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Motorsport Mondays: 1988 BMW M3 Evo2

Published June 16, 2014 by Carter

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – I generally try to stay away from the E30 crowd, mostly because I really don’t think the current values on the M3 are justified. For under $10,000, it was a great track car. For under $20,000, it was a great occasional driver and memory of fun times in the DTM. At $30,000, it starts to become a show car that you’re not willing to drive to the store. Past that, it’s pure speculation and there seems to be no end in sight. Likely, that won’t be the case but if the Hemi bubble taught us anything it is that there will always be something new for people to latch on to. Of course, I watched a Mecum auction this past weekend and saw a Hemi Barracuda hammer for a few million dollars, so I guess the market on those cars still hasn’t returned to anything resembling normal.

Will the E30 M3 drop back down? Well, it can’t stay on this trajectory for long, that’s for sure. Cars have tripled in value in the past two years, a trend which is simply unsustainable. They’re no longer values – they’ve become the absolute top of the 1980s BMW market outside of the ultra-exclusive M1. And why? Don’t get me wrong, the E30 M3 is a cool car. But exclusive? They made 16,000 of them, for goodness sake. Compare that to some other notable BMWs – 450-odd M1s, about the same amount of pre-war 328s, or 250 507s. To put that even into more perspective, BMW made only about 6,000 E24 M6s and a scant 2200 E28 M5s. Rarity isn’t on the side of the M3, but few have ever accused the automobile market or enthusiasts with any sense of sanity, so the climb continues. Now, in my mind there are some E30 M3s that deserve the attention and loftier prices, and the Evolution models have to be one of the most deserving. With a touch more power and a little less weight, the M3 Evolution was closer to it’s track-winning relatives than the standard production M3. As they only made 500 of each run, they’re rare to see – but the market is such that for some who got in at the right time, they’ve reached their stop on the crazy train:

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2004 BMW M3 with 16,000 Miles

Published June 14, 2014 by Carter

I think it’s safe to say that I don’t drive my car very much. We live in a city and walk most places, and even when I do drive it’s generally less than 15 miles away. Yet, despite my car sitting weeks at a time and the very short drives that I do take, I’ve managed to put about 3,500 miles a year onto the car since I’ve gotten it. To be honest, sometimes I can’t even figure out how I’ve even put that many miles on the car, but they sneak up on you. I really enjoy driving my Passat, too – so it’s not a case of “I hate driving this car” either. That’s why I find today’s M3 particularly puzzling – here’s a car I’d really, really love to drive and own, but it’s only accrued an average of 1,598 miles a year for ten years. How is that even possible?

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1992 Audi V8 4.2 Quattro

Published June 14, 2014 by Carter

They say the devil is in the details; one of those details in the late 1980s and early 1990s Audis was the insulating foam designed to keep the cabin quiet. When the cars were new, the V8 quattro really was a big step up for Audi – significantly more refined in presentation than the Type 44 on which it was heavily based. But when I owned my 1993 V8 quattro – notably, in this same color combination of Ragusa Green Metallic and Travertine leather – the headliner was failing. Because that seemed to go hand in hand with the air conditioning also not functioning, I spent a fair amount of my time in the V8 with the windows down. Of course, this resulted in a rippling headliner spewing the contents of the sound isolation foam. This foam was pretty amazing stuff, I’m sure. Like everything else German, it seemed to do its job quite well until it didn’t anymore – at which time it failed in spectacular fashion. Granules of this foam made it everywhere – not only covering the interior of the car, but also my clothes and hair. It was somewhat comical, as I was showing up for work appointments in this seemingly top of the line Audi covered in a fine mist of orange foam. It was as if an Oompa Loompa had attacked my Audi by suicide bombing, and I was walking baffled from the aftermath looking a bit like an orange version of the Peanuts character Pig Pen. What was particularly amazing about this foam though was where it chose to adhere to – in this case, it would stick to everything except the roof, and when you tried to clean it up it would ball into even stickier slugs that were near impossible to remove from whatever surface they found themselves on. Sound appealing? You too can experience this:

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1984 Volkswagen GTi

Published June 13, 2014 by Carter

There’s a “meme” circulating the halls of the interweb that strikes particularly close to home for me. It depicts a few images of cars – the first one being a total loss, and the last one being absolutely mint and perfect and the description reads “How I view the dent on my car” under the wrecked image and “how my friends view my car” under the mint condition photo. It’s true; all three cars that live at my home are generally considered by many to be “ridiculously” clean, but I can tell you every nick, scratch and dent on all three without even leaving this computer. I’m guessing I’m not alone and that some of you also have the same “problem”, but if not please let me know and my family will be happy to commit me. Either way, when I see this 1984 GTi, my initial response is thrill over such a great looking example – until I see that dent on the hood. Now, it’s all I can see. I can look at the back of the car and still see it there, as if I’m some sort of demented used-car Superman with dent-ray vision. It’s sad, because otherwise there’s a lot like with this GTi:

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Motorsport Mondays: 1998 BMW M3 S38 Swap

Published June 9, 2014 by Carter

Back in April, Nate wrote up an attractive E30 M3 S38 swap that was asking all the money for what was a non-original car. But we liked it, mostly because it was a well executed build and it took what would have been a tired S14 E30 and breathed new life into it. So what else does that great S38B36 look at home in? One of the complaints about the E36 in North America was that the M3 didn’t get a full-blown M motor as its predecessors and stablemates, but the builder of today’s track attack 1998 M3 has resolved that. Backdating the motor, this E36 is a rolling M appreciation billboard that will remind you what an incredible track car the E36 makes:

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