It's official

#1

Hello everyone,

I’m new to the scene joining the ranks of Spec E30. After comtemplating Spec E30 for the past year and now searching for a car for the past several months I have made the commitment and bought an e30. I have Carter to thank for introducing me to the series. I have met some of you in Raleigh and look forward to getting to know more of you this year.

I found my car in Atlanta on AutoTrader. I’ll be picking it up this weekend. Here is a link:

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.jsp?car_id=194714883&dealer_id=57347018&car_year=1991&num_records=75&search_type=both&make=BMW&model=BMW325&make3=BMW&transmission=Manual&distance=0&address=27612&make2=BMW&advanced=y&certified=&model3=325IS&model2=325I&max_mileage=&max_price=&bkms=1136413896993&min_price=&end_year=1991&color=&start_year=1987&drive=&isp=y&engine=&doors=&lang=en&fuel=&cardist=353

I will be quickly building the car to be ready for several DE’s this spring and hopefully complete comp school by summer. I’d like to participate in a couple of races by year end.

After lurking around this site for months I’ll be posting frequently for advice and opinions. Also, if anyone knows someone in the market for a street/track prepared 95 M3 let me know. I’ll give you a link to it in the classifieds on BimmerForums.

Post edited by: screwynewy, at: 2006/01/09 15:21

#2

CONGRATS!! & Welcome. Looks like a nice car to start from. Look forward to seeing you at the track

brain

#3

Welcome… Advice from the registrar is, make sure you know the schedule and sign up for HPDE early. We always fill up.

#4

screwynewy wrote:

[quote]Hello everyone,

I’m new to the scene joining the ranks of Spec E30. After comtemplating Spec E30 for the past year and now searching for a car for the past several months I have made the commitment and bought an e30. I have Carter to thank for introducing me to the series. I have met some of you in Raleigh and look forward to getting to know more of you this year.

I found my car in Atlanta on AutoTrader. I’ll be picking it up this weekend. Here is a link:

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.jsp?car_id=194714883&dealer_id=57347018&car_year=1991&num_records=75&search_type=both&make=BMW&model=BMW325&make3=BMW&transmission=Manual&distance=0&address=27612&make2=BMW&advanced=y&certified=&model3=325IS&model2=325I&max_mileage=&max_price=&bkms=1136413896993&min_price=&end_year=1991&color=&start_year=1987&drive=&isp=y&engine=&doors=&lang=en&fuel=&cardist=353

I will be quickly building the car to be ready for several DE’s this spring and hopefully complete comp school by summer. I’d like to participate in a couple of races by year end.

After lurking around this site for months I’ll be posting frequently for advice and opinions. Also, if anyone knows someone in the market for a street/track prepared 95 M3 let me know. I’ll give you a link to it in the classifieds on BimmerForums. Post edited by: screwynewy, at: 2006/01/09 15:21[/quote]

'Sounds like a Raleigh-area stripper party is going to happen.

You know what I mean…

Let us know when and where Ken. You provide the beer and we’ll help strip the interior.

Carter

#5

Well, I spoke too soon about having found my car. I knew it was too good of a deal to work out. The owner tells me the timing belt broke 2 days before I am supposed to pick up the car. I guess I believe him or maybe he realized that he could get at least twice as much for the car.

Either way, I was back to square one and not happy about it. I decided that I was tired of spending all of my time searching ebay, autotrader, cars.com and craigslist for the ultimate best deal. I have found another car but it cost me more than I wanted to spend. I’ll wait until its in my driveway to say anymore about it. When it does get here there will be alot of parts waiting to be installed.

#6

Ken,

Sorry to hear about this disappointment.

I came to the same conclusion you did–I didn’t want to waste my life looking, and I felt I could burn some significant cash retrieving a car from long distance. I ended up paying $3500 for a local 325is with maintenance records to the day it left the lot in Raleigh and about 140,000 miles. It also had Bilstein sports, and I’ve been generating a good bit of money from the decent condition parts I’m stripping. With interior bits and seling the H+R sport springs as well as the TMS chip it had, I think I may recoup as much as $500 or more, plus the $400 savings on the Bilsteins, not to mention savings by not having to replace a bunch of stuff that’s been done recently (timing belt, water pump, etc.). I figure my total budget won’t be so bad even though the initial purchase price is much higher than I know many other SpecE30 guys spent. A common theme I heard from several racers was they wish they spent a little more up front because it took a lot to get their car into decent shape. Then there’s Carter, who spent less than $1,000 and wins the region!

Good luck,
Sasha

#7

Agree 100%…you can, and folks have found GREAT deals on E30’s but for the most part, if you start with a cheap junker, your going to spend as much if not more $$ to get it Track Ready.

Racing weekends are expensive, don’t go through all the time and expense of building a car and not have it reliable and race ready. If you buy a $400 car, chances are your going to have to spend some serious cash to fix exsisting problems that, if not addressed will ruin your track weekend.

$2-3K is a realistic number to budget for a good solid car to build from. The more preventive / routine maintanence performed over the life of the car, the better. I didn’t have to look hard and I found a 1 owner / dealer serviced 325i for $2200…and that was at BMW dealer. Ebay and Autotrader are full of really nice candidates. But you’ve got to be willing to spend alittle to get one.

My advice to anyone considering Spec E30, spend alittle more on the front side and you’ll save money in the long run.

brain

Post edited by: brain, at: 2006/01/15 08:01

#8

I have to agree with Brain. And my deal was very unusual. A dealer flipped it to me so I got it wholesale, and it needed a wheel bearing and a tranny (the tranny, I already had). It also didn’t have a limited slip diff.

After adding all these up, my car would have been about $1,500.00 wholesale or about $2,200.00 retail.

This car fell in my lap but no doubt, I would have preferred to have paid $2,200.00 and had the car ready.

Carter