Читать книгу BMW 3-Series (E36) 1992-1999 - Eddie Nakato - Страница 6

INTRODUCTION

BMW advertises itself as “the ultimate driving machine,” which is all well and good for a TV commercial, but the fact is that no car from a dealership showroom is particularly ultimate. All production cars, by necessity, are built on compromise. If an automaker built an all-out performance car for the street, most people would hate it. It would be rough, noisy, and probably uncomfortable. So every automaker strikes a balance between performance and livability. BMW excels at this compromise, but there is still a lot of performance to be found and easily achieved in any model.

BMW started producing performance-oriented cars in the 1960s with models such as the 2002, followed in the 1970s by the first of the 3-series, the 320 and 320i on the E21 chassis. But it was in the 1980s with the E30 chassis that BMW really took off in the United States. The performance potential of the E30 was impressive by the standards of the day, and the number of BMW enthusiasts grew rapidly. But it was the E36 platform of 1992–1999 that really made the brand in America. For every year the E36 was sold, it made Car and Driver magazine’s “10Best” list of top cars available in the United States.

The E36 3-series chassis was followed by the similarly successful E46 from 1999 to 2006. But flash forward to today and you can find that most of the E30 BMWs are now in the hands of aficionados and racers. E46 models are still in daily service, although some of them are migrating toward track use. The E36-based cars are now affordable enough that just about anyone can find a good example and build it up for street or track performance use. Parts are still readily available and the aftermarket for this model is mature. Right now is the golden era for finding and customizing the E36 BMW.