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

[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

[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

[B.J.W]

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

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

[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

[B.J.W]

EmptyCinema said:

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

I'd been watching the car for a while online. It was pitched at 2k more a few days ago. As soon as I saw it readvertised yesterday morning at the new price I was straight on the phone, as it was a direct comparison to the E21 for sale at 4 Star Classics - albeit their car didn't look as standard and had twice the miles.

[B.J.W]

Matt Bird said:

Now that is lovely! Always liked E21s and this looks fab in that colour. If you ever want to write a Carpool I'm sure the rest of PH would like to hear about it...


Matt

Until I find somewhere to keep it, I fear the next 3 months would read something along the lines of "I haven't got round to driving it yet because it's being kept in dry store 30 miles from where I live".

The dealer has been a proper gent and has offered to keep the car for me free of charge until the end of January.

[B.J.W]

161BMW said:

cosworth330 said:

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

Love your post
For me the main appeal of E21 323i ideally would like E21 323i LE is all that RWD tail happy goodness :-)
Supposed to be more tail happy than E30 325i Sport :-)

My wife will be delighted. She's not exactly a massive fan of the Westfield....