Rare & Unique Parts, Cars - Let's share pics etc...

[J!m]

No problem, Jim.

[Sergio2389]

According to someone on another forum who has the full database of worldwide E36 M3 production, he said: "There are 13 <factory> E36 M3 in the world with lumbar support. One of them is this thing.


"

Is that not rare enough for you?





The adapter looms are irrelevant for me since I am one of those 13 cars and I have electric seats. My goal was merely to have an extra set of motors and bags. You should know me by now that I like to have backups and/or extras of parts.

You can also say the same thing for the headlamp washer system on that car. Not ultra rare in Europe but quite rare here in North America.

Of all BG93 cars produced for North America, only 159 out of 11,793 cars had it. For U.S. spec cars only 9 had it and 7 of those were pre-production. Basically only 2 U.S. spec cars that were sold to buyers had it.

Hi guys,

Pretty new in this forum but I've been around other forums and BMWs for several years now.

I was looking for info on the Lumbar support on E36 and this thread came up.
I purchased an euro M3 a fews ago, late 1998 model VIN: EW40001 and the car has the option, I am not sure if they are working or not, but it has sport seats with lumbar support.

I don't know their status because there was a small fire right next to the front left hand side of the car and many components in the engine bay got burned.

pretty interesting to know that that option is so rare.

anyway, the car won't be back in its original form as I am parting it out and putting all the M3 bits in my 1996 320i touring, I am a wagon enthusiast and I've always wanted to build an E36 M3 Touring, so building an M3 E36 touring with an S50B32 and six speed is a bucket list dream of mine.

[MParallel]

Yeah, E36 Tourings are cool. I've looked ages for a nice 323i or 328i, but always the common rust on rear doors and rear hatch.

If the lumbars work you will clearly hear the pump buzzing when you press the inflate button. Can't miss it.

[Sergio2389]

Yeah, E36 Tourings are cool. I've looked ages for a nice 323i or 328i, but always the common rust on rear doors and rear hatch.

If the lumbars work you will clearly hear the pump buzzing when you press the inflate button. Can't miss it.

yeah I will check them out eventually, I am not interested in using the seats from the M3, but I would like to add the lumbar support to the manual sport seats in the touring, I am wondering what were the extras for E36 seats, heating, electric everything, lumbar, was there ever a massage or cooled option? I doubt it.

[MParallel]

No that's it. Manual or electric adjustment, heating and lumbar. The latter only being an option for the base seats. Which is weird as the lumbar support fits all model seats just fine (all same frames).

There are a few exceptions where people ordered it for their sportseats/vaders through the Individual program, but that basically makes everything.
I'm taking the original brochure/spec sheet for reference.

[Jim E.]

Very cool. Love Tourings! BMW actually has a 1997 M3 Touring based off of the 328i in it's warehouse in Garching. I don't believe it was a full M3 conversion. I think it was just a motor retrofit but pretty neat nonetheless.

There was never a massage or cooling function for the E36 that I have ever seen. A touring would have only come with the regular sports seats not the M3 coupe seats (aka "vader") unless there was some special order.

[Sergio2389]

thanks for the info guys, cooled seats would be a dream to have in the tropics, I live in sunny Costa Rica.

yeah my touring has normal sport seats, they are manual and heated which is nice, but no Vaders, a friend of mine has a set of Vaders he offered me for the M3 touring build, but I am not sure because I don't particularly like the look.

anyway back to ordering a small fortune in parts to keep the swap going.

anyone has an spare LHD engine wiring harness for a manual S50B32? 😅

[abood///M]

Hi all,
Back to forum again and i really miss the old days on forums.
I want to show mine , 1998 E36 M3 SMG
Is this rare.?!!!
I did not move it since 2009.
this is today pic and do not know what is next ...Should i restore it or sell it after i maintain it.

[Nate047]

keep it!

[BLCKSTRM]

Hi all,
Back to forum again and i really miss the old days on forums.
I want to show mine ,
Is this rare.?!!!
I did not move it since 2009.
this is today pic and do not know what is next ...Should i restore it or sell it after i maintain it.

Yikes! How long has that valve cover been off? Please tell us you just removed it before taking this picture!

[MParallel]

Not not rare. Regardless, this is the rare parts topic, not the show off your car forum.

No offense, just trying to keep everything sorted here. There are journal/hello topics for this.

Interesting plate KSA/UAE?

That SMG probably needs a fresh accumulator.

[bmwstephen]

Thought I add something for the sake of history (though it may not be as popular since it is for automatic m3 applications). Been on the look out for 2 rare systems made by Alpina and Birds Automotive (Hartge Dealer) that essentially gave "tiptronic" functionality to ZF automatic transmissions. Supposedly these systems were faster than even Porsche's early attempts at Tip Tronic.

Would be great if I can get this setup for my second DD e36 automatic.

Alpina SwitchTronic (manual gear selection downshift/up via buttons behind steering wheel)

This one is a more complicated setup. You could get the TCU, VDO gauge, SwitchTronic Decoder boxes x2, but steering wheel is NLA. However, you can retrofit modern paddle shifters. This is the most expensive setup and will cost around $2K new.









Birds SwitchLogic (manual gear selection using an additional stalk below the turn signal stalk)
This system is the simplest but NLA as the original engineers are long gone.

Fun fact, Dinan Engineering was a distributor at the time for this setup back in the late 90s for the e31/e36 automatic applications. You could even retrofit modern paddle shifters.

I am only aware of one 95 M3 that has this setup, and the owner lives in Naples, Florida

[Nate047]

Cool but if the selling point is "as good as Tiptronic," well...

[MParallel]

Switch Logic!

Well that's a new one to me. Ah what they came up with. Swifting with a stalk on the lower left side of the steering wheel. You know, because ergonomics 😆