1987 BMW M3 (E30)

The pedigree of the original E30 M3 is evident from the first glance, all the way from its race-bred four-cylinder engine (designed to rev past 9,000rpm in race form) and dog-leg, 5-speed gearbox to those bulging yet square rear arches created 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 over double the power but it isn't all about bhp. To really understand the ethos of the M3 you need to get behind the wheel and drive one and really drive one. 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, truly putting you in the seat of a car that despite its short production life won a dozen Touring Car Championships across the globe and made it, without doubt, one of BMWs finest cars ever.

Offered here is a well presented and maintained 1987 E30 M3 that is the first car Iconic Auctioneers have ever consigned from sunny Barbados. The car was supplied new in Atlanta, Georgia and lightly used by its US-owner who brought it with him when he moved to Barbados in 2005, licensed it there and used it occasionally as a show car. In 2014, its next owner apparently didn't need it for transport either so took it off the road and polished it a lot. In 2022 our vendor, a lifelong BMW enthusiast, purchased the BMW and set about bringing the car up to his high standards, fitting all new service items and replacing some non-M3 parts with new original parts from BMW. The car was then sent to specialist engine and transmission mechanics to go over it thoroughly and once again it was hardly used, prompting the realisation that the car was simply not getting enough use to warrant keeping it, so it has been shipped to the UK for us to bring to market on a NOVA certificate.

Finished in Brilliant Red with an Anthracite Uberkaro Grey Sport fabric interior and the odometer, at the time of cataloguing, was showing just 100,000km (62,000 miles).

This is a superb car that has clearly been well looked after with a fascinating history. With prices for E30 M3s skyrocketing in recent years, this realistically estimated example could be a great entry into E30 M3 ownership to be enjoyed doing the things that M3s do best at a remarkably reasonable level.