The pedigree of the original E30 M3 is obvious all the way from its race-bred four-cylinder engine (designed to rev past 9,000 RPM in race form) and dog-leg five-speed gearbox to those wheel arch blisters specified, not to look cool on the Kings Road, but to accept slick tyres of up to 10” in width. It has a design purity and simplicity of specification that hardly any modern car, and certainly not a new M3 could hope to match. Admittedly today's M3 has double the power but it isn't all about BHP. To really understand the M3 you need to get behind the wheel and drive one, and really drive it. Get hold of it by the scruff of the neck and give it the ‘Full Monty’ and you'll be approaching automotive nirvana.

Today the E30 M3 in any of its iterations is a wonderful device, but it's the way the car handles combining brilliantly crisp turn-in with unlikely stability and poise, that truly puts you in the seat of a car that, in its short life won a dozen Touring Car championships across the globe and made it without doubt BMWs finest car ever.

The chassis number for this 1988 BMW E30 M3 designates the car for the North American market and it was first registered in the UK on the 14th April 1989 according to the accompanying V5C which also notes that the car was first registered outside of the UK. We cannot confirm if this was in in America or Canada. The service booklet’s maintenance records starts on the 16th July 1996 at 34,551 miles and ends with the most recent service at a main dealer on 31st March 2022 at 64,422 miles. The advisory free MOT Certificate is valid until the 9th March.

Fitted with Evolution cosmetic additions at some stage in its life, this car is an ideal base for a restoration back to what we believe is a standard E30 M3. We note areas of corrosion beneath the paintwork which will need to be addressed at some stage. The history file includes dozens of previous MOT Certificates including recent main dealer service receipts, which come to a total of £1,939.32 in March of this year. The private registration, CXI 16, is included in the sale.