The automotive ‘Field of Dreams’, it seems these days that if you post it, they will come. Potential buyers (read: mostly tire kickers or keyboard warriors who pontificate about what they’d buy with when banks finally allow them to cash their internet checks) play the roll of Ray Kinsella, cutting through the field of vanilla cars, driven by a ceaseless desire to find their magical dream team. Playing the roll of ‘Topless’ Joe Jackson in today’s lineup is a 1990 BMW M3 – a car you could have gone to the driveup in to watch my topical movie. Now, truth told I’ve previously spoken about how fast convertibles don’t really make a tremendous amount of sense to me, and I have to point towards the E30 M3 Convertible as one particularly odd topless choice. What BMW did was infuse your normal 3 series with race-bred DNA, winding up the motor with the revtastic S14 and stiffening the suspension to handle all of your curb-hopping, door pounding action. And then, they chopped the roof off, adding 400 pounds to reinforce the chassis and utterly transforming the car from a potential podium to a potent pocketbook. Alright, that’s a huge exaggeration, but still, it just doesn’t make sense to me. It does, however, make sense to those who are happy to part with a fairly substantial chuck of change to jump into this pristine example:
Tag: m3
What constitutes an ///M car? That’s a pretty confusing question these days as an M760Li is announced, ready to pile on to with decidedly non-Motorsport badge bunnies like the X4 M40i to rake up premium profits. If those cars can be ///Mified, then this E30 would certainly qualify as an M318is. Or M330is rather, as it now sports the early E36 M3s’ S50B30. The only mileage listed is 140k, perhaps the engine and chassis covered similar distances before they were joined. Said original chassis, body, and interior look pretty decent, with some paint issues and a little wear on the seats. Those will be forgiven as the E30 relishes in its newfound 240hp glory in the hills. It would probably make a great cruiser too, if not for the low gearing that makes it do 4k RPM at 70mph. Overall it’s a pretty tidy E30 package as they experience never before seen levels of demand.
Click for details: 1991 BMW 318is S50 on Bellingham Craigslist
1 CommentIn my search for a M3, I kept my eye out for Individual shades on the E46 just to keep things interesting. Velvet Blue, for example, was one that caught my eye. I can’t imagine having the fortitude to plunk down the extra 10% premium to order a car that I couldn’t see in the flesh, then to sit for months on end waiting for it to arrive – hoping they painted it the right shade! But thankfully some buyers have the vision and means to provide us with very interesting color choices on these cars. Though they rarely come up for sale in comparison to the sea of black and silver that consumes 90% of the M3’s production, it certainly is awesome to see one in a unique shade such as this E92 specified through Individual in Brewster Green:
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2013 BMW M3 on eBay
Comments closedPart of my logic for wanting an E46 M3 has been to have a dual-purpose car; one that I can drive in comfort 9.5 out of 10 days, but can take to the track on an occasional weekend and have fun approaching the limit. Few cars achieve the balance of both comfortable road car and formidable track weapon quite as well out of the box as the M3 does, and for some time it was the defacto track-addict car. Truth told, since the early 2000s many more track-focused cars have emerged and even eclipsed the M3 in both purpose and execution. But the M3 remains at the forefront of most enthusiast’s minds as a capable platform, and the E46 has channeled the last of the analogue platforms into a package that many want to upgrade. The result, if you’re willing to put in some time and money, can be a Porsche killing coupe on a more reasonable budget.