Mike's Alpine White 1991 318is

[Blake B]

A guy was selling the CAD files to Turbo Fans to 3d print them, and I've just been sitting on files for awhile. Maybe it's time to fire up the 3d printer?

[2mAn]

Not a fan of the fans

but having such an "easy" option to change the look is nice.

My 6 hour drive home in the E46 got me thinking about another E30 build lol... luckily the MR2 is still fun and not annoying... yet... lol

[econti]

Bare BBS RS look so nice, but the fans are incredible... Oh to have decisions like that

[mike.bmw]

It was a solid weekend of E30ing. I met up with fresh_TD early Sunday morning to take some photos of his recently completed slicktop '91 318is. He has gone through this car bottom to top over the course of this year. He has disassembled and replaced, refurbished, or thoroughly cleaned pretty much everything on the car. The fresh paint looks amazing. He really did an amazing job with this one. It's an inspiration.

DSC_0755 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Of course I had to take some of the cars together. This may be the last time at this location. The security guard was very nice (seriously), but after 40 minutes of photos he respectfully asked us to wrap things up and head out. :-)

DSC_0815 (1) by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0783 (1) by mike.bevels, on Flickr

And a rolling shot on the way out...

DSC_0824 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

I spotted an interesting location along one of my regular routes. That's Dulles Airport in the background. I thought the sunrise and low-lying fog in the open field looked nice.

DSC_0726 (1) by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0714 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Next weekend I'll be taking the E30 on a "Fall Foliage Tour" setup by my local BMW CCA chapter, the National Capital Chapter. It's a full day of driving a planned route of exciting roads all over the state.

[2mAn]

I think He’s up to ~20 states driven so far... ahh to be young again.

[mike.bmw]

Last weekend east met west. If anyone is following on the FaceBook R3V group, freeride53 is taking an EPIC road trip in his '91 318i sedan. He started in California and has been making his was across the U.S. There have been some bumps along the way, but he has been persistent and is still going strong. I really look forward to seeing a summary of the entire trip.

He was in the Washington D.C. area last weekend and we met up briefly at my place - masked up and socially distanced of course. It was super cool meeting him and checking out his car in person, something I'd never thought would happen as we live 3,000+ miles apart. I've followed his latest thread for a long time and it has been an inspiration. In addition to hanging out, his power steering belt had decided to abandon him the day before, so I donated the relatively new one from my car (we had called around and the closest 10x800 v-belt was an hour away).

Good luck on the rest of your road trip, Sina!

DSC_0705 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0713 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

20201011_122457 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

[Powling]

You're right. An MT1 spoiler (black surround with alpine white insert) might look pretty good.

100% an Mt1 would really suit your car!

[roguetoaster]

You know, if you really wanted to do a rear spoiler change I have a NIB Pfeba unit that bolts in place of the "is" winglet.

[mike.bmw]

I was thinking "is" spoiler with a splitter, and after looking around it was Zender that always photographed their cars with turbofans, but an MT1 type valence would look great too. Clearly, one of those options is more readily reversible than the others.

Ahhhh, I thought you meant the trunk spoiler (which is why I suggested the MT1 trunk spoiler). Yes, the car has always looked unbalanced with the alpine white front spoiler. I had replaced the busted original "is" lip/spoiler with a new OEM piece that I had painted a few years ago. In hindsight, I should've just painted it black.

[roguetoaster]

You're right. An MT1 spoiler (black surround with alpine white insert) might look pretty good.

I was thinking "is" spoiler with a splitter, and after looking around it was Zender that always photographed their cars with turbofans, but an MT1 type valence would look great too. Clearly, one of those options is more readily reversible than the others.

[mike.bmw]

You know, I think you need a black spoiler with the fans.

You're right. An MT1 spoiler (black surround with alpine white insert) might look pretty good.

[roguetoaster]

You know, I think you need a black spoiler with the fans.

[mike.bmw]

Looks great on your car!

Those replicas cant be cheap though! they are injection molded, I can spot some of the ejector pin faces.

Thanks! Not cheap, but way cheaper than a set of originals.

Turbo fans! That's a cool move

I see what you did there.

Looks badass! I think you may have convinced me to get a set of BBS's (not necessarily with turbofans). I have been on the fence for a while, but this is just so cool that it may have pushed me over the edge...

Do it!

At risk of posting too many photos (too late, I know), I drove out to the place my wife and I got married 11 years ago to take some photos this morning. It was a bit of a trial run as I'm hoping to take some photos of someone else's E30 at the same location in the coming weeks.

Fans off, pre sunrise

DSC_0716 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Fans on, sun coming up:

DSC_0735 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0730 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0773 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0748 (1) by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0793 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

[Nate37]

Looks badass! I think you may have convinced me to get a set of BBS's (not necessarily with turbofans). I have been on the fence for a while, but this is just so cool that it may have pushed me over the edge...

[zwill23]

Turbo fans! That's a cool move