BMW E30 320IS M3 S14

During the late 1980‘s and early 1990‘s Italy and Portugal levied a large luxury car tax on any vehicle over 2 litres. As a result. the E 30 325 and the M 3 were heavily penalised. This market peculiarity gave birth to a unique. rare and inspired car.

The 1990 cc 320 is was an elegant solution. which gave an affordable but still very sporty alternative to the 325 i and the M 3. BMW produced A total of 3648 E 30 320 is between 9/1987 and 11/1990 of which only 2542 were in two door form (code name AK 95).

Still with the benefit of the legendary Motorsport developed S 14 engine and still driven through the fantastic Getrag 265 close ratio gearbox this little car impressed the most enthusiastic of drivers.

THE shorter stoke S 14 motor still produced an amazing 192 bhp. so close to cracking the 100 bhp per litre mark and an impressive 155 N/m of torque. admirable for this little free revving twin cam motor.

Within the 3-series range THE 320 is had to be the ultimate ‘wolf in sheep's clothing'. especially this very early example which has no unnecessary add-ons like an M-Technic body kit.

Ordered in Diamond black and with all the normal 320 is spec and delivered on the 24 th March 1988 this special car also came with the benefit of black leather. BMW sport front seats. electric front windows. air conditioning. BMW floor mats. outside temperature display. M-Sport suspension. BMW speaker system and rear sun blind.

This particular example has now covered only 145. 00 kilometres (90. 00 MILES) in the hands of just three owners and comes with all the original manuals. handbooks and service book. In addition the cars extensive history is supported by a large quantity of invoices showing the extent of the cars history.

The second owner. a true enthusiast and serial M owner spent a huge amount of time searching out a suitable 320 is for long term ownership.

His goal was to own a 100% corrosion free (of course the Italian climate has only helped)100% accident free and correctly maintained example.

He owned the car for four years and during this period he spent hundreds of hours preparing the car for daily use and sympathetically modifying the car to suit his own needs.

The cost of this work amounts to approximately £9000 as it was never his intention to sell the car.

The work that was done included. The exterior of the car was resprayed to BMW factory standard. The car was then re-assembled with all new exterior trim and badges.

The Getrag 265 gearbox rebuilt to include new bearings and syncros and then re-assembled with a new clutch.

A genuine new rear exhaust box and new Supersprint centre exhaust section was fitted with new tail pipe trims.

The suspension was stripped and rebuilt with new Eibach springs and Bilstein B 8 shocks. It was then refitted to the car with new negative camber top mounts. bushes and ball joints and finally the M 3 steering rack was installed.

Importantly the wheel bearings were replaced with the 5 stud M 3 versions. This enabled the fitting of M 3 brakes fronts and rear along with stainless steel braided brake lines and the fitting of the genuine 16” M 3 wheels (now very rare) to enhance both the handling and the aesthetics.

I have owned the car for two and half years and only covered 2000 miles.

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