Background

In 1975 the E21 was introduced to replace the 2002, the E21 had some tough sporting standards to live up. The E21 was larger, heavier and all of the models with the exception of the Euro model 323i produced less power than the 2002tii. The U.S. was not taking well to the new E21, perhaps if they had the lighter more powerful European versions, complaints would have been minimal. Because of the U.S. DOT standards the E21’s had terrible looking and heavy bumpers added.

However the E21 was still a great car, it was much quieter, had better heating an AC, and was far more civil than it’s brethren the 2002. The E21’s tended to have a little too much oversteer, being the tail would get a little out of line when throttled through a corner, most owners thought this just gave the car some character.

Models

The E21 was made available only as a two door coupe from the factory, however Baur made a T-Top convertible version. U.S. Companies caught on and also made some fully convertible versions, finding one of these is few and far between.

By 1981 production of the E21 had peaked at 220,000 units that year. Because Europe always gets the cool fast stuff, the E21 was highly popular and paved the way for the very successful E30.

Engines

In Europe customers had a large number of engine choices including the 1.6 liter four cylinder, all the way up to the M20 2.0 or 2.3 liter inline six cylinders. Many of these European cars were equipped with carbs, however the more expensive examples had Bosch Jetronic-K injection, designated by the “i” in the model number.

In the begging the U.S. cars were equipped with the 2.0 liter injected inline six cylinders, but were later reduced to the 1.8 liter to meet U.S. Emissions pollution legislation, thus reducing the power to weight ratio about 20% lower than the European model. However the model number remained 320i.