The car that BMW should have built - and we did - the E30 318iS Touring is now for sale.
Despite a range running from 2 door convertible through to five door estate and a number of engine and gearbox options, the E30 floor pan is fundamentally the same across all models. There may be slightly different rear overhangs, but the wheelbase, track length and width of all models remains constant. This means that the five door estate can handle, ride and feel on the road exactly the same as the two door saloon. The E30 touring, along with Alfa Romeo's SportWagen, was the archetypal, small sporting estate. In 325i form, it combined a bit of extra room and practicality with top of the range mechanics.
What makes the touring attractive from a practical point of view is that all, even lowly 316i autos, were built with discs all round and 51mm front struts - effectively 325i running gear, so engine upgrades are relatively easily performed. They also lived longer than the saloons which lasted until 1991 and the convertibles in 1992. The Touring was produced until 1993 and our experience is that these later cars do seem to suffer less from serious structural rust.
This is one of the last 500 E30s built and left the factory, as most of the last ones did, as a 316i auto in Laguna Green Metallic. It came to us some time ago and we were impressed by its structural integrity. It was, and still is, a superb shell, needing only very minor superficial rust repairs at that time - which it has received. My recollection is that no welding was required. We were far less impressed by its M40b16 316i auto running gear.
Fortunately, our customer agreed and equally fortunately, we had an excellent M42b18 16v engine,gearbox, prop etc. out of a 1990 318iS which, given its similarities to the M40, is probably (after a 320-325i conversion) the easiest, best performance for least effort conversion that can be done on an E30. This was complicated by an auto to manual swap, but other than that, it went like clockwork. We did a coil on plug conversion too, tidied up the interior with parts out of an identical car, shod it with standard fit 15" BBS cross spokes and sent it off to its happy new owner. There's a description of its build and delivery on our Facebook page from about a year ago.
In that time, its owner has improved it slightly, polishing and flatting the paintwork and attending to minor aesthetic bodywork imperfections. The car now looks superb from all angles.
It drives perfectly, starts, stops, steers and handles just as you would expect and is surprisingly "peppy". The interior is very, very good. The dash is uncracked. The base of the passenger's seat is slightly frayed, but I think we have a matching driver's one that could supply the base.
Other than that there really is nothing wrong with it at all.
Could it be improved? We have the extremely rare 4.1:1 small case LSD that could be fitted and I might be tempted to fit an iS lip spoiler just to hint at what might be under the bonnet, but really, this is currently the best of all worlds, looks understated, drives well, decent performance and in excellent overall condition.
For sale because its new owner now travels 70 miles per day at least and wants to return 60 mpg rather than 30 and for no other reason.
12 months MoT. More photos are available and photos of any area can be obtained. Delivery arranged. Great value at £2750
Despite a range running from 2 door convertible through to five door estate and a number of engine and gearbox options, the E30 floor pan is fundamentally the same across all models. There may be slightly different rear overhangs, but the wheelbase, track length and width of all models remains constant. This means that the five door estate can handle, ride and feel on the road exactly the same as the two door saloon. The E30 touring, along with Alfa Romeo's SportWagen, was the archetypal, small sporting estate. In 325i form, it combined a bit of extra room and practicality with top of the range mechanics.
What makes the touring attractive from a practical point of view is that all, even lowly 316i autos, were built with discs all round and 51mm front struts - effectively 325i running gear, so engine upgrades are relatively easily performed. They also lived longer than the saloons which lasted until 1991 and the convertibles in 1992. The Touring was produced until 1993 and our experience is that these later cars do seem to suffer less from serious structural rust.
This is one of the last 500 E30s built and left the factory, as most of the last ones did, as a 316i auto in Laguna Green Metallic. It came to us some time ago and we were impressed by its structural integrity. It was, and still is, a superb shell, needing only very minor superficial rust repairs at that time - which it has received. My recollection is that no welding was required. We were far less impressed by its M40b16 316i auto running gear.
Fortunately, our customer agreed and equally fortunately, we had an excellent M42b18 16v engine,gearbox, prop etc. out of a 1990 318iS which, given its similarities to the M40, is probably (after a 320-325i conversion) the easiest, best performance for least effort conversion that can be done on an E30. This was complicated by an auto to manual swap, but other than that, it went like clockwork. We did a coil on plug conversion too, tidied up the interior with parts out of an identical car, shod it with standard fit 15" BBS cross spokes and sent it off to its happy new owner. There's a description of its build and delivery on our Facebook page from about a year ago.
In that time, its owner has improved it slightly, polishing and flatting the paintwork and attending to minor aesthetic bodywork imperfections. The car now looks superb from all angles.
It drives perfectly, starts, stops, steers and handles just as you would expect and is surprisingly "peppy". The interior is very, very good. The dash is uncracked. The base of the passenger's seat is slightly frayed, but I think we have a matching driver's one that could supply the base.
Other than that there really is nothing wrong with it at all.
Could it be improved? We have the extremely rare 4.1:1 small case LSD that could be fitted and I might be tempted to fit an iS lip spoiler just to hint at what might be under the bonnet, but really, this is currently the best of all worlds, looks understated, drives well, decent performance and in excellent overall condition.
For sale because its new owner now travels 70 miles per day at least and wants to return 60 mpg rather than 30 and for no other reason.
12 months MoT. More photos are available and photos of any area can be obtained. Delivery arranged. Great value at £2750
