E30 325i Rag-Top

Flip it over and post up the info there, size and offset, etc. And part number would help loads.

I guess that means it sold, for somewhere near the asking price. Wow, the value of my stash just went up (again), sometimes it’s good to be a hoarder!!

Are you talking from experience here Dan?

Wrong colour for me mate, I always lusted after a Dolphin Grey 325i Sport as a young man. Would settle for black as well though. The DP at BMW Hamilton has a gorgeous red one as well, low kms and immaculate. @C-130 Hercules how about you get this white one, and I buy your Meister? ??

Tech 2 M325i, just listed on TradeMe at $33k, it's very nice, but that's getting up there. Thoughts? https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-2409215881.htm?rsqid=27f895a083bc4854be2ded008a3d898e-002 I have heard of M325i getting into the Mid-$20ks so this would be a raising of the bar.

Apologies, I saw an extra "S" in between the P and the 4 - which is a different price bracket proposition entirely. FWIW I have had some very average experiences with PS4 in the wet.

That's because everyone knows the Illuminati did it.

Pretty sure that's rxsumo's (old?) car, was in a For Sale thread a little while back. Used to see it up at Manfeild quite regularly.

I didn't see your post sorry, I was in the garage doing some shitty jobs on the race car, wondering to myself "should I sell this and buy an M2 CS Racing?" "would I miss this tinkering in the shed? Would it be more fun?" the whole built versus bought type argument comes into play. It's hard to answer, would you really work on the car if you could pay someone else to do it for you? Some stuff, yes, as its fun, the shitty boring jobs, probably, no definately not. Other things (thankfully not that many) you have to pay for if you don't have the requisite skills. There are a whole heap of different makes and models that are colloquially referred to as "Evo" from even BMW itself as str8_6 has linked above (total porn btw), indeed even your own trusty E36 M3 steed is often referred to as the Evo, through some Italian makers, M-B, right down to the Mitsi Lancer that I know you are referring to. How did I deduce this Dr. Watson? quite elementary. The illustrious E30 M3 only got as far as an Evo 3, the 190E got as far as EVO II I believe, so that narrows it down to just a few. Add in the references to anti-lag and boost maps and we know it's a turbo car - so voila, the Mitsubishi Lancer is the answer. You have been hoist by your own petard, Your reinterpretation has nothing to do with what I said. Taking my reference to old shitters to mean the Evo V is in an interesting Freudian interpretation. Depending on your own particular choice of flavour there a plenty of cars in this bracket, from Scooby Legacys and Imprezzas, various Nissans and even the Mitsis. All great bang for buck, and easy to modify for improved performance should you be so inclined. I have done my time in this area of the car "scene" with various whips, doing "mean skids bro" and going brrrrrrrrrr, brrrrrrrr, pssstt around town. However, I now prefer to wear my cap the right way around and with a curved brim, preferrably something understated yet moderately expensive. As I am moving into the "Gentleman Racer" period of life, there is little fun to be had from banging door handles with people who think they are the next SvG and longer, Endurance racing is more appealing (as I am clearly an Endurance Athlete this suits me... lol!) where lots of other factors other than outright peak speed come into play. If going "wheeee" for six laps is fun, think how much fun it is to do it for one, three, six or even 24 hours.

Quicker around any NZ track... possibly for the first four or five laps (less if its Hampton Downs International or the full Highlands Park track), then the brakes will start to be an issue as you haven't upgraded those in your shopping list, shortly after your road tyres are going to be overheating due to the tread blocks moving about under load, so you'd need a set of semis at least, missed off the list. Then you'd be sick of rolling around like a Spanish galleon through corners, so you would need a new set of adjustable shocks and springs, all times two of course as its for both cars. At which point you then find out how flogged all your bushes are so they all need to come out an be replaced. So now you have an EVO that can stand up to a decent track day, or even race event, oh but wait, the piggy back ecu and tune has now caused the over-stressed engine to blow a foo-foo valve because none of the cooling has been upgraded on the shopping list. So that's a rebuild (or two) and while you're in there you probably want to go forged internals, chuck on a bigger turbo, and do some head work. How much are we up to by now..? Once the engines all back together and been on the dyno for a good few hours to be broken in and tuned, you should be all good to go back to the track, at which point the 250,000km gearbox and or centre differential decides it's had enough of all this extra torque and abuse and lunches itself. It's about now you start to think to yourself what was that expression about fast, cheap, reliable racecars again? Thanks for your input Tony Quinn, unfortunately a lot of those "Gentleman Racers" don't have as much ability as they have available horse power in their cars, so can be almost as much an issue as the Flat Peak Cap brigade in their cheap Evos at Pukekohe track days. It does if you don't take it to the track and just keep it in the garage... but where is the fun in that. Or you can do what I do, and have a racecar that never makes it to the track and still costs lots of money each month, I must be going wrong somewhere?

Yeah, you can buy any old shitter add a cage and go on a track. Friday track days at Pukekohe are full of them. Lots of opportunities to race in grass roots stuff in NZ as well. If that’s your idea of fun, go for gold.

Are we even talking about the same thing here...? The M2 race car in the original post? Have spent a bit of time googling to try and find this euro50k factory racer, but with no joy. If it’s twice as fun, for the 50k, it should be a great package!

Wow, an FIA approved BoP registered factory backed race package for half that price? So, Euro50k? Please post up a link or pm me as that’s in my budget so would be very keen, thanks.

It’s certainly a different definition of affordable to mine! The blurb also refers to the M2 CS Racing as being “entry level”.. in terms of the BMW Motorsport line up, it is the entry model but that’s a pretty high starting point! For a factory-backed and supported package it’s pretty good, shame it’s beyond my means...

Yup, same as U.K. far too expensive to insure - high risk as M3 + vert (easy to steal) + expensive repairs. so worth more in parts, S54, etc..

The earlier, chrome bumper, E30s have more rust issues than the later plastic bumper ones. Check inside the boot, pull up the carpets in the corners of the boot, and around the rear lights. Also the firewall between the engine and the passenger compartment, harder to see but very common and hard to fix.

Fronts look to be a straight bolt on (mechanically at least) as the front carriers are the same between 116d and 130i and they look to be a sizeable upgrade, rotors going from 294 x 22 to 330 x 24. Rears are different part numbers for the carriers, so a bit more involved, but might be able to cobble something together to make it work. Upgrade in the rear is much greater, going from a 280x10 solid to the 300x20 ventred rotors. Will go and count up the pennies in the piggy bank, so that hopefully these can then sit on my garage floor, rather than yours, alongside the suspension bits that I previously got from you.

Welcome to Bimmersport, you should find a lot of useful info in here for your car. Pictures always help (and are encouraged on here) and give a lot of information about your car. It would certainly help answer your first question. Swapping the steering wheel to the multi-function wheel will make it look a lot cooler, but there is a lot of other wiring and bits and pieces required to get all the buttons working. Stereo volume is quite simple but phone bluetooth, etc is a bit more tricky. It would depend very much what you are wanting to get out of it. As there is an airbag in the middle, it is not a job for the newbie. If you are in Auckland, come along to a meeting with your car and there will always be people around to offer advice and help.

Some info from an industry site that might help explain things.

Yeah, good point. I’ll have a look on ETK. probably worth a punt at that price tbh.

Are they a straight bolt on to other E87 or need adaptors, etc? And any change needed to master cylinder? interested if it’s straight bolt on.

If you could please post pictures as per forum rules. Thanks Admin.

The PS4s are probably a bit of an overkill on a 328i, it's a swift car, but not really a sports car. Bridgestone Potenza were a factory fit on the F30 and suit them quite well.

A couple of key factors here before this question can be answered. 1. How many kms per year will the car do, how much towing, heavy loads, etc? 2. What’s your budget? More than 12,000kms and/or towing I would suggest diesel. X5s really suck the gas when towing. Diesels tend to be slightly more expensive than petrols, so could be better getting lower km / better spec petrol over similar diesel.

I fully understand why the owner would be doing this, but Nooooooo!!! Not in an M3. #irkthepurists Any plans for the S14...?