E30 325i Rag-Top

Whoops, my punctuation was not very good there. Not trying to say people with people movers are clowns. Just that people movers with car seats often have babies or small kids travelling in them, which from my experience can lead to damage to neighbouring cars.

Your best bet would be a genuine one from a breaker - try Ray @HellBM or Mosens They do come up now and then but not often.

After putting the exhaust gaskets in, and adding a few more nuts onto the studs I felt it was time to take the plunge and turn the key to see what would happen. I tried plugging things in gradually (hook battery up - all good, unplug battery, plug in C101 engine loom, reconnect battery, etc..) to make sure I hadn't screwed all the wiring and nothing fried, all went well - no big sparks and no melting wires. So that was all good. Turned the key all the way round to "start" and got a whirring from the starter motor but the engine not turning over. Bugger. As you can see from the photo I can't even get close enough to the starter motor to give it or the solenoid a gentle tickle with the hammer. Need to pull off the inlet manifold and AFM, etc. to see what's going on in there.. Double bugger!

As the title says, I'm looking for a 4.1 ratio diff in the medium case that can bolt into an E30. I can possibly part exchange a small case 4.1 diff in return, or pay cash depending on why you might prefer. Cheers.

Was sat in a pub garden overlooking the car park , woman comes out and gets into her great big Jaguar. Backs out of the space and straight into a Mini opposite, huge bang. So she gets out, checks the back of the Jag for damage and then drives off! Mini has broken lights, dented panels damaged paint. Unbelievable. Luckily we got the reg. no. To give the Mini owner when they came out, gave witness statement to insurance company and police. Doesn't matter where you park, there is always some clown who will batter your car. Avoid people movers with car seats at all costs.

Thanks guys. Number 2 on the list is now sorted. Made up a combination of E30 320i Manual back half with a lengthened E46 318i front half for the drive-shaft. The E46 had the right sized flange on it to fit the output from the 265/5 box, had the centre hanger on the same side of the joint as the E30 and the splines matched between the two halves. Only problem was it came up short, but got the Driveline guys in Penrose to put a new section in to lengthen it. The fact that you can mix-and-match parts from different series models like that, and not just on driveshafts, is one of the things I do really like about working on the older BMWs. Good old German Engineers "zis is the size we haf alvays used, so that is the size we haf on ze new one!" I even managed to get my measurements SPOT ON! Fitted straight in, and the centre hanger was smack in the middle of the slot as planned. I measured, and re-measured a dozen times but I still wasn't confident due to being upside down under the car with a tape measure trying to hold it straight across quite a distance in three dimensions. So was very chuffed when that worked, as it would have cost a bit if I'd got it wrong. Starting to get excited now, getting so close to running. So, in typical Jon The Pom style I have now started buying bits for Stage 2, even though stage 1 isn't finished!

Great shots of some great cars. Ps. Silver E30 still needs cage!

Some headers on the front end and a fart cannon on the back - sorted!

Some resources speak of the UK 325i Sport having a "close ratio" gearbox, but I have never found a list of what the ratios actually were, and if they were different from a normal 325i. Definately not a dog-leg box in either version though. The E30 320iS, in both 2-dr and 4-dr, had the dog-leg 265/5 in all of them. However, they were only sold in Portugal and Italy so I don't know what the Japanese version would have had in it.

Great photos, glad your special day went well. No sure about the Merc though....

So they are pretty much US Spec then? Much as I enjoy hitting my head against a brick-wall I will stop now, apparently it feels good when you stop.

It depends what you mean by "standard", as both types of M3 were sold in Japan as new then you can say either one is fitted as standard. From the numbers I have seen there were more US spec cars sold in Japan than Euro, so the H pattern would be more common. What it all boils down to is which model the car was, US or Euro. (Disclaimer - allow for ordered options, later changes, odd balls and f&$k ups)

Just to say it one more time... There is NO Japan spec, only Euro and US. Cars sold in Japan could be either model, the US Spec or the Euro Spec, depending on what model code was ordered. Most Euro spec cars would have a Km/h speedo, only GB uses miles, rest of europe is Kms. It could have been possible to option a Euro spec car with a H-pattern box, if you really wanted to. And after all these years it could easily have been swapped out, and not necessarily what came out of the factory, H pattern box is much cheaper to get hold of second hand as it's much less desirable. I get my information from many places, but no I don't work for a dealer.

There is no Japanese spec, they can have either the H Pattern if a US spec was ordered, or a dog-leg if a Euro spec was ordered. Which is why people have cars from Japan which have both types of box. The articles I have read on the 2 x RHD is that they were for Japan, which makes sense as HK would not be a big enough market for it to even be considered as a project whereas Japan would be. I think one of the cars is now in a collection in HK, or it was when the last article I read was written.

Sorry, but that is not the case. The diff and gearbox (and all major mechanical parts) are determined by the model code first and foremost, in the case of this car that is AK05 which as you point out on your list is the Euro spec with cat. Option codes for national versions, such as 807, 812 and 814 only affect the documentation with the vehicle, labelling, BoL, handbooks, etc. The speedo option you refer to for GB is 548, this is completely seperate to any national versions. Japan is not a model on its own, it will only ever be either a Euro spec or a US spec. as you have shown in your list. Every country that ever sold an E30 M3 new will have a national version in the same way that Japan did, but this makes no physical change to the vehicle. Unless of course you are talking about the two factory-built prototype RHD E30 M3 built for Japan - but that is a totally different story

Keep guessing. As I said before, black was the least common colour and there were a dozen of those.There were two more allocations after that first 14, the last of which sold just a few months ago.

807 is the option code added for Japan vehicles. Basically means the labels, handbooks, etc are in Japanese, makes no difference to the spec. There are only two spec levels - Euro and US, the one you have listed is a Euro spec, as it says "Market: Europe"

Team 303 - powered by duct tape!! The video shows how different and amazingly awesome it is to race at night, but I bet it felt more than a little scary to be in the drivers seat. Such as shame the car didn't make it to the start line, with the pit-stop strategy the result would have been very interesting. Not a good day all for many of the Bimmers, the E92 M3 was on the trailer before the start as well, the Golden Homes E30 M3 only managed about 4 laps and it looks like even Kayne had a few issues before reaching the finish line. Fingers crossed Hampton Downs goes better for all the Bimmer boys!

Updates from the last jobs list. 1) Valve adjustment - whipped off the valve cover and had a measure up of the clearances between the cam lobes and the shims to see what was needed. Of the 16 valves, 7 of them were out of tolerance, which was to be expected after the head had been skimmed and the valves ground and re-seated into the head. I managed to swap a few shims around for the different valves and managed to get the list down to only 4 that I needed to replace, so got those ordered through BMW NZ. Pic below to give you and idea of how much of a PITA this job can be, luckily I managed to get hold of the proper tool for depressing the valves and had a magnetic pick-up that worked well for pulling out the shims.

Who was the owner when you worked on it Tom? It's passed through a few sets of hands quite quickly that car...

Don't forget to give the hard-working pit crew a mention. They will be putting in the real effort while James & Dan just sit around... in the driver's seat !

I have a feeling that Driftit has done option B: on a few occasions??

This one here... Weird, can't seem to post a link to it. It's in the Performance section called "New Engine Build - Thoughts?" goes a little OT and gets into the realms of certifying modifications. Something the seller of this car clearly can't be bothered with.

Thanks. I am leading the bidding on a pair on TradeMe at the moment, only just saw your post. If they fall through then I will let you know.

If they are a member I'd hope they read the thread about certification. $30k for an un-roadworthy car would seem a little steep to me.