Tag: M3

LSx powered E36 BMW

Ahh, the humble LSx swap. Some people might think that LS-swaps are overdone, played out, or whatever your buzzword of choice is. But I guess if you provide a range of compact, affordable, reliable, and easy to tune engines, people are going to use them! Personally, I’m all for them, they look great and appear more than willing to accept power additions, either naturally or artificially aspirated. The LSx in this build is being used to power an E36 BMW, and while the swap itself is interesting enough, it was a small detail of the build that drew me in, and by small I mean one little accelerator bracket. Yep, that’s all it takes! It’s a small part but it was done so neatly that it gave me a feel for the rest of the build and made me want to read more, and I was rewarded with a whole lot of attention to detail.

Click here for more BMW builds. Click here for more LS-powered builds (there’s over 10 of them!). Continue reading “LSx powered E36 BMW”

E46 M3 Road-to-Race

How many times have you caught yourself daydreaming about turning your road-going pride and joy into an all-out race car? A stripped interior, beefy roll cage, some fixed bucket seats, sticky rubber, top of the line suspension, and of course some engine upgrades to round it off…sound accurate? Come and take a look as a lucky E46 M3 road car gets the race car make over we all desire.

Thanks to Jaime for submitting.

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IND E92 M3

We’ve had a few DIY home-built specials lately, so now it’s time to flip the script completely and check out a high-end workshop build. When you’re building an M3 for a customer who already boasts an impressive fleet of cars bearing the names “Enzo”, “Veyron” and “Zonda”, you know that nothing but your best effort with suffice. IND knew this, and went to town on an almost box-fresh E92 until it was deemed fit enough to share floorspace with the existing garage occupants. The build itself is impressive enough, the stuff dreams are made of, but the beautiful photography makes it a joy to view. Thanks to Raiss from JDMST for the link.

Enjoy…

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E30 M3 Restoration

I’ve featured a few E30’s now, and I’ve said numerous times that they’re universally loved the world over, I don’t know what it is about them but they just seem to push everyone’s buttons. VDubbin recently submitted this one to me, a full and very thorough restoration including detailed rust-repairs, acid dipping, lots of bodywork, cavity waxing, a super-detailed gearbox overhaul, and some Simpsons quotes thrown in for good measure – all adds up to an automatic win in my books.

Note: There seems to be a limited amount of pages you can view on the forum as a guest, I found myself having to sign up to continue reading, but you should be able to view the whole thread from start to finish if you do it in one go.

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BMW E46 318i to M3 Conversion

Okay, back to business, new content!

Thanks to Phil from Phils Car Blog for submitting this build. The owner takes his unassuming 4 door E46 318i sedan and stuffs it full of angry M3 goodness. Although it might seem at first that bolt-on items such as bumpers, lights, and panels would be subject to a simple swap-over, it turns out to be quite difficult when small physical differences become apparent. Come and see the owner document the OEM quality transformation from the ground, up.

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V10 BMW E30 M3

I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say a bad word about E30 M3’s. Maybe I’m not listening hard enough, or maybe they’re just one of those cars that are commonly lusted the world over. I just stumbled across this awesome build on VWvortex. The car not only receives an engine swap, but also new subframes and suspension pick-up points, essentially making it a whole chassis swap with only the appearance of the original shell remaining.

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E30 M3 + E39 M5 V8

This car is an insant favourite wherever its posted on the net. It seems everyone has a soft spot for E30 BMW’s, and this one is definitely praiseworthy.

I’m not one of those people who turns up their nose when a person chooses to use a motor from a different manufacturer for an engine swap. I like the way people stuff LS1’s, 2JZ’s, SR20’s and 13b’s into all different kinds of cars, but I always think it’s more appealing when a motor from the same stable is used, it just seems “right”.

That premise applies to this E30 which has had an S62 V8 from an E39 M5 shoehorned into the engine bay, and then a turbo strapped to each side. When you see an example like this it’s easy to see why E30’s are universally loved by most car enthusiasts. It doesn’t get much better than this.

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