Hi, I'm Vinny, I will try to keep my story brief. I grew up around domestic cars and drag racing, but always had a thing for smaller imports, have owned a turbo 1st gen Neon and a built AE86. Never owned a European car before, but after years in the custom/restoration industries I found myself working at a tuning shop that specialized in BMW and had some track cars. I had always liked E30s, had a buddy back east with an E30 and E36 I helped repair and mod, but I never actually thought I would own one until I was looking for a new daily recently and had a clean and interesting one fall into my lap for a good price.
I'm curious if anyone around SoCal happens to know the history of the car, as it is obvious it was enthusiast or even racer owned, possibly a former autox car. I got it off a serious E30 guy I know who had bought it with a broken tranny from a girl in Long Beach (he only bought it for the Alpina gauge bezel it had), but he didn't get much of a story on the car. It has a bunch of track car suspension stuff, long studs, braided brake lines, the spare tire is an Azenis, and it has a ton of oddball euro/early/manual parts on it that, judging by the owners manual that was in the glove box, mostly came off of a blue German-market '84 323i. The thing also sounds/feels like it has a small cam in it, I've driven and been around a lot of E30s and I don't remember any stock ones loping like this, the BMW guys I know agree so far.
Sorry, that was longer than I intended, here are some pictures, thanks for looking. Sorry for the big pics, didn't realize they were so large at first.
Mods I've found and can remember right now:
Alpina 15x7" et12
Long wheel studs (unknown)
Racing Dynamics springs
KYB shocks/unknown struts
Ireland swaybars
AKG control arm bushings
Manual steering rack
Reinforced rear swaybar mounts w/ heim joints
AKG rear subframe mounts
AKG trailing arm bushings
Turner shock mounts
Stoptech braided brake lines
Drilled rear rotors (unknown)
Cone air filter with fabbed alum. MAF bracket
Hartge muffler (supposedly rare?)
Non-airbag "sport" steering wheel
Manual window conversion
Euro clock
Euro fuel level and economy gauges
AC removed
Euro side moldings (no markers)
is side skirts and deck spoiler
If you're in SoCal and think you know anything about the history of the car, please let me know, just for my own curiosity. I think it sat broken for a while but its in good hands now, been fixing little stuff turning it into a smooth daily.
I'm curious if anyone around SoCal happens to know the history of the car, as it is obvious it was enthusiast or even racer owned, possibly a former autox car. I got it off a serious E30 guy I know who had bought it with a broken tranny from a girl in Long Beach (he only bought it for the Alpina gauge bezel it had), but he didn't get much of a story on the car. It has a bunch of track car suspension stuff, long studs, braided brake lines, the spare tire is an Azenis, and it has a ton of oddball euro/early/manual parts on it that, judging by the owners manual that was in the glove box, mostly came off of a blue German-market '84 323i. The thing also sounds/feels like it has a small cam in it, I've driven and been around a lot of E30s and I don't remember any stock ones loping like this, the BMW guys I know agree so far.
Sorry, that was longer than I intended, here are some pictures, thanks for looking. Sorry for the big pics, didn't realize they were so large at first.
Mods I've found and can remember right now:
Alpina 15x7" et12
Long wheel studs (unknown)
Racing Dynamics springs
KYB shocks/unknown struts
Ireland swaybars
AKG control arm bushings
Manual steering rack
Reinforced rear swaybar mounts w/ heim joints
AKG rear subframe mounts
AKG trailing arm bushings
Turner shock mounts
Stoptech braided brake lines
Drilled rear rotors (unknown)
Cone air filter with fabbed alum. MAF bracket
Hartge muffler (supposedly rare?)
Non-airbag "sport" steering wheel
Manual window conversion
Euro clock
Euro fuel level and economy gauges
AC removed
Euro side moldings (no markers)
is side skirts and deck spoiler
If you're in SoCal and think you know anything about the history of the car, please let me know, just for my own curiosity. I think it sat broken for a while but its in good hands now, been fixing little stuff turning it into a smooth daily.
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