With the plan to build the E30 in a way that initially seemed cheapest, the donor car started life as a lowly 316i; a model which was available for peanuts and handily wasn’t equipped with unwanted accessories such as a sunroof or ABS.
After six months off the road, the budget project had soon spiralled out of control and featured complete new running gear underneath as well as a rather spartan cabin. Added to this, the car now runs a 2.5 litre straight six from a 325i, albeit running with an ignition setup from a 323i because that’s what the donor car provided and James stuck with the age old rule of ‘if it ain’t broke... I’m too tight to change it’.
There always has been the distant aim of one day scraping together enough funds to allow the E30 to enter some sort of race series, however there is still plenty of work required before that will happen, not to mention driver practice. It also means that every change or upgrade has to be carefully thought through to avoid making irreversible or none-eligible modifications. Due to a slight OCD obsession with weight saving however, he has already gone too far and is currently struggling to avoid the temptation of fitting an all-alloy 328i engine from an E36 3 Series, a mod that would see most competition out of bounds.
You can see more of James’ eternal BMW build every month in PPC magazine.
