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The 318is usually receives praise for being the entertaining baby of the E30 family, underpowered but a handling master. This Wee30 has received the popular S52 swap from an E36 M3 automatic, thankfully mated here to 5-speed from a 328i. The modifications don’t stop there as the seller went OEM+++ with items like E36 M3 front control arms, E30 M3 rear suspension and brakes, and a tight Z3 steering rack. The list continues with great non-OEM upgrades like Ground Control coilovers and a custom intake on the cold side with new headers and a straight pipe on the hot. The slicktop body is straight despite a rear-end collision in its history, and the whole thing received a decently-done fresh coat of Brilliantrot two years ago.
With a reserve auction and Buy It Now of $10,500, this extremely well-done E30 will likely go for less than $10k.
When one thinks of classic air-cooled, rear engine German cars, BMW does not come to mind. The much more famous relatives from the Western side of Germany do, of course, and Volkswagen is obviously linked therein too. How about tail fins on a car from the Vaterland? Again, the most recognizable car to sport them is the Mercedes-Benz 220s – the so-called “Heckflosse”. And super-minis from the 1960s? Well, you might even be more inclined to think of DKW rather than the Roundel. But in the 1960s BMW nearly failed as a car company, and the automobile that helped to keep it afloat was the versatile 700 series. The answer for the company was not to launch expensive luxury cars into a depressed economy, but instead to look at alternative economical platforms. Based upon the company’s roots of motorcycles, the 700 incorporated new technology for the company which would later be seen across the board and help to point the company in a different styling direction that the Neue Klasse would continue and expand upon. To me the most attractive of the 700s by far is the Coupe. We’ve looked at a handful of these diminutive and distinctive two-doors over the years, but two clean examples popped up this week and it was definitely worth a look:
Welcome back to Friday Fail, our opportunity to provide your Friday with a little more levity as you obsessively refresh your blog roll and count the minutes until the weekend is here. My favorite target for FF is misleading or misinformed sellers, but today we’ll just focus on what looks to be a pretty serious basket case of an E31.
This Friday Fail is quite a head turner due to its repaint in the E46 fan-boy favorite Laguna Seca Blue, a color whose only claim to fame is being obnoxiously bright and having the aforementioned ALL CAPS INTERNET DEVOTEES. Bright colors certainly have their place, but I’ll take Estoril over LSB ten times out of ten. A bright-ass exterior and reasonably low 117k miles appear to be the only high points here. Despite reportedly being “babied and well taken care of,” this 840Ci looks pretty piggy once you get past the lipstick. The interior is beat save the brand new suede headliner(!?), yet the seller gives it 8/10. It should automatically lose an extra 3 points due to that ugly sliding gear selector. The engine bay looks like someone scrubbed it with dirt and shot it with a bb gun. Apparently it has new front suspension and a RACING RADIATOR FAN because Laguna Seca is a race track.
I like the E31 and I don’t actually hate Laguna Seca Blue, but I can’t think of any situation in which I would buy this LSB E31.
As the supply dwindles, I’ve been spending time looking at various clean, mostly original E30s. Today, however, we have a 1991 325i that has received the business under the hood, namely an S52 swap from an E36 M3 plus an Active Autowerk supercharger. That heady combination puts out 357 horsepower at the wheels and 411bhp at the crank, plenty to make this 2800-pound coupe punch well above its weight class. The mechanical build is too plentiful and thorough to fully recount here, but it has Raceland coilovers, Stoptech brakes, and just about all the bushings, mounts, and miscellaneous performance parts you can stuff under an E30 to help handle 250% of its original power. The interior looks ready to rumble too with black suede Recaros and NRG wheel and some other subtle racy bits, but this car is about go, not show. The exterior has a little clear coat peel and dents but the deeper front lip and M3-esque Zender spoiler should distract any passerby. It all adds up to a package that looks pretty standard-modded-E30 good but will smoke just about any non-exotic on the road.
I’ve featured quite a number of BMWs over the past week, but none of which are quite as impressive and imposing as this 2001 750iL with an incredibly low 12,000 miles on the odometer. This final year V12 powered E38 is, for the, the stuff dreams are made of. BMW nailed it with the styling on this executive express, made even more attractive with the Style 37 M Parallel wheels. This car also has a bit of celebrity status attached to it, having been owned by the singer Steve Perry since new. Still lamenting the direction 7 series styling has gone in the last 15 years? Here’s another chance to own an almost new E38.
