Re: E30: What does "s" mean in 325is

["Jeff Lloyd" <jslz3@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

John, Where are you refering to?

I am only familiar with the North american market, which of course is BMW's 
largest market..  so they seem to make things a little diffrent here...

US. Laws regulate each combination of engine, chassis, and Drivetrain. be 
crash, smog, and etc. tested to get the DOT approvial.

change any one of the 3 and volla it is a WHOLE NEW CAR in the eyes of the 
DOT.  now you can change the suspention, body, etc. as long as the 3 main 
components remain the same.

the cost of crashtesting all the cars, going through all the bull, does not 
warrant BMW to add additional engines to it's NA lineup, hence the S 
standing for sport...

as for the 323is touring, we don't get 323's or touring here, at not at 
least in the e30, although I was driving behind a 323is Bauer a few years 
ago, I wonder how that got here...

The kicker is we produce Z3's with 7 engine options, here in america, and 
can only purchase  3 of them... :-0

Jeff
In BMW Limited USA.




>From: John Firestone <john.firestone@domain.elided>
>To: Jeff Lloyd <jslz3@domain.elided>
>CC: bmw@domain.elided
>Subject: Re: E30: What does "s" mean in 325is
>Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 05:06:33 +0100 (MET)
>
>yOn Sun, 5 Dec 1999, Jeff Lloyd wrote:
>
> > in the E30 days the "s" actually stood for somthing, that somthing
> > was "SPORT" if the car was ordered with a sport package it got an S
> > reguardless if it was a eta or I motor. It also got a limited slip,
> > bilstein shocks and a couple other goodies.. with the later E36 any
> > 2 door was badged a "IS" (Not cool in my book) I know a few other
> > BMW drivers that were more then a little ticked off by this..  so
> > you can see on the new E46 there is no "s" for coupe just "Ci" and a
> > sport package coupe should get the tradional naming convention of
> > "Csi"
>
>I wonder if the "s" for "sports package" on U.S.(?) E30's was the
>first step by BMW of NA towards calling anything with two doors an "s"
>model.
>
>In countries overseen by less enthusiastic marketers, a car used to
>get an "s" if it had its own sports motor, motor being the car's
>middle name. As examples, there are the (European) 2-valve, 115 PS
>318i sedan vs. the 4-valve 140 PS 318is coupe and the 300 PS 850Ci vs.
>the 380 PS 850CSi.  A curious fish is the U.S. E36 318i which the
>factory calls a 318is sedan on account of its motor.
>
>However, I really like your idea of adding an "s" if a car has a
>sports package. I bet a 323is touring would make any worthy NA
>marketer wince. :)
>
>-John
>'96 318is
>
>--
>john.firestone@domain.elided
>

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