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The E30 Touring is among the tastiest variety of European forbidden fruit. I first laid eyes on one in an issue of EVO magazine some years ago and I’ve been a fan ever since. The story goes that BMW engineer Max Reisböck was worried about having enough space to go on holiday with his expanding family and so he fabricated a long roof from a wrecked E30 sedan. Just think about that for a second, a guy built this car without the knowledge or backing of management and here it is today, one of the most coveted vehicles of the era among BMW enthusiasts. Without that passion to go out and just make things happen, who knows if BMW would have ever gone on to build some of the best looking wagons of all time.
Its silhouette is as good looking today as it was when it first debuted in 1988, unlike some other wagons of the era. Though red is one of my least favorite colors on any car, here it’s kinda working for me. I don’t know why but the combo of the tuning fork Fox Racing wheels and the Red exterior just make the car enjoyably quirky. Further upping the quirk factor is the fact that this car is a RHD model, which combined with the 5 speed manual acts as a fantastic theft deterrent. I’ve never had the opportunity pilot a vehicle from the right side but I’m sure hoping that changes in the near future because doing so unlocks the level 5 enthusaist badge, or so I’ve been told.
These days, I think you could slap an E30 badge on just about anything and the cult of the small sedan would perk up and pay attention. If the E30 was the natural choice for a sporting executive in the 1980s, it’s become the defacto way to instant street credentials in the European scene. “Sure bro, you might have a 2JZ-GTE Supra, but I got an E30 dawg!” you might overhear being conversed with a heavy beat from Ludacris pumping in the background and scantily clad women draping themselves over your Claus Luthe designed hood, for example. Is that not what happens? Well, the appeal of the E30 is such that you could easily believe that might be the outcome of turning the key in one. As an Audi fan from the same period, I have to admit a certain amount of jealousy; not so much in the design, but in the plethora of choices of what’s available in the market and the amount of manufacturer and aftermarket support. It’s something you just don’t really see in the Audi camp, for example. That means that you can have some mild to wild examples of E30s to choose from each and every day of the week. They’ve also hit importation status on some later models, so the flood gates have quite literally opened and a steady stream of Euro market cars is popping up for sale, trying hard to capitalize on the car made popular by the success of capitalism. As such, today for Tuner Tuesday I have two E30s to consider; a wild Alpina B6 3.5 from 1986, and a 1990 325i right hooker with a host of Hartge upgrades. Who wins the tune-off?
The BMW E30 3 series has become a kind of German 1950s Chevrolet in a sense. With a thriving aftermarket scene, plenty of enthusiasts have undertaken projects to reinvent this compact executive car in their own right. From M3 clones to V8 engined barnstormers, the sky is the limit. With many of the Touring models eligible for US import, this has given enthusiasts a whole new canvas with which to work, as well. It’s not too often that we see the convertible variants breathed upon, but this particular 1990 325i Convertible from our reader Chris in Northern Virginia has had an upgrade to the M50 inline-6 from the later E36 3 series, along with suspension, steering and brake upgrades to handle the increased power.
The Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet still exists abroad, but for drop top VW fans in the US, the two choices offered are the Beetle Cabriolet and the soon to be extinct Eos. For years, the Mk1 Golf/Rabbit Cabriolet carried the torch in this market niche, bringing the charm of the old Beetle Cabriolet into the front-engined, water-cooled era. While they carry the stigma of being a car for the fairer sex, these Cabriolets offer a lot of fun for not much money. This 1990 Cabriolet for sale in Missouri was brought to our attention from our reader Albert, and has yet to break 50,000 miles.
Every year for the past decade I’ve headed towards the colder climates to enjoy some time exploring the limits of winter driving in schools put on by the Audi Club. Held on frozen lakes or in specific dedicated facilities, these schools allow you to do what’s simply not safe or legal on the regular roads; to get the car out of shape and beyond the limit of grip and learn to get back under control. Predictably every year there’s a crop of the newest and greatest from Audi, Subaru and even BMW. But around the ice, the best performers are still the old ladies; Audi 4000, 80 and 90 quattros comprise a small minority but generally blow right by all the “faster” cars once the grip declines. But while examples of the early quattros are never particularly expensive compared to new cars, finding the right one to buy and turn into a “winter beater” is a bit harder since they’re few and far between. So when this complete and solid but slightly weathered 1990 80 quattro turned up, my thoughts immediately turned towards the ice:
