Most restorations get described as thorough, and then there’s what Chris Dunbar did to his 1989 BMW M3 (E30). This car spent two years being taken apart and put back together in Chris’s own garage, and somewhere along the way the garage picked up its own zinc plating setup, with the bolts, latches, and calipers all zinc coated and more than 200 hours of plating going into the engine bay components alone. That’s the level this build operates at, and it shows in every photo Josh Mackey shot of it. If Josh’s name is familiar, it should be, since we featured his Mazda3 not long ago, and he’s been behind the camera for Tunerzine going back to the beginning.
The car wears its original Zinnoberrot, resprayed in a glass-out factory repaint by Jeff Miller and Sean Edwards, with restored factory window trim, original door handles, restored OEM side glass and rear windshield, and a fresh windshield up front. The list of new old stock (NOS) parts on this car reads like a wanted ad from an E30 forum, and to be clear, that’s new old stock, not the stuff in a bottle: NOS air dam, NOS turn signal, wiper, and cruise stalks, NOS emergency kit and triangle holder for the trunk, NOS factory grey carpet, new OEM tail lights and Evo headlight grilles that have long been no longer available, and gasket trim that mostly falls into the same category. Every factory sticker and decal was restored in its correct location, VIN stickers and optional equipment stickers included. Underneath, the rear subframe was powder coated with new bushings, fasteners, and brake lines, the rear differential had its seals and gearing restored under a Z3M cover, and the sway bars went black powder coat. Even the wiring got the treatment: the body harness was fully restored, de-pinned, and re-wrapped in Tesa tape, the engine harness got the same plus de-oxidizing and re-termination, while the gauge cluster got a new SI board and reflowed solder, and the factory ECU got the same reflow work.
Where this build gets interesting is that Chris didn’t stop at concours-correct. Layered on top of the restoration is a set of modifications that push the car toward what BMW Motorsport itself would have done. The S14 was completely rebuilt by C&D Performance Engines with Schrick 284/276 cams, new valves on BMW Evo3 Motorsport springs, custom CP pistons at 11:1 compression with enlarged valve reliefs, Calico coated crank bearings, custom crank machine work, mild head porting with manifold matching, and a no-longer-available carbon fiber intake manifold. An Evo3 lightened flywheel spins behind it with a new OEM clutch, and the exhaust runs Supersprint with a Stromung muffler. The valve cover, strut bar, and intake manifold all wear factory wrinkle black powder coat, and the aluminum surfaces throughout, bellhousing, transmission case, timing components, were all vapor honed.
The chassis and cabin follow the same Motorsport-catalog logic. KW Variant 1 coilovers with new OEM spring pads and subframe bushings handle the ride, and the car has two sets of footwear: Volk Racing TE37s in bronze on Continentals, and a set of 17×8.5 +13 magnesium BBS wheels on Continental ExtremeContacts. A Sport Evolution rear spoiler sits on the deck, NOS Hella Schwarz headlights and NOS French yellow fog lights handle the front lighting, and BMW Heritage emblems finish the details. Inside are Recaro Orthopedic seats trimmed in Nappa leather, Europameister Nappa door panels, an extended Nappa console and e-brake, the Sport Evolution Alcantara shift knob, a NOS Sport Evolution dead pedal, and a NOS Mtech1 370mm steering wheel. The factory Alpine 5908 radio was restored and fitted with a Bluetooth module.
Chris is quick to point out that a build like this doesn’t happen alone, and his thanks deserve to run in full. He credits the M3 SIG community as instrumental in sourcing many of the no-longer-available NOS parts, Jordan Sarette for the ABS pump restoration and for answering numerous late-night texts, and David Johnson for handling the front and rear windshield removal and reinstall along with countless late-night “how do I?” texts of his own. John Zuberek at Griots Motors answered countless questions and connected Chris with Sean Edwards and Jeff Miller, the masterminds behind the paint. As Chris puts it, he’s learned over the years that your product is truly only as good as the team behind it. Special thanks go to his TWCompetition teams, and last but not least to his wife Jennica, for putting up with the at-home restoration, the garage zinc plating, and the mayhem for two years, all while losing her garage space. In his words: now we get to enjoy it.
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