E21 323i - 1981

[B.J.W]

I wasn't planning to - but I (on an impulse) went to have a look at this E21 3 series today....... and now I appear to own it.

2 owner 323i, W plate, 76,000 miles from new, with overdrive. The six runs as sweet as a nut. needs some cosmetic attention here and there, but I always fancied an E21 after falling in love with my Uncles brand new 323i back in the early 80's.

My first Beemer, retro, classic purchase. No idea where I'm going to put it, but I see no point in worrying about that just yet.

amazing how slow 143 bhp feels these days, but that would be missing the point.

hope the PH collective likes her.... I've just fulfilled a boyhood dream

[Stuart Thompson]

Now that looks fabulous.

[mark.c]

Fantastic, well done, that looks lovely. As you say I wouldn't worry about the performance too much, just revel in the noise and you'll be having much more fun than those going faster

[Amirhussain]

Seriously

[B.J.W]

The plan is to keep it as standard as possible - first to go will be the clear light indicator lenses - they need to be replaced with the yella's

[EtcEtc]

God, that's lovely. Bet it has a great feel to it.

Expensive?

[B.J.W]

EtcEtc said:

God, that's lovely. Bet it has a great feel to it.

Expensive?

Towards the top end, but standard E21's are increasingly rare these days..... might have got it wrong, but I think these little 3's are on the up value wise. Values are incidental though - everyone has cars on their bucket list..... I may well go on to regret this one...... but not at the moment

[EtcEtc]

B.J.W said:

Towards the top end, but standard E21's are increasingly rare these days..... might have got it wrong, but I think these little 3's are on the up value wise. Values are incidental though - everyone has cars on their bucket list..... I may well go on to regret this one...... but not at the moment

That's not going to lose. Any more pics?

[mark.c]

B.J.W said:

EtcEtc said:

God, that's lovely. Bet it has a great feel to it.

Expensive?

Towards the top end, but standard E21's are increasingly rare these days..... might have got it wrong, but I think these little 3's are on the up value wise. Values are incidental though - everyone has cars on their bucket list..... I may well go on to regret this one...... but not at the moment

Quite right too, I say chalk up whatever it cost you and enjoy, as an aside I don't think you can go wrong with a good one of these, I reckon they have been undervalued for too long.....( coming from a bloke who payed (very) top end on an E12 M535i)

[gforceg]

Nice. Sideways to glory!

Two things; I'm not mad on the chin spoiler and..the wing mirrors, what are they from?

[mark.c]

Are the wing mirrors not original and it's just the angle making them look odd.....spoiler looks Bbs/ Zender ?

[gforceg]

Just googled E21s and got this



But it looks like these are popular too...

[B.J.W]

wing mirrors are standard - as far as I'm aware.

chin is BBS - fitted at BMW dealer if I recollect correctly

[gforceg]

Just realised! I think the mirrors are from an E30.

Sorry to pick. The car does look great. Is that French Blue?

[B.J.W]

not picking at all - all comments welcome - this is PH after all, and my first foray into E21 ownership. interesting point ref the wing mirrors - I'll look into it...

colour........ errrrrrm

[cosworth330]

Nice car,love the colour.

I bought my first E21 320 in 1988 when I was 18 for £1400 it had the number plate BMW133V. It did feel quite slow after my Alfa sud 1.5 Ti. Did a straight swap for a Porsche 914 but within a few weeks went back to a E21 323i BGY 3T 1979 which had the Alpina wheels,front bumper & back panel. Sold this for a later Xreg E21 323i. Back in the day the 323 felt very quick but the handling was seriously dangerous,I remember having one really bad moment after carrying too much speed into a corner and loosing the back end over correcting and then the back going the other way and so on until the speed reduced enough to carry on my way.Stupidly when I was a teenager I used to drive like a maniac, I think it was just luck that I never crashed. Regards handling on the 323 I had a 2.8i Capri after and this handled brilliantly even felt good in the wet when they were supposed to have a bad reputation, must have been all the practice I had in the 323 !

Simon

[EmptyCinema]

The advert is still online and the other pics show that it's a lovely thing (colour is listed as 'Stratos Blue Metallic').

I don't mind the front spoiler; angles

[Martin_Hx]

That looks awesome, even the wheels suit the car perfectly

[Fat Albert]

One of the guys I was on Aircrew Sergeant training in the RAF in 1988 had brought a new one of these back from Germany (if you drove it for 6 months over there first you saved VAT, etc)

The lovely noise was the main thing I remember!

[cosworth330]

One of the reasons I bought mine was because of the noise and the twin exhausts plus they were a cheap fast car back in the late eighties.
Corrosion was quite an issue though, one of mine rotted through in the boot where it meets the rear wheel arches.

Such a great classic car now though, hope you enjoy.