while me and my bro were playing slug bug, my sister was crying about how beautiful, nice, and blah, blah, blah, about E30s. It got real annoying!

Fast forward about 12 years. My sister is in college with a beater car when she see's an E30 for sale. The car was a 86 325es. My dad bought her the car and she made payments to him. Well after about 2 years she got burnt on the car and still owed my dad money. She ended up giving the car to my dad. My dad drove the piss out of that 325es for 10+years before he decided that he wanted something newer and a little bigger. My dad got a 01 525i, a nice car BTW, made me like e39s and m54s. After that the e30 just sat for years.

So years later, I'm 25 and still walking or riding my 3-wheeler to work because I have epilepsy. That got old quick, so I looked into what it would take to get my drivers license. I could only get my license if I could feel my seizures before they happen, which I can. I also needed a doctors note from the DMV's referred neurologist, that happened to be my neurologist, Bingo! I got my drivers license for the first time and my dad gave me his 325es.

After years of sitting I tried starting the old beast and it started first crank. After driving the car for about 2 years I realized that I was beating a horse with a good heart, but with broken legs. Every single bushing and rubber piece on this car was rotting or missing. The car shook so bad that I could not listen to music. My friends refused to ride with me in fear that the rear end or tire would fall off. The exhaust had holes and was loud + stinky. The interior was mostly foam with some pieces of rotting leather. The paint was 50 shades of purple and dolphin gray.The list could go forever. I also found out that I love but hate the PO of my car after installing my radio; Thanks Dad! I still loved and enjoyed the car but wanted another e30.

I saved up some money and bought a 89 325i. I instantly fell more in love with e30s. This car was everything I wanted and I mean everything down to the bronzit paint. When I had my 325es I wanted to paint it champagne. I then found out its called bronzit and was the bastard child color among r3vers. Well I love the color anyways haters and all. I loved the sound of a straight 6. I loved that it would rev to 7k. and felt like it had twice the power of my 325es. My eta would get to 3.5k and st..st...start to stutter. I found myself making excuses to drive the 325i everywhere and would drive everyone else where they needed to go. I then made the mistake of letting my dad, sister, and brother drive my car. They fell in love and before you know it we are where we are now with 10 e30's between my immediate family. A true E30 family.

http://imageshack.com/a/img905/6412/TnIy5x.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img905/218/dUEcHs.jpg

[e30onBBSs]

A friend bought my old car NFS style, legit hiding it from his parents in a barn. Ripped on it then had to sell it, and I loved the thing so I bought it. It was a POS but shit, ripping that thing to redline was the most damn fun. Eventually the rust and what not caught up to my budget and I was like I can't fix this in my driveway, so I got my current e30 =). Definitely saved me $ in the long run because I couldn't sink any more money into that bad shell and stay sane lol

It's really the old school, DIY, light, rwd, hoonability/simplicity/ endless possibilities. It's that car that I get out of and am like damn she's fine..

1,000 posts whoop whoop!

[modernist]

I saw it on craigslist and it stirred my hipster heart

Then I had to learn to fix it because I don't have money

[flyboyx]

when i was in college back in the early 90's, i had a roommate from spain. i went to visit during a couple summer breaks. his dad was an architect in the canary islands and owned an 84 318i. we drove the shit out of that thing. it was so much fun. back in michigan, my roomie and i would go to the local bmw dealership to check out all the models. we never bought shit because we were poor college fuckers but they always let us test drive anything we wanted. we got behind the wheel of e30 m3's, ix's m5's....... i always said i wanted one one day.....

in 2008, i had a neighbor that drove a 91 318i cabrio. i told her that if she ever decided to sell it, to please let me know. i went by their house one day and there was a 540i parked in the driveway. i stopped in to ask what became of the e30? she said that she got in a minor fender bender with it and was trying to settle with the insurance company. i asked if i could buy the car outright and the insurance company agreed. that was my first. plans have changed many times since then. i have owned perhaps 20 other e30's in various condition since. i ended up selling that car to another member here that posts under gluklich 21. now i have the car in my sig pic plus all the others listed in the text as well.

[biodose]

I was a young Airman who just got stationed in Italy at 18 years old. My wife's car was still getting shipped over. A 2001 Mercury Cougar. So when I got there I needed a new car. I was driving around with a friend looking at car lots and came across a 1988 mercedes-benz 190 E Cosworth edition. It was a beautiful car and fast as hell at least I thought it was at the time. I would race it around with my buddy who had a 1987 318i coupe slicktop with an M20B20. It was flat black with an Alpine white hood. He also had some other cool bits like Sparco steering wheel and a sprint seat. One day I asked him if I could buy it. He told me seven hundred bucks and that was to pay for the steering wheel and the seat. The car was for free. It had a freshly redone head and a lot of lightning done to it. Shortly after I sold the 190E. At the end of 2006, My pregnant wife and i sold her POS and loaded up the 87. I mean, it was loaded down. The tires rubbed the whole way up to England it seemed. 80 mph the entire way through Austria, Germany, Switzerland and France. He never beat my 190E but Ever since then I have loved E30's. Pretty lame story but I have had five E30s since and still in love to the minute.





I had an 87 sedan that was a Tech 1 but it was so rusted I just salvaged the kit and sold it off. I don't know why I never took pics but it was nearly identical to this. +2 doors, lol.
http://www.google.com/search?q=1987+...PsqP4qEHEnM%3A

[BECKSTER]

Growing up around Vw kids , I knew it didn't feel right .
I knew there was better things than fwd hatches.

After countless clips of e30 dtm cars played in my head as I grew up ,
I decided the e30 was the car I wanted to own .

[Vincent Brick]

Grew up a car guy and worked a lot in the industry, mostly Corvettes and Mopars, but I always liked small and RWD. I had a buddy with a 325ix I helped him mod some, and then he got an E36 that I helped him more with, but I lived in the midwest then where E30s are not common, and back then were out of my price range. I had owned an AE86 and wasn't into the idea of another slow car that parts/expertise for are scarce and expensive.

Then I found myself in California needing work, and used my previous experience to bullshit my way into a used parts sales position at a shady tuning shop specializing in BMW. While there I parted out several E30s and learned a lot about them, but then the guy started ripping off customers bad and shafting everyone on pay (see sig) so I moved on, but I met my roommate there who is a very competent BMW mechanic specializing in E30s now at a different indie shop so i had a lot of resources. I had been daily driving tastefully modified 1st gen Neons for almost 15 years and it was time for a change, I was going to try daily-ing an OG bug, then around the time I came to my senses on that I got word that an E30 nut I knew from that shop was selling a clean 325i in a desirable color for cheap. A few days later it was mine, that was almost 2 years and 25k miles ago.

Still not sure how long I will keep it or if I will own another BMW. As much as I like it, I really wish for something newer with more power and comfort, but without going much larger, so I'll keep it until I can figure out what to get next.

[stonea]

I started looking for sub $2,000 cars because I didn't want to take the Z3 to college with me and saw that late 80's BMW 3 series seem to be pretty cheap. My uncle told me about a 325ix for sale at his buddies place so I went to check it out and it was sold that morning. Two years later my uncle called me and said that 325ix was back up for sale for $1,250 I told him I'd take it and thats how I got into e30s.