Apex

Nice job and that is a very sharp price. To wright, im a DIY amateur detailer and think I would have at least $2,000 worth of product and equipment in my shed, you really do need a good selection of products to do a decent job. The above job would take the best part of 8 hours also. Nice work Ian!

Legend Jono, thanks for the help in getting these for me, and say cheers to the boys for fitting them on their lunch breaks! Had a great weekend and set some nice personal bests at Hampton downs.

Its f**ked up thats cars are getting bigger and parks are getting smaller. In my wide three door I literally cant get out of my car in certain confined car parks due to the length of its doors, sometimes I have to have my door hard up against the car parked next to me.

She was technically not driving. I vote anyone driving a semi modern BMW..... whilst drinking a takeaway coffee. But try indicating right whilst holding a coffee in your hand, its difficult, the coffee somehow exploded out of the sip hole and you end up with mocha all over your slacks.

Im not familiar with the politics of im sure a lot of the 'problems with the cars' will come down to the drivers, at regular track days the E30’s are always there and we have seen some shocking things , to the point one of the trackday's guys got in a fight with the E30 driver. It does look like fun though and given a competitive nature and some driver skill would be awesome. Unfortunately it’s not just the basic build cost, its maintenance, travelling costs, time away from work and the risk of someone destroying your car. All this needs to be accounted for and I for one cant afford it! Was not pooh poohing it guys!

Basically a standard road car with a roll cage no interior and racing tyres, springs and dampers.. I know some are fast and I have talked to a few of the guys with the fast ones and as you know they have spent a lot more money than most will admit, a few have commented It’s not the economical form of racing it was initially intended to be. I must have the wrong end of the stick.

Must have hit a nerve, im sure it’s you who dished out the old “brother cant work on a car†comment, that’s true, I find a wheel barrow too mechanically advanced but I don’t pretend to be a mechanic, I leave that to the pro’s like yourself mate. I may be useless at working on my cars but they see a lot more of the road and track then most and at the end of the day that’s what cars are for, driving, they are not la piece of Lladro or a place to sit stuff on top of in a garage. Thread was just a laugh, we go on about how awesome they are so much, why not touch on the negatives for a laugh, im obviously less serious than I thought! Mods hit me with the GTFO thread? For what, starting a thread most have joined in on? I will be getting another E30 regardless, just gotta find one, they are great car, coolest car for under 20k easy. Not everyone can drive them though and when you get a slow driver in one they are a pain in the but, especially seeing they can move around mid corner a lot easier than a road car on road tyres.

They seem to be too much a car mechanically for a lot of people haha, 80% of them around here have spent more time as a ‘work in progress’ than actually being driven so that’s ominous. I have done quite a few track days and driven my E30’s daily, more than most can say Problem is people feel the need modify them and then spend two years posting pictures and talking about their respective cars but never actually make it to a meet, drive or trackday in them. Just get in and enjoy them I say. Those aren’t too bad times for a relatively heavy and low powered car, I highly doubt most of them would be lapping at those times, especially most I have seen at track days when they are more a rolling road block then anything. Non adjustable steering column doesn’t help the small feel.

Unfortunately not, they are designed to look like a factory Xenon unit at one third the price and quality, kinda like a fake watch. The only way to retro fit HID/Xenon is to install a factory set up, your car will need a new computer that can control the automatic adjusting headlamps, you will also need auto washers. Alow for say $2,500. Or buy a Lexus GS300 that has factory Xenon for around the same coin as a E39 If you are dead set on keeping your illegal and quite frankly highly annoying headlights I would recommend mounting the HID units under/behind the front bumper so they can’t be seen, this will take a couple of hours but will keep it looking OEM if you carefull. I would then find a dodgy garage that won’t test them, plenty out there.

With all due respect they fail them for safety reasons, does that not concern you more than your car looking modern? Are they in the factory housing or are they complete aftermarket units? Narva Platinum bulbs from Repco give a nice white light and cost $110 and is the best legal option.

+2. Nice car and well done.

....five equals Nah Nah, Nah Nah Nah and is immature. Like you say the E30 series cars are fun and it’s a fun series to be a part of for those who can afford it, it looks great! My statement that they were slow was in relation to money spend, they do feel fast to be in and would feel a lot faster when you were bumper to bumper with 30 of them. I would rather an open class of car with more power as im not that competitive and would prefer to build something that interests me without regulations and then challenge myself by decreasing my lap times through improvements to both driving and my car. If that makes sense. Would also like to do a full Targa in the next few years. Oh and E30’s are great, this thread was more to highlight what’s wrong with them in an attempt to make them less desirable and remind me why I don’t need one, they are a real love/hate car, you love them when you don’t own one but you hate them when you do.. Would be easy note ten reasons why they were great!

I have a normal leg so I just do it normally. It’s a lot of fun in a car with a responsive engine and sounds great if you have an exhaust, bit wanky on the road though. I have only recently started using the technique TBH and the sole reason I have started is to put less wear and tear on my car on the track, traditionally I just slammed the car down through the gears and used the gears to slow the car but after a driving lesson I am slowly getting the hang of it, its smoother and saves engine mounts, over reving and my gearbox but seems to put a lot more strain on brakes as im using them more, its hard to teach yourself to do something unnatural after 15 years. Tips from the pro's appreciated.

You could always have one converted, would not cost much today, parts are cheap as for E30's. Z3 Steering Regular E30 Dash A few grand’s worth of labour.

Awesome. Cheers. So it’s an Evolution II then. That site is useful, must be one the best English resources on the net.

Always keen. Im going to one on Sunday if you are around James.

That would explain the Evolution II appearance. Does it mention if the Evolution II had the M colours on the rocker cover and intake manifold? Confusing this E30 M3 business! Would be hard being a potential investor trying to get all the information.

I would really recommend just having a look at this car, maybe pictures don’t do it justice and maybe it seems a bit expensive but it has presence that most E30’s M3's can’t match, this car has not left mind since I first looked at it, it’s a really beauty to behold. It was listed for $67,000 and sold for mid 60’s 9 years go so not the greatest investment but a fun one. Remembering the Group-A cars had 18†wheels and that’s what the EVO’s guards are pumped out wider to accommodate so those wheels look perfect on it and fill the wider guards perfectly. Looks like this car is an Evolution I but has Evolution II spoilers added. Being NZ new maybe BMW added a few extra’s to bring it upto date at point of sale remembering it would have sold after the Evolution II was released in Europe, note the M-Tech-II steering wheel wasn’t on the 87 cars either and has most likely been added, im sure the owner can fill you in on most of this but it would defiantly be worth asking about, it is a special and collectable car but I can understand concern as he is asking a $35,000-$40,000 premium over a regular car.

Im sure the series is fun but I can’t afford it nor can I see any logic in spending that much money and precious time on a slow car just so I can race against 50 other slow cars.

Have toyed with the idea of an E34 but ultimately not for me. I will stalk out another M325i when I spot one and run up to them with Cash, worked with the last car. Spotted one in Rotorua last week but it got away from me, Lach silver and driven by an unsuspecting 40 something year old women.

Nice montage of photo’s and a good looking project. Good luck. +2 on the windows, I have found manual winders weigh more on some cars, just fix them up!

Im sure I said “I have ever seen†and I saw this car brand new, 14 years later and then recently and it’s still bloody nice. You have probably seen minter though and im aware there are a few minter ones around, maybe not original and NZ new like this one but mint none the less. RHD or LHD wouldn’t bother me I would accidently this one anyday of the week

This is the nicest E30 I have ever seen. Its f**king immaculate.

Im having withdrawals from E30 ownership and im trying to talk myself out of buying another Cooling Problems Noisy engines Everything needs replacing…again. Slow steering Too small Too slow Thirsty Too immature for a bloke near 30 Too much fun for a bloke near 30 All the good parts are too expensive and rare. All the good Cars are too expensive and rare. Help me with more reasons why E30’s are no good

Say 4k. Apparently they have the factory upgrade mag's but one is buckled and they are all curbed, this car was quite rough when it sold a few months back for near 50k, Apparently it was the directors suns car. apparently these aftermarket fail wheels have added 10k to the cars value. Had 19" BMW Style 128 Option mags on it last time I looked at it. http://www.xrims.com/imgs/dynamic/mags/big/Picture010.jpg