Bmw e36 m3

[Charlie]

From a very young age I was always destined to own a BMW. My dad had a string of BMW company cars while I was growing up as did my granddad. My favourite was probably my dads E30 325i Sport Coupe in Dolphin Grey with M-Tec 2 Body kit and BBS alloys. He got it brand new in 1990 and had it for 3 years before changing it for a E36.
Fast forward 15years and I find myself working for BMW in my dream job selling BMWs.

The ownership of my E36 M3 came about as many things do, while sat in the pub with a group of friends. We had decided that we should take a trip to the Nurburgring in Germany. Now this was fine as they all owned their own cars but I couldn't take my company car to the Ring, work would kill me if anything happened to it. So I set about looking in the classifieds for a suitable car to take. My plan was to buy a BMW E36 M3 a few weeks before we were due to leave, drive it to Germany, do a few laps round the Nurburgring, drive it home then sell it straight on again and not loose any money.

Having the privilege of a BMW dealership at my fingertips and a wealth of knowledge from technicians I set about looking for cars. I knew what I wanted, either a 3.0 or 3.2 Coupe for £4000. How hard could it be? Very hard actually, but I eventually found an original 3.0 Coupe in Avus Blue with the Anthracite Alcantara seats, air con, cd changer, wider rear wheels and rear spoiler. It was about 100miles away from me so I went and took a look. It was owned by an elderly gentleman who had it for 10years and used it at weekends. There was no rust on the arches but the lacquer was peeling on front bumper and there was a bit of rust on the roof where it had a replacement windscreen and not been fitted properly. The car drove great, had a full service history, an M3 plate and only 79,000miles. A deal was struck (for slightly more than I wanted to spend) and I was driving home in my own M-Car.

This was in April 2009.....3months to the Nurburgring trip





Sorry for the bad pics, 2009 camera phones were rubbish.

The first upgrade for the car was to change to the clear indicators all round, it just freshened the car up nicely. I also fitted some GT corner splitters and short plates.
Everything else was kept standard for the trip.

[Charlie]

The car coped very well at the Ring in standard form and I had great fun. On the drive back I realised I had completely bonded with the car and decided to keep it. I had got the bug for doing track days so decided a few modifications were in order.
The biggest problem I found was with the tyres. The E36 3.0 runs 235tyres all round, which is fine but the quality of the tyre is important. I decided I needed something a bit more track focussed and decided to change the wheels at the same time. I have always been a fan of the AC Schnitzer wheels and I sourced a set on line. They are very period for the age of car coupled with some Yokahama AD08 tyres would make a great set up for fast road use and the odd track day.

[Charlie]

Due to work and lack of spare time not much happened to the car for a while. The next thing to sort out was suspension.



I ordered up a set of KW V1 coilovers and got them fitted. I'm still playing around with the height to this day as I cant decided to drop the car right down or keep it at a bit more of an OEM height.
At the same time a set of Powerflex bushes were fitted along with Rogue Engineering rear trailing arm bushes and rear top mounts.
A set of Goodridge braided hoses were also fitted as well as renewing the brake lines through out including the rears that go up over the fuel tank.

[Charlie]

The car now handled well but I managed to cook my brakes on a track day at Silverstone so I set about looking into brake upgrades. The braided hoses had already firmed up the pedal feel nicely but the standard discs and pads were past it.


I looked in big brake kits from AP and Brembo but they were just too expensive, especially for a car that I had intended to sell 2 years earlier and only did 2000mles a year in. Then I looked at a more simple upgrade of using the 4-pot Brembos from an 840ci and E46 M3 Discs.



I ordered up a set of EBC Yellowstuff pads and set about getting them on the car.
The first problem I encountered was although they fitted straight on and everything cleared nicely as soon as I put my wheels back on the rims caught the caliper. Now I was already running 15mm spacers on the front to clear my coilovers but I needed 25mm spacers each side to clear the calipers. A set of H&R Trax spacers were ordered up and everything fitted great. I was really happy and they felt great on the road.








The 330mm discs really filled out the wheels too.

[Charlie]

I fitted a set of Black grills to match the rest of the black on the car as well as a tow strap for when Im on track

[Charlie]

Now that I was running 25mm spacers on the front the car looked silly as the rear were too narrow. I put my original 15mm spacers on the rear but the tyres rubbed as my Yokohamas have quite a squared off tyre wall being a track tyre. A call to Dan at Arch Enemy saw my rear arches rolled and we fitted the rears on with 15mm spacers. Its still very close and there is now mm's to spare.
I took some pics after it was done. I still need to sort out the ride height as it is sitting too high here for my liking but the problem I have is accessing my drive. I have to go over a small bridge and the car grounds out badly underneath and on the GT splitters if its too low.

[Charlie]

I took out the fog lights as I had a track day at Brands Hatch coming up. This was the first time out on track with my new brakes. I had no brake fade and they were excellent, I don't know why BMW insist on putting average brakes on a car from the factory.
I had also found an E46 M3 CSL steering wheel lying around in the parts bin at work so I took it on and fitted it to my car. Its amazing how changing a steering wheel can make it feel like a new car!!