nokiaman

Amazing Build on E46fanatics.com, conversion of an 318i sedan into a 4 door E46 M3 Sedan!

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=578901




The 318i:



The donor car:





Results:

Not only cosmetic mods, complete with E46 M3 engine and SMG Tranny

nokiaman

Absolutely gorgeous lookin' car imo, had BMW decided to build it, I'm sure a lot of people would have bought it.(myself included)

RaviNJCLs

iTrader: (4)

Nice ride. I thought I remembered seeing this or something like it a while back.

Crazy Bimmer

Hubba hubba!!! Nice find!

Costco

wow that is insanely hot

At first, I was thinking to myself, that donor car looks mint, why?!?! Then I saw the result.... sexy.

n1njai

iTrader: (3)

Holy crap, that is so awesome!!!

rondog

iTrader: (1)

why not just hook up the 2002 M3 instead of transferring over all the parts onto a 1998 318i. I don't get the need of the 318i as the core of the car instead of the original M3...

mcflyguy24

I guess the only real benefit would be weight savings and tossability. Looks nice though, I always thought the M3 looked too big and bloated myself.

sho_nuff1997

iTrader: (2)

This is what the builder said:

lifetimeofwar

Not even close to the hottest E46 M3. I mean props for making a 4 door E46 M3, but i'll take the coupe any day over it.

Dem1K

iTrader: (1)

that thing is a beauty, wow

CLtotheTL32

iTrader: (3)

That thing is downright beautiful! I would have been just fine with the cars separate though

teh CL

iTrader: (1)

sexy time..

VQPower37

wow amazing job ... car looks beautiful

nokiaman

From what I understand, he did this because he didn't want to pay 80k in taxes in Norway if he registered the M3 Coupe. Basically the car is registered as a 99 318i in Norway. Only it has all M3 goodies.

CLtotheTL32

iTrader: (3)

That's great thinking! They really should have come out with the E46 4-door. I think a lot more people would have bought into BMW's.

'01White3.2CL

amazing, ive been waiting to see this outside of my mind for quite some time....GENIUS!!!

princelybug

iTrader: (16)

Definitely nice.

But...for the money spent, the owner could've gotten a MUCH nicer car.

Shift_Acura

It looks good but the end result wouldnt justify all the hard work and money going into the 318i at the cost of destroying the donor M3 IMHO

Burnricers

Car's nice but I would have just saved a bunch of time and money and just bought the M to begin with and modded it from there. Major swaps/mods like that always cost a bunch of money and time, not worth it IMO when a lower mileage E46 M isn't that expensive to begin with.

Costco

Personally I wouldn't do it either but c'mon, this thing is one of a kind. I haven't seen any other E46 M3 sedans conversions (at least not any as perfectly-executed as this) with the whole appearance and drivetrain package. I actually haven't seen the E46 M3 19's on a E46 sedan before, and coupled with that drop, I just gotta say it looks amazing.

Take it for what it is and not for what its worth.... its not money-wise for us but from the posts it seems like it made perfect sense for the owner

v6cord2k5

iTrader: (1)

Wish they made the ZHP like that.

TL CHROMETIDE

Same here. I think it was some guy from MIT that did the entire thing.

mrmako

Correct. Scandinavia has a 100% tariff on new cars built anywhere except there. Now, a SAAB and Volvo sell well, with minimal or no tariff. The Cayene, I believe, is partially made in Finland like Skoda, and has a lower tariff.

I ran into a guy in Helsinki some years ago and he told me how that worked. He owned a 1967 Caddy, and that thing was 20 feet long. But for his business, it was an Arizona car, and old, so he paid a 30% tariff....

A RAV4 in Norway is over $60K..... Ouch.

F23A4

Although the 330i w/performance package was a decent performer, the E46 sedan really should have an M3 variant. (If there was ever a 3 series sedan that did not need an M version, it's the E90 as the N54 of the 335i is fairly potent....especially when chipped.) Back on *, NICE job on the conversion.

alexSU

iTrader: (3)

Wow, that's really good work! Thumbs up to the dude

AMGala

iTrader: (4)

Absolutely gorgeous! I also wonder why BMW never made a 4-door e46 M3. They did with the e36 and the e90/92, so why not the e46?

fsttyms1

That build is very nice.

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

If BMW had offered that exact combination of an M3 4-door in the E46 body style, I might be driving one of those.

fsttyms1

And DAMN pic sigs are VERY ANNOYING.

CLtotheTL32

iTrader: (3)

Here's a video of it in action:

http://www.simracing.no/rudskogen_0001.wmv

myron

iTrader: (4)

that thing is sick looking. And like the guy said, it was cheaper for him to do the conversion then to register the m3 there so why not do it. you have the M you always wanted, it looks amazing, and you have a 1 of a kind car that most of the car enhusiasts in the world will know about. good job on that

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

Reading ownz you....

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

As far as the hottest... I guess it is since it's the only E46 M3 sedan I've ever seen... but I have seen nicer M3's

Very clean looking build though. Props to the guy...

'01White3.2CL

i read that BMW's answer to everyone wanting the 4 door E46 M3 was the ZHP sedan which had slightly more HP, lighter weight i think, etc...big fail on their part. ZHP's are great, top of the line E46 3-series sedans, but an M3 sedan woulda been so much better.