Cheap BMW Toy for Track and Auto X

So the automotive ADD has struck in full force recently, with this week's focus being turned towards the Bavarian Motherland. As a foreword, this is more a thought exercise than anything at the moment.

Prior to my current fun car/auto x weapon/part time dd Camaro, I had an E36 for a few years that I positively loved in a way I have never truly felt towards the 'Merican successor. Alas, she suffered an untimely fate at the hand of a rogue Tacoma before ever realizing her dreams of becoming my auto x and maybe-someday track car, as I was a poor college student during the vast majority of my ownership and couldn't afford the nice things she wanted.

So say I gave you ~$7000 or so to buy a BMW, fix/freshen whatever problem areas are common to the particular model (cooling system, fresh bushings, subframe mounts, ect), and mod it to your liking for the purpose of auto x and HPDEs, how would you spend it?

Practicality on the street isn't the biggest concern, so long as it is somewhat tolerable to drive to work a couple days a week, and some thought should be given to potential auto x classing, though not a completely defining parameter.

So what's your recipe for cheap German lovin'?

I'd buy the E36 328i that is currently sitting on the Open Classifieds board for right around that number. In a heartbeat.

I'd start with a ~$2500 example with no rust. Fix all the leaks on it first coming from the engine and power steering.

Radiator/expansion tank/tstat/water pump - if it hasn't been replaced recently. It might cost $300 (?), I don't know as I only needed a tstat and expansion tank.

Front control arm bushings (polyurethane) and rear trailing arm bushings (stock rubber w/ limiters). Borrow, rent the tools to do them and it should only cost $150 for the bushings.

Big fat front sway bar and new endlinks to go with it. ~$300 depending on which bar you go with and endlinks, I'd just get spherical ones at this point.

Wheels/tires + brake pads. The recipe seems to be 17x9's on 255 width tires, fender rolling will be needed and a spacer for the front wheels depending on what coilovers you get. Get some better brake pads too, Hawk HP+ are good autocross pads for these cars due to their amazing cold bite; they are noisy and dusty though. This should cost ~$2000.

Lastly get good suspension on there with some camber plates, since McStrut cars love camber. Ground Control or Koni's will work; their single adjustable variants cost ~$2000 too.

If your budget allows, get an LSD in there.

This is building for SCCA STX class in mind. It's the only real competitive class these cars are in, and they aren't that competitive anymore. It's still a fun car for the money.

E46 330i built for STX. No need to spring for a ZHP since you'll be replacing most of that stuff. It might be tough to get it all done for under $7k starting from a bone stock car. But you could probably pick up somebody else's project with a lot of the work already done.

In reply to MINIzguy:

Or find an E36 M3 and do similar mods over time for STU. The plus side (besides more starting power and factory LSD), is all it'll really need (after bring basic maintenance up to snuff) is a decent set of tires and you can play in BS (or did it get moved to CS?) for awhile.

In reply to Ian F:

Good point. You can run the M3 in CS for a bit until you save up more. It's impossivle to build an M3 for $7k and have it play in STU against the AWD monsters.

There has also been talk about moving the M3 to STR, and if that happens, the M3 may be in the running again.

Duke wrote: I'd buy the E36 328i that is currently sitting on the Open Classifieds board for right around that number. In a heartbeat.

Oh wow, that would certainly fit the bill. Kind of exactly what I always dreamed of turning my E36 into. And then there's that Coyote swapped M3 in there as well, just gonna have to pretend I didn't see that one...

In reply to drdisque:

How does a similarly prepped e46 stack up against an e36, considering performance alone? I know they're built a little better and are much nicer on the inside, but that's not really what I'm after in this hypothetical scenario. It seems that the additional weight of the e46 chassis would more than offset the power advantage of the 330.

From what I've seen the 330 is more competitive at a national level, especially on higher grip nationals type surfaces where it can use the power. A well prepped E36 and E46 are pretty close though.

Honestly the only STX BMW with any shot at a national level these days is a 128i, but even though their acquisition costs are pretty low, the build is quite expensive on those. However, STX is a super competitive class at a national level, that doesn't mean you can't have fun locally. I also think the 330 would be more fun during HPDE's than an E36, but that's just me. Maybe you'd enjoy the freedom of the cheaper/lighter car.

First, decide if you want/need a true dual-purpose car. If it will be primarily track, seek out a used (probably non-BMW) race car. You can get a nice one in that price range, with a good cage, tons of spares and probably 30 grand worth of prep that is fully depreciated.

Otherwise, get a nice E46 330i with all of the maintenance up to date, bilsteins or konis and a some swaybars and go have fun. Should be totally doable on your budget.

Well, my 7 series (e32 750iL) beat an e36 m3, a supercharged e30, and an e46 330i in both the autox and the drag at the challenge this year. Highest placing BMW in fact . (Don't know the tire and driver situation though, I was on hoosiers and a pro driver for autox).

Old 7 series are cheaper than equivalently old e30 and e36 right now too. (but manual transmissions are few and far between).

Mine is REALLY cheap: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/200x-classifieds/bmw-750il-12th-overall-2nd-place-aristocrat-for-sale-ma/107112/page1/

Ok, probably not as 'reliable' a track car as the others, but you can't argue with fast.

I would go with someone's STX E36 or E46 they're selling as long as they fixed the general problem areas, so you can tune and race instead of building it.

MINIzguy wrote: In reply to Ian F: Good point. You can run the M3 in CS for a bit until you save up more. It's impossivle to build an M3 for $7k and have it play in STU against the AWD monsters. There has also been talk about moving the M3 to STR, and if that happens, the M3 may be in the running again.

The M3 in STR? Street Touring Roadster?

Yeah, there is a proposal to move the E36 M3 from STU to STR even though it is decidedly not a roadster. I doubt it will go through though. It's not like it will make a big difference for the car (it won't be substantially more competitive in STR and it's a worse fit there and it certainly isn't an overdog as it is in STU).

drdisque wrote: Yeah, there is a proposal to move the E36 M3 from STU to STR even though it is decidedly not a roadster. I doubt it will go through though. It's not like it will make a big difference for the car (it won't be substantially more competitive in STR and it's a worse fit there and it certainly isn't an overdog as it is in STU).

The E36 M3 is definitely not an overdog in STU, when compared to the 350z, STI and Evos. I think it's a has-been in STU. The argument for it fitting in STR is that STU raw times STR, and E36 M3 raw times do fall in the competitive range of STR times.

I wonder how well a M3 built to STX restrictions would do... Back when it was originally classed in STU, a number of the cars currently competing in STX weren't around and many of them are equal (or close it) on power and some weigh less.

one guy local to me is selling some sort of an older (mid 90's, perhaps??) beat up- but fully functional- BMW for about scrap price right now...

everything i know about the car was in my first sentence.. he didn't put year or model, just showed a pic...

No way the M3 is getting moved to STX. It would be a serious overdog there and the SCCA does NOT want to upset the very successful applecart that is STX right now.

In reply to drdisque:

So... the M3 can't beat the same cars in CS that it would its main competition in STX? I just don't see how it would be an overdog with the same 265 tire & 9" wheel restriction as the others in the class.

You make a valid point - although I think the E36 M3 responds better to the ST-allowed mods than the twins and WRX do since it's a much older car. There's just no chance that the SCCA is adding a low production 20 year old semi-exotic car to that class when it could potentially upset the competitive balance there.

Also, virtually nobody runs E36 M3's in CS anymore since there are hardly any CS legal ones anymore, so it's hard to tell how competitive one would really be.

drdisque wrote: You make a valid point - although I think the E36 M3 responds better to the ST-allowed mods than the twins and WRX do since it's a much older car. There's just no chance that the SCCA is adding a low production 20 year old semi-exotic car to that class when it could potentially upset the competitive balance there.

Yeah... that I'll agree with... still... it would be interesting to build one to STX specs just to see how it would do. My region has a couple of very competitive, purpose-built STX cars, so it would be a doable experiment

Also, virtually nobody runs E36 M3's in CS anymore since there are hardly any CS legal ones anymore, so it's hard to tell how competitive one would really be.

True as well... although I see bone-stock M3's fairly often. Saw a few of them last week.

The E36 M3 isn't eligible for STX. It is an STU car as STX cars have to have smaller than a 3L motor.

In reply to MINIzguy:

Hmm... didn't somebody (Vorshlag?) build a 60's Camaro for STX a few years ago?

Pushrod engines under 5.1L are eligible.

Ian F wrote: In reply to MINIzguy: Hmm... didn't somebody (Vorshlag?) build a 60's Camaro for STX a few years ago?

Yea I'm completely talking out of my ass on the motor size rule.

Still doesn't make the E36 M3 eligible for STX. It is classed in STU per the rule book. At least in SCCA Solo, not sure about Road Racing.