Yahoo Autos Turn Up The Synth And Peep The BMW E30 M3's Headlight Wipers
Hard to believe, nowadays, that they actually needed television commercials to sell the original BMW M3. One would think that enthusiasts of the Decade of Excess would have jumped at the chance to buy into the still-fresh thing known as the M division, back when M was a signifier of genuine trickle-down motorsports expertise and not just a ploy to graft dynamic body kits onto Sports Activity Coupes. Back then, the ur-M3 was a limited-production proof-of-concept with real racing ethos, actual championships to its name, and barely street-legal homologation specials. For in-the-know sporting drivers, it cost an eye-watering $34,000 in 1988-nearly $69,000 today, though it's still no $71,000 BMW 2002.
We know that now, with about three decades' worth of hindsight, we would steal a TARDIS and warp back into 1987 to drive one off the showroom floor and across a dry lake somewhere to the glorious, uplifting sounds of a Moog synth. Have you ever seen an E30 M3 in such pristine, glossy, wet-paint condition? Not one that costs less than a bucket of kidneys.
Your humble author's nonexistent German, for a lack of translation, still can garner a few words. High-performance, elegance in competition, and yes, dynamic. Come: flip down your BMW-branded modular helmet, gaze into the rearview mirror, and relive the Euro-spec glory-complete with headlight wipers!-in this minute-long pean to the M-drei. Check out that tri-colored steering wheel. That upright greenhouse. The slight hint of oversteer as it rounds the uphill right-hander, full of composure, with as little body roll as possible. Nowadays even a friggin' Toyota Camry will stay nearly flat through such a corner, but in the decade of Giorgio Moroder, this must have been a revelation.
