M3 touring; your thoughts?
M3 touring; your thoughts?
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Discussion

GTWayne

Original Poster:

4,595 posts

243 months

Tuesday 24th May 2011
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After destroying my '01 plate M3 a few weeks ago on a track day I have decided to A/ retire from any further track day activity forthwith and more importantly B/ try and create an M3 touring using what is left from the wreckage (it was a rear end shunt that has pickled the floor so engine, gearbox etc. all still good and usable biggrin). I have today bought a suitable Hellrot 318i touring ripe for the task and early investigation is looking like this may be a very do-able all be it painstaking project. Has anyone here any knowledge or experience of such a conversion and if so would you possibly be kind enough to relay any real world information that may benefit me in trying to create what is, at the moment at least, a 'virtual' M3 touring?
Thanks in advance thumbup

CraigVmax

12,248 posts

308 months

Tuesday 24th May 2011
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I think someone on the Mbarge thread is making one, could be wrong but worth a look.

Good luck, sounds like a great idea to me

Jonboy_t

5,038 posts

209 months

Tuesday 24th May 2011
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Sounds like a great idea! I do remember someone else building one (or was it a 5 series?) too, but it would be a hell of a car!

Alternatively, buy a rolling chassis, caterham style, and dump it in there! If you could make it fit and do the necessaries to the handling, that would be one incredible car!

CraigVmax

12,248 posts

308 months

Tuesday 24th May 2011
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yummy

jr123

3,383 posts

190 months

Tuesday 24th May 2011
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Sound interesting, good luck to you if you go ahead with it.
Don't know about an E46 but an E90 has been done.

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4924...

DennisCooper

1,340 posts

197 months

Tuesday 24th May 2011
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Hi

Yes, a blue E46 M3 Touring that was created by it's owner and put up for sale ! very nice !

The E39 M5 Touring was also made at home and painstakingly finished over quite some time. I met the owner and we had a good chat over a couple hours about it ! it's got a massive write up thread on the M5board and I'm sure a few other forums too. One thing you might find is bit of a pain, is fooling the E46 M3 ECU into there's a rear wash wipe fitted! Steve, who made the M5 Touring specifically mentioned that simple thing was a real pain to resolve! perhaps the E46 ECU is kinder to reprogramming than the E39 M5 ecu !

I'm a Touring fan ! and in true Blue Peter style..

Here's one I made earlier wink











This car is now looking even better to me as it's been more highly modified, it lives just 2 miles away from me smile
Yes, those are the ultra rare Konig seats from those 8 or so limited edition E30 M3's that were produced.. wink

Go ahead make another E46 M3 Touring !!

Cheers, Dennis!

E30M3SE

8,491 posts

222 months

Tuesday 24th May 2011
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DennisCooper said:

Yes, those are the ultra rare Konig seats from those 8 or so limited edition E30 M3's that were produced.. wink
Look like Recaro's to me, same as in this Merc.........


andye30m3

3,498 posts

280 months

Tuesday 24th May 2011
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I seam to remember someone on here has built a dark blue one.

Sounds like a great project.

Johnnytheboy

24,499 posts

212 months

Tuesday 24th May 2011
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BMW don't make the cars I'd like to buy: small, quick estates/semi-estates. In fact, who does, apart from Audi (RS3?)?

Older M3 Touring, or in the current range a 135i/1-Series M hatch shape would fit the bill.


andye30m3

3,498 posts

280 months

Ranger 6

7,608 posts

275 months

Tuesday 24th May 2011
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Build thread here:

http://www.pistonheads.com/xforums/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Update here too:

http://www.pistonheads.com/xforums/topic.asp?h=0&a...

I think it was sold on ebay recently

Edited by Ranger 6 on Tuesday 24th May 16:12

Franzino

502 posts

186 months

Thursday 26th May 2011
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GTWayne said:
After destroying my '01 plate M3 a few weeks ago on a track day I have decided to A/ retire from any further track day activity forthwith and more importantly B/ try and create an M3 touring using what is left from the wreckage (it was a rear end shunt that has pickled the floor so engine, gearbox etc. all still good and usable biggrin). I have today bought a suitable Hellrot 318i touring ripe for the task and early investigation is looking like this may be a very do-able all be it painstaking project. Has anyone here any knowledge or experience of such a conversion and if so would you possibly be kind enough to relay any real world information that may benefit me in trying to create what is, at the moment at least, a 'virtual' M3 touring?
Thanks in advance thumbup

Damn; how did this crash happen? I hope you had some track insurance.
Good luck on the M3 touring project... Sounds great if you can do it!

k15tox

1,680 posts

207 months

Thursday 26th May 2011
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excellent idea, best of luck to you mate

DennisCooper

1,340 posts

197 months

Thursday 26th May 2011
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E30M3SE

You may be very well correct! I remember reading somewhere about the Konig seats that were fitted to 8 I believe rare edition M3's. There's every possibility they were indeed a re-upholstered Recaro like the ones you pictured! only some more research can conclude that! the car I pictured above technically wasn't 'mine' I had access to it whenever I wanted, at the time of the pics, it belonged to a now ex business partner and I had first dibs if it was ever needing to be sold.

It's my current understanding that those seats were indeed the Konig ones, however if it turns out they're not and are recaro's then fair enough! the owner of the car now lives just a couple miles away from me (it was sold without me getting those dibs!!!!!) and i'll update him!

nowadays it looks much better than in those pics smile

Cheers, Dennis!

MattOz

4,019 posts

290 months

Friday 27th May 2011
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Dennis,

Loving the E30. Think the bonnet detail is fantastic. biggrin

Matt

GTWayne

Original Poster:

4,595 posts

243 months

Saturday 28th May 2011
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Franzino said:
Damn; how did this crash happen? I hope you had some track insurance.
Good luck on the M3 touring project... Sounds great if you can do it!
Brakes failed completely!eek
If I am honest it was my own fault as I did have some idea that they were a bit iffy through the previous few corners but being a bit of a numpty I thought I might be able to drive around the problem - big mistake No.1 !
No insurance, don't believe in it (for the track that is) - big mistake No. 2!
Can I do the M3 touring project? - yes, I believe so and the wheels are already in motion (no pun intended hehe)


warsteiner///M3

154 posts

217 months

Saturday 28th May 2011
quotequote all
hello wayne,
i know someone who can reprogram the ecu, so that it wont go into 'limp' mode when it doesn't get
the inputs it usually looks for. he can also load the ecu with an alpha-n map, so you can run the engine maf-less. email me if you need the ecu sorting.

DennisCooper

1,340 posts

197 months

Monday 30th May 2011
quotequote all
Hi

Cheers, MattOz - thing is, that bonnet detail was required because the engine was sitting at the 'correct' angle. Reason is the conversion itself was a little 'rushed' - it's quite possible to have the engine sitting in there perfectly as per the conversion that Hartge did (I know the owner of one of the 6 examples made by them!) It was either remove and modify the thingy's to allow the engine to sit properly, or have this detail done so the bonnet could shut properly again!

Have any more private enthusiasts dropped in say an E90 M3 engine into perhaps an E46 or an E91 (is that the right code for current shape 3 series Touring?)

Cheers, Dennis!

MattOz

4,019 posts

290 months

Monday 30th May 2011
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Dennis,

There's a chap from Birmingham who has an E91 M3 V8. It's been converted beautifully.

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4924...

Also, Phil Morrison from Driftworks has recently completed his E60 M5 V10 into an E46 M3 conversion.

Matt

GTWayne

Original Poster:

4,595 posts

243 months

Wednesday 28th September 2011
quotequote all
Well it may have taken a while but it LIVES!
Got fault lights up all over the dash at the moment though but it is at least running biggrin
The car is sitting on black CSL's at present (2 x pairs of fronts) and looks really good. The colour of the car is Helrot evil
Over the winter I hope to get the rear arches flared and fit the correct 9.5" rear wheels. I have a CSL front apron for it too but that is where I am going to leave it I think, and no quad zorst either (can't be arsed to cut out the spare wheel well), going to use an Evo 3.2 back box or similar.
Can anyone recommend an ECU guy that will be able to sort all the fault codes and wot not?