E30 325i Rag-Top

P&S Automotive in East Tamaki know E30s inside out, but not sure if they can give the report part - give ‘‘em a ring and they’ll let you know

Wasn’t sure it was the same car, different wheels and plate now but looks to be same car. A lot has happened in the 18 months since they bought it, especially in the Classic car market. I remember the Rose City guys from when I lived in Palmy, always had some interesting performance metal in amongst the usual Jap imports. IIRC the owner was a well known national rally driver, he would often keep the nicer stuff to drive himself before. Putting it back on the yard.

There's a red one on TradeMe, private sale, same kms, no hard-top for $49,900 (already had an offer of $40k on it).. so that does look to be in the right ball park for a dealer vehicle with the hardtop included.

@Sammo Depending on where it is located there is most likely a bimmersporter that would go have a look at it for you. If it stacks up with records and receipts and isn’t going for top $$ then it wouldn’t be much of a risk I reckon.

More E30 goodness from BMW Classic

Not deleted, moved to another thread, to keep this on topic 😇

Another variation of the BMW drivers don’t signal joke that’s been around forever, haha, lol, etc. Ps I split this out from the other thread so it didn’t go off topic.

@FIAT 131R you got anything at the moment..?

To me this thread shows the risk with making this kind of build and then trying to sell, the build is very specific in it's details, and everyone has their own personal taste. The sweet-spot of people that have got the cash, want a highly modified E30, and want that particular style of modified E30, I would think, is a very, very small sample size. Personally I couldn't live with that fuel flap.. every time I saw it I would shudder, let alone trying to use it. E30 fuel filler can be a real pain at some fuel pumps as it is, let alone when it's set deep inside the bodykit like that.

The leak in the video does look like condensation, it should be easy to tell if that’s the source of the petrol fumes from the smell of the liquid dripping. If that leak isn’t petrol, then I wouldn’t be too worried about that, but as Brent says you should get someone to look for what is causing the petrol smell as that is a much bigger problem.

If you’re after an E70 X5 then the 30d Performance Edition is worth looking out for, it was a local NZ developed offering including increased options and 20” rims, added Performance Bodykit and Edition badging. Was a very good seller as new vehicles, and have very good re-sale values.

Clearly shows how much the 3 Series (like most cars) has grown in size over the years. Cool colours though!

The M50d X5 is a very capable all-rounder, ok it sounds different but is still pretty rapid. On the upside it can also run along very frugally if you can keep off the loud pedal, especially when towing. Unless you really want the sound of the big V8 and that little extra bit of acceleration the M50d is a very good alternative.

Depends what car it’s in, 22kg is very noticeable in a smaller / lighter car - especially up the front end in something like an E30. A power to weight comparison of the two engines would also be a telling comparison.

99% sure there were no changes to the wheel base or steel work for the F20 LCI, it was more re-designed bumpers and lights front and rear - plus a few modifications to the interior and under the skin. Skirt should fit, worse case there might be some minor tweaking of the attachments to make it work. I guess the donor car is too far away for you to view with your current skirt to compare the two?

@jon dee I can't be 100% sure but I think opening a thread that way takes you to the last point in the thread that you had looked at previously, so it shows you all the "new" posts that you haven't viewed before. So, if it's a really old post that you have not looked at previously it will take you back to the start, if it's a thread you have been into before it will take you to a point in the middle of the thread somewhere. I could well be wrong, but that is the way it seems to me. Another way to go into the thread is to go into the sub-forums, where it lists all the threads and shows their created dates and the number of pages, if you click on the page number it takes you directly there. So it if's a 10-year old thread with 20 pages you can choose where you want to start looking, might not be ideal, but does give you an element of control.

How are you accessing the threads? Are you responding to a notification, browsing through the forums, etc? Also are you on a phone or PC?

Yup - overseas diplomat, not NZ Govt fleet. So half right. Overseas spec, just goes to show how much extra kit is added to the “NZ New” spec versus most other countries.

I would be very surprised if that was ever part of the Crown Fleet (or ex Government as the seller refers). My understanding is that all the Crown cars are the same colour - silver, with the same interior - grey. No flag holders on the front guards, and no holes in the interior where all the extra radios, GPS trackers, etc are mounted. Pretty much every 730Ld ever listed on TardMe is called a Govt Car, one joker even tried to suggest his car was “THE Royal Visit” car. They do still pop up now and again on used car yards, and some of the latest fleet have started to show up at Turners as the greens push for EVs. EDIT: Just checked on carjam and as expected it has never been part of the NZ Crown Fleet (no CRxxx rego) but was in fact imported for an embassy and registered on a Diplo plate (DCxxxx) so half right I guess.

Ahh yes, "OE" and "OEM" the two most widely mis-used terms in the automotive world. I think this is an unfortunate side effect of the "Kiwi Ingenuity" or "number 8 wire mentality" where many Kiwis are happy to have a go a fixing / improving things that are well beyond their capabilities. Personally I have seen some absolute horrors in my time, some of which have resulted in serious acciddents, and many by people who were in the trade and should have known better.

Don't know that I fixed anything.. just went in and tried it, and it worked. I try to avoid any of the serious technical stuff and leave that to the Admins that know what they are doing. Maybe I've just got "the knack" Might try and see if I can fluke this one as well.

I was confused (easily done during lockdown when work is going mental) as to how I'd managed to take the electric seats out of a car and put them back in, I'm no bodybuilder but must have had my Weetbix that day.

So hard to put a price on something that is so widely (no pun intended) modified as this. Looks to be well done, as supported by BM THUG, and Racelab are no back street outfit. Would I pay $120k for it.. I prefer my E30s to be a bit more factory, and for that money I would want a bit more poke than a cooking version 4.4 V8. That said, would someone else pay that money for it… quite possibly.

Not at all shameful, I love that interior. The leather covered dash and door cards is a real nice touch plus a good way to hide / prevent those E30 cracks

It could be a basic shift in the market equilibrium… (random economics graph as a poor example) Or it could be, as is believed in this case, an error in the pricing showing on the configurator page.