Sammo

Looks like a bloody nice car

Never seen so many E9 and E46 CSLs in one place (Don't worry, it isn't just a bunch of E30s on air with oversized BBS wheels)

Love the 'shark nose' kidney mod on this bad boy!

It’s a pretty sweet 3.0 V6 transaxle - love Alfas but yeah, they are a little scarier than Bimmers! He has a 2 litre 105 in restoration as well - one of my all time favourite cars.

A few little maintenence items done as I'm getting car winter ready - new front rotors / new wiper jet nozzles / refurbished injectors / balance and alignment. Car was on wedding duty in Papamoa this weekend - a good 7 hours driving in it with largely inclement weather and she was rock solid and surprisngly comfortable. With an 80's rival Alfa 75 3.0: Also managed to pick up a near mint BMW Euro Heckblende for the full 80s rear end - been wanting one for ages and this kind of fell into my lap so jumped on it:

A Tech 1 and Tech 2 👌🏽 living the dream!

Looks fantastic! Very clean and two-tone for the win

I see it has the big ass USDM bumper too

Some pieces could be quite fiddly to wrap (door handles) but a grey / smoke tinted wood could work I think. At least try it on an easy piece first to see?

Harper's suggestions are on point - only thing I would add is that its probably easier / cheaper / quicker to get good condition E46 coupe interior used in leather or Msport fabric (although that alcantara does not wear too well) and put that in? The headliner / pillars all being newin black will blend in nicely. Leather interior has the bonus of being able to be refinished quite simply (although a litte time consuming) to a near new condion if no rips / holes - theres a guy on the shore who owes you a favour to assist too!

Thats a great ownership / buying story! the restoration goes well - bonus points if its a Two-tone JDM Mtechnic Build thread / pictures would be cool.

Is this the Delphin Metallic one with a momo wheel that was listed end of 2022? I would get it to a good independent BMW mechanic before throwing more parts at it - just got my M325i back from the shop and after a valve adjustment and some minor vacuum leaks sorted its absolutely singing (with 400,000km).

Thanks man, was shooting from the hip mostly but happy How it went!

Fun Easter Weekend so far - did some laps at Hampton Downs in this wee beastie (pretty good birthday present). Absolutely fantastic experience, obviously didn’t even touch the potential of it but the front end grip was mind boggling! Bit of time in my sim rig helped with lines and pedal modulation but nothing could prepare you for the intensity, noise and lack of visibility. Would love to do some proper seat time in one of these things.

Little YouTube vid shot yesterday:

Not sure,I suspect it started when I had a user error breakdown last year and had to abuse it a little to get back to civilisation. And would have got worse from there once it was half fixed and running again. There was oil there too apparently so might have accelerated damage?

Interesting - E30 is definately more 'fun' but E46 is fun as well and more well rounded. I am tossing up putting a purple tag in the E30 at some point, although not dying to go through the cert process. Stock rack is obviously slow but mines a little vague around centre too - maybe a rebuild would help?

Seat looks right at home - this thing must be driving so good now!

Curious to see how much these go for - seem to be $500 a wheel or so, but maybe less for just a pair though.

Yes haha New direct drive wheel, new pedals, new sequential shifter and front and rear bass transducers 😂 I’ll stop now. Cheaper than an old Bimmer!

Going deeper down the hole 😂

Thanks mate - finally driving as good as it looks!

Got the car back today after a mechanical birthday and have to say - I'm falling in love with it all over again. Foruntately for me, the gearbox was fine and it just needed a new clutch so got a few other things sorted as well and it is completely transformed: New LUK clutch kit and flywheel machined (the old generic heavy duty clutch lining was wrecked) Super stiff (I had assumed it was an E30 thing) accelerator cable cleaned and adjusted - will replace later in the year but 100x better already Valve cover leak and valves that were way out of spec adjusted Idle valve and throttle clean and some minor vacuum leaks sorted Everything cleaned off so any potential other leaks can be easily identified I never realised I was driving around a rough E30 but its another car now - nice light and responsive clutch and accelerator pedals, along with a far quieter idle and stronger, much smoother pull through the gears. Feels like its ready for another 400,000km and can't wait to give it some proper beans this weekend!

Pending paint (can’t see it needing a respray from the pics?) I would buy it if I was looking for an E30 - most appealing one on the market IMO.

My old one needed a little crack repaired by the current owner while LSD and subframe bushings were done and that car was an auto for 145 out of 160km and I never launched it in my ownership... was quite surpirsed to hear that!