04-09-2004, 11:07 AM
I agree with Chan, any M3 with 200K miles is probably going to be ragged out, E30 or E36. If you were going to budget a few thousand into improving/maintaining Christina anyway I'd say go for it but I doubt you were going to do that and I imagine its going to take a few thou to get the M3 where you want it to be.
Now if the M3 has good compression, has the rear shock mounts replaced, new wheel bearings, new shocks, relatively fresh clutch, no slop in the transmission bushings, and maybe has some of the electrical stuff replaced I'd say maybe. Even then, most of the time there's no such thing as a free lunch with street/track performance. You'll either pay more up front or you'll have to pay more to fix/maintain.
And as Chan said, the E30 M3 is a cool car and all but its not going to be cheap to keep it running in good condition. Much the same as one of the Porsches or *gasp* the FD. If you have it in your budget to pay for replacement parts go for it but I think its more hassle/expense than you'd want right now.
Now if the M3 has good compression, has the rear shock mounts replaced, new wheel bearings, new shocks, relatively fresh clutch, no slop in the transmission bushings, and maybe has some of the electrical stuff replaced I'd say maybe. Even then, most of the time there's no such thing as a free lunch with street/track performance. You'll either pay more up front or you'll have to pay more to fix/maintain.
And as Chan said, the E30 M3 is a cool car and all but its not going to be cheap to keep it running in good condition. Much the same as one of the Porsches or *gasp* the FD. If you have it in your budget to pay for replacement parts go for it but I think its more hassle/expense than you'd want right now.