BMW E46 Saloon WTCC/ETCC/BTCC Inspired Track/Race [bring it back to forums build]

BMW E46 Saloon WTCC/ETCC/BTCC Inspired Track/Race

Firstly welcome to the build, it’s been a few years since I’ve been involved in a full car build something I had said I would never do again. Having previously built BDC spec Nissan PS13 Silvia and S14 200sx also had a play with a few other rally cars since then. I’m well aware of the investment and energy required to complete something like this, so here goes! You maybe thinking, why a grip car thread on driftworks? well a lot of the people who had drift cars 10-15 years ago now have grip track cars take Phil Morrison as an example!, and well im posting a build thread in the dream of reviving forums, because social media is a self propelling vortex of toxic scammers.


Link to my PS13 build thread for nostalgia! https://www.driftworks.com/forum/threads/joes-onevia-bdc-street-legal-carloan4u-co-uk.76140/
Some pictures!








My S14 didn't have a build thread. but it was much better built car, which had a lot of engine issues initially, then when it just about got good. I stuffed it into a wall at mondello! im just as guilty as anyone for moving away from forums 2014/5 onwards as instagram and facebook became much more prevalent







However with some great support around me and and some opportunities I can’t miss time to go down the rabbit hole once again.

The plan is over the next few years build a e46 saloon race/track car, this will be done in 2 stages first one is to get the chassis complete and working as desired, using a m54B25 circa 200hp with minimal exterior modifications, something a little like this,








with some earlier supertourer styling influences.



Once this has been proven and enjoyed if everything goes well phase 2 will be for the 2002/3 WTCC wide body to be added as well as a power unit of around 300/350hp.






Probably an unpopular opinion but I’m really not keen on e46’s fundamentally, I’m a huge Nissan fan and 370z was probably the most favorite car I’ve ever owned. However I’m coming around to them a little, and a big part of this for me is to have a car I’m not to precious about, I want this this to be driven hard by myself and anyone else that uses it.

So, Firstly introduction into the cars, I say cars as this project will involve 2 cars concurrently to try and expedite the time to build as much as the budget will allow. The first one (silver) is a BMW 325i Automatic SE saloon with 117k with minimal rust, and a relatively healthy sounding engine.




As per e46 life, useful amount of dash lights....



This car will be used to be built into the race car, first jobs will be full rust inspection, full rear subframe mounting inspection. To ensure the shell is in the best possible condition before anything is invested into it, then full tear down to nothing ready for shell preparation.

The second car (blue) is a BMW 325i Manual M Sport with 137k miles This car has been my run around for a while and has been great to get used to the qwerks of e46’s. The last e46 I drove was when instructing at a drift school. Although the school was a great experience and something I loved doing, I really didn’t enjoy the e46 at all. So to have driven one this summer has been fun.




The idea of this car is to be a test mule while the silver car is having the shell prepped,

The first ask for this car is to look it over to ensure there is nothing mission critical that needs to be fixed, then to replace the rear subframe with a full E46 M3 rear end. The second task is to fit a 8HP50Z gearbox, however more on this to follow….

Car build Is going to be sponsored by Star Autocare, and as always Hywels knowledge and expertise!

 

Yes there is!


So first things first and most importantly Pressure washed the shell for the e46 touring car clean, and it came up really well….






found some small areas of rust on the jacking points, luckily this is all isolated to the outer sills.



This is such a positive start to the build rust can bring all manor of problems and to know that it’s just going to be a few new panels, which are ones we want to modify anyway is going to really help, we will be adding some high durability jacking mounts, as well as sill stands as normally seen in the rally world. These may or may not be made to be covered by the side skirts. Depends on how quick release I can make the side skirts, Apart from that area of rust she’s a really clean shell and super happy that this is the base for a full build!




Obviously the next thing you do after you was your new project race car is to try on the wheels!




First set of wheels we are going to run in the car will be some OEM bmw rims, seems to be little prone to cracking but in good sizes and offsets



They already seem a great fit, hopefully they will still be a good fit once we have done all the changes to the suspension.

 

Haha, exactly.

hopefully it will be worth while, I’m jus tho ping everyone else gets as fed up with social media as I am.

I spend time literally looking for build threads and car parts on fb and IG. While my brain is pounded by adverts and pointless shit I don’t care about

 

The next purchase for the car is some s52 exhaust manifolds, years of being at drift tracks hearing the drone of various BMW’s has made me a little paranoid of how I want this car to sound.




The performance gain of this mated to a well designed exhaust maybe a few hp, and allow us to get the most out of the stock block but in reality I want this car to be great and how it sounds is important to me so hopefully these will help in both departments.

Finally a very wet trip to British GT at the weekend for some inspiration….

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Is it to late to build a GT based car instead