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Senior Year Research Paper

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Senior project, the highlight of senior year. An event that most look forward to in hopes to gain experience with a project of their choice. An opportunity for students to use a skill set that they have acquired throughout their high school careers and apply it to their passions. When I initially began planning for my personal senior project, I had so many things going on in my mind as to what I would like to complete that I didn’t even know where to start! Initially, I wanted to learn and gain experience with welding. Then, over the summer prior to senior year, my father and I traveled up north to visit old friends and spent quite some time out on the sea. I developed a passion for sailing and our family-friends sea adventure stories and hoped …show more content…

With BMW's successes in the late 1980's DTM European touring car championships, drivers such as Roberto Ravaglia pushed their boxy wheel flared machines to ultimate victories. Many films have been made celebrating the successes of the BMW M team Kissing walls and cutting the apex of turns in 1989. Being a cult classic, the e30 m3’s are raising drastically in price. Just ten years back or so, one was able to find one for under fifteen thousand dollars. Today, finding a rust free example would fetch over forty thousand. Their prices are claiming, and I obviously couldn't afford the average tag on a student budget. However, what I could afford after I sold the Subaru, was its little brother; a BMW 325is. The BMW 3 series from 1984 to 1991 housed the same chassis, similar suspension work, and shared many parts as the m3, but lost the box flares, boot wing, independent throttle bodies, and a few other changes in hopes to civilize the design. My goal for senior project was to adapt the knowledge I have gained from working on the Subaru, and learn a new breed of car. I would be taking on the challenge of restoring and modifying a BMW e30 to fit my taste and desire, commonly known as a “Resto-mod”. I wanted to not only get it in tip top shape, but build a car for myself that would fulfill my needs. This would be a challenge I would take on whole heartedly for the next six months; spending countless hours up late scouring internet …show more content…

Now much less of a car, rather an investment that someone can chuck around a corner with the biggest grin on their face. Like the m3, the lower end e30's are also climbing the classic car “tax” mountain. The bottom end range for an e30 325e or 318 could be under $500 if you have the right connections. However, it probably won't be running and would be a waste of your money. The real value lies in the 325i/is and the 318is, where a pristine coupe could go for as much as ten thousand dollars. I knew that I wanted a sportier, more powerful model since I had a background with a fairly quick car, so I had to go with the 6 cylinder "i" motor with a manual gearbox. I also knew that I'd like a post 1988 "late model" which featured plastic bumpers versus the older style metal "diving board" bumpers. I wanted it to be a two door coupe and refrain from purchasing a car in the ugly bronze color available in the 80's. I had been searching for over a month as near as San Francisco to as far as Arizona, checking craigslist nightly with no luck. My high standards and picky laundry list of needs were no match for the generic, subpar advertisements for trashy cars that craigslist has become infamous for. Thinking back to when I had my first car, I was a member of an online Subaru forum where members would sell parts, talk tech, share events, and ask questions. Surely there had to be something similar for the e30! I

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