ZA vs "German" spec e36 M3s, whats the hype about?

[Nick]

I wonder if the same applies to the "G-spot"??

 

[boost3d]

The only difference is the seats

As far as I know, all the wheels come unpolished...the 4door's wheels were diamond cut, but not polished

 

[Lysis]

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure this "German Spec" term is as a result of the American M3. The Americans pretty much got an "e36 330" which was badged as an M3, so "German Spec" has come to mean an M3 with the proper Euro M3 S50B30/B32.

 

[griffen]

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure this "German Spec" term is as a result of the American M3. The Americans pretty much got an "e36 330" which was badged as an M3, so "German Spec" has come to mean an M3 with the proper Euro M3 S50B30/B32.

Yes there 3.0L m3 made 179kw or something like that.

 

[B16A4]

Hi guys, thought to shed some light on a very dim situation I would go to the people in the know.

The following is from Gerhard Nel, a very respected member of the BMW clubs Africa board. He has numerous dealings with BMW AG and currently works for BMW. So the below is not a thumb suck.

A recent advertisement of a E36 M3 with “German spec” triggered me to write the following letter. I’m not sure whether everybody knows what the “German spec” means and/or what the difference between the “German spec” and the “South African spec” M3’s are.



Many a time people refer to certain E36 M3’s as the “German spec” cars. By calling them “German spec” M3’s sound as if they are spec’d superior to our local built M3’s and I thought to clarify any mis-understanding.

The easiest way to explain it, is to rather highlight the features that the “South African spec” M3’s had over and above that of the “German spec” M3’s.



There were 748 South African spec M3’s built (assembled) from September 1993 until May 1994 in South Africa from Semi Knocked-Down kits (SKD). After the local built SKD M3’s were discontinued in May 1994, BMW SA started to import the German built M3 coupés from June 1994 until about mid 1995. Unfortunately I do not know how many German built M3’s were imported.



The South African built M3’s and German built M3’s were identical except for a few small cosmetic differences, which I list hereunder.



The South African built M3’s had the following features/standard options over and above the German spec cars:



Slightly altered version of the S50 B30 powerplant designed to run on leaded fuel (for South African conditions)
Slightly altered exterior colour palette (the use of specific local paint colours)
A higher level of standard equipment, i.e.:
Air-conditioning
Power sunroof
On-board computor
Hi-fi speakers
The forged M Double Spoke alloy wheels (the German spec M3’s were fitted with a different style wheel)
The use of regular (non M-Design) BMW sport seats in either M-cloth/Amaretta or extended Nappa leather.


The fully imported German built M3’s had the BMW AG exterior colours and they were equipped with the M-Design sport seats.



From the aforementioned information, it is evident that the “German spec” M3’s were lower spec’d than the 748 South African built M3’s – and on the contrary, the SA spec M3’s should rather be the ones attracting the enthusiasts’ attention, and not vice versa. Maybe the term “German spec M3” sounds great, but it has no additional value, rather less.



I trust that the aforementioned information will be of assistance and also clarifies the meaning of the broadly used term “German spec M3”.

in my honest opinion i think the "German spec" is more appealing due to its extended leather and unique interior to a average E36. furthermore i think there is a deserved hype around the G-spec series because no one has ever mentioned clearly what is the meaning of semi-knocked down and complete knock-down(CKD). this even went on to the 3.2 four door where we have knock down kits. maybe this guy (Gerhard) from bmw can shed us more light if he knows anything more on that. from some articles i read sometime back i discovered that the later or the last of the 3,0 had a slightly tweaked engine even though it was same s50b30.
i would still go for the real deal with vaders or swap the seats because the vaders really look cool:thumbs:

 

[Prev]

Vaders are in high demand and are linked to the German spec so that is why every Piet, Jabu and Bobby advertises their M3 as a G spec.

Mine is SA built according to Real OEM but has the vaders .... Obviously changed by 1 of the previous owners. Got to admit, it was one of the features that I looked for at the time of purchase.

 

[WyKiD]

Vaders just make the E36 M that much more appealing...:inlove:

 

[Carbon M3]

Polished lips and Fully polished rims are more Durban-Spec :=):

 

[///M_Diesel]

I wont mind either still looking

 

[QikNish]

My 7 cents.... i had a Car magazine with a road test of the first M3's that we got in this country. Where the one's with cloth seats with the m-color pattern on them, no rear headrests & front seats where manually operated & no sunroof. Also had the basic speaker setup and no leather on the doorpads etc. Which gives reason to why they called this the "lightweight". Im sure it was a few kg's lighter.

If i could get a chance to pick up one of those in original spec.... wow. Very rare cars and supposed to be worth a little more because of that (irrespective of lesser spec) since very few where built in late 93 - 94.

 

[freerider]

My 7 cents.... i had a Car magazine with a road test of the first M3's that we got in this country. Where the one's with cloth seats with the m-color pattern on them, no rear headrests & front seats where manually operated & no sunroof. Also had the basic speaker setup and no leather on the doorpads etc. Which gives reason to why they called this the "lightweight". Im sure it was a few kg's lighter.

If i could get a chance to pick up one of those in original spec.... wow. Very rare cars and supposed to be worth a little more because of that (irrespective of lesser spec) since very few where built in late 93 - 94.

Calypso has one.

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