Hi Everyone,
I just wanted take a moment to introduce myself. I was previous a member of the Blue Ridge Region back in 2008-2010ish but I let my membership lapse and never renewed it. I moved to this area in 2011 after graduating from JMU to start my career.
My first BMW was a very nice 2003 Alpine White/Dove 325i Steptronic. I bought it after graduating high school and figured it'd be a nice, solid car to drive through college and the first few years of my working life. Then I did an autocross, and immediately sold it to buy something stiffer, louder and stupider.
After selling the 325i I started a hunt for a 5spd AW E30 325is (this was before the crazy E30 price spike) but I couldn't find any decent cars within reasonable driving distance. I shifted the search to an 325i/328i sport package, with a loose $5-6k budget.
Then I stumbled across a listing for a '95 Dakar M3 for $7500 with 142k on the clock. This was in 2009 when "driver" quality cars were still going for $10-11k, so finding one close to my budget seemed too good to be true. I shut off the critical thinking side of my brain, withdrew a bunch of cash, and had a friend drive me across the state in the middle of the night to pick it up in Norfolk, then turn around and bring it back to Roanoke.
This is the first photo I took of it stopping for a tank of gas before bugging out of Norfolk. The rear tires were corded, a rear camber nut was loose so the entire hub assembly was moving around on right hand turns, it had a handful of vacuum leaks and one of the lug nuts was broken clean off in the hub. It was missing a bunch of engine bay/aero plastic, the interior was all but trashed, and it had the darkest, most poorly applied tint I've ever seen in my life. It was sitting on H&R races that offered both a miserable ride quality and a propensity for snap oversteer.
I immediately dove in and started chasing all of the weak points on the car, unaware I was chasing a dragon I still haven't quite caught 8 years later. I'd have to literally write a book to tell the full story of this car, what I've done with it, and the experiences I've had in it, so I'm just going to dump a handful of photos from over the years instead.
(the angel eyes are gone, by the way, they used to be cool)
I've put about 50,000 miles on it since buying the car back in '09. I've been elbow deep in just about every area of the car at least once, with the exception of the rear subframe which has held together remarkably well. I've done autocrosses and HPDEs, driven it through blizzards, used it to deliver sandwiches to drunken college students in the wee hours of the morning, and used it as a daily commuter before finally retiring it to weekend service. After a certain amount of blood, sweat, tears & money it somehow transcended past being "just a car," but I can't quite put into words how or why.
The car is actually at Mach V right now getting a new clutch installed, an enormous luxury for me because I'm used to DIYing everything out of necessity. I'm hoping to pick it up this weekend and knock out a gauge kit install, electric fan conversion, (another) brake line replacement, and a few other odds and ends this weekend before taking it the concourse event in Vienna on May 7th. Due to its mileage the car has some paint issues that prevent it from being a competitor in a concourse situation, but I thought it would be fun to register it in the Display class and hang out for the day.
Now that I finally have a new clutch in it I'm hoping to get more involved this summer and do some Auto-Xs, and I'm mulling over doing some more exhaust work before my annual spending pain threshold catches up with me. I'll definitely be hitting Katie's & the Leesburg C&C every once in a while too while the weather is nice.
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Originally Posted by SlimKlim
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