The shifter itself was still there, i just had to hold it up so the carrier wouldnt pivot and drop the selector down on the drive shaft. it sounded like an old telephone. The driveshaft makes quite a nice "RING-RING-RING-RING" noise.
edit:
I totally forgot to update this before I left for Germany. I had too much going on.
There was a rattly in the front of the Valve cover by the timing gears which concerned me. Cracking it open, one of the bolt heads was getting shredded ever so slightly.
Changed the oil immediately and didn't notice any substantial metalic particles floating around from worn bearings or anything. Just dark but transparant oil. We replaced the one bolt and snugged the rest down. But the Vanos clatter didn't go away.
The car went back under the scalpel
I ordered a $30 dollar vanos o-ring and seal and Fred had a spare vanos unit on standby.
Using his Cam lock blocks the Vanos was disassembled and reassembled using the new unit.
There was a nut that accidentally fell into the cylinder head (but luckily not through the galleries) and took a good part of 30 minutes to fish out. Gigantic reminder to block off every single port/hole with paper towel or something whenever doing any open valve work. What a scare
in any event, new vanos installed
I take back the comment about the car being slow. This is definitely faster than my girlfriends car (catless, tuned, stock turbo wrx motor in GC). But thats about to change as she's upgrading to vf34 with 18g wheel.
The power delivery in the e30 is much smoother and theres no bog in the middle of the powerband. Torque whenever you want it, spins tires through a corner in second gear on a whim and is very very very easy to throttle steer with all the hardened/solid/urethane bushings. Throttle response is amazing with solid mounts.
I'm going to miss driving it until i come home once in a while to visit friends/family.
edit:
I totally forgot to update this before I left for Germany. I had too much going on.
There was a rattly in the front of the Valve cover by the timing gears which concerned me. Cracking it open, one of the bolt heads was getting shredded ever so slightly.
Changed the oil immediately and didn't notice any substantial metalic particles floating around from worn bearings or anything. Just dark but transparant oil. We replaced the one bolt and snugged the rest down. But the Vanos clatter didn't go away.
The car went back under the scalpel
I ordered a $30 dollar vanos o-ring and seal and Fred had a spare vanos unit on standby.
Using his Cam lock blocks the Vanos was disassembled and reassembled using the new unit.
There was a nut that accidentally fell into the cylinder head (but luckily not through the galleries) and took a good part of 30 minutes to fish out. Gigantic reminder to block off every single port/hole with paper towel or something whenever doing any open valve work. What a scare
in any event, new vanos installed
I take back the comment about the car being slow. This is definitely faster than my girlfriends car (catless, tuned, stock turbo wrx motor in GC). But thats about to change as she's upgrading to vf34 with 18g wheel.
The power delivery in the e30 is much smoother and theres no bog in the middle of the powerband. Torque whenever you want it, spins tires through a corner in second gear on a whim and is very very very easy to throttle steer with all the hardened/solid/urethane bushings. Throttle response is amazing with solid mounts.
I'm going to miss driving it until i come home once in a while to visit friends/family.
I'm gonna see if I can borrow my uncle's Z4-M for the while. 
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