Return of the E30
The Single Greatest Road Racing Car Ever Made
Photo courtesy Wiki-media Commons
In 1982, automotive company and industry titan, Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft, most commonly referred to in acronym format as BMW, released the E30. This was the second generation of the three series Beamers and it had an extremely unique design. Its wide stance, iconic quad headlights, and the bold, wedge-like front end made it a stand-out car. It looked, in one word, boxy. Its interior was elegant and ergonomic, being heavily driver-oriented.
Alex Duell, 12, a senior here at SJHS, is currently the owner of a 1992 black convertible BMW E30 325i. “It handles so well, when you go around corners it’s like it’s on rails,” Duell says, wide-eyed as he describes what driving the car feels like. However, his E30 experience hasn’t been all sunshine and roses. After purchasing the car off of Facebook marketplace, the engine broke down on one of Duell’s first couple of drives. He has since spent the past year rebuilding the entire engine himself. Despite the headaches brought on by mechanical troubles, Duell thinks owning an E30 makes up for the work. “It was all worth it for that one day of driving.”
Back in the late 80s and 90s, the E30 was a common car. While BMW has always had a reputation for luxury and reliability, the brand new three series was by no means considered a highly rare or valuable car. In civilian life, it was for the most part overlooked. This is not the case now, as the E30 has risen to become one of the most culturally significant cars to come out of its time period. Now valued at around $75,000, E30 M3’s are some of the most sought-after BMWs, with the other variations having equally inflated pricing.
But the E30 wasn’t all looks. The performance-heavy variation of the E30, the M3, wasn’t even originally intended for public use and was only released due to a rule in the Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile, or FISA, handbook. It stated that any car competing in races had to have at least 5,000 models sold to the public. While its engine wasn’t top of the line for the time, its buttery handling and steady reliability put it miles ahead of the competition. In the first race of the German Touring Car Masters, the E30 M3 took three of the four top spots. BMW claims that the car has won more than 1,500 races for them. There is a strong argument that the E30 M3 is the single greatest road-racing car ever released.