'Wes' - 87 325 CirrusBlau Coupe - valance, apron and skirts

[cirrusblue]

Last year I decided to take my e30 and do silly things to it so I'd like looking at it even more than I already do. It turned out to be a lot more work than I had originally thought.

I have a metal bumper car, so this shows 1 direction for that. I already had H&R OEM springs, and Koni sports, sways etc. - so this is just visual enhancements.

I'm going for an OEM+ look like an 87 325ES+. It's an ETA. I like it, for the way I drive. The suspension has been overhauled, but the drivetrain is stock apart from a chip, mechanical refreshes, and a 3.25 rear diff with 40% LSD. The rear end gear mod. changes this car a lot.

Front ES cowcatcher, with retrofit fog lamps, BMW IS sideskirts, and a Racing dynamics rep. rear apron. We had a lot of work to reposition the rear exahust exist - because I had a straight exhaust and the RD apron wants an angled one. That was a $$$ dollar mistake at the body shop with all the rework and respray.

I updated with a couple interior pics - I did replace the dash, had new front sports made by a guy on ebay "Waltade", cocomats, and just slightly tweaked little things here and there, including the cell phone mount which is kind of a joke to myself.

Here is 'Wes'

[2mAn]

The IS side skirts look great, but they dont really fit well with the big front and rear valences... car looks wonderful overall. I'll buy those skirts if you ever sell. Mine will get repainted to CirrusBlau someday so it wont be lost money on your end ! haha

[cirrusblue]

Yah, well considering the rear has only been on since this morning, I'll look at it... a few hundred times and think it over :)

[2mAn]

Yah, well considering the rear has only been on since this morning, I'll look at it... a few hundred times and think it over :)

haha it does look great. Ive always thought the cowcatcher and the racing dynamics rear look perfect together.

[stonea]

Sub'd for CirrusBlau content!

[Haystack]

Finally. a good pic of that rear. (I've got one sitting in my garage).

[Ugosplodes]

That looks sick! I'm going to use you as inspiration for the future of my car.

I think the sideskirts look good with the IS valence and RD rear.

I've got an IS airdam heading my way soon. You mention retrofitting foglights- did you use OEM fogs or did you find or build something to fit?

[cirrusblue]

The issue is the foglamps in the cowcatcher valences are not the same size as normal e30 fogs that mount under the bumper. If you are lucky to have the fog mounting and baskets if they are cracked they are very hard to find. So I modified my baskets to fit standard e30 fog lenses - which are a bit narrower. If you dont have the mounting hardware then you need to devise a mounting bracket for the thats secure enough to hold up.


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[zwill23]

Now that's a kick ass car :up:

[Albie325]

Very tastefully done, love the way it came out! Extremely similar to what I'm looking to do with my '86 325e in keeping it OEM+.

What have you noticed with the 3.25 dif as opposed to the stock 2.93? Obviously increased torque/faster appearing acceleration, but anything specifically noteworthy? Mine is unfortunately an auto so not sure changing out the dif will have as dramatic an effect as for a manual, but I'm trying to sort out the best ways to squeeze out a little better performance without overhauling the engine.

Also, I agree with Ugosplodes, I think the IS skirts actually look pretty great, wasn't planning on putting skirts on mine but after seeing yours i'm reconsidering

[cirrusblue]

The rear diff feels like what should have been there all along because the engine puts put max torque st 3200 rpm. So now in 4th gear thats about 64 and in 5th thats about 80. So now im in the power band for the motor when cruising on the highway vs being very liw rpm and low power. I just feel like the whole car lines up better for real driving vs being too low rpm all the time in real situations. People say the eta is not a spirited engine but i think for cruising you just need to keep it aroun 3-3.2k rpm. Hanging around at 2300 rpm its not that responsive.

[Albie325]

Well, looks like something else i'll have to look into for sure. Thanks for the input! And beautiful car. Plan on putting up my own build thread in the coming months once I acquire a few more parts, hopefully it comes out half as good as yours.

[TFJR]

Wow, that is a very good looking early car! I love the cirrus over tan combo with the coco mats. She is really pretty!

Are those original Alpinas or Kopis? They look right at home on there. Well done!

[paynemw]

Nice!

[cirrusblue]

They are Kopi's, I like the wheels quite a bit - they are the 1 thing I didn't have to restore at all. Sometimes that's nice. I've spent 3 years on the car fixing it up.