Made me LOL 
Listed for your consideration is what can only be described the steel embodiment of poor communication, excessive ambition, and woefully inadequate execution. Buy a car with your best friend to turn in to a racecar they said. It will be fun they said... Instead your best friend gets engaged over Christmas and suddenly he's much more passionate about populating his wedding registry at Restoration Hardware as opposed to restoring something with actual hardware.
We've known this car for a long time. It was owned by our friend for the last six years and was daily driven up until about six months ago. The car itself is in very rough shape; if you think it looks bad in these pictures you should really see it in person. I guarantee you'll be disappointed.
The plan was strip it and turn it into a race car, but if you recall paragraph one of this ad you'll understand that we're not going down that path anymore. Instead of blasting around VIR at Hyperfest like I wanted to, this car now sits in my condo parking lot and pisses off my girlfriend.
The car does have some nice goodies on it. Per the previous owner it has a Turner Chip, light-weight flywheel, I personally know the clutch was replaced 1.5 years ago, new stainless headers, new starter, short shift kit, and what appears to be a Pep-Boys standard issue cold air intake on it. I also know of at least one control arm that was replaced two years ago because I had to show the previous owner how to get a lollipop onto the control arm assembly. There are no receipts for any of these things.
The dashboard is lit up like a Christmas tree... Whatever warning lights BMW made in 1995, its currently illuminated on this car. If the warning light isn't on its probably because the bulb is burnt out as opposed to the system functioning properly.
It is an early model E36 which means OBD1 and manual Vaders. Kinda cool, if you're in to that stuff. I'm very firm on the price and will accept nothing less than $3000 in cash for the car. That being said, if you have something you're looking to trade the worst I can do is say no.
Cheers and Happy New Year Guys!
Linky
His honesty is refreshing.
Ian F
MegaDork
1/4/16 3:38 p.m.
Hmm... 20 years old... means eligible for Classic registration in PA... which means no emissions inspections... means less concerns about Christmas tree status (an E36 M3's natural operating state; experience).
Although I still need a 7th car like a hole in the head... 
RedGT
Reader
1/4/16 3:43 p.m.
I wish he said what was actually wrong with it besides cosmetics. $3k sounds like a fine deal.
Ian F
MegaDork
1/4/16 3:50 p.m.
RedGT wrote:
I wish he said what was actually wrong with it besides cosmetics. $3k sounds like a fine deal.
seller said:
The dashboard is lit up like a Christmas tree... Whatever warning lights BMW made in 1995, its currently illuminated on this car. If the warning light isn't on its probably because the bulb is burnt out as opposed to the system functioning properly.
And I know from personal experience (before the '03 MCS, Robyn had a '97 M3), tracing all of those down can be a time consuming and potentially expensive process.
Is it sad that after all of that crapping all over the car, I am still interested? 
Car doesn't look nearly as bad as he described it. It does have a "rebuilt" title though.....so ugliness could be lurking. Still.... an M3 for $3K?
If the engine is healthy..... hard to go wrong. You could probably part it out for more than that.
Ian F
MegaDork
1/4/16 4:04 p.m.
In reply to Joe Gearin:
With a 189K miles, that may be a big "If" ... still... Hmm...
Ian F----- yeah, it's iffy.......but mine has 170K on it, and runs extremely well. I'm less wary of high miles than I am of unseen damage to the chassis. Usually if a car has been abused the interior is trashed. Besides a bit of wear on the bolsters, this one looks pretty clean. It MAY be a fairly decent car that just needs some TLC.
of course it could also be a money sucking nightmare! 
haha, I currently live in Richmond, might have to see how bad it is in person
E36 M3, I could have used that! And I'm in Richmond 
Ian F
MegaDork
1/6/16 2:00 p.m.
$3000 M3's don't last long, regardless of condition.
In 20 years of specializing in BMWs I've only seen two BMW inline 6 motors go bad (rod knock). Both were M cars.
In reply to The Hoff:
I thought bmw motors went bad all the time due to overheating and ripping the headbolts out of the block, or has internet lore steered me wrong?
