Thoughts:
-It was definitely a great car and I really enjoyed driving it. As a high school kid, I was extremely lucky to drive a BMW as my first car. It was comfortable for cruising around town and I think the e30 design still looks nice even today (why do new bmw's look so bad?!).
-The color on this car is called "lachssilber", which translates to salmon silver. I really love this color (as you'll see in a future post about my m3). It's kind of a dark silver/grey color. It looks nice and clean and it actually ages pretty well. In fact, I think this kind of color is now making a comeback, as you see more and more dark grey cars.
-The car had low power but quite a bit of torque, so it was fun to drive as well. And the car was very well made and was very problem free - this was probably one of the last BMW's that were over-engineered, before computers were used to cut costs.
-I still have a soft spot for e30's and would love to own another non-m3 e30 again someday. I would probably pick up a 325i or 325is however.
Tech:
-This model of the BMW 3-series was known as the "e30" body style. It was rear wheel drive, like all modern BMW's. The 325 had the same engine as the 325e (eta), which was supposed to be more efficient. The 2.7L engine in this car was very torquey, but had pretty low horsepower (126hp, 170 ft-lb).
-Oddly, the weakest e30 (325/325e) had the largest engine (~126hp, inline 6- 2.7L), while the most powerful e30 (m3) had the smallest engine (192hp, inline 4- 2.3L)! The most popular engine for the e30 model was the 2.5L inline 6, found in the 325i and 325is.
-Another very desirable e30 model was the later 318i and 318is, which I believe were only available in 1991 (or late 1990) in the US. These cars had a dohc inline 4 1.8L engine which produced around 134hp and 127 ft-lb of torque. The engine was very rev-happy though and the car had a very low weight (2650 lbs). In fact, this car was even lighter than the e30 m3, which weighed in at around 2700 lbs. The 318is was commonly referred to as the "baby m3".
Mods:
-I only made a few modifications to this car, but they really made a difference!
-I installed the jim conforti chip, which changes out the car's ECU. This made a very nice and noticeable difference. I think that the 325 with its 2.7L engine especially benefits from a chip because the engine was originally mapped to be efficient. It's a very large engine and so it should have a lot more potential with a more aggressive ECU.
-I also changed the car's differential to a 3.46 unit with LSD. The new LSD came from an e28 BMW 5 series. The differentials are interchangeable between the e28 and e30 series. The car originally came with a 2.79 open differential. The original 2.79 makes the car feel pretty slow, again because the car was created for fuel efficiency. When I put the 3.46 into this car, it made a huge difference, especially because the car has so much torque. Sure, you lose some fuel efficiency, but the car was so much more fun to drive.
-For visual modifications, I kept it pretty simple. I changed out the front turn signal indicators to smoked out plastic pieces. I had these pieces custom made (TAP plastics), so no, you can't buy them anywhere. I believe people do sell clear pieces though. I also painted the rear taillights all red. For this, I used testors model paint (ruby red flake), which is available at most hobby shops or from online websites. This color matches the red in 80's cars' taillights amazingly well. It also does not seem to fade in the sun. I think it gives the car a very clean look, while remaining subtle.
Finally, some pictures of my car:
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