66 PERFORMANCE BMWhometown of Iitanpolku, southern Finland.
There are penguins roosting in the trees.
The coffee machines in Starbucks have
started dispensing Mr Whippy.
“I’ve been interested in BMWs since I
got my driver’s license,” he explains. “Their
design and performance are something
that makes my heart say yes! My fi rst
car was an E36 318iS Coupé, which was
originally Hell red, but the paint was in bad
shape so my dad and I decided to paint it
in candy red. I’ve had a few E36s – several
coupés, and one convertible. Now I have
this E3 as a daily driver, while my E36 325i
Coupé 325i is being built.”
The E3 is undoubtedly a fi ne choice; for
the uninitiated, here’s a capsule history
lesson... In the late-1950s/early-1960s,
BMW’s image needed a shot in the arm, to
revitalise the brand as the microcar and
motorcycle markets imploded. The Neue
Klasse was the solution - debuting at the
1961 Frankfurt Motor Show, the fresh new
BMW 1500 pioneered a set of values that
have endured since; it had disc brakes and
all-round independent suspension, offering
the latest technological developments
in a well-equipped car that, while selling
at a premium price, wasn’t absurdly out
of the reach of the man on the street.
This evolved into the slippery 2000C/
CS Coupés and the iconic ’02 series and
then, with an eye on beating Mercedes-Benz at the big-barge game, the New
Six range appeared at the top end of the
market. The poster boy for the New Six
has always been the ‘Batmobile’ – the
super-aerodynamic racy variant of the E9
3.0 Coupé, the CSL – but of course this
mould-breaking range featured two body
shapes: the E9 coupé and the E3 saloon.
The Neue Klasse’s hardy M10 four-bangers
were comprehensively reworked into
the six-pot M30 range, and the New Six
styling featured such details as the twin-
headlights-in-grille and the celebrated
Hofmeister Kink that have since become
BMW staples. At launch, the E3 was
available in either 2500 or 2800 fl avour, and
Jesse’s car is a later 3.0-litre model.
“My dad actually found the car for
sale online,” Jesse explains. “He told me
he’d found an interesting BMW on sale in
northern Finland and that I should check
it out; I quickly contacted the seller and
made a deal – I hadn’t seen one before,
and I had to have it! It was in pretty good
shape overall; it had been stored in a barn
for eight years and the owner had done a
lot of rust removal and sheet metal work. I
still knew that I had a lot of work ahead if
I’d want that car on the road though!”
Fortunately Jesse is a clear thinker, a
man of purpose. His plan for the E3 was
mapped out from the get-go – to get it
running, make it roadworthy, then make it3.0-litre twin-
carb straight-six
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