E30 325i Rag-Top

Re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-post But still cool.

What year pre-facelift? There are two type of front valence (the metal bit - not the plastic bit on the bottom) early ones are two-piece (83ish to 85ish) then the later ones are a single piece (85ish - facelift).

Any chance of a lay-by or interest free credit Foxy ?

Apparently, a footballer now playing in the English Premier League, Jermaine Pennant has been contacted by his former club in Spain about a $250k Porsche which has been sitting in a car park at a railway station in Zaragoza for over 5 months, collecting parking tickets, as it is registered in his name. In response the footballer replied that he "didn't remember ever buying or driving a Porsche" and denied it was his until it was pointed out it had his personalised number plate on it ?? Whilst this says a hell of a lot about the lifestyle of top footballers, I think it also says quite a lot about your modern day Porsche. Maybe if he had bought an M BMW he might have remembered it and gone back to get it !!

Not sure for ALL BMW but my E46 Motorsport is WBA, all BMW paperwork refers to it as a "Sport Touring".

Euro Automotive Engineers have had to spend many years making real wood look like plastic - thanks to the Japanese luxury car makers and the US markets

My opinion is that the front on the pre-facelift M-sport, which you have, is worth improving. The M3 front would be one way of doing it - but there is a little bit of work required.Another option, which MAY be a straight bolt on, would be the facelifted M-sport front, looks way better to me cleaner and more aggressive. Quite similar to the M3, and still fits with the rest of the pfl sport kit. Sometimes pop up on trademe or at the specialist breaker - like HellBM or Mosen's, some replicas floating around as well (I think the photo may actually be a replica!!), so a bit more available.

This is a very confusing area that has been covered a number of times on Bimmersport, with no conclusive answers, due to the fact there are many different levels of "Motorsport" cars. Leaving aside the true "M" cars, M3, M5, M6, etc as it's clear what they are, for my mind there are distinctions between the various types. 1) Many models were offered as Motorsport cars from the dealers, built at the factory thay way, for example a 330i Motorsport, or 530i Motorsport - these will all have their own base level of specification, for example m-sport wheels, suspension, steering wheel, interior, headliner, possibly badging, etc. If any of these base spec items are missing then it falls into the next category. 2) Up-specced base models, take for example a 330ci, tick a few options on the list when ordering and get motorsport suspension, wheels and steering wheel. Some nice extras, which will be listed on the build sheet, but not a 330i Motorsport (in my book anyways and others dis-agree with that). 3) Last, but not least, the car which has had M-sport options added at a later date, it won't show on the build sheet but could still have the alloys, suspension and steering wheel added at some point in it's life. As mentioned above the build sheet will show what it came with from the factory - to find out whether it is either 1) or 2) check what the base Motorsport specification is and make sure ALL are fitted, probably the interior and the black headlining are the least likely to be added as options. Also the original BMW paperwork, service books, etc should show the model name from the dealer - if it is available.

Very good looking car, will be mint when last few strips and badges are back on the car. I like the number plate as well! I was driving my 'vert, rego: JT POM, through town the other day and was being followed by "UK LAD" - quite funny. Poms everywhere!!

As he seems more interested in videoing his dashboard rather than looking where he is going, at that speed, the seat belts and air bags are pretty academic really.

Wow, very rare and very cool E30 goodies - I wish I had more spare cash at the moment! I would also be interested in seeing more of what's in the background in the two photos.....

If the seller is female - then fair enough they do silly sh!t like that and give cars names. If the seller is a male - hand in the man card.

You don't do thing by halves do you Jack? From no car to a race car to a stroked 2.8 m20?? There are some smaller steps in between these points as well. Start small, then build up to something big, aiming straight for the big stuff is likely to lead to lots of lost $$$ and big disappointments. Money is going to be be a big factor in your decisions for many years yet, soon beer and women will enter the equation but that's another thread, neither a race car or a heavily modified E30 is going to fit in the cheap and reliable category of car ownership. Unless you have the skills and tools to do a lot of work yourself (or mates / relations that can) high maintenance cars soon loose their appeal.. nothing worse than fixing a "hot" car while your mates are out having fun in their "boring" econo-boxes. Start with something reliable and cheap to run, that is maybe a little bit of fun, then move up to something with more performance, add a few go-faster bits and pieces, then aim for the heavily modified track day car. You can still have fun at each stage and be learning and working towards your end objective. Or just do whatever the hell you feel like, we were all young and full of big ideas once.......

This is so true, part of the bullshit I tried to escape from by moving to NZ.

I understand where you are coming from, and yes most mechanical parts would be fine once you had given them a good steam cleaning. However, it wouldn't feel right to me - kind of making something out of other's mis-fortune. I hope I'm wrong, but I would imagine there are vultures circling the area already to cash in on this kind of thing.Oh and Pjay - stop it, I'm at work and supposed to be serious, not spraying coffee all over my desk!

Not sure if this guy had a yard anywhere, I went and saw this car at his house, can't even remember the address - big place up one of the roads off Rangitikei St somewhere. He also had a very nice Mk1 Escort RS for sale at the same time, and I think something like a Triumph Vitesse convertible. Kept them all in a large garage at the back of the house.

It is very confusing yes, but here is the summary: Not one, but two cars! One caught fire, good parts moved from car which caught fire to new car to make nice new car. Both cars now being sold together. If anyone is interested in the nice new car, I could be interested in the old burnt car. Make sense? James - you are right, auction now with bid - reserve grrr!!

It was / is being offered for sale by one of the guys who works at Hoffman's (sorry can't remember the guys name), he used to be an individual dealer in town, now working through them. I would suspect it hasn't sold, I first looked at this car 2+ years ago (same seller) and he was quite happy to keep hold of it, and it has appeared briefly a couple of times since.

Sorry to tell you this mate, but that's not a genuine m-tech wheel, it's just a standard 318i wheel that someone has tried to make look like an m-tech. Sorry for the bad news dude.

Not photos of the actual wheels, but these are what they look like: They are genuine BMW, not replicas or copies and are staggered. I am away for a week from tomorrow, I will post up some actual photos of the wheels and tyres when I get back. Thanks.

Came across a new one today after wiring in the plug for the trailer on the E46 wagon. I think all the information, and the wiring I got with the towbar, were for a pre-facelift while the car is actually facelifted with the different lights. The trailer lights are powered off a set of four relays with the trigger signal coming from the cables for the lights on the back of the car, the 12v supply coming from a fused connection on the battery. All work fine apart from the rear (tail or park?) lights which only flicker and the relay is constantly clicking. At first I thought it was a dodgy relay, swapped the wires onto another and got the same result. It turns out the rear brake and tail light design is a new one on me - whilst there are two bulbs, both come on dim for the tails and then one lights up brighter for the brake, however it is still only a single element bulb. This is done by only a low voltage (3.3v) being supplied for the tail, and then the full 12v for the brake. Which I think is doing two things - 1) the low tail light voltage is not enough to keep the relay open - hence the constant clicking - can I replace this with a lower trigger voltage relay and still swith the 12v? 2) when the tail is on this also raises the voltage of the brake signal wire to 3.3v due to the shared bulb - can this be solved by fitting a diode to stop the cross over? Any thoughts most welcome.

A little word of caution, there are very many types of plastic that bodykits can be made out of, some are very easy to paint and it will stick like whatname to a blanket, other types especially polyurethane are a bitch to paint and need much more work and special primers. It will look ok to start with but start to peel after a short period of time if the wrong paint is used on the wrong plastic. The simplest way to do it is to mount it up on the car the best you can and then use a heat gun to warm the distorted area, then pull it back into shape and hold it there until it cools down with clamps or tape etc.

E46 coupe in Palmy, on big (20"?) dished rims, wearing a "CSL" private plate ?? strange as it was not even a CSL / CS replica?? Looked tidy if that look is your bag.

Had to butcher the lower part of the M-sport rear body kit to get the towbar to fit on properly. The bar was supposed to fit on with a sport kit bit needed quite a bit to be cut out to get it on, was also supposed to fit a wagon but needed some major mods to get it on.

Glad you got it sorted Jack, and also that it was a simple fix that didn't cost you lots to put right. Andy will know what to expect on the pedal feel so that is a good indication. Did you watch the guy while he was doing the bleeding so you could see how it works? I am not having a go, and I realise you are young and inexperienced, but this is one of the standard, simple jobs, that you really need to be able to do for yourself. In the long run it will save you time and money and also give you a better understanding and feel for your car. When you get to be be part of the BMW racing circus there will be lots of old heads about that will give you plenty of help and advice on this type of thing, so don't worry you'll pick it up as you go along.