What’s up 1ers! This is my 2010 128i 6-speed base model, here's a couple dealer photos.
Drove my old daily Saab 4 hours into Ohio, and with the help of my wonderful fiancée, caravanned both cars back. We made a quick stop at FiveGuys for some celebratory burgers.
I’ve been into driver-oriented cars since I was 7 years old. Cheap, RWD, manual, and lightweight all top the priority list. Sadly over the last few years, cheap ones don’t exist anymore, but I have a big boy job now that can help compensate for that.
I’ve had a little crush on the 128 since I first saw one hit the track at Grattan Raceway back in 2013. The styling is a little doofy, but I find it endearing, especially compared to the tryhard styling of the contemporary 3-series and so many other performance cars today.
Most recently I dailied a Saab 9-3 wagon, and complimented it with a well-setup NB Miata to drive on nice days and at the track. However, I needed to downsize my garage, and I realized I could sell both of those and break even buying a 128. I’ve also got a ‘62 Chevy C10, a Geo Tracker for cheap offroad fun, and an S13 240sx with a 1UZ-FE that I’m building from the ground up to be a clean grip car. My driveway brings me a lot of pride some days.
There were a few years there where I wasn’t dailying a sports car, and I’m so happy to be back. I daily this car to Detroit and back for work (50 minutes one way), and I find it hits that sweet spot between simple fun and comfortable luxury.
I picked it up just outside of Cincinnati on April Fool’s, and drove it 4 hours back home in Waterford. The paint turned out to be a little rougher than I thought (it looked great in the rain lol), but the price seemed fair to me at 10k. Outside of some blown rear shocks and the irritating delay of electronic throttle, it drove great. Gobs of torque compared to the cars I was accustomed to. 109k on the clock.
I ordered a clutch stop about five minutes after I got home from Ohio. My god, what an improvement. No earthly idea why the lower 80% of the pedal travel does absolutely nothing. Guess it's handy for bleeding the clutch though.
So far I’ve done a couple of things - mostly catching up on the inevitably neglected maintenance and trying to tighten it up a little bit as a driver’s car. I had a track day on the horizon. More to come on that later…
Fresh wiper blades, trans fluid, OFHG, oil change, and a new air filter were all knocked out in the first couple weeks of ownership.
Then, after a few weeks of trying to adjust to the weak factory throttle mapping, I caved and ordered a throttle booster for it. Found a decent deal on a new Injen one for $180 shipped. It can’t quite match the perfection of a cable throttle, but it is a LOT better for quicker rev-matching.
Another thing I noticed was that there was a little window noise at highway speeds. Seemed like my window was a little loose in the frame. Took the door panel off, and it seems someone replaced a regulator at one point but didn’t torque the window fasteners down enough. I reefed down on the Spacely Space Sprockets that attach the window and crossed one more thing off the list. Door sounds more solid when you shut it now, too.
Also, did a quick clean-up of the engine bay. Amazing what that does for the car. Simple Green, garden hose, and a toilet brush (unused of course).
^^Before
^^After
Now I was on a mission to get the car sorted as some of my friends had rented out Gingerman Raceway for a bachelor party track day. On blown rear original shocks, I needed the car to be track-worthy and I used that deadline as motivation to get her sorted... More in the next post.
Nice to meet you all! I grew up learning so much through forums. I’m excited to see some of that grassroots community knowledge being accumulated and shared here. I've learned so so much already, so thanks for that. Hopefully my cheap ass is tolerated here. Never thought I'd willfully own a German car, but here we are lol.
One more pic here before I'm done (snagged some rough E90 takeoffs with non-RFTs for the track day)
I'm playing catch-up now as I've done a bit of wrenching and driving, so look out for more coming soon. Later!
--Bob