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1978 BMW Dinan 320i to 333i Turbo E21

Here is something to be thankful about this time of year. When cars like this pop up for sale it makes all of us excited.

This is a truly one of a kind early Dinan tuned 3 series. This BMW will make even the nicest E30 M3 look somewhat mundane.

What you have is a 1978 320i with a 5 speed overdrive manual that in 1980 was sent to Dinan where it received a new paint job, some body work and then had a 3.3 liter inline six with a turbo bolted on dropped in. The seller states that later in life, 1987, the head was replaced with a 3.5 version. (perhaps because the turbo blew out the head gasket on the original?) The engine bay is amazingly clean. I love the custom 333i badge completing the look on the back, just need to squeeze one of the BMW turbo badges on there somewhere.

16″ Hardy and Beck wheels keep the car on the ground and with the turbo’s 8.5 lbs of boost putting down 315 horsepower in a car this light its a good thing there are meaty Yokohama AVS Sport tires on the rims.

Recaro seats, custom gauges, and obligatory Blaupunkt stereo finish off the well cared for interior.  The car has an estimated 50,000 miles on the chassis.

A spectacular piece here showing a classic tuned vehicle that hasn’t been over restored or contemporized. In terms of collectibility finding a vehicle like this that is maintaining its original tuning, rather than finding the same vehicle that was customized recently, really helps the sale price. Quite a sleeper of a car too, that even a BMW fan might not appreciate at first look. Certainly will be a crowd pleaser at car shows though.

Right now it is sitting at $23,000 reserve not met. I’m not sure how high this one will go, but we will be talking very nice E30 M3 money.

~Evan

One Comment

  1. Evan
    Evan December 2, 2010

    Ended at a reserve not met $27,600.

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