Disclaimer: I enjoy taking and posting photos. There will be a lot of photo's below. 56k at your own risk.
10 years ago my E30 M3 met an untimely demise. Ever since then I've been casually wanting another one. A few peaked my interest enough to make offers on them, but these came up while I was stationed in Germany and the logistics of getting me to it, or it to me never really worked out.
I had a short fling with a bare shell.
The idea was that since it needed paint, I'd do a DTM replicated roll cage + a paint job, then swap all the cool bits from my E30 sedan to the pretty E30 M3. I wanted to paint it BRG like the 1994 E36 M3 GT.
About a month after dragging the shell home, my wife and I decided she should seperate from the Air Force, and use her G.I. Bill to complete her nursing degree (BSN). Cutting 1/2 our income meant that the shell wouldn't be touched as long as she was in school, so it went to a new home in Tennessee.
Fast forward to 17 Jan, 2014. I took the week off to study for promotion, my books were open, my notepad, pens and highlighters were out... and I was perusing R3v.
This guy popped up, and I immediately sat up in my chair! http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=311012
It was exactly everything I wanted to do to the shell minus the cage and the BRG paint. To be honest, Hennarot is by far my favorite E30 M3 color, with Sterling silver in a close second, and Alpine white a distant 3rd. Plus this didn't have the tan interior which I very very much dislike.
I PM'd the seller, then talked to him on the phone within an hour of him posting the add. It sounded like a solid car, perfect for doing HPDE's/autox, driving on nice days, and overall E30 M3 drooling. It's not a perfect car, so I wouldn't be worried about bonking into a cone, or getting a few more stone chips.
Then I phoned my wife...
Surprisingly she didn't immediately dismiss my sales pitch! However there were a few areas of concern for her. Mainly that I'd have the track car (E30 sedan) the nice car (E28 M5) then this thing. She's still in nursing school, so the thought of 3 toy BMW's plus our normal DD's was just too much. We agreed that I'd sell or part out the sedan in the next 12 months, and when my iphone dies, I have to revert back to dumb phones (she hates them). I deemed these fair constraints for the possibility of getting back into an E30 M3, and not just any regular one too... a really fast one!
Throughout the day, I was also texting a few friends. I knew Yan (yan-3) was stationed in the D.C. area, so he could possibly take a look at it for me, and Alex (cloudbase) is always down for an adventure.
After a few weeks of complications, the date was set, we were going to meet up in Arlington Virginia Tuesday 4 March and drive it back to Colorado by Friday.
Tuesday, 4 March:
This winter might be one that east coasters remember for years. Saturday Colorado got slammed with a snow storm, which means that the east coast should get our scraps by sunday night or Monday. Somewhere between here and there, the storm grew and the D.C. area was shut down that Monday because of and inch or two of snowpack. I was a bit worried about the snow, not because of rust, or getting stuck. No, I was worried about driving 1/2 worn Dunlop Star Specs on freezing, ice covered streets! Alex was worried too, and we talked a few times leading up to our flights about alternate plans if the weather was shit.
-Plan A: Drive south to I-40 and get as far south as we could as quickly as possible.
-Plan B: Plan A + buying a set of winter tires and stick the star specs on a greyhound bus since that is the cheapest way to ship large objects.
-Plan C: Wait out the weather and marathon drive it home.
After flying out and finalizing everything with the seller, I was on the phone with Yan for some long overdue catching up. When we met up in some random wall mart parking lot though, the battery decided it was too cold to work.
Once we got her running, I demanded Yan drive it to his place! I knew he hadn't driven his much since the whole Vlad ordeal (seeing it in person... wow, what a mess!), and I thought it might re-ignight his passion for the E30 M3.
After a lovely dinner prepped by Yan's new wife, we exchanged a few parts (thanks!) and I headed over the DIA to pick up Alex as he was on a later flight. Somehow the place wasn't a madhouse, and I stood in the middle of the arrival ramp to snag this shot.
Alex did a write up on our trip that sums up the experience better than I could, so click here for a good read! http://cloudbaseimaging.blogspot.com...road-trip.html
Seriously, read his blog, it's worth it.
10 years ago my E30 M3 met an untimely demise. Ever since then I've been casually wanting another one. A few peaked my interest enough to make offers on them, but these came up while I was stationed in Germany and the logistics of getting me to it, or it to me never really worked out.
I had a short fling with a bare shell.
The idea was that since it needed paint, I'd do a DTM replicated roll cage + a paint job, then swap all the cool bits from my E30 sedan to the pretty E30 M3. I wanted to paint it BRG like the 1994 E36 M3 GT.
About a month after dragging the shell home, my wife and I decided she should seperate from the Air Force, and use her G.I. Bill to complete her nursing degree (BSN). Cutting 1/2 our income meant that the shell wouldn't be touched as long as she was in school, so it went to a new home in Tennessee.
Fast forward to 17 Jan, 2014. I took the week off to study for promotion, my books were open, my notepad, pens and highlighters were out... and I was perusing R3v.
This guy popped up, and I immediately sat up in my chair! http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=311012It was exactly everything I wanted to do to the shell minus the cage and the BRG paint. To be honest, Hennarot is by far my favorite E30 M3 color, with Sterling silver in a close second, and Alpine white a distant 3rd. Plus this didn't have the tan interior which I very very much dislike.
I PM'd the seller, then talked to him on the phone within an hour of him posting the add. It sounded like a solid car, perfect for doing HPDE's/autox, driving on nice days, and overall E30 M3 drooling. It's not a perfect car, so I wouldn't be worried about bonking into a cone, or getting a few more stone chips.
Then I phoned my wife...
Surprisingly she didn't immediately dismiss my sales pitch! However there were a few areas of concern for her. Mainly that I'd have the track car (E30 sedan) the nice car (E28 M5) then this thing. She's still in nursing school, so the thought of 3 toy BMW's plus our normal DD's was just too much. We agreed that I'd sell or part out the sedan in the next 12 months, and when my iphone dies, I have to revert back to dumb phones (she hates them). I deemed these fair constraints for the possibility of getting back into an E30 M3, and not just any regular one too... a really fast one!
Throughout the day, I was also texting a few friends. I knew Yan (yan-3) was stationed in the D.C. area, so he could possibly take a look at it for me, and Alex (cloudbase) is always down for an adventure.
After a few weeks of complications, the date was set, we were going to meet up in Arlington Virginia Tuesday 4 March and drive it back to Colorado by Friday.
Tuesday, 4 March:
This winter might be one that east coasters remember for years. Saturday Colorado got slammed with a snow storm, which means that the east coast should get our scraps by sunday night or Monday. Somewhere between here and there, the storm grew and the D.C. area was shut down that Monday because of and inch or two of snowpack. I was a bit worried about the snow, not because of rust, or getting stuck. No, I was worried about driving 1/2 worn Dunlop Star Specs on freezing, ice covered streets! Alex was worried too, and we talked a few times leading up to our flights about alternate plans if the weather was shit.
-Plan A: Drive south to I-40 and get as far south as we could as quickly as possible.
-Plan B: Plan A + buying a set of winter tires and stick the star specs on a greyhound bus since that is the cheapest way to ship large objects.
-Plan C: Wait out the weather and marathon drive it home.
After flying out and finalizing everything with the seller, I was on the phone with Yan for some long overdue catching up. When we met up in some random wall mart parking lot though, the battery decided it was too cold to work.
Once we got her running, I demanded Yan drive it to his place! I knew he hadn't driven his much since the whole Vlad ordeal (seeing it in person... wow, what a mess!), and I thought it might re-ignight his passion for the E30 M3.
After a lovely dinner prepped by Yan's new wife, we exchanged a few parts (thanks!) and I headed over the DIA to pick up Alex as he was on a later flight. Somehow the place wasn't a madhouse, and I stood in the middle of the arrival ramp to snag this shot.
Alex did a write up on our trip that sums up the experience better than I could, so click here for a good read! http://cloudbaseimaging.blogspot.com...road-trip.html
Seriously, read his blog, it's worth it.
Comment