BMW E46 330 coupe - Drift build

[Rich330]

Hey oh!

Thought I'd get a project thread going for this, hopefully some of you may find it interesting/helpful (especially if you're working on a E46).

I've been interested in drifting for years now, and have had a few skylines/200sx/MX5/blah blah and have done a few track days but never given skidding a fair shot. Until I went out with Daze in his S13 at Lydden and it sold me. So I sold my S2000 and bought a BMW E46 330 Coupe on ebay for a good deal




First thing was to hit some shops, ordered a set of BC Racing coilovers with camber/castor adjustment and polybushes all round. The bimmer has just under 100k on the clock and I wanted to tighten everything up for good steering feel and many drift happynesses. As well as this I got a set of Meyle Wishbones which replaced the worn OEM items.

Then it was off to my local shop, JD Modified to have all this crap fitted. They also welded my diff

As well as this they built a custom rear subframe/diff mount reinforcement bar for me which is an awesome piece of kit. So so solid and if you look into E46s at all one of the most common problems is the subframe tearing the boot floor due to weak metal and the push/pull/twist of the subframe against the floor. Obviously when skidding this effect is multiplied++ so I wanted to make sure my car didn't snap.


My friend Dan spotted a bargain set of BBS RK's on the 'bay. Couldn't say no and soon enough these turned up on my door step.



While the car was having its new footwork fitted I booked my first Pod DWYB day on July 4th. Unfortunately the garage had a problem with one of their ramps and things took longer than expected.






I just about made the DWYB day, collecting the car the night before but we did not have time to properly set up the coilovers or put a geo on. The geo kinda pulls the car around and handles like crap but took it home anyway and got it ready for the first skid day, you can kinda see the weird geo (almost positive camber on front) and different ride heights here:



Anyway, shitty geo or not lets take it skidding! Managed to fit 10 tyres in the back. Not bad.



Got to pod and it was pissing it down but dried up over the day and was good to learn on different surfaces.




Had an awesome day, learned loads and realised I need a couple more things on the car before the next one.

1. Hydraulic handbrake - the standard BMW one does NOTHING and I mean nothing..
2. Bucket seat, sliding around on a leather sofa when you're trying to control a car is a bit silly. Actually made it hard to hit the pedals at times I got pulled around so much!


Anyway, the cars back at the garage for a geo and to fit the hydro and I'm grabbing a bucket seat tonight - should be good!


Couple of pics of me on the day:












I was getting the hang of the kidney by the end of the day, was quite pleased for my first try but I'm looking forward to going back with proper suspension set up and the hydro should add another element to learn.

Other future plans may include a quicker steering rack (Z3/4 possibly), and some sort of stupid exhaust for the hell of it. I've heard you can get fair gains from uprating cams, so may try this. I also need to finish stripping out the rear of the car!

Cheers for reading

[lyf]

Good project mate, how have you got around the traction control? I know a few people who have had e46 shudders and they all say that you can't turn it off 100% unless you take out one of the rear sensors...

[Haynesey]

Nice, love seeing these skidded!! dont worry about the hydro too much, learn without one and you wont get to rely on it!! I still dont have one in now and have been skidding for a while!! Bucket seat and harness is a good idea though then just strip the fuck out of it....makes a great improvement imho!

[Rich330]

Cheers guys, lyf that's just standard Internet bs - there's a button in the dash to disable traction control one press turns off stability control and a long press fully switches it off!

Just picked up a cobra Monaco bucket which will be going in soon!

[mk1rob]

very nice car. love watching e46s drift.

[Leslie DG]

Nice, love seeing these skidded!! dont worry about the hydro too much, learn without one and you wont get to rely on it!! I still dont have one in now and have been skidding for a while!! Bucket seat and harness is a good idea though then just strip the fuck out of it....makes a great improvement imho!

yeah, but as i see, you driving a jdm, that means drum in disc, so dont exactly need a hydro, because you have e-brake. ford is worst (normal disc) but beemers just dont have e-brake as Rich said, thats true. no hangin on the ebrake, but good to know how to use

[ben]

that means drum in disc

E46 has the same setup, shoes inside the rear disc

[Stavros]

Good project, expect more of these will crop up as they decent cars for the cash.
Haynsey means is learn to drift with NO handbrake.
I agree tbh, makes you better at drifting properly rather than relying on the wand to get sideways.
At Pod you deffo dont need a wand.

[AgitatedTrout]

This thing looks baller sideways!
But then you already know what I think Rich!

[Rich330]

Yep, I know I dont need a hydro, but I'd like to have the option and gives that extra diversity. I've come from S2ks and MR2s where weight transfer on corners is hugely important to not spin out and explode while pushing on so I have a pretty good feel for this side of things as apposed to just hanging off the wand and hoping for the best. I mainly want to work on my transitions next as I was inconsistent on my first day. With most things in life I pick stuff up kinda slow but when I start to do well I kinda boss it. lol. I'm hoping this is the same with drifting :P We'll see.

When I got to my first DWYB last week I could barely donut properly so I was happy to get a few good laps of the kidney in towards the end. This is what I like about going skidding though, you can really see yourself improve and get better. Very rewarding when you start getting things right. Will probably be back at pod at some point in August for round 2.

[Al_E11evens]

Nice project pal. Ill be looking for a cheap e46 or good 36 soon when I sell my mx5 turbo. Beemers are a lot of car for the money