BMW’s E30 M3 Is The Retro German Cool You Really Want
Add one of these 80’s touring car homologation specials to your garage ASAP.
If you don’t know Harry Metcalfe, you need to get lost in a YouTube time sink of his videos. The guy essentially founded Evo magazine and still contributes as a writer with various outlets. His writing is great, but the loose candor with which he conducts his video reviews is the best thing he does. He can explain essentially everything you’d ever need to know about a car over the course of a 22-ish minute video. In a world of attention-grabbing quick snippets and jump cuts, Harry’s Garage is a long form respite for people who actually want to learn about the cars reviewed instead of seeing cool drift footage and leaving with more questions than answers.
BMW’s E30 is possibly the coolest car they’ve ever built. Sure, the earlier M1 was a more capable sports car, but this first generation of M3 models was built specifically for the purposes of going racing. A homologation special in the truest form of the word, BMW wanted to take the fight straight to Mercedes in the DTM series. It is because of this car that BMW’s racing drivers were given the opportunity to leap their cars over curbs, launch straight into the side of another racer, and beat fender-to-fender with the best touring cars in the world. Does that make it a good car?
Well, the E30 M3 was a box-flared beauty with a few trick aero bits (see the raised rear decklid and extended C-pillar for evidence of that). Today’s sports cars are stiffly sprung with very short sidewalls, which is great for lap times and cornering g’s, but doesn’t make for a very comfortable daily driver. According to Harry’s assessment, and prior E30 M3 ownership experience, you could easily daily drive one of these high-revving little monsters. Yes, you might have to put up with an unorthodox dogleg shift pattern, and an engine that needs revs to really go anywhere, but a compliant suspension and tires with some sidewall certainly help in day to day driving.
[Source: Harry’s Garage on YouTube]