Unexceptional comes in many forms, and that much was clear from this year’s Concours de l’Ordinaire at the Festival of the Unexceptional. The 1982 Toyota Hilux that took the top prize raised a few eyebrows, but as an unrestored working truck from the 1980s, it’s exactly the kind of vehicle that once got used up, thrown out, and forgotten about, making the FOTU winner a real survivor.
There were probably murmurings about Antony Buckley’s E30-generation BMW 316, too, but I bet there were more fans. The BMW badge might not be considered unexceptional, and Buckley’s car is undoubtedly an exceptional example of an E30. But it’s not an M3, a 325i, a 318is, or even a regular-old 318i, but a 316. Without the ‘i’, meaning it’s carburetted, too. BMWs don’t get more unexceptional.
“It’s the lowest spec you could possibly get” says Buckley of his 1986 E30. “The colour is Gazelle Beige, and the interior Brown Nutria. The steel wheels are original, too – it never even had the wheel trims. No radio – it came from the factory with a blanking plate. And it hasn’t even got power steering.”
It is, as you can plainly see, exceptionally unexceptional. BMW, along with its Mercedes rival, was famous in the 1980s for making you pay a pretty penny for every conceivable extra, but whoever ordered this one new was clearly having none of it from the dealer. Even the most ardent Bavariaphile would struggle to identify whether any option boxes were ever ticked.
Buckley has owned the car for around a decade, having bought it from an older gentleman local to him. “He’d crashed it into the back of his garage and it was bent at the front end. I’d been trying to get hold of it for about five years, and eventually he cracked and agreed to sell it to me. It started right up after sitting for about three years, but I took it home and it’s had a full restoration.”
The odometer shows only 20,000 miles, and while Buckley has several other BMWs to distract him from the basic 316, including an E30 M3, he still adds to that tally taking the car to shows. He admits it might even be his favourite, adding, “I’d probably sell some of the others before this.”
Your author sampled a fairly basic E30 3 Series a few years back, when Hagerty tested three 1980s executive cars. That one was an automatic 318i, but driving this carb’d, manual 316 is another step toward purist perfection. “It drives brilliantly,” enthuses Buckley. “It floats along, it’s pretty good on fuel, and it’s quite relaxing because you haven’t got all the fuss of modern cars. And because it hasn’t got power steering, it feels connected. It’s just a genuine, honest car.”
The old M10 engine is good for 90bhp, and BMW’s figures back in the day included a 102mph top speed and a 12.1-second 0–60mph time. When this car was registered in December 1986, you paid £8665 for the privilege of a basic two-door 316. Figure around £25,000 today. That made it expensive back in the day. “You had the choice of a fully spec’d Cavalier, or an absolute base-spec BMW,” says Buckley – but today it seems like pretty good value when even the most basic 1 Series is now £33K.
Still, like the E30’s owner notes, it’s certainly not about the money today. “Like many of the cars here, it doesn’t have to be expensive, it just has to make you smile. And every time I look at this, it makes me smile.”
Hi, I’ve got an BMW 735i year 1985 in immaculate condition, would you like some pictures of it to. ?