Performance BMW — September 2017

68 PERFORMANCE BMW

ridiculously low. Sentiments that we salute

with vigour.

“After the car was brought to my

parents’ garage, I started the build by

fi xing the brakes,” he continues. “Some

parts took a while to be found which did

delay the project. But after the brakes

were done, the car ended up sitting for a

year and a half in a small garage, waiting

for time, money, room and motivation.

Then suddenly, after last winter, my friends

encouraged me to order an air-ride setup

for my E3, so that’s what I did! Soon the

large garage was empty and ready to take

the E3 in, and then it took just two months

until the car was painted and bagged.”

The priority on lows remained constant,

with that trusty Big Six staying stock and

in situ, although Jesse assures us that the

twin Zenith carbs will be swapped out for

triple Webers in due course. The interior’s

all original too – it needed little more than

a good wash, so why change anything?

As simple as he makes the suspension

sound, however, it wasn’t actually just a

case of ‘ordering an air-ride setup’ – it’s not

as if these cars are common, you don’t just

pluck a kit off the shelf and bolt it in. The

solution here was to run with universal

Air Lift struts, then painstakingly engineer

them to fi t the car’s MacPherson front and

Chapman rear setup. The results speak for

themselves though, don’t they?

And, of course, wheel choice was

crucial. That’s how the game is played.

“At fi rst I was planning to fi t a set of 16”

ATS wheels I bought online,” says Jesse.

“They’re pretty rare – I’ve seen one other

set on an Opel, but not as wide as mine.

But instead I decided to go with these

17” Cromodora wheels; they used to be

on my old E36 project, and when I test-

fi tted them on the E3 they looked kinda

good! Some people say they’re too big for

a classic BMW, and maybe they’re right...

but hey, I can always swap to the ATS

wheels another day.”

Jesse’s keen to point out that he’s still

tweaking and refi ning the setup, that this

is V1 of an evolving suspension system.

“My friends are all in the stance scene, so

the direction of this car was always clear,”

he says. “My dad and I built it up with the

American Car Show in Helsinki as our

deadline, but this is just the fi rst version.

I’m planning to own this car for many,

many years – to make it a good one! I want

to make it ride as well as it can.”

He’s certainly got off to a fl ying start,

that’s for sure. It may have taken around

two-and-a-half years to go from acquisition

to what you see now, but the actual bulk

of the work was dispatched in a few short

weeks – and with his mojo now neatly

ticking over, you can be sure that the pace

will pick up with alacrity. The E3’s second

outing, to the Turku AutoSaloon show,

netted it a trophy in the ‘Best Stance’

category, and it’s pretty obvious why. Just

look at the way it sits when it’s aired out.

It’s totally on-point.

The elephant in the room, of course, is

that it’s brown. It wasn’t all that long ago

that this would have been chalked up as

a negative, but the tide of perspective has

once again turned – muddy hues were big

in the 1970s, and they’re bang on-trend

right now. Rightly so too, as the big BMW

looks spectacular. A rich, chocolatey slab

of deliciousness, all hunkered down and

ready to rumble. Yes, this may be a rims-

and-air build, but that’s all it needs to be

• anything else would dilute its purity. We
  love this E3 just as it is ●

You really can’t get much

lower than that...

Original interior

is very cool

Viair pressure gauge

for air-ride

PBMW217.bagged_e3.ed2.indd 68 07/08/2017 07:31