Featured Ride: Daves 1985 BMW 325e
The GTA has a lot of amazing cars that rip up and down the 400 series highways. Many have short lives and some live forever. Stance Is Everything is committed to bring the stories behind these cars: how these cars got to where they are today and where they are headed.
Today’s Featured ride is the founder of Stance Is Everythings first car: Daves (old) 1985 BMW 325e.
This e30 started spent most of it’s life serving as a daily driver for a long haul truck driver in Atlanta.
Turning into a father son project this rust free car, fully loaded and LSD equipped car was never fast but a good example of a straight forward diving board e30 build.
Initial Delivery
When I first got the car I was stoked to finally have my own set of wheels to whip around and it didn’t matter to me how it looked or that I could not yet drive standard.
The Atlanta sun and years of neglect showed in the paint.
Sun tan lotion is essential to the longevity of skin
New Paint and rims
I spent a lot of time in the kitchen of a local Jack Astors earning money to paint this car and put wheels on it.
Sadly that cleared out my account so I couldn’t afford suspension until the year after.
Undersized tires, stock suspension, RM's with stock lips. Bleh.
I got the rims for $500 Canadian with tires and the paint job cost $1800 which was a lot of scratch for a high school dishwasher
Winter mode did not look much better, but this car did help me get to indoor parks all around Ontario
Angel eyes
I made a set of Angel eyes because that was the thing to do in 2004, they sucked and I did not have them on long at all this was before you could buy kits for everything
New suspension
I was finally able to afford to drop the car a little bit. After I lowered this car I knew I could never drive a stock height car again.
Eibach Pro kit/ Bilstien Sports I lost a cap at this time though, a new one cost me $56
I went capless for awhile as well had kind of a budget race look
Pic from a Maxbimmer May 24 Wasaga cruise
Interior
I put a lot of seat time in this vehicle so I had to make it something I enjoyed sitting in, this mean the drivers seat and stereo had to be addressed.
I decided my comfort was far more valuable then that of anyone else in the car and got myself a Recaro
I had a short shifter installed at this point also, I love short shifters
I installed already installed a pretty neat motorized JVC El Kamelon head unit
Originally I had dual bandpass boxes with 2 10s but that setup was bunk so I moved to 12" sealed
This was with all the covers installed, it cleaned up the trunk pretty nice
Sealed box built to JL's specs loaded with a JL 12w3v2 firing inside, thump.
Exterior
The e30 taught me that subtle tasteful, vehicle appropriate modifications win out over outrageous body kits and paint.
These air dams are no longer available and hard to find in good condition, this was the best I could find so it had to work
I had to get pretty creative with making up the missing piece, luckily I was able to source that chunk. The rest of the lip is in flat black as I had a corner made of foam for a summer
I glassed the back and bondo'd the front, fixing the rest of the air dam was a cake walk compared to this
A lot of work later I got the piece ready for paint and made some fog light blanks
Rattled can base and clear, turned out pretty good.
Once installed it instantly changed the look of the car
I had it chipped and a Ractive muffler installed at this point sounded faster at least
I also finally got a proper sized tire set up for the wheels
At this point I loved the car and took as many pictures as I could
Subtle era correct modification went a long way with this car
This was the last shot I ever took of the car before I sold it is now someones Track Car
Under new management
You never forget your first.
The Modifications
Suspension: Eibach Pro Kit/ Bilstien Sport shocks
Wheels: 15 x 6.5″ BBS RMS
Tires: Falken 512′s 205/55/15
Motor: Jim Conforti Chip, K&N Drop In Filter
SSK: Motronix
Stereo: Pioneer Head Unit, Rockford Fostage 4 channel Amp, Infinity Reference components, Jl 12w3v2
2 Comments
Just came across your site and I am a big fan. I am the second owner of a 1988 E30 IX Coupe 5 speed. Car has about 190K on it but runs unbelievable and is an absolute blast to drive in the snow. It’s a project/second car but I will never sell it. One of these days I will put the money into it that it deserves. People just don’t realize how passionate E30 owners are. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for the kind words I sold my e30 sadly as I wanted to put TOO much into it.
I regret it a little bit to this day but it’s in really good hands now.