BMW

Buying sight-unseen from New Mexico: 1991 BMW 318is

 

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Old cars: buy the best example that you can afford, right? Unless you’re actively seeking a project, that’s the convention. So, imagine a listing for the car you want, at the price you like, where the only needs listed are “a wash and wax”. I found that car last summer.

I’d been driving a 91 318is as a sort of winter and minor project car up until that point. I bought that thing for $1,500 and slowly worked through it to get it into shape. I swapped in a set of matching M3 seats, replaced the cracked dash, fixed the odometer, installed a headliner, and resealed all of the oil leaks – except for one. The rear main seal leaked oil onto the clutch periodically, and that caused some bothersome slipping. It may have been a worn clutch (I had a spare clutch and flywheel), but either way, I was going to have to pull the transmission, which takes a weekend of concerted effort. Factor in some heinous oil consumption through other avenues – valve stem seals, worn rings – and the car was starting to feel like a money sink. An Indiana and Chicago car for all of its life, rust and urban parking had taken their toll on the bodywork beyond the point where I was willing to hit the car with any sort of money hammer. I figured that it would be cheaper to just sell that car and find one with fewer and less severe needs.

A serious constraint on the purchasing timeline was my goal to take a 6,000 mile trip to Seattle and back with my girlfriend about a month later. I wanted a well-sorted 318is with A/C to take us across the country and back.  Even on my rougher 318is, I was seeing 32mpg highway on premium fuel – decent for a 1991 car with that much character.

Second-to-Last Tango on Autobahn 27

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My two sensations from this drive were not post-worthy in the classic sense.  One involved an uncomfortable tilt.  The other was an engine’s song at sustained high speed – on second thought, maybe that second part belongs after all!

It was May 1988, within a month of our return to the U.S. following a three-year U.S. Army tour, and time to drive my 3.0 CS to Bremerhaven.  There, shipment awaited to a grey-market conversion shop near Philly.  Hey, a 3.0 CS!  That sets the stage for future postings about that Karmann-sourced sireen, no?  No.  Let’s just say that most parts of my subsequent 15-year association with this big galumph of a Coupe was regrettable, and actually dulled my older-car enthusiasm for years.  So this isn’t some dreamy BMW blogger waxing about his timeless classic.

Cabin fever: Andrew on autocrossing his E34 BMW 535i (on ice)

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From Andrew:

As part of my New Year’s resolution, I said that I would try to be more organized. I set out in my quest by clearing the clutter off of my computer’s imaginary desktop and shuttling files into various folders with the hope that I can find them later down the road.The usual result is that I come across some folder that I hid away long ago and my productivity jumps off the proverbial cliff in a nostalgic haze.

Today’s efforts resulted landed me within a folder containing pictures from my first winter in the Land of Lincoln. That winter, in an effort to soothe my inner gear head, I registered for a BMWCCA autocross. Let it be known, I have a bad habit of autocrossing cars that have absolutely no place slicing and dicing through bright orange cones at speed, let alone in a competitive manner. My Saab 9000 does one of four things when driven on one of these tortuous parking lot courses: List to port, list to starboard, plow gravel with its front bumper, or frivolously spin away 400Nm of torque through its open differential and one 205 section tire when the turbo comes on cue. Then there is the other car currently in my garage.

Behold! A BMW!

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The ideal BMW (and an e30)

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I couldn’t italicize the title, so I had to save it for down here: the e34 is the ideal BMW.

Andrew brought his e34 down to Brown County, IN, where we took the cars out for an Italian tune-up or two.  The 3er was, understandably, the nimbler of the two German sausages, but the 5er has a pleasingly deliberate way of moving.  When it came to changing speed, the e34’s smooth, torquey M30 ‘big six’ reacted with aplomb, and reigned supreme in the undulating terrain.  Of course, I had no issue reservations with keeping the e30’s M42 at full boil.  None at all.

 

Thanks to Andrew for the photos!

 

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2.3-16 makes it to Indiana

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We met Taylor in Lousiville, before he headed up to Indiana for a brief visit.  At the end of the weekend, Taylor set off in GTI, and got to experience the elite peril made possible by a set of bald set of Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Specs in heavy rain.  The sensation is somewhat akin to driving on a rumble strip, but without the ability to change direction.  But he made it back…

Perhaps as an acknowledgment of the danger I exposed Taylor to by lending him my GTI, I installed H&R Sports and Bilstein Sports on the 2.3-16 for him.  The self-leveling rear suspension now resides in a bucket.  Not even a bucket I paid for.  It was free at the Brown County Winery.

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Vert Visit

Heading out

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My girlfriend’s friend, Anna, was in search of a fun convertible this spring, and enlisted our help.  I lived up to my enthusiast standing by recommending an e30, albeit somewhat facetiously. Fortunately, it turned out that she had driven one up until its untimely demise during her high school years, and stocked a strong admiration for the venerable platform.

The scope of our search for her e30 convertible spanned the entire US, as I’m most keen on the idea of a flight to a car followed by a 1,000+ mile return trip.  But, after dredging the usual enthusiast forum listings, a fortuitous Craigslist search resulted in the location of a minty 325i convertible just 75 miles away.  The epic top-down aquisition trip was forfeited, but a thorough inspection of the car left no qualms with the transaction, which is probably more important in the long run.

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