A well travelled e30 - Cali to London. 84 coupe

[benwalsh91]

This is fantastic!

Thanks man, truly was a trip of a lifetime.

Great thread! I was following along with the trip on Instagram, looks like it was a great trip! I had messaged you on IG when you were looking for a Colorado license plate, let me know if you still want it.

Hey man, sorry i struggle keeping up with my instagram messages as they get a little hectic.

thank you for the offer i have a colorado one now, there is just a couple that i am missing and need to hunt down.

• Oklahoma
• Louisiana
• South Carolina
• North Carolina

this is amazing

Subscribed. This is awesome.

Thank you. I would give anything and everything to do it again.

Trip of a lifetime! Fantastic read. You're a lucky man. If I proposed to my already soon to be wife we drive cross country in a mystery e30, I'd be a dead man!

It all depends on how you sell it.

but remember America to me is like Europe to you.

so if you said to your wife.... "want to go spend 3 months travelling around europe" i am sure she wouldn't say no. Don't even mention the car. You mention the car a few weeks before you fly out but you sell it in the way that its a vintage car cruising the back roads through the country. Know your audience.

This is almost exactly what I want to do except in a 325ix or a mullemobile 3rd gen Camaro.

I can only suggest doing it man, honestly i would give my left nut to do this again! If you do decide to do it, or want to look into it more please feel free to drop me a message i can give you an idea on what this cost and also things you need to look into etc.

Wow what an awesome adventure!

Absolutely stunning trip! Impressive and fantastic updates.

Thank you!! i got a bit more to update you all with i just wanted to leave the last post on a little bit of a cliffhanger, like an ellipsis i was trying to build suspense.

[benwalsh91]

Now, where did we leave off.

We was stuck at the Vista point ontop of the Tail of the Dragon on route to Nashville.

The shifter rod had become disconnected from the car. It was cold and miserable as a storm started to roll in, i had no cell signal and if i couldnt fix it we would have been screwed for a while until someone rolled past or stopped. It was out of season and there truly was no one around. It was also probably one of the only days that i hadn't worn all black and i had to get on this ground under a car.

We had been driving for 3 hours and the car was hot to say the least and now i had to get my hand up between the prop and the exhaust. Thankfully the shifter rod had just come un-threaded out of the shifter itself. Took about 30 minutes of laying on my back just trying to get a couple of threads, once it was in i was able to yell at Nicholl asking her to twist the shifter to tighten it up from the inside as she would be able to get longer turns than what i could underneath.

She twisted it the wrong way...

ok lets do this again, working together we managed to get it back in, it was now super tight actually got rid of all the slop and felt super solid. I then had to get out of my now very muddy wet clothes at the top of a mountain. stripped down to practically nothing... and then a car pulls into the vista point FABULOUS!!!

got dressed, loaded the car up again and off we went.

Next stop, Nashville.

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

on our way to Nashville we decided we wanted to take all the backroads, try and see as much of the country as we could. then bang, a trucking lorry had made a mistake and was blocking the road infront of us, we had to go all the way back till i could find somehwere to cut across to another road, as u done a U turn and had a plan in mind there was an older lady behind me, looked really lost and didnt know what to do. She also had an out of town plate on.

I hopped out the car and went up to her, explained i too was now from around here. i think the Califonia plate and the way that i talk different was a big give away of this. I asked her where she was heading and turned out she was also heading to Nashville to see her family, she was on the phone to her son and i said i would talk to him if she wanted, had a word explained the situation and said we was going to re-route, as i started to go down this diversion the road turned to mud and it was pretty steep, thankfully we both made it and she then took the internstate to nashville and i carried on taking the backroads.

good deed done.

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

Stopped in to see a couple of r3v members, Agent and Scabz. truly amazing people, i have never met such kind people in the world other than on this trip. Honestly there really are some nice people in the world. Faith restored in humanity.

Spent the day with them, we got food and we sorted a few things out on the car. The electrics was playing up which we managed to sort out and also Scabz gave me a new dash cover as my dash is well and truly FUBAR'd, some new emblems which are somewhere on the highway in Florida now :( and a few other bits and pieces.

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

As we left Nashville we went towards Gatlinburg via Pigeon Forge, what another beautiful part of the world. and Pigeon Forge, is basically Vegas for kids. it was insane!!! I really wish we could spend longer in these areas but atleast we can add them onto the list of places we want to go back and visit.

After a day in Gatlinburg we drove the Great Smokey Mountains.

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

After this we then headed towards Asheville and then Charlotte where we would spend the night.

After Charlotte we done the final long drive of our trip, was actually getting rather sad that this was almost the end.

Charlotte to Apollo Beach, FL ended up being a 12 hour drive as we took it slow, stopped when we wanted to and just enjoyed some of the backroads before we got to Florida as that's the land where no fun roads exist.

[gnmzl]

Jee Ben, I was just wondering where you hid your internet persona.
Now I know.
Amazing trip and great experience ... Thanks for sharing. I'll be watching this one.

[2mAn]

What an awesome trip... and being back in Europe now you can easily get an uncracked dash and a 731 head (from a 323i) and make that US car into a properly clean Stroker ETA

[audiquattrot]

such a great trip! I love this.

[Julien]

So awesome, you've driven through my current (SF) and former (LA, Asheville, Charlotte, Miami/FLL) homes!

[freeride53]

Awesome, thoroughly enjoyed following this. Sorry if I missed this somewhere, are you shipping this baby back to the UK?

[laidback93]

Awesome, thoroughly enjoyed following this. Sorry if I missed this somewhere, are you shipping this baby back to the UK?

I think he is and that is rad. I can’t wait to see what he does with it.

[benwalsh91]

Jee Ben, I was just wondering where you hid your internet persona.
Now I know.
Amazing trip and great experience ... Thanks for sharing. I'll be watching this one.

Not sure if i understand but thanks... i think...

What an awesome trip... and being back in Europe now you can easily get an uncracked dash and a 731 head (from a 323i) and make that US car into a properly clean Stroker ETA

I shall be in contact for more info on this, i was thinking m30 on ITBs either way whatever goes in i shall be going down the ITB route at some point!

such a great trip! I love this.

So awesome, you've driven through my current (SF) and former (LA, Asheville, Charlotte, Miami/FLL) homes!

Thank you, honestly you guys have such a beautiful country! it was amazing to be able to go and explore it and all the amazing truly kind people that we met along the way (and a few arseholes)

Awesome, thoroughly enjoyed following this. Sorry if I missed this somewhere, are you shipping this baby back to the UK?

I think he is and that is rad. I can’t wait to see what he does with it.

Thank you guys, yes i have paid for the shipping already. the car is currently sitting in Florida waiting to be collected to go to the port. they are taking there sweet ass time with it but i'm not too fussed as life has been super hectic here i don't really have too much time for it currently so it will just be sitting on my drive anyway. England has had its 2 days of sunshine for the year so just another 11 months of rain now.

[benwalsh91]

Now back on the road to florida, filled the car up with some cheap cheap gas (i am really going to miss how cheap this car is to fill up in America)

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

and then we spent our final 2 weeks down in Apollo Beach in Fl. We had an air bnb on the water and just chilled out after a hectic 3 months. We hosted thanksgiving with our Floridian friends and just enjoyed the final bit of sunshine before heading back to England for Christmas

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

As we went across america we collected a sticker from each location or just somewhere that we went. I personally dislike stickers all over cars but these are true memories of our trip. when i start to build this car i think i will replace the rear glass and maybe inset this one into a coffee table or something similar (dependent on what the wife lets me do)

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

And that was it, the final photo of us and the car. Dropped off a few pounds heavier in the body but thats America for you.

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

I had left the car with 2 friends. first of all it was left with Corey for a few months who took some real nice shots of the car.

The car is a little beat but it all holds memories. here are some final photos until the next chapter.

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

Question:
Do you think i am the only person in the world who would want to ship an early model "e" e30 diving board bumper car to England/Europe and YES the DB will be staying!! i will not be fitting euro bumpers.

[mike.bmw]

Awesome story! I'm looking forward to more updates once the car is shipped back to you.

[Glaede]

Really cool story..!

...and yes, I think you are the only person in the world who would run diving boards in Europe ;-) Euro bumpers are so easy to find here/in Europe (I'm from Denmark).

[benwalsh91]

Awesome story! I'm looking forward to more updates once the car is shipped back to you.

Really cool story..!

...and yes, I think you are the only person in the world who would run diving boards in Europe ;-) Euro bumpers are so easy to find here/in Europe (I'm from Denmark).

thank you, thank you.

there is a little more to come but not too much and that brings us up to date.

Oh yeah they are not the hardest thing to find although they pull a premium here in the UK. But i just don't want to fit euro bumpers. Its a US car that i bought in USA and i don't want to take that away from it. There is quite a lot of things i want to do to this car but at the same time i don't want to take too much away from how it is in terms of the memories that we have made with it. A full resto-mod is on the cards as this is what i've done with other cars but i will try not to go too over the top with this one.

[benwalsh91]

So, we left the car in Saint Pete, FL just outside of Tampa with my friend Corey. He was hanging onto it for a few months, He has always wanted an e30 and was happy to be the caretaker. I met Corey years ago via Instagram and took my first trip to America on my own back in 2017 where we went to Georgia and a few other states in a 2 week Roadtrip, was awesome and that really fuelled my love for america, the people and the country!

It was then on to my other friend Gabe to look after the car. Corey and Gabe knew eachother and i met Gabe on this trip i spoke of in 2017.

Gabe is a car detailer in Tampa working at a rather prestigious shop called Presidential Auto Detail. Whilst he has the car he has chucked some soap at the car to clean it up in preparation for it to sit on a boat for 4-6 weeks.

Here are some photos of the progress. The car is beat to shit and i wasn't expecting much.

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

pulled the car in the shop with some cars of a similar value, they are not as fast though.

Gave the seats some love,

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

The drivers seat has started to tear but the interior will get fully redone

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

I didn't actually clean the inside of the car for our entire trip, it was rather nasty. But on the grand scheme of things for being driven almost every day for 3 months and driving 10,000 miles it could have been a lot worse!

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

peep the fucked dash, i do have a new (to me) LHD dash in the trunk to fit at some point when i get it home.

its all in the details

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

I also need to figure out whats going on with the shifter as that in this photo is in neutral. kinda fucked up. I will be fitting an RTD into this car, i had one in my old e36 and it was so good and that you can fit them and not have to cut anything is even better. 10/10 recommend.

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

The hood is in horrific state, i have no idea what hit it to cause that much missing paint.

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

The wheels was a horrific colour before hand. They looked like aids, i have no idea how he got them so clean, they almost look brand new!!

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

also, spot those racing brakes.

Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr

[jeenyus]

awesome road trip! I have been on the million dollar highway and it's totally a drive anyone needs to do, plus right after you can stop in Telluride and soak in the hot springs. Glad you liked UT. The whole state is beautiful to be honest, it's not just the southern parts.