Winning over the next generation

My kids have certainly gotten a kick out of riding in the 323. On the weekends, I've been taking my 3 boys on rides to special lunches and to the pool. These trips also involve getting on some winding back roads to open up the throttle and let them feel what it's like to be in a car that you can enjoy driving. If this were a BEHR, we'd not be able to get them out of it!!

For a 27 year-old car, the 323 really is a hit with them. The "tuned" exhaust gets them all excited and it didn't hurt when we went for a ride one evening to the local ice cream stand that we met up with an Austin Healy owner (1958?) that noticed the rarity of the ride we arrived in. My oldest was happy to describe all of the details of the car to him. Now my oldest wants to go to the car shows and he's spotting all the classic cars around the area.

The irony is that the 323 styling is not so outdated. Most people see it and don't realize that they are looking at a car that's almost 30 years old!

Holy Hella, Batman!

I just spent an hour in the mosquito-infested outdoors swapping some of the 320 parts to the 323. The list is : the H4 and E1 Hella euro headlights, Ubercable and RedTop Optima battery. No time to do the euro signal swap tonight. The flat faces of the Hellas look much better than the round faced "halogen" ones. Those just say "halogen" on them, nothing else. No brand or anything.

The one issue was over the relay. I had one and a spare along with the replacement for what should have been an easy fix. As you may recall, the high beams did NOT work on the trip back. Well, for some reason that I can't figure, the 323's relay socket has the center pin missing/blocked out. You can't use the US relay in the euro fuse bus. I had a spare one and swapped it in, but it didn't seem to do the trick. Puzzled, I left it alone and put everything else back together. I hopped back in the car and started it up (definite difference with the new Optima and Ubercable assist) and low and behold I see a blinding light! All I could think was that the H4's were REALLY bright (dumb***). Turns out that with the engine running the high beams worked. It may be a wiring difference with euro versions, but it works fine now. Now I can't remember if I left the relay in.... I'll look tomorrow.

With the new headlights I'll have to check the alignment to ensure I won't blind anyone. The outer lights have the older bulbs and the highs have new Sylvania bulbs in them and they are definitely whiter.

Road Trip Accomplished

Late last week we made the road trip to get the 323. I tacked it onto a business meeting and that extended the time out by about 3 hours, but the car is home. I arrived at the dealership, spent about 10 minutes and hopped in and drove off in a car I have only seen on the internets... Jason was nice and took care of me.

Of course in true E21 style, the cursed 4-way switch broke just 2 miles from the pick up!!! I managed to wedge a piece of paper into the switch to get it to shut off and still let me use the signal lights and that's the way it went on the drive home. I have to say that for a 27 year old car it drove great! For a new car it drove great!

The exhaust system has been replaced with a "custom" one that's just too loud for me. I like high-flow, but this is just short of having nothing on the car. Every time I get in this car I'm upshifting to just keep it quiet. My wife is convinced the exhaust is broken. I can't blame her.

I think that the 320's days are numbered. This 323i has just about everything except the LSD, the higher limit speedo, the original center console, euro headlights (Hella H4/H1), and a few other minor items. The 320 has them. The 320 has a lot more rust under her. The entire back panel is rotted out. Yep, this may be the end of the 320 I fear. It's been a good car, but between the spousal pressure and no time to work on it, that may just spell the end for it.

It's hard to argue when you have a euro M20 under the hood the turns right over and has no big issues. This car would be a daily driver without much work.

The trip back certainly provided a good shakedown for evaluating the car. The blower is non-working (fan), there's no A/C (euro car), the engine needs a good valve adjustment, the trunk gasket is shot (moisture in the trunk!), no spare, driver side mirror is cracked, high beams don't work and the rear defogger doesn't work. That's about it.



The car drove just fine at highway speed. I can say that while passing someone it is annoying to not be able to know how fast you're going.
Yeah, that's it. Nothing like those mid 80's speedos that only go up to 85 mph. Hey! I'm still in the green zone! The 14" Toyos on BBS rims made the speed off by about 3-4 mph.

I could so just swap the LSD and calibrated speedo out of the 320i and fix that issue.

As always, more later!

Getting outside

The weather cooperated for a short trip out of the garage for the 320is. It's nice to be able to drive it a bit, even if it's just down the driveway. Here are some shots of the car with the basecoat on it. Still no glass back in, but soon....

Still no bonnet, but the majority of bodywork is done. I just have to tackle the rear end and I'm through with the big items.