From the Classifieds: 1994 BMW M3 E36

This original-condition, low-mileage 1994 E36 BMW M3 from Epping, NSW, offers the opportunity to relive the days when the first high-performance 3 Series came to Australia

BMW rocked the world of high-performance compact coupes with the launch of the E30 3 Series-based M3 in 1986.

The four-cylinder engine, coupled to an extensive re-work of just about every aspect of the base 3 Series running gear – and the body – saw the M3 taking out a long list of motorsport victories including a world touring car championship, an Australian touring car championship, five wins at the 24-hour Nurburgring race and four wins at the Spa 24 hours.

Australians had to wait eight years before the first BMW M3, based on the E36 3 Series, arrived in 1994. The big-ticket item was the 3.0-litre BMW engine, which was the first six-cylinder to be used in an M3.

The late arrival of the BMW M3 had its positive sides. Even though the original E30 M3 was rated as one of the top sports cars of the 1980s, the mid-size coupe had matured by the time of E36’s arrival in 1994 (it was introduced to the European market in 1992), and its 210kW/320Nm normally-aspirated inline six-cylinder conveyed the sort of aural magic that is so much a part of the BMW ethos.

With its growling engine and thoroughly reworked suspension, (five-speed manual) transmission and brakes, the E36 M3 was something of a darling to the Australian automotive press – to the extent that some compared it more than favourably for sheer driving pleasure with its rather more expensive (by $50,000 plus) German contemporary, the 1994 Porsche 911 Carrera.

As the first BMW M3 to come to Australia, the E36 3.0-litre model enjoyed only a relatively short lifespan – from June 1994 to March 1995 – before a more powerful 3.2-litre version was launched in February 1996. Original E36 models available in the used-car market tend to be limited in number for that reason.

Today, the six-cylinder E36 model recalls the enthusiasm its arrival was greeted with in 1984, and to find an original-condition version is not necessarily an easy thing.

That’s why this 1994 E36 M3 with manual-transmission and finished in Avus Blue, showing a low 74,077 kilometer reading and offered for sale on carsales.com.au at $67,000, caught our attention.

Hailing from the Sydney suburb of Epping in NSW, the M3 is now in the hands of its fourth owner since 1994 and has been in storage for the last two years.

The owner says the car is in untouched, original condition and although it has been re-registered after two years in storage (and started regularly) it still wears the number plates it was delivered with and, apart from a couple of minor paints chips, is “almost as new.”

In fact the photographs are not fully representative of the true condition of the paintwork. According to the owner it actually “looks much better”.

The asking price for the M3 coupe is on the highish side, but its condition, its well below-average mileage and the fact that it has manual transmission suggest it should make a good investment.

The owner says the M3 will be sold with a full roadworthy certificate and a “full inspection 2” service carried out by Col Crawford BMW in Brookvale, NSW, where it has been already given the green light.

Gorgeous.

See previous carsales From the Classifieds