M3.

[e21-Mark]

Paid a visit to the guys at Rally Prep today and am taking the white M3 shell to be dipped tomorrow. It's going to be built to Historic regs, so the front brakes found their way onto my car. Ideally I would like to swap the pads for something more suited to road use, like Hawk? Unfortunately the options for Tarox 6 pots seem limited. If anyone else uses them please can you let me know what pads you run and who supplied them?





One good thing about the Compomotives is just how much room there is behind them.



The braking performance is now pretty impressive. Even with the hard compound fitted, they still work pretty well from cold.

Next job will be to have the suspension rebuilt by Gaz. (hopefully) A pal recently had his rebuilt by LEDA and they did a pretty poor job, so they'll be going to Gaz also.



Over the past month I've had a really bad flat spot and misfire, making the car a pain to drive on anything but wide open throttle. It felt like an ignition problem, so replaced plugs, rotor arm & dizzy cap (well over £200!!), throttle position switch, plug leads, lambda and O2 sensor, fuel filters etc. All done with little or no improvement.

As a last resort we drained the fuel and immediately noticed it wasn't quite the right colour, so flushed the tank and lines. A few gallons of fresh fuel and the problem was gone. In fact, it's now running better than it ever has before, so I don't feel quite so bad for being shafted on parts prices. I still don't see how that tiny plastic TPS costs £200 + VAT though? The contaminated fuel came from a local supermarket where every little certainly didn't help!

I also managed to trace the previous owner, who has all my cars service records. Even better, he was able to tell me how it was originally bought by Hamann Motorsport and appeared on their stand in the 1990/91 Munich Motor Show. It was their demonstrator and it was they who did the arch work to allow running 235 & 245/40 r17's. He has lots of press releases and photos contained within the history, but I have to wait till he visits his family in Ireland, as he's living in New Zealand.

[Jeroen]

Nice history on the car then! Would be nice to share some scans when you get the pictures.

Brake pads: yup, both Hawk and Ferodo supply decent pads and they do have a wide range of 'custom' versions. What type of pads are you using atm? And what's the intended use for the car in the near future?

Most of the parts you mentioned would be on my preventive maintenance list anyway (even though I only replace rotor arm and dizzy cap only after failing visual inspection) but lambda sensor, plug leads, etc those are common items on a S14.

As for the TPS, I only replace those if they fail. They are no continuous potmeters that could behave erraticly like on later models, just a switch that makes a contact at idle and at WOT. But ok, haven't called the local dealer to verify but according to BMW Classic's website that defo is up to date the switch is priced at 77 euros here.

[e21-Mark]

Because I run Alpha N I believe the TPS works as a potentiometer as opposed to a switch, as per OE motronic? I managed to buy one from another M3 owner, as no UK stocks available from BMW or Bosch! My local dealer quoted £200! Nas spotted a link for using the M50 version.

[Jeroen]

That's right, with Alpha N a continuous TPS is crucial. But the average S50 or M50 version is even cheaper at around 60 euros.

[e21-Mark]

It's been a busy first year with the M3. Was also rear ended back in February and needed a new rear panel, work to boot floor and a full repaint.

Also swapped H&R suspension for KW's. They're so much better! Also opted for some E50 type 3 piece staggered rims.













Previous owner took it home a few years ago.

[Jeroen]

Nice! How did it do on the rolling road?

[uwbuurman]

Great man, love that car!

[pandemonium001]

Love It!!! like the choice of wheels and superb work as usual A+++

[Peter V.]

Very nice car indeed.

[e21-Mark]

Thanks guys. I'm very fortunate and managed to get this car before prices got silly. The accident had a silver lining, in as much as it meant Dave (e21 Revival) worked his magic and it looks better than ever. I did get stung on the wheels though. They are one of the used sets on eBay and I was told they'd come off the sellers own M3. Once I realised the fronts were way too wide, the seller suddenly stops responding to messages or accepting calls. As a result I had to send the fronts back to AGS and have them rebuilt an inch narrower. That and the repaint silver (it's an M3 not a mars red Golf! ) cost way too much and ate up any savings made by buying used.

The new suspension is so much better and Millway Motorsport in Sweden supplied some really sweet offset rear top mounts. In fact they do lots of very nice components and their service has been excellent.

Anyway, I just want to enjoy it for the summer and plan on getting a custom race seat once autumn arrives.