E46 M3 Touring Project

[E91M3]

crisp packet said:

Counted £14k of receipts for the conversion of mine (previous owner). Second one done (in the UK) and first with SMG. Not a huge fan of the box but kind of suits the touring, especially given the pace is nothing that special these days. Son in law has an M3 saloon and virtually identical pace - touring surprisingly a small fraction quicker - probably down to the gearbox.
Drives like factory. Don't under-estimate the work involved though. Great having the practicality when needed. Split commuting between this and a 997 turbo and never feels like a downer taking the touring. Had an e36 M3 Touring too but they're possibly getting a bit old for everyday use.
Hope you do it. The more of these knocking about the better!

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm going with a manual as the other project has a DCT installed. This will hopefully simplify things.

Edited by E91M3 on Wednesday 28th September 00:00

[cat with a hat]

I read a thread about someone doing a proper conversion about 5 years ago and as other have said if you want OEM looks, you'll have to cut the wings and all sorts.

[Kitchski]

E91M3 said:

Thanks for the advice. I assume the bumper was widened as the rear is more square? What did you do with the bumper carrier as I have the carbon version attached to the M3 bumper and wanted to use that?

Standard on the rear from the Touring, as the boot lip is much lower than the Coupe as it isn't recessed. Used the carbon on the front though.

[SuperVM]

crisp packet said:

Counted £14k of receipts for the conversion of mine (previous owner). Second one done (in the UK) and first with SMG. Not a huge fan of the box but kind of suits the touring, especially given the pace is nothing that special these days. Son in law has an M3 saloon and virtually identical pace - touring surprisingly a small fraction quicker - probably down to the gearbox.
Drives like factory. Don't under-estimate the work involved though. Great having the practicality when needed. Split commuting between this and a 997 turbo and never feels like a downer taking the touring. Had an e36 M3 Touring too but they're possibly getting a bit old for everyday use.
Hope you do it. The more of these knocking about the better!

I assume that was the white one for sale recently? I was tempted. :-)

[Kitchski]

crisp packet said:

Counted £14k of receipts for the conversion of mine (previous owner). Second one done (in the UK) and first with SMG. Not a huge fan of the box but kind of suits the touring, especially given the pace is nothing that special these days. Son in law has an M3 saloon and virtually identical pace - touring surprisingly a small fraction quicker - probably down to the gearbox.
Drives like factory. Don't under-estimate the work involved though. Great having the practicality when needed. Split commuting between this and a 997 turbo and never feels like a downer taking the touring. Had an e36 M3 Touring too but they're possibly getting a bit old for everyday use.
Hope you do it. The more of these knocking about the better!

£14k for the mechanical aspects, or £14k for mechanical/interior/bodywork? Because if it's the latter, it's very, very cheap!

[jelluzz]

em177 said:

Tim Shaw's had a facelift front end. Doesn't look right in my eyes.

Facelift coupes look atrocious, however facelift saloons / tourings with the 2 piece headlight indicator arrangement look a lot smarter than the pre-facelifts...

Sf_Manta said:

aspirated said:

jelluzz said:

Absolutely love this idea. Good luck!

Hopefully you keep the facelift touring headlights etc. as I think they look so much better than the pre-facelift!

Wouldn't look OEM if he did, the E46 M3 never received a front end facelift, just like the E9x

I'd actually go complete sleeper, leave the arches as OEM original as possible though subtly modded to accommodate the M3 running gear. Exhaust would be custom with one single duel exit as per normal 330i look.

That way, it just looks more like the usual Sport touring look, except it's hiding the M3 credentials = Q car and thus more amusing blowing off Reps at the lights

Exactly, M3 touring with a facelift front end will add even more to the sleeper look... but totally IMO.

Used to be a silver grey facelift m3 converted touring floating around that had the standard arches, wheels and 330i style exahust, only tip off was the CSL front brakes.

[crossie]

http://forums.m3cutters.co.uk/showthread.php?t=413...

Maybe worth a look

been discussing this myself!

[mwstewart]

The real M3 has a reinfoirced shell around the C pillar areas which would not be an easy thing to replicate without invasive surgery, but something could be done to tie in the diff points to the turrets etc - though it would need to be discrete otherwise it kind of defeats the point of the Touring.

[E91M3]

crossie said:

http://forums.m3cutters.co.uk/showthread.php?t=413...

Maybe worth a look

been discussing this myself!

BMW have just released quite a few photos of the M3 Touring Concept to commemorate the 30 year anniversary of the M3.



What's interesting is how they have approached the rear arches as most conversions use part of the coupe arch on the rear doors. I'm guessing they did it like this to keep tooling costs down if it went into production so that standard doors would be used in the same way as the E90/F80 M3.

[mwstewart]

There's something Z3M-esque about that rear end.

[Kitchski]

E91M3 said:

BMW have just released quite a few photos of the M3 Touring Concept to commemorate the 30 year anniversary of the M3.



What's interesting is how they have approached the rear arches as most conversions use part of the coupe arch on the rear doors. I'm guessing they did it like this to keep tooling costs down if it went into production so that standard doors would be used in the same way as the E90/F80 M3.

We were quite proud of ours, as with BMW's it appears they wimped out trying to take the doorline into the rear arch flaring. Our customer decided he wanted to go through it, following the line of the original door.

[MrwReckless]

You could look at this thread for inspiration:
http://bimmers.no/forums/topic/642409-jeppe-e46-m3...

Regards

[mgian2]

Bookmarked! Dream car the e46 M3 touring,would have been amazing if it made it to production.

Also if BMW had made the e46 saloon an M3 as well, also would have been epic.

[mario64]

Kitchski said:

We built one of these a while ago at work. Got featured in a BMW mag recently. Lots of work, but quite satisfying when it was done.

We used a donor car though (M3 CS), so pretty much EVERY 'M' stamped part could be transfered over (dirt shields, sound deadening - the lot). Converted the touring from 2001 320i auto to 2005 M3 SMG. Wanted to make it look like it came out of the factory like it.

I think we achieved it:



Here's the text from the feature:

https://drive-my.com/en/social/stream/item/7475.ht...

It was A LOT of work. The bodykit doesn't fit.

At all

That is a fantastic looking car and truly delivers on the brief of looking like a factory build.

How much would a project like that cost? Am I right in guessing £15-20k?

[Kitchski]

mario64 said:

That is a fantastic looking car and truly delivers on the brief of looking like a factory build.

How much would a project like that cost? Am I right in guessing £15-20k?

All things considered (donor cars, bodywork, mechanical conversion etc.) probably more in the region of £30-£35k. You could break the remainder of the M3 donor to claw some funds back, and sell the original engine etc from the Touring if you started with a 330i or something, might get you a grand or two back, but most of the good M3 stuff goes on the Touring!

You could also do it for less, but it depends how good you want it to be.

[g7jhp]

jelluzz said:

Absolutely love this idea. Good luck!

Hopefully you keep the facelift touring headlights etc. as I think they look so much better than the pre-facelift!

Personally I prefer the original look, the facelift look is more feminine.

[g7jhp]

The thread had a BMW 330i Touring which was running M3 engine etc, but not body..more of a sleeper. Maybe of use.

[E91M3]

Kitchski said:

All things considered (donor cars, bodywork, mechanical conversion etc.) probably more in the region of £30-£35k. You could break the remainder of the M3 donor to claw some funds back, and sell the original engine etc from the Touring if you started with a 330i or something, might get you a grand or two back, but most of the good M3 stuff goes on the Touring!

You could also do it for less, but it depends how good you want it to be.

The challenge will be keeping my OCD in check in terms of trying to make it all perfect. Also you are right in terms of using either a leggy donor car with lots of miles or something that's been looked after but might be damaged. I have my eye on a 2005 cat c car with rear panel damage but had less than 70k on the clock. Hopefully by using something like this I will recoup some money when breaking it.

[E91M3]

MrwReckless said:

You could look at this thread for inspiration:
http://bimmers.no/forums/topic/642409-jeppe-e46-m3...

Regards

I remember that thread. That guy really went to town and had an interesting approach to the rear of the car in terms of using the coupe tail lights. Car does look amazing and is a great colour.

[Kitchski]

E91M3 said:

The challenge will be keeping my OCD in check in terms of trying to make it all perfect. Also you are right in terms of using either a leggy donor car with lots of miles or something that's been looked after but might be damaged. I have my eye on a 2005 cat c car with rear panel damage but had less than 70k on the clock. Hopefully by using something like this I will recoup some money when breaking it.

The donor we used only had 55k or so on it, and was a 2005 CS. But it was only a repaired Cat C (someone tried to pull an ATM out of a wall with it. lol.) So the shell was cack, but the mechanicals were good (except the SMG bit....that was also cack, but it was cack from the factory). It was an idea donor though, and in fairness ours was made more difficult as we used a RHD donor and had to fit it all to a LHD Touring. Also the Touring was a 2000MY, and was an automatic, so short of being a diesel it couldn't really be much more different. If you started with, say, a 2003 M3 and a 2003 330i, then you'd be able to shave a fair few hours off it. The DSC systems are oddball though, but remember exact details. There are three types (one was ASC though) and the M3 used the more simple version of the DSC even after the normal E46s had switched to the latest types. That's why some have blue ABS sensors, and some have grey. Could be getting muddled, but I remember DSC was a stumbling point.