Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

March 2018 Car of the Month: Austin!

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    March 2018 Car of the Month: Austin!

    ***Editors Note: Ive known and met Austin from my PNW days years ago. I also remember this car and its wonderful to see how far its come. I also didnt know the full history behind it, so its great to see how much work he's put into it. Congrats Austin, you have the March 2018 Car of the Month***

    Factory options:

    Color: 138 Cinnabar Red

    Interior color: Originally natur vinyl, now anthracite/houndstooth with Recaro Confetti SRD seats

    Engine modifications: S52, mostly stock, besides the tune and headers

    Exhaust: UUC System U box

    Transmission: G260/LTW flywheel/Clutch Masters stage two unit

    Differential: Rebuilt 3.73 LSD, 40% lock

    Suspension: AST 4100 E36 M front/E30 M rear

    Wheels: E32 Staggered M-System wheels with no covers

    Exterior modifications: Too many to list, but smoked Hella smileys, euro trim, iS lip that's beat to hell, shadowline trim, blah blah blah

    Interior modifications: map-light mirror, Recaro SRDs, swapped over to anthracite carpet with black/anthracite Houndstooth door panels

    Story behind the car: quite the story, but I'll give an abridged version. This particular car came in as a donated car at the wrecking yard I worked at when I was 14 (December 2007). It had some minor damage to the trunk lid and tail panel and my boss/friend was just going to process it. After some minor convincing, I had planned to buy it from him, but due to circumstances beyond my control, we cleaned it up as best we could and sold it.

    Fast forward a couple years and I start getting into the whole forum thing. I see pics of another red sedan pop up on here, now sporting a half ass M50 swap with some goofy 5 lug parts and 18" Foose wheels...chrome. Recognized the rear end damage and knew it had to be the same car. After a while, I saw it on CL for an attractive enough price, and I had just graduated HS and had a bit of cash in my pocket, so I went and made the plunge and sold my E28 shortly there after. I spent the next couple years un-fucking everything he had done to the car. M50 ran like shit, missing three and a half throttle body bolts out of four...various oil leaks, etc, loose bolts EVERYWHERE, tons of rattles and such. Gutted the interior due to a nasty smell (someone spilled a battery in the back seat and never bothered to clean it up) and swapped over to black interior. Eventually, the 300k mile M50 got too tired for me to deal with, so I found a 130k mile S50B30 US, regasketed it and shoved it in the car. Eventually pulled that engine when it was time to assemble the silver E30 because I trusted it to be a good engine (which turned out to be a very very good idea in hindsight). Took a couple years, but eventually I put another engine in this car (OBD1 S52) and got it going again. I joke about this car not having any parts original to it anymore, but when I changed the whole rear end assembly a couple months back, that was the last of the original pieces..the subframe bushings were completely shot with over 300k on them.

    Haven't really driven it much in the last four years for many different reasons, but it is still by far my favorite e30 to get in and drive. The paint and body are so meh anymore that I don't really care about scratches and dings at this point. It's the only one I don't have to worry about parking places. The great thing about red cars is they look great from far away and look *killer* in pictures. Coincidentally, it is the only car I have any real emotional attachment to...tried selling it over the years, even tried cutting it up with a sawzall, but couldn't do either. It's now my shop car of sorts (lovingly referred to as the "shop rat").

    Plans for the near future are to install an Active Autowerke supercharger kit, get the front end repainted and install the M-Tech 2 kit that I've been hoarding for a couple years. Aside from that, drive the piss out of it, like I always do, and hope I don't break anything else


    sittin hard by 2mAn

    booty by 2mAn

    interior-1 by 2mAn

    interior-2 by 2mAn

    recaros by 2mAn

    S52-2 by 2mAn

    S52-1 by 2mAn

    beater by 2mAn

    angles-1 by 2mAn

    angles-2 by 2mAn

    angles-3 by 2mAn

    shiny by 2mAn
    Simon
    Current Cars:
    -1999 996.1 911 4/98 3.8L 6-Speed, 21st Century Beetle

    Make R3V Great Again -2020

    #2
    After reading that great story, I literally thought this car would be a rusty, different shade of red for every body panel road rat, until I saw the pictures. WOW!!!
    Love the staggered chrome exhaust tail pieces and the MTech 1 trunklid spoiler.

    Great looking car. (Unless you're right and red looks way better in the pics.)

    Congrats!
    1990 325i
    2004 330i Individual 6-speed
    sigpic


    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by IceWhite View Post
      Great looking car. (Unless you're right and red looks way better in the pics.)

      Congrats!
      zinno ALWAYS looks wonderful in pics.
      Simon
      Current Cars:
      -1999 996.1 911 4/98 3.8L 6-Speed, 21st Century Beetle

      Make R3V Great Again -2020

      Comment


        #4
        Great as always Austin, well deserved.

        Comment


          #5
          Love the CF coil pack cover

          Comment


            #6
            Awesome looking car! Looks like a fun ride for sure!

            Comment


              #7
              Congrats! Very well deserving. I love this sedan + Austin is a great contributing member to the forum and the PNW E30 community. Cheers.
              1988 325 Lachs Sedan SOLD

              1989 325i Bronzit Beige 2 Door
              SOLD

              2018 Volkswagen Alltrack SE DSG
              Past:1988 325iS Lachs 5 Speed

              Comment


                #8
                Those E32 Staggered M-Systems work so well with the cars character and style. Nice car and congrats!

                1988 ~ Lacey ~ 325iS

                Comment


                  #9
                  Thanks for all the comments, guys. Drove it all weekend. Never fails to put a smile on my face :)
                  '72 2002 pickup | '88 M5 | '89 330is | '89 M3 | '01 Z3M | '11 328xi-t

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Whats goin on in that rear parcel shelf? I'm wondering what those holes are...any more interior shots?
                    1984 Delphin 318i 2 door

                    Comment


                      #11
                      March 2018 Car of the Month: Austin!

                      Originally posted by wworm View Post
                      Whats goin on in that rear parcel shelf? I'm wondering what those holes are...any more interior shots?

                      12” Lukebox port holes. When you need the bass... the aluminum monster has the same holes
                      Simon
                      Current Cars:
                      -1999 996.1 911 4/98 3.8L 6-Speed, 21st Century Beetle

                      Make R3V Great Again -2020

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by 2mAn View Post
                        12” Lukebox port holes. When you need the bass... the aluminum monster has the same holes
                        That's exactly it. It's a beater, but I've gotta have a killer stereo!

                        Also, many thanks to Simon for putting this feature on, month after month!
                        '72 2002 pickup | '88 M5 | '89 330is | '89 M3 | '01 Z3M | '11 328xi-t

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Those look like back seat cup holders 😂

                          Awesome car man, I just picked up a red e30. Wasn’t a huge fan of the red before I got one.. but it’s growing on me to be my favorite I think
                          Click image for larger version

Name:	DD51AEA0-50EC-4A3B-A2CE-930EAC793382.jpg
Views:	4
Size:	96.1 KB
ID:	7196402
                          sigpic
                          86 eta (daily)
                          89 325i (project)
                          87 eta (parts)
                          88 cab (sisters daily)

                          Comment

                          Working...
                          X