E30 325i Rag-Top

What a bloody waste. 325i as well, with chrome bumpers.

Nice. Love a Techwan, IMHO Tech I > Tech II. Car has a couple of non-standard parts, but listing says he has the spoiler, wheels, etc. to put it back to factory standard so that's no big problem. Would love to add a Tech I 325i to my garage, but no room at the inn, bugger.

Another in the theme of 70's Concept Cars, check out all this goodness of the decade of decadence... More info and pictures in this article here... https://www.motor1.com/photo/3173468/1972-bmw-turbo-concept1972-bmw-turbo-concept/

You can always use the year field to search as well as the M3 term to narrow things down a bit.

Yup, seen that. One of the myriad of ways to try and get everything to line up when going 5-Stud. There are now a whole host of options for 5-lug into the E30, which hubs are you using for yours? The geometry for them all is slightly different I believe, so the adjustment in the LCA through these bushes varies a little as well. I believe JiBs runs these on his E30 drift car with E46 hubs, and is happy with them, not sure he's on here much but is on BookFace E30 groups quite often.

The BMW NZ supplied option is the Westfalia removeable tongue mounted onto an NZ made beam which includes the provision of safety chain attachments. This gives you the facility of removing the tongue to save your eyes, and shins, when not in use. There are tongues avaiable in both ball sizes 1"7/8ths and 50mm. I am currently using this bar with a canbus wiring module to integrate the PDC, etc when towing and also works correctly with LED lights on trailers on my company cars it works well. Is simple to fit and I have moved it across about four or five cars now so can do it in less than an hour.

The E92 M3 Pure was a limited edition of 20 units specifically produced for New Zealand, with most of the optional extras taken out of the car, to give a more "Pure" driving experience. This term has been applied to a number of editions in various markets around the world with this same theme. The X5 M was indeed a Black Fire Edition, interesed in your comment about "class" in this context, and also BreakMyWindow's similar view, care to elaborate?

The starting question is a good one, and the usual answer is pick any two of the three! But, i guess it all comes back to how much performance and economy you want from your diesel. M57TU2D30 is quoted at 203hp and 390Nm I think, so could give a bit more with a chip / re-program. Last of the E46 330d had that engine and I would say that is about the point all the electronics and control systems went overly complicated. compared to the current diesels (the 4-cylinder 2ltr gives more power and torque) it is not in the same ball park, but the complexity goes through the roof as well - four turbos for six cylinders anybody? Sounds like an interesting project, a "doing it for the hell of it" kind of thing!

Hi, posts do not "fall off" the forum however they are sometimes deleted by an admin, or possibly in this instance the original poster. Also, many member are being pretty lazy in terms of where they are putting their posts. For example I have moved this from "general discussion" in to the Forum Help section. Recently there has been the need to remove a number of For Sale posts, although I have not personally removed the one from Tom although it does appear to have gone. Yes it was bona fide, if you still wish to contact him try a PM.

I just can't get past that bodykit. I know this was an 80s car, but seriously, wtf is that..? Someone will probably now point out that it's a very rare and sought after body kit from back in the day that is worth mega-$$$.

Well that got a bit dark very quickly...

I can understand why they are reluctant to give an exact figure, as any gains would be dependent on the rest of the "system" from the intake through to the exhuast, and they wouldn't want to be held to a number. However, I would expect them to be able to say, "gains in the region of xx% using standard intake and exhaust" or something along those lines. The fact they are being sketchy sounds to me like they have either never done the tests, or they don't have faith in their products.

The original post was not intended as bagging on the car design across the generations, only the BA XT (even the XR6 was a much better car in terms of the drive). My main issue was with the factories they were produced in, which counteracted any good work the engineers did in developing the newer models. Indeed, for their price some of the later FPV models were very good bang for buck. The I6 Barra engine with the turbo on it was really much greater than the sum of it's parts and I would suspect capable of much more with a bit more boost applied. The whole quality process for FMCA was "get it out of here now and fix it later" from the design process, through development and into production. There was no change in this mentality from the early 2000s when I started working with them, through to when the plants eventually closed. This mentality, and the resultant quality of the finished product, may have been acceptable in the Aussie and NZ market place but coming from a European background this was a real throw back to the dark ages for me. Serious, or even minor, faults immediately obvious in a brand new vehicle are no longer accepted by customers. "Bring it back and we will have a look at it" should not be the approach to managing quality problems. Whilst it is impossible to be "perfect" and have zero issues amongst millions of cars produced, even for BMW, Toyota or anyone else, you can work towards that and get pretty close. However, the whole culture at both the Ford engine plant and assembly plant did not even acknowledge quality as being a factor in what is was doing.

Agree this thread has gone all over the place, and I have been very close to removing posts a number of times, but as it is clearly a very sensitive subject I have made a few allowances and let it run. From what I have seen there has been nothing too out of line and no offence taken, please correct me if I am wrong in my thinking.

I have lost count of how many models have been referred to "as the successor to the Legendary E30 M3" but unfortunately few have come even close to being able to live with that title. Sure, there have been faster cars, and better handling cars or even both, but in terms of what it was all about in terms of character... errm, no. The 1M probably came the closest, as this was a blank sheet of paper exercise for the M Division and really was damn good. Hopefully the M2 Competition will come close, now that it has the proper drive train, looks different and has a better interior. We shall see!

Bloody good job I haven't started cutting into my bodywork, it seems just about every part I have ordered has been badly delayed in some way, so what was already a tight timescale is now an impossible one. I now need to go back to the drawing-board and work out a way forwards that doesn't involve too much putting it back together to pull it all apart again, any more $$$s and means I can go racing this season. Not too fussed about making the Icebreaker meeting, but really want to be part of the HD500 event in October, need to see what I can to do make this happen. Best laid plans and all that stuff... fuggit. So went and scraped off some more underseal and got all melancholy.

Nice, always good when you have a big pile of new parts to fit. Introduced the race car to the angle grinder version of the Jenny Craig diet and started cutting any un-necessary brackets, etc off the car. Not quite brave enough to start the process of cutting the bodywork just yet, building up to that part slowly.

Full retail for a local fit removeable tow bar is $2,400 on a new vehicle, probably slightly more to be done as a Parts and Service bar, however, there are a number options on the electrical modules that can make a big difference in terms of the overall pricing and time required to fit. NZ new vehicles were not supplied with the electric swing away towbars, but there might be a few UK or Japan imports starting to come through that are fitted with the bar from factory.

Ok, fair point. Let me counter my own statement, it was slightly better than the AU Falcon I had to drive before it. Some of the FPVs I've driven have been impressive in terms of power and even handling has been good, however they were let down by the brakes (tended to fade badly after about 4 or 5 hard track laps) and again by the build quality. A lot of money to pay for body panels that didn't line up.

I had a BA Falcon as a company car when I first came to NZ... Had been in my possession for about 3 days before it had it's first trip back to the dealership. Only thing it was good for was seeing how high I could get the reading on the fuel consumption screen. Having been to the factories in Aussie where they screwed them together, and the engine plant would rather walk everywhere than spend my own hard earned money on one!

A link to make it easier for people to find... https://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=1647326462 That looks to be a South Island E30 Series car, so it's not one that I am familiar with, but from the photos it looks to be in a very tidy condition. For me the most important things in a race car are the safety equipment, should you ever need it you want it to be good, so I would be looking at the quality of the fabrication and design of the cage (it runs through to the front struts which is a good start), the seat and it's installation and the harness installation. Is it a competitive car, what sort of results has it had in the past? Any big accidents, a bit of panel damage is pretty much the norm, but a serious shunt is hard to fully fix. Miscallenous bits and pieces, more for the value equation of the deal rather than its the right car, would be what spares are included, how much life is left in the wear and tear item - tyres, brakes, etc. The E30 Series Car is a great place to start, not expensive to maintain (by race car standards) engine and gearbox are pretty reliable as they are not highly tuned. Handling package is good, and the car is not massively powerful enough to be a handful, but still enough to get you into trouble / fun depending on your view!

if you make it look too shiny you wont want to push it hard in case it gets dirty!

The joys of working with fibreglass, very hard to get a quality fit and finish. Looks great though Rich, good job.

Yes you can in theory. The earlier "L-jet" motor with the dizzy on the side of the block usually comes with higher compression pistons than the later "Motronic" engine (dizzy on the front) but the later engines have better fuel / spark timing. I don't know what you are looking for from your engine swap, but fwiw the highest power from the E30 Race Series engines was made by putting the later head and engine control electrics on top of the earlier L-Jet bottom end. If you want to just swap the head over then you can keep the exhaust manifolds, inlet manifold, etc. and just block off the dizzy hole at the front with a plate is the easiest option. This save a bit of mucking about with the electrics plugs, etc.

Has been a bit quiet on the car front recently thanks to a long lasting head cold and the four-yearly disctraction of the World Cup. Did a run down to Hawke's Bay to pick up the latest BMW addition to the family, now got the old's e87 116d on the drive so we now have five beemers for four family members! Plan is for the Mrs to have the 1er for her daily and sell the 330d wagon as five cars is probably a bit too many. On the run back from HB I did manage to get the fuel range indicator on the 320d Touring to over 1,000kms of range - high score was 1,022kms thanks to a full tank of fuel and an efficient open road drive in Eco Pro mode!