My name's Joel, I'm web designer and developer for my own company as well as working at a traditional 9-5 gig here in the Seattle area. I moved up here to go to UW from Tucson, Arizona and finished up school in June, 2011. My first car was a 2003 Saab 9-3 Vector and it forever addicted me to the quirks and brilliance that are most-things Swedish. I absolutely love E30s and am not the biggest fan of BMWs after that but am generally a car guy as a whole. If you have any car talk, gadget news, or sweet ideas for car modifications, drop me a line!
Factory options:
Sunroof, Recaro seats
Color:
Diamond Schwarz Metallic
Interior color:
Black
Engine modifications:
New GM 6.2L LS3 crate motor (part of E-Rod kit).
Exhaust:
Custom fab 3" pipe with crossover amidship
Transmission:
Hurst-built Tremec T-56 Magnum (Pro-street gearing)
Differential:
Rebuilt e30 3.07 LSD
Suspension:
H&R Touring Kit
Wheels:
OZ Racing 17"
Exterior modifications:
362iS badge, missing front valance.
Interior modifications:
4yr old redone vinyl Recaros, MTech2 370mm steering wheel, 8" German Auto Specialties speakerbox (In-progress work: Custom fab tablet integration, e46 armrest, leather interior, rear headrest, armrest, and buckets).
Story behind the car:
When in high school I convinced myself that the 1991 318iS was the perfect car. The M42 broke 30mpg easy, it had an airbag, Recaros, and was the last of the true relatives to the 2002 (IMHO), meaning that no highschool girl would care to be seen in it. All plusses.
In college I got in the habit of checking Craigslist every few months for the car and one day I saw this one in Vancouver. 1 owner for 2 years, another owner ever since. Great service records, 175k on the click with no real issues, a massive dent on the door, but only $2500 (for some reason people typically list these for about 4500 on CL). I had to sell my first motorcycle to do it, but the next week the car was mine.
I always wanted to do some sort of performance work on the car but after talking with the fine folks at Gerber Motorsports in Ballard, WA, it became apparent that there isn't really a popular set of mods for the 318. They mentioned that they had wanted to do the famous LS1-swap, which told me that they at least had the confidence to do it. Two years later I remembered the conversation and started talks with going through with what would be the first LS3 E30. For a month and a half I was at the shop multiple times a week leaving work early, stopping by on the weekends to check up and talk through problems, and come the afternoon of June 25th I was there feverishly reassembling the interior, trying to get to the Greenwood Car Show, and the next day the E30 Picnic.
Since then I've decided that this will be the best E30 out there, so a bespoke interior is on the way with some of the best-integrated and most advanced technology ever put in a hotrod of any sort (keep an eye on r3vlimited for that project's status updates). After about 3,000 miles the car's getting approximately 30mpg on the highway, hasn't had any real issues, and has really made me lament my daily driver. It's just an amazing vehicle.
The E30 has always been an economical, great handling and wonderful looking car. I'm trying to preserve as much of the stock look as I can while turning it into a high performance, comfortable, head turning beast-of-a-machine. I'm extraordinarily thankful of the support that I've been getting from you all at meets and on the site. It's been a wild ride, in huge part thanks to the awesome people on r3vlimited!
And here's a link to a thread showing the build of the car along with more photos:
Factory options:
Sunroof, Recaro seats
Color:
Diamond Schwarz Metallic
Interior color:
Black
Engine modifications:
New GM 6.2L LS3 crate motor (part of E-Rod kit).
Exhaust:
Custom fab 3" pipe with crossover amidship
Transmission:
Hurst-built Tremec T-56 Magnum (Pro-street gearing)
Differential:
Rebuilt e30 3.07 LSD
Suspension:
H&R Touring Kit
Wheels:
OZ Racing 17"
Exterior modifications:
362iS badge, missing front valance.
Interior modifications:
4yr old redone vinyl Recaros, MTech2 370mm steering wheel, 8" German Auto Specialties speakerbox (In-progress work: Custom fab tablet integration, e46 armrest, leather interior, rear headrest, armrest, and buckets).
Story behind the car:
When in high school I convinced myself that the 1991 318iS was the perfect car. The M42 broke 30mpg easy, it had an airbag, Recaros, and was the last of the true relatives to the 2002 (IMHO), meaning that no highschool girl would care to be seen in it. All plusses.
In college I got in the habit of checking Craigslist every few months for the car and one day I saw this one in Vancouver. 1 owner for 2 years, another owner ever since. Great service records, 175k on the click with no real issues, a massive dent on the door, but only $2500 (for some reason people typically list these for about 4500 on CL). I had to sell my first motorcycle to do it, but the next week the car was mine.
I always wanted to do some sort of performance work on the car but after talking with the fine folks at Gerber Motorsports in Ballard, WA, it became apparent that there isn't really a popular set of mods for the 318. They mentioned that they had wanted to do the famous LS1-swap, which told me that they at least had the confidence to do it. Two years later I remembered the conversation and started talks with going through with what would be the first LS3 E30. For a month and a half I was at the shop multiple times a week leaving work early, stopping by on the weekends to check up and talk through problems, and come the afternoon of June 25th I was there feverishly reassembling the interior, trying to get to the Greenwood Car Show, and the next day the E30 Picnic.
Since then I've decided that this will be the best E30 out there, so a bespoke interior is on the way with some of the best-integrated and most advanced technology ever put in a hotrod of any sort (keep an eye on r3vlimited for that project's status updates). After about 3,000 miles the car's getting approximately 30mpg on the highway, hasn't had any real issues, and has really made me lament my daily driver. It's just an amazing vehicle.
The E30 has always been an economical, great handling and wonderful looking car. I'm trying to preserve as much of the stock look as I can while turning it into a high performance, comfortable, head turning beast-of-a-machine. I'm extraordinarily thankful of the support that I've been getting from you all at meets and on the site. It's been a wild ride, in huge part thanks to the awesome people on r3vlimited!
And here's a link to a thread showing the build of the car along with more photos:
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