Tuned BMW E30 surpasses the iconic M3 at a fraction of the cost

Few would deny that the E30 BMW M3 is one of the most successful production sports cars in the history of the marque. The flip side of popularity is the pricing: it can be hard to find a well-kept example under $100,000, and certain special editions are worth even more than that. Luckily for us, tuners exist.

This specific example, which went on sale the other day, is an E30 BMW 3-Series made back in 1989. Its previous owner swapped the stock 2.5-liter engine out for a more modern 3.2-liter S54 mill. As a result, the car went from just 170 PS (168 hp / 125 kW) to 338 PS (333 hp / 249 kW).

A five-speed manual transmission carries the momentum to the rear wheels through an LSD on the rear axle. Brakes and suspension enjoy their share of upgrades, too.

We don’t know how fast this 3-Series is in a straight line, but it should be considerably more agile than the stock M3 with its 193 PS (190 hp / 142 kW).