It’s mine!
My wife dropped me off early Saturday morning at the San Jose Airport for the quick flight down to LAX (Los Angeles International Airport). By 10:30am, I was at a Citibank five minutes away from the airport looking at the car. It was love at first sight, beautiful Recaro seats, and a very clean body with a factory service manual in the trunk. I was having flashback to my 20s when I last owned an E21, about thirty years ago. It was a surreal experience.
Paperwork completed, cashier’s check exchanged, and after some fun car talk with the previous owner (hello Oleg!), I hit the road for the 350 mile journey home.
Leaving the Citibank parking lot I almost ran directly into traffic as the brakes on the 320i were barely functioning, only the last inch of pedal travel did anything. This was my problem now! (odd, because a year ago the brakes & brake fluid were serviced per the receipts). I recall now having brake issues on my 320i in the 1990s and dealing with a complete master cylinder failure (scary!) and the subsequent expensive repair bill. This new-to-me E21 was trying to play games with me. Little does this 320i know who it is dealing with now… “When I left you I was but the learner, now I am the master.”
So for the next 6 hours I drove incredibly slow, in the right lane, maintaining a massive distance to the car in front of me. Stopping the car was adventure in engine braking to get down to about 10mph then slamming the brakes to the floor to get to zero. Scary as sh*t, but the light Saturday traffic, and my old-man-on-a-Sunday-drive skills meant I arrived home safely 6 hours later. (and gave me wife a huge hug of relief upon arrival).
Other observations on the drive home:
hit a rough patch of road, car rattles your bones, and the blower motor and temp selector knob came flying off
got caught in the rain leaving LA, and smoke starting entering the car, I think electrical / HVAC blower related, shut blower off, no smoke
holding steering wheel 10º to the right is straight ahead
engine, clutch, and trans felt great, temps held steady
Recaro sport seats are amazing!
Can’t wait to take this car completely apart!
