ALPINA Inflation rate....

[octanejunkie]

I like BMW's.... Normally, i have the bigger stuff. 7 series in particular.
Back in the olden days i had several E30 325 Sports which i really liked too.

I've also had a couple of big diesel coupes, 330d's. They were great.
Came accross the D3 almost by accident. I'd bypassed them on several occasions, believing as many do, that they were a bit of a non entity, neither one thing nor the other in BMW's sporty catalogue.
After completing a ground up rebuild on my last E38 i was looking for another project to keep me interested. I'd sold off the other 4 wheeled toys due to an impending house move so i was looking for some performance metal up to around 10k that would be fun and rewarding to own. I'd kind of convinced myself that i wanted an AMG Merc, but everything i was looking at was worn out, rusty or badly modified. Or more often than not, a combination of all three. I'd done such a major job rebuilding my E38, that everything else felt baggy and badly built.

I came across an ad from my local used dealer who normally buys good cars. He had just got a D3 in. I sauntered over on a Saturday afternoon and went for a spin in it. I was really impressed. Though not the fastest thing in the world, as a complete package it worked really well, and i had a riot driving it. Definitely more than just the sum of its parts.
To my mind it harks back to the original BMW small performance saloon design brief. Felt light, sprightly and eager. Easy to exploit the performance too.
That particular car had black alloys, some other questionable mods, and was too expensive, so that's where my search started....

[ade and liz flint]

Though not the fastest thing in the world, as a complete package it worked really well

Spot on description of both the E9x D3 and the D3BT. I do miss the pointiness and absolute on the limit fun the D3BT gave me with 4 people on board It can challenge some really quick cars once the roads get twisty.