bmwe21.net forums

I'm pretty sure we had a similar thread in the olden days, but after Simon aka Desmos asked the Q I though why not start digging up some of our ancient history?

Let me start then... at least from my high school days somewhere in the early 1980's I remember loving the sharknose styling from BMW. I even kept a few old school agenda's and they already have magazine pictures of E21's and E24's glued in them haha! While on high school I remember one of the girls in my class had a boyfriend who had this amazing Kastanienrot 323i with a full body kit (Zender style or something) and sports exhaust, we were all drooling over that car! One day my father went out for cigarettes and oh surprise he came back, and with a new car. After ages of Opels he came home in a BMW! It was the most simple of them all I guess, a beige 315, but still I loved it. Compared to our heavy old estate this car was fast and nimble!

My parents were also very fond of it and it didn't take long before my mother's Opel was replaced as well. She got to drive the 315 while my father got himself a real sporty car, a black 316 with a rear spoiler, wow, hahaha! He drove that for a few years and then traded the car in for quite an upgrade, an E23 732i that was later upgraded to Alpina B8 spec. Man that was a fast and comfortable car! In the meantime we got new neighbours and they had the real stunner, an E12 Alpina in Alpine white and with the blue and green stripes. What a noise was in that car, especially when he took some time warming up the car after a cold start, drools!

Anyway, when I obtained my drivers license in the mid 80's I usually had the E21 at my disposal in the weekends. Go out driving in the weekends with my girlfriend, go to the Zandvoort track (just as spectators), all great fun. Real pity I can't find any pics from those days!

When I got to go to university I wanted a car of my own. Started off buying a 2nd generation Honda Civic from an old man, all sounded so trustworthy but with not much knowledge of cars only after a couple of months it became clear he was ripped off by the local garage and I didn't buy much of a car. Rust holes were covered with bitumen sheets and the car was up for major maintenance. Did only what was absolutely necessary and took a summer job to save for a better car.

When I gathered some money I was on the lookout for a car. Can't remember if I was focusing on something in particular but through a friend I got in touch with a guy working for a car body shop. He had just finished a project and the car was all new I was told. When I got there, there was this graphite E21 316. Defo in mint condition and apart from the painted bumpers and the tinted tail lights and reflector in between them, the car looked pretty original. Only after I bought the car I noticed he had fitted the 323i's dual exhaust system! Loved its looks all the way and it didn't take me long to fit a set of 15" Alpina replica's from OZ. My first E21 and I had so much fun with it for quite a few years before selling it to a guy that also cherished it for several years.

In the meantime I got me a lot of nice contacts in the car business so I had all sorts of cars after, but the E21 remained the car that stole my heart. And even after many years in E21's now, yes the E30 is the better car by far, but I'm still in love with the E21's styling. Still an above average driver's car too, especially considering its age, so after many trips to Alps, Ardennes, Eifel and all I still love to take trips like these in the E21.

Here's a pic of my first E21, the 316 I prolly bought around 1994. Yeah I know, I've shared it with you before

Interesting story

I blame Ben (duracel79)

That is all

You're definitely a BMW man Jeroen! My intro to these cars is a little different. Growing up in the north, trips to London were considered a treat and an opportunity for a road trip. Flights from Pakistan at that time were only from Heathrow, so going over there to pick up relatives and the like was fairly common.
We had affluent family who lived in Ealing (they're still there actually). Uncle drove a gold Mercedes 230e W123 I think and auntie a silver E21 320 with a blue cloth interior. My dad being my dad bless him was a simple man who drove a metallic mint green Toyota Corolla Estate! I remember our Aunt giving us a lift in it. She was a quick driver to my pops in comparison, but I also remember it being so amazingly smooth compared to my dads car.
I guess that was my first introduction to the brand and the fact that they were pretty well off and I was an aspiring kid (think growing up in the eighties with Dynasty and Dallas) meant the glamour aspect of their house, lifestyle and cars really stuck in my mind.

I hounded my auntie to sell it me at some point and when it was sat unused for a couple of years. She eventually did for £500 and it was my first car and quite cool compared to the average student run around. I sadly crashed it on the way back from a nightclub when I was 19 when I fell asleep on the motorway! It didn't put me off though. I've had at least 5 since - not including my current one.

I never thought the sharknose shape as pretty, but it grew on me over time and now I've learned to love other types, like the E28, E32 and E3. New ones, impressive as they are, do nothing for me on the styling front. I love how these stand out loud and proud in car parks, modified or not. So yep, that's my story!

i passed my test in 1998 and my first experience driving a bmw was a few weeks later when my sister's boss went away for a while and let her use his 325i e36 he said I could borrow it too. It had an LSD but hardly no other extras, and that's all it really needed. it was a brilliant car and as I was only 18 driving around in that i was the man at sixth form.

I had some money saved and i bought my first car which was a Peugeot 405 TD i wanted a 306 dturbo but they cost 2x as much, anyway at the same time my sister got promoted and she went out and got an e34 520i, i loved driving that car, it was so refined and smoother then my pug.

Fast forward a few years and I was at Uni, still had the 405 but it was French and it was disintegrating and as i couldn't afford the mechanics I learnt a lot doing the work on it myself. I made friends with a lad at uni, and we would hang out all the time. With him being an only child with rich parents when we were 21 years old, for his birthday his mum n dad bought him an m3. I couldn't believe he managed to blag them that it was just a special edition LOL. It was the first real fast car i had been in, we would regularly take it to 150mph and just go for blasts.

One day (5am) he let me drive it and we were coming off a roundabout and i floored it and the car started spinning by the time it stopped spinning, we had ended up in the middle of the road on a grassy central reservation and the car was like a see saw.. this grassy verge was higher then the road, I got out and lifted the front up so the wheels would touch the ground, then we got out of there fast as i wasn't insured and he wasn't sober (lol)

So anyway couple of years later, I graduated and bought an rx7 twin turbo for my 24th birthday. This was replacing my 2 year old bora tdi, (it was nice but really really dull) The rx7 was far too insane and thirsty to be used a daily, so i bought a mk2 polo "ranger" i removed the letter R from the ranger motif and it was then known as the polo "anger"

a few years later I got married, my wife and I wanted to buy a place. so with a heavy heart i had to sell my rx7. A year or so later i was at work and just talking to a colleague about cars and i mentioned that now i have a garage i want to start a new project as i was bored in the evenings. He told me his really old pensioner friend had an old bmw e21 in his car collection, and he wanted to sell as it had no powersteering he was struggling to drive it. i went round to see it and fell in love instantly. pretty much snatched his arm off.

unfortunately i was really disappointed with the e21, it drove like crap and it was really slow. initially i put suspension and wheels on and this improved things a lot. but it lacked power and after i got my arse handed to me by some idiot in a prius, i wanted to make my e21 as fast as my rx7 was. I wanted to upgrade the m10 but then DrJim told me how much it cost for him to get his to a decent state and i decided that for the same money i would stick a straight six, so this is pretty much where i am at right now.

I have only 6 weeks to go till my brand new 335d touring is delivered, I bought it without a test drive.. I think i will be a BMW fan for a long time though, BMW isn't simply a "badge", I like driving a BMW's because it has the perfect blend of performance, and quality and luxury and style.

Mine goes a little bit like this:
I started my apprenticeship in 1990 with BMW, in the glorious town of Slough.
This was at the tail end of E30 production as the E36 was on it's way.
The smell of leather in brand new E32's still sticks in my mind today.
I remember the first time I sat in an almost new E24, this was at a time when BMW had a real sense of quality to them, something I saw demise over my 17 years working on them.

I started shuffling cars around the car park just prior to learning to drive. Laughs were raised as I tried to get to grips with Auto's. Lurching between brand new cars, as I tried to find the bite!

Once I passed my test I was given free range of all cars that came in. Can you imagine now giving the keys of an 850i to a 17 year old?

The older cars, that weren't that old then! Really appealed to me. So I bought a 316 E21 as my first car. Most of my mates were in Metros or Fiestas. I was paying twice as much on insurance, but I practically lived In that car, so it was more like rent

My Dad caught the bug too. Buying my Mum an e30 M3, while opted for a tech 1 c2 2.7. A car I was to buy off him. I'd love to find it again, now he's sadly passed away.

I went on to own more BM's than I can remember. But the C2 is the special one , for obvious reasons.

I'm hoping to replicate that same punch in my 21. I know it will never be the same, but it brings back fond memories everytime I drive it.

Some nice stories here already, looking forward to more. Thanks for starting this Desmos!

Well, my love for bmw started on the same moment that the love for the e21 started, but as the e21 love faided, bmw grew on me...

My mum, getting her licence in '67, started her carcarriere in a brandnew Glas 1600 gt. She crashed that one into a tree. My grandfather at the time wanted his only child in a safe car and bought her a brand new white 1602 in '68. Since then she bought a new bmw every few years. My dad drove big Ford stationwagons for his business, started with a 12m. Lateron in life, dad drove the bimmer, as mum drove a Ford Fiesta.

Long introduction to get to the point when I was born. 1 day prior to my birth, my dad got his brand new polaris type 1 e21, his thirth new e21 in a row. I grew up in that car, but don't remember it, but i do remember the next one, a Zederngrün type 2 that he bought in 1982. I remember the beige interior. I remember the trips to my grandparents, when i was laying on the shelf under the rear window. Now a days, I don't understand how I fitted there and i don't understand how my parents thought it was safe to have a child on that place in the car. It were different times....

My dad was cool, after a birthday he drove my friends home. My birthday is in winter, so there was lots of snow. My dad liked to play with the rwd and spinned the whole tripp, drifting thru every corner. I loved that bmw for it. Smooth ride! My friends dads were driving peugeots, fords, of even mazdas and toyotas. The bimmer was much better looking, but for sure better driving. And my dad like to use the full potential of the car.

As the e30s (2) the e36 (2), the e46 (1) and the e90 followed, I liked them all. As a kid I loved when my dad took me to the dealer, and I could have some prospects, I was allowed to sit in the big e23s and e28s. I remember me just sitting in the bmw on the driveway or in the garage. Just playing the radio and zifting thru the manual, studying the options our lame 316 didn't have...

When I got my own licence, I bought a Ford Fiesta, beeing a student and having a Suzuki motorcycle aswell, I couldn't afford a bmw. But after study, my first job, the Fiesta went to my girl, and I bought a ford Focus. After that an other one, and the Fiesta was traded in for a new one and an other one and so on for 4 times.

In 2008, I finaly got a bmw! Traded the Focus for a new e81, threedoor Le Mans blue M- sportpack 1 series. I loved thats car, Sublime handling! Then, in 2010, a little wonder came in to our world, as my wife got pregnant. I wanted a safe car for her, she wanted more space, so i traded in the Ford Fiesta 1.6 for a e91 320d high executive touring. But my hunger for a e21 was still there. When my Son was 2 months old, I managed to buy a polaris e21 323i, original Dutch car, so same colour and just to months older than the one my dad got when i was born. Couldn't pass it...

In 2011 my baby girl was born, and as I bought a car when my son was born, I couldn't threat her less, now could I? So in 2011, I bought a 1987 type 1 e30 cabriolet, like my dad bought a e30 in 1987. So in 2009 i had 2 fords, in 2001 I owned 4 BMW's.

Somehow I think, more will follow.....

Oh, and for the polaris e21 323i? Thats the most horrible and f*** up car I ever layed eyes on. I ripped it apart, but it's gonna be the best e21 ever. Just look at my topic in the 6cillinder part.

uwbuurman's extensive and ever expanding thread can be found here: http://www.bmwe21.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=22124

Saw one on the a45 though that would look cool lower and was missing having a old car then saved up and bought one that was about 2 and half years ago regretted it ever since lol

I went with to Bavarian Garages who were the BMW dealer in Belfast in 1982 with my father, he bought a brand new 320 manual in Polaris with blue cloth, rear spoiler and Malhe wheels. I loved the car and although I was only 20 years old, on the drive home I told my dad that I'd have the car when he was done with it. It took 4 years but eventually it was mine. I had some minor rear end damage badly repaired by Coombes of Guildford (they were a BMW main dealer), they pretty much destroyed the car despite having it back 3 times to rectify, really shoddy work which they had contracted out to someone who specialised in painting agricultural equipment (apparently) and I sold it in '91.

Has anyone seen DRO832Y, I'd buy it back today!

So here's my story

I was two y.o. (a bit less) when the car came to my family

Bought new in 1977 by my grandfather ("he wanted 2 door saloon in order to take us grand children for a ride", in the safety of the non existing rear doors, as I 've been told)
Unfortunately he didn't have the chance to enjoy it

Car was looked after by my mother and uncle after my grandpa's passing.
I was growing up and at the same time my fascination for the E21 was growing, I guess mainly because of its shark-nose front looks
So, although my family replaced cars for newer ones, this one was staying, and was somehow kept, as it was in good condition, with not much kilometers on the clock.
By the age of 15-16 I had decided (consciously) I want to keep the E21, and I have started dreaming and planning upgrades etc.!
so when I took me driver's licence (18) the possession of the car came to me
During uni, my mates were asking how many times per day was I washing and waxing it.
All my books and notebooks were (and at some point still are) full of (my) sketches of the E21
I had a lot of good and bad times in this car, some fantastic trips etc, not to be discussed here, but the point is that we have a long story (love affair, as Jeroen put it in the subject title) together.
Some upgrades started being done already from those years, mainly small and easy, mainly due to my lack of knowledge on E21s
But I have always dreamed of making it a "perfect" (to my taste) car, like some of the cars in our forum
And I do feel that I now (and with huge help of the forum I must admit) am closer than ever before
I have driven a few newer and much faster cars, and I know what the differences could be with a newer car
But, somehow, this one still remains in my heart, and I feel it is my dream car.it feels great to drive, even though its power is small
I guess I won't finish until I see it the way I want(may be not even then!)