E30 325i Rag-Top

If it all turns out as you hope, that could be the best $150 you ever spend on a car! Fingers crossed for you.

However, those two identical vehicles very rarely exist, and there are many, many more important things that NZ new in determining the value. The majority of "NZ New" cars I have seen have been either poorly optioned and / or badly serviced with badly stone chipped bumpers and bonnets.

Doesn't affect the import laws. The logic being that cars coming into the country should be cleaner than those already here. Even though you can buy a used NZ new EU3 E46, it has to be EU4 to bring it in as an import.

Yes, there are many variants of BMW produced with lower levels of emission controls for certain markets. These will always show the EU emissions level on the options list, for example EU5 is option 161. From memory I have seen EU2 on a couple of M3s I checked out. The controls and equipment to meet the emissions cost money to include on the cars, so nearly all makers have lower EU level versions for countries that don't demand it.

Are you referring to the import / compliance rules or the SIV rules?

Yup, people keep trotting out the same stories - all UK cars are rusty because of salt, all Singapore have electrical issues, all Japanese have been stuck in traffic all their life, etc. etc. Treat every car on it's merits, check for known issues, every car / owner / history is different. Take the car for how it actually is, not how all the sooth sayers on the Internets suggest it will be. As for NZ New being a bonus hmm, not so sure on that one.

It would do, the VIN decoder will only show how it was built by BMW, not how it ends up as an Alpina. Carjam has got a VIN and a chassis which would also be right - one for BMW & one for Alpina. interesting, very interesting...!

Only if it's a genuine Alpina, and not another Japanese badges and stickers special. The fact that it has not even got the Alpina rims on it would make me very sceptical of it being the real deal. Even if it is, putting the right wheels back on it would cost big $$$. Pretty sure Alpina wouldn't use an armoured protection vehicle as the basis of a "sports limo", easy enough to tell if it is from the weight of the vehicle. Will clean up to a pretty cool car with or without the provenance.

Got it from Pesch Motorsport in Czhek Republic. I thought from their web-site they were a big outfit, but from dealing with them I get the feeling they are a one man band. After previous experiences I was just happy that 1) it turned up and 2) it was all there and 3) it wasn't smashed to bits.

Yeahup, already started. Now remembering how much I hate working on fibreglass. Late nights are a bit restricted as apparently attacking an E30 with angle grinder doesn't help the kids get to sleep... whoda thunk it? So in typical Tyler fashion I have started on fiddling / mucking-about with every single bit at once rather than focus on one thing and get it finished. Also with a lot of beating around the bush and time wasting.. fingers crossed it will all start to come together at some point..maybe?

Resurrecting this post from the dead... as there are the shoots of progress starting to come out of the garage. Decided against putting it all back together to race this season, it was really hard watching the 1 Hour Enduro at Hampton Downs on the long track, but there will be a next time I hope. It would have needed quite a bit of tidying and paint etc. even after I had screwed everything back together from the state it was in. Good news was that after months of waiting my shipment of panels for the E30 M3 kit finally arrived from Europe. I was a bit concerned about how well it would travel, being as the panels are fibreglass, so a bit on the delicate side. Thankfully, they were very well packaged, with lots of protection which was just as well as there were signs of some rough treatment on the way as I expected. After finally getting everything unwrapped and un-packed which was a bit of a mission, mainly due to running out of space to put the parts in the garage and space in the wheelie bin to put all the packaging, I had chance to check the parts over for damage and quality. There was only one small impression on one part which should come out with a bit of heat and pressure. Parts are nice and light, which is good for a race car - will see how well the measure up and fit as I go. Couldn't resist a quick tape them up on the car to see what they look like... If only they were that easy to fix on the car properly... now into all the cutting and grinding on the rear end to get the guards and c-pillar extension to fit onto the body. This will be the most complicated part of the whole thing, plus once that's done I can start prepping the shell for painting.

Whoops, I accidentally bought another BMW!! Luckily it was only a die cast model, so not too expensive. It was supposed to be the new E30 M3 Warsteiner race car from the Lifestyle catalogue, but I got the last digit of the part number wrong so the M1 turned up instead. I thought it was pretty cool, especially with the car details, and it it being Piquet's car so decided to keep it. M3 is on back order so waiting for that one to arrive. If I could stop buying stuff like this then I might be able to afford to buy a REAL E30 M3... maybe not.

+1 waiting to be complied and registered.

Imports have gone up though. 7 x M5 Station Wagon from UK, 1 x M5 Station Wagon from Japan. However, two of those are listed with 4,400cc engine with 2012 and 2014 build dates so looks like some clown can't tell the difference between a sedan and a station wagon. So realisically it is now 6 x M5 Wagon. Still not that far from being rocking horse poo though.

These are the numbers I managed to find, unfortunately the live Sales information only goes back as far as 2004 and the registration data only as far back as 2002, so I can't find anything for 2001 M3s. Year BMW Model 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Total M3 CABRIOLET E46 10 10 7 3 1 31 M3 M3 COUPE MANUAL 61 44 15 9 1 130 M3 M3CSL COUPE M 0 4 6 1 0 11 Total 71 58 28 13 2 172

I am a bit of an odd-ball here in that I love the smell of diff oil, for some strange reason. Maybe my sense of smell is completely buggered from working with diesel, heavy oils and chemicals for most of my adult life?

A lot depends on how you want to measure "sales" in the murky world of new car sales there are a number of different ways of recording the sale of a vehicle. The most often, and probably most accurate, measure is the number of new car first registrations - as any given car can only be registered as new once. I will see what I can dig out on the registrations of the E46 M3 - are you only interested in the coupe or Cabrio as well? Used car information is much harder to interpret, as a lot of the information is an open text field, so they will enter whatever you write on the form into the MVR, so people import things like "318i M3" or my favourite the "320i AC Shitzer" finding the real M3s is always a bit of detective work there.

Got some of that expanding Gorilla foam to fill the void between the top and bottom pieces of my new race car splitter - to give it extra strength and rigidity without adding too much weight. Well - F#$k me that stuff goes everywhere!! Over estimated how much I needed to put in by about 300% so nearly all of it came out when I squeezed the two halves together. Then proceeded to do some kind of old school comedy act of getting stuck to everything as I tried to tape the two halves together. I should have filmed it for YouTube to show how not to do it. But now it has cured and hardened off I am pleased with the end result. Still nice and light, and much much stiffer. Just got to work out where to put the slots (to allow for adjustment) and then I can put the CF wrap over the top to make it look like a bought one!!

I have got a spare set of 325i down pipes and centre section, the proper twin pipe 325i ones if you are still looking, no rear muffler though.

Damn those are nice wheels, what are they worth for a set? And do they come with gold centres as an option....

The shifter arm and the exhaust system will be the same for the coupe and sedan E30 325i, which will make your search a little easier as there are not many cabrios around in NZ. Lowering springs are the same size and shape as for the coupe and sedan, but tend to sit a bit lower on the cabby due to the extra body weight. Just something to bear in mind when looking at "normal" e30 springs but making the search easier again.

Managed to get some car time over the long week-end in amongst the family time stuff. Cut some more bodywork off the race-car now the fibreglass panels have arrived for it (will put pics and more info in the build thread now there is some progress). Bought some decent facemasks so i'm not breathing in so much crap whilst working in the garage. Black bogeys is never a good sign! Had a washing frenzy as well, gave the 330d Touring a real good exterior clean as it's been sitting under a tree while I try and find some time to get it ready to sell. Supercheap finally had the Castrol Edge 5w-30 on special so I got 5L of that and now have everything ready to do the service. As I had the water blaster out and some snow foam left over I gave the wifes 116d a quick foam and wipe down, and also my X2 fleet car got a quick foam and rinse as it's white and shows the dirt quite badly. Then gave the wheels on the 116d a reasonable clean as they seem to attact brake dust really badly. And now I'm knackered.

E30 Facelift front bumper mounts also include the threaded hole for the screw in type of tow hook. Could you look at using one or a pair of those with your current bumper, might need a little modification but probs easier than welding? They bolt straight into the pre-FL chassis rail.

Awesome build Shaun!! Can't wait to see it finished and racing. do you know where your old WTCC car ended up, haven't seen itn around for a long time?

Far too many E46 M3s built to be anywhere near the Special Interest Vehicle category. Plus was sold NZ, new, etc. Better off waiting until they get to 20 years old and then emissions exempt, can't be too far away now, when were the first one's built 1999?