BMW E30 M3 Europameister – project in progress

The E30 M3 is one of the most famous cars ever to come out of Munich. It put BMW firmly on the map in the world of motorsport, and was very much the star of the 80s line up from the BMW Motorsport team. Today, it is a true classic Legend.

BMW cleaned up at the track, with drivers such as Roberto Ravaglia and Johnny Cecotto blazing a trail across the circuits of Europe. After the first run of success – with the first incarnation of a car that was to ultimately undergo three major revisions for homologation – BMW Motorsport decided to release a celebration model – in limited numbers of 148 cars, and called it the Europameister.

Our client acquired his Europameister almost by accident, and immediately fell in love. Initially introduced to us by another garage, he started to discuss the idea of a full restoration, and before long the idea had moved from discussions to reality.

The brief was quite simply to produce a perfect car. The engine would be modified to Sport Evolution spec, we would retro-fit air conditioning, the interior would change colour subtly, and the wheels would be non-standard. The suspension would be modified and tuned and the exhaust would be a sporty one. Otherwise everything else would be faithful to the original. We love this project right from the get-go, not least because of the enthusiasm shown by our customer. Also, of course, it’s a damn cool car.

Once the M3 was stripped and sent to the body shop for stripping, welding, prepping and painting, our team went to work on the engine. Using the original S14 but with carbon fibre air intake and Alpha-N management, power was increased to the same level as the later cars, but without compromising that legendary S14 robust reliability. The engine capacity was increased to the Sport Evolution spec of 2.5 litres from the standard 2.3 litre configuration, increasing bore and stroke, adapting the crank and cams to match, the throttle bodies were bored out to 48mm with bigger valves and a ported and flowed cylinder head (for full details on this conversion please contact our restoration team). Apart from significantly increasing performance, we also think its one of the sexiest road car engines we’ve ever built.

The suspension was uprated using Eibach springs, H&R anti-roll bars and polybushes. The exhaust comprises a full Supersprint mid-section with an Eisenmann back box

Next the interior was removed, and our faithful trimmers set about retrimming the seats, door cards and centre console in beautiful black nappa leather, as the original grey was deemed a little too dull – and not forgetting of course the Motorsport flashes on the rear support.

As at the time of writing, the interior has just been fitted, the engine is plumbed in and ready for testing. The final wheels will soon be back from refurbishment and we’ll be updating you soon with the first running report and hopefully a cool video. Keep watching!