Entry#1
This thread has been a long time coming… Here’s a bit of backstory on the car.
This car has been my companion for almost 9 years as of this post, and it holds a seriously special place in my life as well as the lives of my family and friends. My parents very graciously helped me purchase the car at age 15 (before even possessing a learner’s permit) from a BMWCCA driving instructor down in Encinitas, CA. It was a two owner, slicktop, low option(only option was leatherette), bare bones original 318is. We overpaid for it at the time for it considering ($3,800), however, the car has been invaluable since so I have never regretted the purchase price. It was the peppiest, most solid stock E30 we had driven at that point and in a lot of ways ever since. On the drive home (even back in 2009) we received multiple thumbs up from various enthusiast cars and it was on that long drive home from San Diego we realizedthis was THE car.
Here are a few photos back when I first purchased the car.Please ignore the 15 year old in the mirror trying to be a badass
Many of you SoCal E30 enthusiasts may remember way back in the day some punk kid showing up to meets in the car with his dad at the wheel considering I had owned the car before I could legally drive it but still wanted to get immersed into the E30 culture. The E30 scene was as strong asever back then and I recall being welcomed graciously into the community.
Before I could even drive we had replaced the entire front suspension, lowered the car on IE3s and Bilsteins (fun fact I never actually drove the car in stock form), and began making general improvements to increase its reliability. Once I had my license the car was used things like carrying me to school and back, hauling five of my friends to beach trips in Malibu, and being parked outside the local Mcdonalds that I worked at through high school (hence the avatar). One of my first big purchases was the now infamous set of hypersilver TRM C1s that the car still wears today.
Please enjoy a few shots from that era.
Fast forward a year or so and the car continued to be my DD and had undergone various transformations as my tastes evolved and time wore on. At this point I had already owned a few other E30s as flip cars, but always knew that this car was the real keeper. I had watched my dad sell his keeper (a vintage racing prepped Datsun 510) and knew I could never let this one go. This was when I began autoxing and tracking the car and really fell in love with driving and motorsports. It was then that I decided that the car would ultimately become an all-out purpose built track car to my specs. However, as it often does, life and a lack of $$ got in the way of plans, and the car basically stayed the same overall for many years continuing to be my DD as I flipped various other E30s and similar period BMWs.
My dad's 510 back in the day.
Here are a few shots doing fun racecar things.
Fast forward to my college years at UCSB in Santa Barbara and the car had its first hiccup in my tenure as an owner. The head cracked,and although it was still driveable and didn’t overheat, I knew it was just a matter of time. So I parked it in the back of my college apartment and the teardown began. It was intended to be a simple head job like you would expect, but ended up turning into a complete engine reseal and timing upgrade/rebuild. I documented my swap to the later E36 M42 timing case in this thread: (https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/sho...954).I’m in the process of fixing all of the pictures in this thread for reference to myself and others (thanks Photobucket!).
Here's a shot of the motor during reassembly.
I had prepped the motor for the turbo kit that eventually would be purchased from JakeB on here, not knowing really when I would have the money and second car to let the 318 be down for serious surgery again. FINALLY after years of patience,I put down a deposit for the kit with Jake. As such, this thread will document the turbo install along with various other projects I would like to getfinished before summer when I plan on really using the car again on the track and at autox.
Here is a very recent photo of the car from a shoot we did after I moved near DTLA.
Entry #2 will outline more of the specs on the car as I start the turbo prep/build.
Thanks to all who read! Really looking forward to making progress on this and continuing to document.
This thread has been a long time coming… Here’s a bit of backstory on the car.
This car has been my companion for almost 9 years as of this post, and it holds a seriously special place in my life as well as the lives of my family and friends. My parents very graciously helped me purchase the car at age 15 (before even possessing a learner’s permit) from a BMWCCA driving instructor down in Encinitas, CA. It was a two owner, slicktop, low option(only option was leatherette), bare bones original 318is. We overpaid for it at the time for it considering ($3,800), however, the car has been invaluable since so I have never regretted the purchase price. It was the peppiest, most solid stock E30 we had driven at that point and in a lot of ways ever since. On the drive home (even back in 2009) we received multiple thumbs up from various enthusiast cars and it was on that long drive home from San Diego we realizedthis was THE car.
Here are a few photos back when I first purchased the car.Please ignore the 15 year old in the mirror trying to be a badass
Many of you SoCal E30 enthusiasts may remember way back in the day some punk kid showing up to meets in the car with his dad at the wheel considering I had owned the car before I could legally drive it but still wanted to get immersed into the E30 culture. The E30 scene was as strong asever back then and I recall being welcomed graciously into the community.
Before I could even drive we had replaced the entire front suspension, lowered the car on IE3s and Bilsteins (fun fact I never actually drove the car in stock form), and began making general improvements to increase its reliability. Once I had my license the car was used things like carrying me to school and back, hauling five of my friends to beach trips in Malibu, and being parked outside the local Mcdonalds that I worked at through high school (hence the avatar). One of my first big purchases was the now infamous set of hypersilver TRM C1s that the car still wears today.
Please enjoy a few shots from that era.
Fast forward a year or so and the car continued to be my DD and had undergone various transformations as my tastes evolved and time wore on. At this point I had already owned a few other E30s as flip cars, but always knew that this car was the real keeper. I had watched my dad sell his keeper (a vintage racing prepped Datsun 510) and knew I could never let this one go. This was when I began autoxing and tracking the car and really fell in love with driving and motorsports. It was then that I decided that the car would ultimately become an all-out purpose built track car to my specs. However, as it often does, life and a lack of $$ got in the way of plans, and the car basically stayed the same overall for many years continuing to be my DD as I flipped various other E30s and similar period BMWs.
My dad's 510 back in the day.
Here are a few shots doing fun racecar things.
Fast forward to my college years at UCSB in Santa Barbara and the car had its first hiccup in my tenure as an owner. The head cracked,and although it was still driveable and didn’t overheat, I knew it was just a matter of time. So I parked it in the back of my college apartment and the teardown began. It was intended to be a simple head job like you would expect, but ended up turning into a complete engine reseal and timing upgrade/rebuild. I documented my swap to the later E36 M42 timing case in this thread: (https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/sho...954).I’m in the process of fixing all of the pictures in this thread for reference to myself and others (thanks Photobucket!).
Here's a shot of the motor during reassembly.
I had prepped the motor for the turbo kit that eventually would be purchased from JakeB on here, not knowing really when I would have the money and second car to let the 318 be down for serious surgery again. FINALLY after years of patience,I put down a deposit for the kit with Jake. As such, this thread will document the turbo install along with various other projects I would like to getfinished before summer when I plan on really using the car again on the track and at autox.
Here is a very recent photo of the car from a shoot we did after I moved near DTLA.
Entry #2 will outline more of the specs on the car as I start the turbo prep/build.
Thanks to all who read! Really looking forward to making progress on this and continuing to document.
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