[saint166]

hello everyone im new to your forum but not new to bmw's . i have been a member of bimmforums since 2006 and i own a 97 m3 .

i just bought a 1994 b3 3.0 alpina . im importing from japan and i will have it here in canada by the end of april . hopefully all the snow will be gone by then . the car seems to be in good condition and it is #0160. its a switch-tronic . i really would have prefered a manual but im interested in trying out this manual/auto trans . any comments or help would be much appriciated . the pics im posting are the ones they took in japan . ibc japan has been very helpful

regards

dwayne .

engine bay needs a good cleaning

here are the few blemishes pointed out by ibc japan

 

[kees]

Very nice! Congradulations with the new car!

Look forward to your impressions of the Switchtronic gearbox.

 

[ellac]

Looks nice and original! Like the steeringwheel , it has a cool "retro"-look! How come a Japan import is LHD ?

Hope you enjoy it!

BR Carl

 

[saint166]

im really looking forward to trying that switch tronic . can anyone chime in on what they think of it? ellac i notice have a b3 3.0 . gave u give me your impressions of the car? is yours a manual or auto . coupe or sedan? . in japan alot of the bmw's are lhd so its a huge plus for canadians to buy them . i was going to buy a 95 euro M3 but when this came up on the auction with it being so rare i had to have it

 

[ellac]

Hi Saint, your car seems to be pretty similar speced as mine, but mine is Manual och does not have the wood interior. My car:
http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/al.../141429-alpina-b3-3-0-e36-94-restoration.html

I like the B3 3.0 engine, on the trackdays I visited it seems to have pretty close to the same performance as a Euro 286HP M3. I made a few "upgrades" on my car , one is the brakes that were swapped to E46 330 items and Carbotech pads, that was a nice upgrade from original (= stock 325 brakes)

BR Carl

 

[saint166]

oh ok so thats your car . i noticed it on alpinaboard.com . u did a fantastic job on it . mad skills there carl . as far as the performance numbers im glad to see they are close to the euro M3 . when i read the specs on the car the performance numbers really didnt match to the hp and torque . i have a 97 M3 north american model with 240hp and around 230 ft lbs torque and the 0 to 60 times are rated 5.5 . the alpina is lighter . 2950 compared to 3175 in my M and 10 more hp and 10 more ft lbs of torque . i have done some mods to my M with a 3:91 diffy plus lightened it up to 2800 lbs and i have raced e46 M3 and stayed right with them .

question for u . does anyone put a coilover suspension on their alpina's ? i like a bit more of an aggresive stance . i will certainly keep the stock suspension so i can put it back to stock later .

ty for your reply and insight carl .

regards from canada
dwayne . p.s. sweden has some great hockey players but canada still rules lol . the twins are tearing things up in vancouver .

 

[V.I.P.]

tell the guys from Japan to fill up some fuel.
interesting how this old style gearbox works, I would also prefer manual.
extraordinary ride, though.

 

[saint166]

ya i noticed i might have to top up the tank when i get it here lol . to the guy that messaged me who i used to get the car here . i bought it through ibc japan . i dont have enough posts to pm

 

[bmb7t]

I would be the guy that PM you! OK, IBC Japan, great for Japan but not that good for Europe I guess. I am investigating on getting the B9 here in Canada but although the import to Canada process is very easy on an older car (Basically you just have to pay duties of 22%), I am having a very difficult time to find somebody to do the transport for a reasonable amount.

Great car, nice to see this B3 in Canada...I am sure that the switchtronic will work very good. Interesting to see how Canada is becoming the refuge of a number of alpinas...must be the strong $$$ ..hey no need to fuel in Japan, I think gas is much cheaper here!

 

[Canadian B3 3.0]

Haha yes Alpina's in Canada, we will have to do meets!!! Yeah I drove mine from Calgary to Ottawa last summer, ride is smooth as hell, really impressed! I have a Switch-Tronic too, works well the only thing I find is that the little button are too small...paddle shift would have been way nicer! If you guys are searching for someone to import your car I went with Zenautoworks based in Calgary really good service and all...for the price I'm not sure...I didn't really compare to anyone else based in Canada...I had heard good things about him so I just went with the flow and he already had the Alpina posted on his website.

 

[saint166]

lol if its a meet for the b3 3.0 it will be a small meet since ours are the only 2 in north america . i saw the video on your car on youtube and it is a perfect car . i can only hope to get mine look like yours . what oil filter did u use? i just got shipping conformation and it will be in canada april 10th and from there i will get it shipped to regina . im with u i cant wait until winter is over . question , did u have any trouble registering your car in canada . i had my chassis number checked through SGI and its coming up as a 2004 alpina . now i have emailed the chassis number to alpina in germany and they assured me that its a 1994 b3 3.0 alpina . somehow someone messed up registering the car at one time .

 

[bmb7t]

Canada B3: I see that you are in Quebec...would you be close to Ottawa? I will be there on the weekend of April 2-3....Rockland exactly....

 

[Canadian B3 3.0]

I live at about 5min from Ottawa, just on the other side of the river! For parts as the engine goes, oil etc I was told by Alpina that almost everything from the 325 fits, its an M50 engine, so oil filter is the same...I had the oil changed before the road trop from Alberta and that is what he used with the 10w-60 oil synthetic. For registration...don't even talk about it...it was crazy over took like 3 weeks to get it plated and I still have to go for a safety once the spring is here (Quebec safety's are crazy but you only need to pass one for the car's life) have to change the tires and some other small things like the brake line flex at the front and a bushing on the drive shaft. Yeah the problem here was that they saw one VIN scratched and then the 2 other one etc....so they were like is this vehicule stolen or what blah blah blah...after a while the police came to check (a VIN technician) and he called the head office in Quebec and then they called Alpina (who I had already spoken to) and after all that they came back and installed all those little stickers on my chassis too prove that the Alpina VIN were the right one and not the one ingraved on the chassis and scratched with an X....lol so after like almost a month...everything was ok and since I had to change all four tires I just parked the car for the winter. (I was gone for a month almost in Italy so no point of driving the car for 1 month before winter came)

For the meet it could be an Alpina meet! I see that we're getting more and more in the country...can't complain they are really nice car and most of them...in really good shape from Japan. I think the people who bought those cars were really nice to them! The only thing I did is a wax and polish and now its looking great!

If you have any other questions I'll be glad to ask them...still need to contact Alpina for the transmission and differential oil...I want to know what they normaly use and what I could put in.

 

[bmb7t]

...send me a text and we can discuss more offline...

 

[saint166]

hey ty for all your info . i have even a bigger problem in the fact that my car is showing up as the 2004 . im going to try and get things all straightened out before the car even gets here . please let me know what alpina says about the trans and diffy . for the diff i will prob use the same as i did for my M3 , redline shockproof gear oil . bmw gear oil u stupid over priced .

 

[Canadian B3 3.0]

Yeah I emailed Alpina just today should get a response next week, the guy I contacted is out of office...will let you know for sure!

 

[saint166]

ok sounds good .

 

[Canadian B3 3.0]

They use the same oil as the E36 automatic tranny oil...so just check with BMW, pretty easy! :biggrin:

 

[Canadian B3 3.0]

I just noticed that your dashboard isn't the same as mine...seems like my on board computer have more options...unless they don't show in the picture! I'll have to take one of mine and compare

 

[Canadian B3 3.0]

I do have more options and other things like an armrest!!!

http://http://zenautoworks.ca/index.php?option=com_rdautos&view=detail&id=49