Building the Ultimate E36 M3 with Turner Motorsport
The BMW E36 M3 was the followup album to the legendary E30 M3 that added two more cylinders and sleek new looks to the formula. The E36 M3 has recently become increasingly popular among young enthusiasts, as it is an affordable and fantastic platform to introduce anyone into the ownership of M-cars. With their age and affordability comes some pros and cons, though. Today, like last week, we’re going to outline what we would do to create the ultimate E36 M3 with an unlimited budget. |
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Engine
Unfortunately, here in the United States, we didn’t receive the ‘cool’ engine that the rest of the world did. No individual throttle bodies, higher redline, more power, etc.. But, being that these cars are now in the 25+-year-old window, we can finally have them. For our “Ultimate E36 M3,” we would start with purchasing a European-spec E36 M3 from 1995. So the E36 we’d buy would be off-the-bat more powerful and more unique.
With the S50B32 Euro-spec engine, there isn’t much we’d do to change the engine other than maintenance. It would need a VANOS rebuild, valve cover gasket replacement, rear main seal, oil pan gasket, and all the rest of the good maintenance that a new car buyer should perform, but for power, we would leave it stock. The S50B32 is too wonderful for us to want to mess with it.
For cooling, though, we’d need to address BMW’s Achilles’ heel. The CSF high-performance Aluminum Radiator and Mishimoto aluminum surge tank, ECS silicone hose kit, a new water pump, thermostat, and temperature sensors would keep everything in check and prevent any cooling issues. As well, an electric fan conversion would make sure we can control those temperatures accurately and reliably.
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Exhaust
Supersprint headers, downpipes, midsection, and muffler. You can’t go wrong with hand-built, Italian, sonic perfection.
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Clutch/Drivetrain
Obviously, while tackling that rear main seal, it’s a good idea to go ahead and take care of the flywheel, clutch, and assorted goodies with the transmission off the engine. The ECS brass clutch pivot pin will prevent any loss of pedal feel due to the wear associated with the factory plastic pin while the Turner Motorsport Exact-Fit stainless steel clutch line will help increase pedal firmness. Since we aren’t upgrading the engine power at all, a DKM Stage 1 single-mass flywheel and performance clutch kit will be the perfect upgrade to increase throttle response and bring some better driving feel.
Inside the car, the Turner Motorsport Double-Adjustable Short Shift Kit and new shifter bushings will make the shifting experience complete for enjoyable driving on the street and track. Plus, with the rally lever extension, we can keep our hands on the wheel longer with less room to travel to the shift knob.
Under the car, solid aluminum Turner Motorsport engine, transmission, differential, and subframe bushings will help eliminate a bunch of deflection in the drivetrain, ensuring all our power going through the DKM clutch will make it to the wheels. We would likely replace all the wheel bearings and axles, too, since this is a 25-year-old BMW. Just to make it nice and new.
Lastly, with all that changed, new transmission and differential fluid would complete the drivetrain service and ensure everything stays perfect while we drive the snot out of our Ultimate E36 M3.
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Suspension
Likely all the bushings and ball joints need to go. New control arms, Turner Motorsport Monoball Front Control Arm Bushings, Turner Motorsport Adjustable Rear Camber Arms, Monoball Rear Trailing Arm Bushings, Monoball Upper Rear Trailing Arm Bushings, Turner Motorsport Upgraded Rear Shock Mounts, and MOTON coilovers would help bring the ride height and steering response into our liking, as well as improved suspension geometry for better grip around a road course. A Z3 non-M steering rack and tie rods would improve the steering ratio, while our new quick-steer and bump correction kit would make sure we maintain correct front geometry even with a lowered ride height. No bump steer, no problem. A faster rack will help transition through corners without sawing at the wheel, too.
Lastly, a set of Turner Motorsport sway bars and Turner Motorsport adjustable front and rear end links will make sure our E36 M3 corners flat and don’t have too much preload on the sway bars from the lowered ride height.
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Brakes
For the brakes, we love the StopTech front and rear 355mm big brake kit that includes rotors, pads, big ol’ four-piston calipers, and stainless steel lines. These will help bring the E36 to corner entry speeds reliably all day thanks to the increased heat-shedding abilities of the StopTech rotors and the increased stopping power from those multi-piston calipers. We love StopTech products if you can’t tell.
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Wheels/Tires
With the larger brakes comes a need for larger wheels and tires. We love DS1s as much as the next guy, but they won’t clear the calipers. In this car, since we want it to do well on the track, a fresh set of 18x9.5 APEX EC-7 wheels from their fully-forged line will keep weight down while giving us the track-ready look we need. Oh, and they’ll clear the brakes.
For tires, Toyo Proxes, of course. |
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Interior
The Euro-Spec M3s received some of the coolest interior packages. M-Rain fabric, manual “Vader” seats, and Alcantara everywhere. We want to retain as much of that as we can, but E36s aren’t known for their ‘interior quality.’ To handle the notorious door cards and headliner, MKAH Motorsports door panel deletes, glove box delete, rear bench delete, and rear interior panel deletes would make the inside nice and simple while not looking like we just stripped it. The ‘clean and simple’ interior would be complete with a custom cage, SCHROTH harnesses, and a MOMO Mod.07 wheel and hub adapter. If you can’t tell, we like that wheel, too, as we put it in our Ultimate E46 M3 last week.
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Wrapping Up
If you haven’t noticed already, we wouldn’t do too much to a Euro E36 M3 to make it perfect. It was a fantastic car and we wanted to retain as much of the awesome original roots as possible. With full maintenance at every corner and some fairly simple upgrades with high-quality parts, the Euro M3 is exceptional. This list is perfect for a street car that sees track time and will certainly catch attention as it demonstrates what a real Euro M3 can do.
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