TriggerFish

A friend bought one of these from Poland with a view to selling it in the UK (I think he paid ~£4k?!). It ended up going back to Germany, ironically. I drove it for a bit, and once you've got used to it, I reckon it could be great fun. Compared to most other things I've driven, it was just terrifying at first with heavy steering and initially dead brakes! (That's including a few Austin 7s and a 1970's Cooper S - I'd rank this as the scariest out of those compared to modern cars.) Is the plan to use it as a car for the holidays to Poland then, or will it make its way to the UK?

The start/stop button is a mystery! I've just taken to stopping the engine and then locking the doors. This seems to sort things out. How they make it so confusing I don't know - it's fine in my sister's R56 MINI - they've managed to go backwards somehow!

I liked the one pedal driving with the i3. I managed the 25 miles home, including Oxford city traffic and only needed to brake twice - once was a hard stop when someone pulled/stepped out unexpectedly the other was me misjudging something. It's strangely intuitive after a short length of time, and is very relaxing, especially as there's no gears to drive around, and I really missed it when I handed the car back. I've never considered a 6 cylinder engine anything less than smooth before, but getting back into my 330d was horrid after the smooth silence of the i3.

And manuals too... This taken from my E30 gearbox after an unknown mileage. I certainly wouldn't consider that sealed for life! (My thoughts with the autos was it was usually the torque convertor that fails and then imparts damage onto the box itself? Either way, buy a proper box and it's less of an issue )

A friend's got a 1.2 Polo R-Line, and while she's only given me a couple of lifts in it, I was really very impressed with how well it rode, and how refined it was. It seemed to go quite well too for what is, I guess, a pretty low powered car (no idea what a 1.2 turbo outputs? 100bhp?). Glad to see you're enjoying the GTI, as they're one of the few VAG offerings that appeal to me at the moment.

I've never been a huge fan of these, but this, in facelift shape, looks good! Is it the 204, or the 231 engine in it? Either way, they both map up nicely. That rear brake disk... is that vented? It looks solid to me!

Mine left my ownership after having too many problems and becoming a pain to keep running, combined with my increasing experience meaning I could afford to insure something more fun (Polo GTI). It ran for another year or so I think based on MOT history.

I used bilt hamber stuff on my e30 too. Reviews were decent, as said. I'll only know if it's any good or not it several years (hopefully!), But the internet seemed impressed.

A friend's got a 2013 1.2 (105bhp?) Polo R-line (or something faux sporty?). I've not spent much time in it, but I was very impressed with the ride/build/refinement. Seemed to move nicely enough for what it was too. I was considering a Polo GTI off the back of hers to replace my 3 series, but the lack of cruise control on most of them killed it for me. (And then I went down the first house route, instead of a new car.) If it were me - I'd put the money towards a house deposit though. :) I wish I'd done that rather than spend roughly that amount on my E30. Not what you asked, I know, but another school for thought?

So not much has happened to this recently - it's still safely tucked away for winter. I did push the boat out and treat myself to an eBay special lights on warning buzzer. I'm used to a) auto lights b ) having a warning they're left on if set manually. This has neither, and I keep leaving them on at work and getting a call from the parking guy to go and turn them back off. In more interesting news, I've ordered myself something much more interesting. Doesn't reveal much does it? To map an older car like this, with a closed system ECU and no obd you have to change the eeeprom chip. You can get pre flashed chips, like a generic remap, which is what it's running at the moment. This works, but idles badly when cold and runs rich all the time. You can get people to map them with either emulation hardware, or I guess by removing, flashing, refitting, checking, repeating. Both will be expensive, and hard to find someone willing/able to do it. There is of course the stand alone option, like an emerald or megasquirt. Or there's what I have. https://www.millerperformancecars.com/store/war-chip/best-bmw-chip-miller-w-a-r-chip-detail This plugs into the eeeprom slot and lets you write, and flags your own maps to it. Meaning I can write my own, and upload/modify them as I like. :) I'll ideally need an AFR gauge, but otherwise, this is all that's needed. Should be something fun to mess with come spring time!

The audi ones I'm not a huge fan of, but can appreciate as they're done properly. The Golf ones just look crap. I saw one in real life like it, and it's lost none of the poor effect for being a video! The Leon (and Ibiza, maybe?) isn't much better for front indicators either when fitted with LED headlights. A small orange section in the lower middle of the light surrounded by ultra intense (but seemingly not that great to drive with from my limited time with them?) LED bulbs. Very hard to see. Bring back the good old days of separate indicators! Or make them big enough to spot if they're going to be LED/fancy design statements...

Good progress here - shame about the underneath though. Seeing those brake pipes brings back bad memories - I hated bending them on my E30 (they sell prebent fuel lines, but not brake lines - go figure!). When do you think it'll be done by? In time for the summer? (Or the UK summer anyway - I dunno what seasons are like in NZ - it seems constantly nice from what I can tell!)

My biggest fear for integration to current roads is how does it react with human drivers? Sure, it can respond to my braking etc., but like mentioned above, how does it know if I'll give way to it or force my way through? Will it reverse if I block its path for whatever reason? If all cars were 'smart' and could communicate their intentions it could work (what technology would they use? Something on 2.4Ghz, but nothing existing would fit the bill to my knowledge. Bluetooth/Zigbee = too slow, WiFi would likely become too saturated channel wise...), but what if it comes across a non-smart car, or a bike, or something? How will they know that the car overtaking everything behind is a police car on an emergency? I like the idea of driver assists - like the Tesla, and others have, but I'm not too keen on a totally driverless car as the roads stand. That said, if I didn't have to 'drive' into Oxford each day, that'd be nice. (I know there's a bus option, but...)

Depends on the car and the traffic. My first 330d wasn't happy in top until as 50mph as it grumbled a lot, so that stayed in 2nd or 3rd around town. The current one can cope with higher gears at low speeds better, but it's still happiest in 4th or below. My e30 can be happily left in 2nd all the time from pull away to 30, or quite happily trundle along in 5th from 25mph upwards with relevantly decent acceleration once warm (e30 in 5th @30 on a par with parent's 1.6 focus in 3rd @30, I'd guess). My sister's Mini One (2010, R56) is too slow to go into 5th/6th at town speeds (despite the stupid gearshift constantly telling you to upshift), as is my parent's Focus. In town, with traffic and obstacles, I opt for 3rd usually in most cars, but if it's clear or out of town, but still a 30, I tend to shift up to whatever the car is happy with.

If you've not already done so, I'd join the E30 facebook group and the e30zone.net forum. https://www.facebook.com/groups/2246490843/ There's been a couple of medium case diffs for sale in the last week. I think there was a freshly refurbed 3.71:1 on there for about £500-£600 towards the end of this week which might be worth a look. I've got a 3.91 in my e30, and my 4th is the same as 5th in the e36 (1.00), and 4th would be too revvy on a motorway for sure. I somewhere around 3-3.5k at 70ish, so dropping it into 4th would be way too loud.

Ah, a bit late then, but at least you got one anyway. I can't remember which system the E36 uses, but the 067 rack on my E30 with E30 tie rods doesn't have a mechanism to equalise pressure between left/ride gatiors, so they kept blowing off. Might be something to look into before you pick up tie rods, as you might be better off with e46 units if they'll fit properly. Does a 'normal' E36 diff fit? As these use E30 rear ends, are you limited to just the E30 range of diffs, or can you graft a regular e36 one in there?

Yes - either OEM/OEM+ or full on modded twin turbo V8 style things. Anything in between seems to be slated, which is a bit of a shame really. It's not the nicest (online) community, although everyone I've met in person buying/selling parts has been great. I guess the E36/E46/E39 are very cheap right now - as they start to get rarer they'll fall back into the hands of the enthusiasts, rather than drifters who just want some fun - much as the E30 did and E36 is starting to do. And yeah - welded diffs seem fun, but not for something to be driven on a road. I was at a drift place yesterday for a charity event (I had a go in an Ultima with a 6.3l LS3 V8 - wow! :O ) and the MX-5 were hoping/scuffing at such low speeds, it must be a nightmare on a road. Yep, most E30 (and E46) jobs are very easy. Hardest thing I can imagine doing on the E30 now its all rebuilt would be the clutch cylinders and their piping. Some things like the rear brake lines which run about the petrol tank/diff/subframe would be a nightmare to replace without dropping it all down, but 'day-to-day' (used loosely!) servicing is easy. Even the cambelt is easy as with the radiator removed (two pipes and two bolts) then you've got all the access you need through the radiator grill. Plus it's largely well designed too without too many stupidly inaccessible areas which helps. Little things, like the headlights/bumper not needing to be removed to change a bulb (looking at you, Polo GTI!) or not needing to drop the front subframe to change a wishbone bush (Fabia mk1) make keeping then going quite simple. The crank pulley on my 330d started to fail due to rubber fatigue, and even that's simple to get at. Remove mechanical fan, and then all the access you need is there between the engine and the radiator - something you'd never get with a transverse engine. Anyway, onto the E30 itself... On the way back from the drift day yesterday (you couldn't run your own cars, sadly) I pulled over onto some mud to let some traffic past on a single track road, and on turning right back onto the main road found the car crabbing badly sideways, which isn't unexpected, nor a problem, until the steering got really heavy as I tried to pull it back to straight. I'm not sure if it's a result of dropping the revs and the PAS reducing the pressure, or another problem, but something to look at as it was pretty unpleasant and made for a not very elegant pull away!

If the Z3 ones prove hard to find, check out the E46 '067' purple tagged racks. 3.0 turns (and I think a similar ratio to the Z3 2.7 racks) but can be picked up for about £30 on eBay. Good project though - watching with interest!

That's the ones! So far I've managed to avoid the 'best price bruv' brigade, but I doubt it'll last! :(

Yep, steering wheel is in the parts pile. I know the sort of people advertising it all is going to attract, and I'm not sure I can face it yet, so I'm still procrastinating on it! I don't know the model, but yes it's a 3.5 rover. Never moved, some small holes in the rear arches from having been (seemingly) sand blasted some time ago. No other progress though. Its all there inside and doesn't look like it's fsr away from being roadworthy, assuming the mechanical bits are ok. There's also an old Yamaha motorbike in there along with a 'noddy bike'. I bought the e30 out of winter hibernation today after the crank pulley on my replacement 330d failed. Seemingly a common problem as a result of the crank pulley being part metal and part rubber with the two parts separating. Great design from BMW there! I also treated it to a new window isolator switch which lifts the centre console nicely.

A little update on this... Since some teething issues (new radiator, new temperature sensor for the dash coolant display, spacing out the water pump pulley to stop it hitting the crank trigger wheel) it's been a largely reliable 2,000 miles. It's getting around 23.5mpg though which isn't great! It does go well though, that's for sure. I've not done any timing or anything, but there's a hill on my way home where it changes from a 30 to a 60 and everyone tailgates if you don't start going above 30 before the NSL sign. I like to wait until the last second and then floor it away at the sign just to try and prove a point to the douche sat 2 inches from the back of my car (and it's fun ). Anyway, my replacement, mapped 330d (my last one finally died, so I got another, but with a newer revision of the engine and more power) and the E30 hit within 5-10mph of each other around the same point of the hill. Given the difference in theoretical power output, I'm pleased that the little 325 can hold its own so well. I plan to get a video of both dashboards and overlay them on top of each other (luckily BMW kept the same speedo increments, so a transparent upper video will allow you to easily track like-for-like performance. The car is currently in the garage/lockup for the winter, and awaiting a new throttle cable. The one on there snapped, despite only being 12 months/2,000 miles old. I took it to BMW to find out that there's a parts and labour warranty, so left it with them while making use of their awful 116d sport loaner (hateful, hateful car). BMW rang me after three days to say that they couldn't get another cable - there was none in their warehouse and none in Germany either, and told me to come and get my car back (driving it home with a shoelace throttle out the window was fun given I'd had to deice the windows!). Anyway, I failed to find an aftermarket option, so was looking out of luck at this point, so thought I'd post on the e30zone facebook group to see if there was an alternative... After having posted on e30zone to try and find a replacement throttle cable, a shining example of all that's good about car communities appeared. Someone who works in a dealer checked the warehouse stock, and found that the Slough warehouse had some in stock, and suggested I try BMW in High Wycombe as they're within range of the Slough depo. I did this, and had one inbound to BMW in Wycombe for the same day. This coming after Specialist Cars BMW in Tring said that the part was on world-wide back order and couldn't be obtained, and then sent me home with a broken car with a hand actuated throttle. I'd love to say that this is the first screw up by BMW Tring, but sadly, it's not. Still, the car is able to be fixed easily with only a trip to Wycombe to suffer as a result. And there it rests, alongside my soon to be scrapped 330d (just need to pull the exhaust, engine/box, loom, propshaft and it's done).

I'm in a 2016 116d Sport (my word it's awful!) at the moment while my e30 is in under warranty. There's not even a cold light. I assume there's an overheat warning, but nothing seen. The 420d I had for a while had an analogue oil temp. gauge, which is much more useful. How they can go from no info to the most helpful info between models baffles me. As a side note, the gauge on my parent's Focus reads: low stop, 60, middle, 120, end stop. It usually sits just to the left of the middle, so a bit under 90. If you check it on the torque app, it reads 'middle' on the dash before the coolant is even at 60. There's no point in having a gauge if it's going to be so inaccurate!

I've had more technical help with the model specific forums, if that helps? The US community seems bigger though with sites like r3vlimited and e46fanatics etc being pretty sizable.

Wasn't bad. The studio bit wasn't amazing, IMO, and the shootout has been done by Chris Harris (and was better, I think). That said, the upcoming bits looked good, so fingers crossed. I saw some e30s in there too, so that piqued my interest!