BMW E36 M3 - opinions.

Speak to ren_juanjo on here, he had an S14 with a DE in it before he had his 3.0 M3 so he'd be ideal to talk to. I think hes very very pleased with his on the whole, and he proved it was competitive by finishing 4th in his first ever event at the British Open last year with only a few suspension mods.

The only limitation of BMs compared to turbo'd Jap machinery is if you want to get daft power out of them, it'll cost a fortune whichever route you go down.

Having driven both his S14 and M3, I'd have the M3 every single time; its not just a power thing, the S14 felt a lot easier to drift but the M3 feels like its giving you more feedback and feels a lot more comfortable as a result (in my limited experience, I'm hardly an expert).

 

Its nicer than a Corolla to drive.

It's not going melt your face or anything like that with its speed but for a standard car its good enough. So far I fitted some coilovers a few suspension bits and some decent tyres to mine and round a track its a happy car.

Go and try one Mr Bob
Jay

 

I think the engine is thuperb, i dont really feel i need anymore power. They just keep pulling, but they do need to be revved. As the main man says, it wont break your spleen with acceleration, but its quick enough to get into a lot of trouble.

They handle good too, i have softish coilovers with uprated ARB's and its pretty sweet, geometry is easily adjusted to a nice track setup. Like for like, stock for stock an S14 really isnt in the same league.

I worry a little about the cost of possible engine issues but other than that, i love everything about it.

 

you gonna be dritin this? or is it more of a daily driver?

 

um, as two sheds says. deeply underrated machine and fantastic engine. go try one asap.

 

Do not buy an evo version!
They have twin vanos (vvt) which gives problems and the gearboxs are shit!
The regular ones are pretty bomb proof my friend builds and races them so if you want any tweeky stuff if you do decide to go this route give me a bell!

 

I had one after I sold my sierra cosworth(280bhp) mine was a 1995 3.0 manual and it was a nice car (albeit road use only-didnt have it long enough to touch a track) I found it too smooth for its own good and I agree you need to rev it hard to get the best out of it but was deceptively quick,as in you genuinely think your a r doing 30mph less than you are.I found it to want to understeer as much as oversteer but thats probably down to 'safety' settings on the suspension from the factory and a set up and coilovers could change that poor on fuel but that may be they way I drove it(fuel was cheaper then and I had more disposable income!) and the cost rises rapidly if you want more than 320bhp and basic mods.I think that once a few more people get them to drift however and parts become more available there wont be much to touch them for the money.I say have a go in one and see what you think mate......I reckon you'll like it.Hope this helps.J

 

And then they subsequently choose one to try and lap the Nordschleife in less than 8 minutes, and sing its praise....

But yes.. Subaru's are fast, easy to drive quick and tuneable!

 

I stand by Brother Will's analysis of the e36 which is that it's actually an excellent car, it just needs to go on a diet.

 

polybush everything (cos they eat bushes) more neg camber on front, less on back.
better diff, hydro handbrake if you use a handbrake a lot. and strutbraces.
decent coilover setup and thats about it really. engines are good as they are
i'd love a e36 m3, greaty 2nd hand buy if its been looked after

 

One thing you should remember - replacement parts are expensive for all M models in general. I think the most realistic way to calculate the running cost would be to double the amount you would need to run an average E36, say, a 325i. A few of my friends have or had E36 M3s, and they all praised it.

I don't know if it's like this in the UK, but most M3s in continental Europe were involved in crashes that would normally send the car to the breakers... You'll have to be very careful inspecting a car that you'd like to buy. They're sensitive to geometry changes, so have that in mind while test driving it.

 

I've owned and drifted both an S14a and an M3 (well, M3 engined E36 at least) and on the whole I would say they are about equal.

My M3 is more driftable, but thats because i've put more money into it, but if i had tuned my S14a in a similar way to my m3, it would have probably gone the same way.

Out of the box, the S14a is a better drift car, but in terms of engine response, i would say the M3 is preferable. I often bogged down with the S14 when powering out, but the M3 just has too much torque to let that happen.

In an ideal world, I'd go for an M3 engine (3L, not evo) in an S14a shell, but in terms of how long I owned it, I will have to stick with my M3, I owned the S14a for two years. 5 years after buying my M3, I've got no plans to sell it.
astraboy.

 

E36 m3s

had two of them a 3.0 and a 3.2, the 3.2 was mildly faster, but once tuned my 3.0 was quicker.

stripped mine down and done a few bolt on mods and easily managed low 13 at the pod in 2007, as a drift car, didnt track it, but on the occasional play it was very lethal, could get HUGE angle from it, and very very controllable on the throttle, can also mange over 32MPG, all round was a top car for me, i suggest re inforcing the Diff and the supports/mounds had a tendancy to break.

holla at me if you serious, i know these cars in and out, i can advise you.

 

I can vouch for that. Mine was a bastardised hunk of crap and I didn't even know it when I bought it. I'll report back on the polybushing etc at the end of the week once I get the car running again.

 

Buy an E30 M3 you homo.