BMW E30 325i – Sorry M3, it’s the 325i’s time to Shine!
Back in the day
Transcript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Fuck it.
00:07 There comes a point when a car reaches a certain age.
00:10 At 25 years old, it's no longer a car.
00:13 It's an antique.
00:14 You don't drive it to work.
00:16 You don't take it shopping.
00:17 No, you're supposed to pull it off the road,
00:20 clean it with expensive microfiber towels,
00:22 and preserve it for future generations.
00:25 [BLEEP]
00:26 That.
00:26 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:30 [ENGINE REVVING]
00:33 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:36 The BMW E30 is one of the best driver's cars
00:52 in the history of the automobile.
00:54 The name E30 refers to the internal chassis code
00:57 that BMW gave to the 3 Series, sold in various forms
01:00 in America from 1984 till 1993.
01:04 It's the car that cemented BMW's ultimate driving machine
01:07 reputation.
01:09 But it didn't start out as anything particularly special.
01:12 It wound up as something very special.
01:14 The M3, the most epic homologation race
01:18 car of all epic homologation race cars.
01:20 This may be the winningest sports car
01:22 in the history of the automobile.
01:25 But the E30 started out as something
01:26 a little bit more simple.
01:28 Like the 2002 and the E21 it replaced,
01:30 it was just a formal two-door coupe.
01:33 And at the beginning, it had two duds of motors under the hood.
01:36 A 20-year-old four-cylinder and a straight six
01:39 that revved all the way to 4,800 RPM.
01:42 It wasn't until halfway through the E30's product cycle
01:45 that it finally occurred to BMW, hmm,
01:47 maybe we could have a little bit of fun with this.
01:50 So then we got the four-door sedan, the all-wheel drive
01:52 variants, the convertible, and finally, at the very end,
01:56 they made the wagon.
01:58 This body style never came to North America.
02:01 But as far as I'm concerned, it's
02:02 the hottest E30 of them all.
02:04 Why?
02:05 One, I'm missing the chromosome that most Americans have
02:07 that makes them hate wagons.
02:09 And two, good luck folding down the rear seats in an M3
02:12 to try to fit some race rubber in the trunk.
02:14 Not going to work.
02:16 Whichever the body style, it was an engine added in 1987
02:20 that defines the E30.
02:22 This was the 325i engine.
02:25 Nothing special on paper, just another single cam,
02:28 12-valve straight six.
02:30 But now it revved to over 6,000 and made 168 horsepower.
02:34 And it completely changed the E30 experience.
02:37 The M3 gets all the love in the enthusiast community.
02:40 And back then, M actually stood for motorsport.
02:43 This car had one job, to dominate the racetrack.
02:47 And it did it well, winning just about every touring car
02:50 championship there was.
02:52 DTM, BTCC, WTCC, you name it.
02:56 And then it won rallies and endurance races
02:58 like the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring five times,
03:02 and the 24 Hours of Spa four times.
03:05 But these days, everybody's M3 is in a garage gathering dust.
03:10 It's the 325i that's doing most of the racing.
03:13 Witness Speccy 30, one of the most popular amateur racing
03:16 series in America.
03:18 Why?
03:18 Well, the M3 has been put up on a pedestal
03:21 and mostly away in people's garages under covers.
03:24 They're worth too much money to take out on the racetrack.
03:26 325is, they're cheap, they're plentiful,
03:29 they're tough as nails.
03:30 And with a bunch of little tweaks,
03:32 they're awesome on track.
03:34 And off track, and over the river and through the woods.
03:37 But surely you'd never do that to your own car.
03:40 [ENGINE REVVING]
03:42 No, idiot!
03:47 Come to New Hampshire and do it to someone else's car
03:49 at Team O'Neill Rally School.
03:51 [ENGINE REVVING]
03:54 [SCREAMING]
03:57 Of all the cars in the world, Team O'Neill
04:03 chooses E30 325is for their rear wheel drive school.
04:07 Why?
04:08 Well, because the BMWs are impeccably behaved driver's
04:11 cars, and they're impossibly reliable.
04:13 The school regularly buys E30s for a couple hundred bucks.
04:17 Stuffs a cage in them, installs a skid plate,
04:19 and then sics them on unsuspecting students.
04:22 Or in this case, me.
04:26 I've been beating on E30s for years, but nothing like this.
04:29 This is the biggest playground for sideways stupidity
04:32 in the world.
04:32 Forget doing donuts in a parking lot.
04:35 Rally school combines the art of sideways,
04:37 something I'm naturally good at, with the science of being fast,
04:40 something I'm not.
04:42 Here, the Team O'Neill teaches me more car control tricks
04:44 in one day than I've learned in the past 10 years,
04:50 including some advice about which trees to hit
04:52 and which one to avoid.
04:54 Apparently, you're always supposed
04:55 to look for the softer wood trees.
04:56 [ENGINE REVVING]
04:59 [ENGINE REVVING]
05:08 [MUSIC PLAYING]
05:14 [ENGINE REVVING]
05:18 Somehow, I managed to convince the O'Neill guys
05:24 that I would hit no trees in their poor red E30.
05:27 And so they dragged it to Club Motor Sports,
05:29 a racetrack in New Hampshire that's so new,
05:31 it hasn't even been paved yet.
05:33 Why?
05:34 Why not?
05:35 [ENGINE REVVING]
05:41 This poor car.
05:42 I don't think I've ever beat a car like this, ever.
05:49 [ENGINE REVVING]
05:52 [LAUGHS]
05:55 I can't stop.
05:56 [ENGINE REVVING]
06:00 I love this car.
06:05 Oh, my god.
06:08 So from an engineering perspective,
06:10 there's nothing actually really all that special about an E30.
06:14 Just an iron lump of an engine up front,
06:17 steering wheel's really high, and the steering's
06:19 slow and over-boosted.
06:21 But it's got strut front suspension, too,
06:24 which is nothing special.
06:25 And then semi-trailing arms in the rear.
06:27 And this is a suspension design that's been largely retired,
06:30 mostly because if you lift in the middle of a corner,
06:33 it throws you sideways.
06:34 That actually helps on dirt.
06:36 This car is tough as nails.
06:38 And as soon as I lift, I'm sideways on every corner.
06:40 But it's so controllable.
06:42 This thing doesn't have ABS.
06:44 There's nothing stopping it.
06:45 [ENGINE REVVING]
06:49 I'm doing all the work, and it is so much fun.
06:51 [LAUGHS]
06:53 [ENGINE REVVING]
06:56 After spending an entire day doing everything possible
07:01 to break the E30 and failing miserably,
07:03 we thought it would be fun to get a lap time.
07:05 So we sent out Wyatt Knox, who's an instructor
07:08 at the Timonial Rally School, to set a lap time.
07:10 He's going to try to break the record, which
07:12 shouldn't be difficult, because no one's ever driven here
07:13 before.
07:14 But you never know.
07:15 [ENGINE REVVING]
07:18 2.34.07.
07:21 It's a record.
07:22 [ENGINE REVVING]
07:24 OK, enough of that silliness.
07:25 It's time to put E30 to pavement.
07:28 This is a 1990 325i wagon.
07:31 To be perfectly honest, it's my 1990 325i wagon.
07:35 German spec, it's got 165,000 miles on it.
07:38 And I've put way too much time into it over the years,
07:40 making sure it still looks like a brand new car.
07:43 And though it still does a wonderful job at hauling
07:46 groceries, I'm much more interested in it hauling ass.
07:50 This started out as a 2 and 1/2 liter,
07:52 but I put a 2.7 liter block under it because I like torque.
07:58 The 2.7 makes more torque just off idle
08:00 than the 2.5 did at its peak, which
08:03 made this car just a lot more drivable on the road.
08:06 And we're not talking fast car here.
08:08 It does 0 to 60 in about seven seconds.
08:11 But it's a handler, even against modern cars.
08:14 I wanted to keep it drivable on the street,
08:16 but I wanted to up the handling ante.
08:19 What I did was took the spec E30 kit, which is springs, shocks,
08:23 and sway bars, put that on, and then
08:26 put really aggressive rubber.
08:27 Now that it has the body control to deal
08:29 with huge levels of grip, I can put really, really grippy
08:32 rubber on it.
08:33 And I have Toyo Proxies RRs, which are the spec tire.
08:37 The grip is absolutely enormous.
08:39 The body control is just perfect.
08:41 This thing refuses to understeer, and it's a riot.
08:44 And the thing is, it sounds like a lot of modifications,
08:50 but it's not.
08:50 It's like $1,000 worth of parts and a day to bolt it all on.
08:55 This is stuff you can throw on and then put it back to stock
08:58 if you don't want to track your E30.
09:00 It doesn't take a lot of money or time
09:02 to get this thing to be seriously fast on track.
09:06 No surprise there.
09:07 It's a light car.
09:09 This one weighs just 2,860 pounds,
09:11 despite all the wagon-y glass.
09:13 And that's partly because it's got cranky windows, no AC,
09:17 and none of the stuff you don't need.
09:18 Oh, and the E30 is a tiny, tiny little car.
09:23 Want a visual reminder of just how small the E30 is?
09:26 Look at it next to the current 3 Series wagon.
09:29 There is a 920-pound difference between these two cars.
09:35 Can I drive it?
09:36 That?
09:36 That was a mistake.
09:44 Sucker.
09:45 [MUSIC PLAYING]
09:48 [ENGINE REVVING]
09:52 [MUSIC PLAYING]
09:55 [LAUGHING]
10:12 Woo!
10:16 [TIRES SCREECHING]
10:19 [MUSIC PLAYING]
10:23 [LAUGHING]
10:36 Hoo-yah!
10:37 [LAUGHING]
10:38 Well, I guess you enjoyed that, huh?
10:42 Jason, that's a nice little piece you got there.
10:45 The level of grip is so high.
10:48 I could just feel the speed through the corner.
10:50 I could see the speed.
10:51 Really well-balanced.
10:52 Yeah, I mean, it feels race car.
10:56 Yes!
10:57 Very cool.
10:57 And you've raced E30s, right?
10:59 You know what?
11:00 I actually built an '87 E30, 325 IS,
11:04 into a very mild race car 20 years ago.
11:08 And I loved it.
11:09 The exhaust note was what attracted me to it.
11:12 And then it was reliable.
11:13 We ran around, and your car stops really well.
11:16 And I could not believe the turn in.
11:18 Crack the wheel, and boom, into the corner.
11:22 Very impressive.
11:23 One question, though.
11:24 How do you think this car would do,
11:25 or a spec E30 would do against a modern 3 Series wagon?
11:30 Well, compared to a current BMW, this E30's got a lot less
11:34 power.
11:35 But it is way lighter.
11:37 It has got way more grip.
11:39 I think that your wagon would kill a modern BMW wagon.
11:43 Yes!
11:44 I was hoping you were going to say that.
11:45 That's why we brought this.
11:47 Oh, a 7 Series.
11:49 No.
11:50 It's a 3 Series, but it looks so big next to that.
11:52 Wow.
11:53 Remember, the 325 was the fastest
11:56 Mac Daddy non-M 3 Series you could get.
11:59 And so is this.
12:00 This is the new 340i with the brand new straight-six,
12:02 320 horsepower.
12:04 Wow.
12:05 M, sport package, and then a track handling package
12:08 on top of that.
12:09 And what I want to know is, do you
12:11 think my little wagon can keep up with this big non-M 3 3?
12:16 It's going to be handling versus power.
12:19 I don't know.
12:20 This sounds like a fast car.
12:21 320 horsepower, it's double.
12:23 Wow.
12:23 Double.
12:24 Yeah.
12:25 I think you can do it.
12:25 [LAUGHTER]
12:27 [ENGINE REVVING]
12:31 OK, and here it is, the hot lap.
12:33 On the left is my car.
12:35 On the right is that new BMW 340i M Sport track pack.
12:39 Notice that before we even start,
12:41 the new car has a 10 mile an hour advantage
12:43 crossing the start/finish line.
12:45 [ENGINE REVVING]
12:48 Because of its power advantage, the new car
12:57 has pulled a 1.25 second lead before the cars even
13:00 got to the first corner.
13:02 [ENGINE REVVING]
13:05 [ENGINE REVVING]
13:10 [ENGINE REVVING]
13:13 [ENGINE REVVING]
13:42 Here, the E30 actually pulls ahead of the new car.
13:45 That means it's regained the more than a second
13:47 it lost on the front straight.
13:49 Look at the speeds and g-forces, and you'll see why.
13:51 The E30 averages 1.14g around the bowl, the new car only 1.06.
13:57 Since this corner leads onto the longest straight
13:59 at the streets of Willow, it's doubtful that lead
14:01 will last for very long.
14:02 [ENGINE REVVING]
14:06 [ENGINE REVVING]
14:09 And it didn't.
14:19 When we got to this cone, the new car's back in the lead.
14:21 It pulled 12 miles an hour more on the back straight
14:24 and gained 0.9 tenths of a second back.
14:26 [ENGINE REVVING]
14:30 [ENGINE REVVING]
14:33 [ENGINE REVVING]
14:37 [ENGINE REVVING]
14:40 But through those tight corners,
14:42 the E30 gained most of that ground,
14:44 and the two cars are once again basically tied.
14:47 The 340i is just 0.13 seconds ahead.
14:50 [ENGINE REVVING]
14:54 [ENGINE REVVING]
14:56 The straight is, alas, just a drag race,
14:59 and the F30 winds up pulling back ahead.
15:01 But it crosses the finish line just 0.56 seconds
15:05 ahead of a car with only around half the horsepower.
15:07 [ENGINE REVVING]
15:08 You see why enthusiasts swear by these old BMWs?
15:11 With all due respect to the M3, the 325i
15:14 is dollar for dollar the best E30 you can buy.
15:17 It has one of the smoothest and best sounding engines
15:19 ever created by mankind, wrapped in a timeless, tiny little
15:23 body.
15:23 It's everything that enthusiasts ever wanted in a car,
15:26 and none of the crap we don't.
15:28 This is the car that made every other company want
15:31 to be BMW.
15:32 To this day, if you mention the word E30 to a BMW engineer,
15:37 they get violent.
15:39 It may drive these guys nuts, but the E30
15:42 is still the benchmark watershed car for BMW.
15:45 It's so good that Randy Pope's is still racing this one 25
15:49 years later.
15:50 So good that our director, Anthony, actually
15:52 bought this one during the filming of this episode.
15:55 Drive an E30, and you too will understand why.
15:57 If you don't drive one, you won't get it.
15:59 On paper, this little BMW was nothing special.
16:02 It debuted with zero new tech, none of the gadgets or gimmicks
16:06 that today's BMWs pride themselves on.
16:08 The 325i wasn't even trying to be a luxury car.
16:12 It was only expensive because it was so well built.
16:15 It wasn't trying to be a driver's car either.
16:18 It simply did what its driver asked of it.
16:20 And now, 25 years later, while all the M3s are pampered,
16:24 it's the 325i that's being daily driven, rallied, raced,
16:29 and most importantly, worshipped.
16:30 E30, E30.
16:35 [ENGINE REVVING]
16:38 [MUSIC PLAYING]
16:41 [ENGINE REVVING]
16:45 [MUSIC PLAYING]
16:49 [GRUNTING]
16:52 [MUSIC PLAYING]
16:55 [GRUNTING]
17:04 [MUSIC PLAYING]
17:07 [ENGINE REVVING]
17:10 [MUSIC PLAYING]
17:14 [ENGINE REVVING]
17:17 (heavy metal music)