Would You Get An E30 BMW M3 With A Straight-Six From An E36?

A 1989 BMW E30 M3 has come across our desks and, in addition to looking good, we’re sure it is an absolute ball to drive.

This M3 originally left the factory painted in Salmon Silver but has since been repainted in yellow. The exterior also includes tinted windows, smoked HID headlights, smoked turn signals, a blacked-out front grille, Euro-style front bumper cover with molded air ducts, and an aftermarket rear wing with an adjustable carbon fiber lip. It is also sitting on 17-inch Forgestar wheels with Hankook Ventus V12 EVO2 tires.

Read Also: Someone Dropped A 350 Cubic-Inch V8 Into This E30 BMW 3-Series

Numerous performance-oriented modifications also add to this E30’s unique appeal. For example, there are Brembo brake with cross-drilled discs and braided stainless lines, a Racing Dynamics front strut tower brace, H&R lowering springs, Bilstein dampers, Ireland Engineering sway bars and Treehouse Racing ‘Eyeball Arm’ control arm bushing replacements.

As the headline of this article reveals, the iconic German sports car’s 2.3-liter four-cylinder has been replaced by the larger S50 3.2-liter inline-six and six-speed manual transmission of a Euro-spec E36 M3. There is also a ceramic coated exhaust manifold, a Fluidyne radiator and a UUC Motorwerks clutch assembly and lightened flywheel.

The Bring A Trailer listing reveals that the car had a theft report in March 1993 but was subsequently recovered. It has been previously registered in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Arizona, South Carolina, and California and currently has 9,000 miles (~14,500 km) on the clock, although it’s unclear if that is for the chassis or the engine. A Carfax report also shows a mileage inconsistency from 2013.