There are many special versions of the BMW 3 Series E30, made for specific markets. The 320iS was only available in Italy and in Portugal. The car was a 320i with a 6-cylinder engine, equipped with the Sport pack offered in other countries and used among other things on the 320i Edition for the German market. Interestingly, there was also a 320is (this time with a small s), equipped with the S14 engine of the M3 with double overhead camshaft and four valves per cylinder, whose existence was justified by the fact that in Italy the sales of the 325i and the M3 itself were rather penalized by a very heavy taxation regime that affected displacements over 2000cc. The 320is, unlike the 320iS, was also available with a 4-door body. To avoid any confusion, for 1988 BMW replaced the 320iS abbreviation with 320iL, where the letter L meant "luxury" and not "lang", as in the case of the long wheelbase configurations of the 7 series.
