E46 M3 drivetrain into _____

So early this year I picked up a 2001 M3 that had been totaled. The previous owner slid the front-right wheel into a curb, pushing the strut tower about 4" inboard and snapping the factory strut tower brace. I picked up the car for $5K, so worse comes to worse, I can break even (or maybe make a few bucks) parting it out, but the intention was to fix it up, put in a cage, and race it in GTS3.

The front subframe comes on and off with no trouble, so I hope that means everything is straight and I would just have a body shop pull out the busted metal and put in new pieces (about $500 + labor). That didn't seem so bad, then this weekend I pulled out the wiring harness and removed a plastic box on the driver side that turned out to be covering a broken seam on the strut tower. Now I'm looking at both sides to be replaced and I have a newfound concern that the frame rails are tweaked over to the left. Still planning on getting it over to a body shop for a quote (the lack of paint work should help keep costs down), but now I'm looking at double whatever I was going to pay for one side, plus they could tell me the frame is tweaked.

With this potentially bad news for the shell, my mind has been racing with thoughts of a drivetrain swap into another BMW chassis of similar vintage. This also might derail my plans for GTS3, or even a race car, but I have two LeMons teams keeping me happy with seat time and this car would see some AX and HPDE time.

Two options come directly to mind, but I'm not sure the level of difficulty on either of these: E46 Touring or Z3. I'm starting my web search now, but thought I'd check here first to see if anybody knew how "plug-and-play" the driveline and subframes would be from the M3 to these chassis. I'm guessing either option will require a custom driveshaft length. Z3 might require an "M" body, which would make the search for a shell much more difficult (and costly).

Thoughts?

2002 or E30

Locost.

Or one of these if you don't want to build from the ground up. http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=782734

I don't know about "plug & play:, but if you have the drive train, ECU and all the chatchkas; I'd go for a sleeper.

Put it in an Frisbee. That's what all the cool Scandinavian dudes are doing.

318ti

The Answer. Of course.

914Driver wrote: I don't know about "plug & play:, but if you have the drive train, ECU and all the chatchkas; I'd go for a sleeper.

This. I would be looking really hard for something with round headlights and lots of chrome.

Or, I'd toss it into an E46 wagon for easy awesome.

I know a guy who put one in an e28 5 series, and it worked out really nice. However, the e46 wagon swap is probably going to be the easiest.

Sharknose 6 series.

Another vote for shark nose 6 series. Or 240z?

^^ guy here in Atlanta had done that. This comes out to our Cars and Coffee style event monthly http://atlanta.craigslist.org/sat/cto/5220606509.html

Thing looks and sounds awesome

Trying to limit the amount of fab work involved, so while all the non-BMW ideas are cool, I don't have that kind of skill (or money).

The E24 idea is intriguing, but I'm still leaning towards something that would be more track-focused. Even the wagon would be pretty capable if I can swap over the subframes and suspension.

The nice thing about the E24 is that if you search long enough, you should have no problem finding a decent priced one with a manual transmission. That way you don't have to fab up any clutch pedals or whatnot.

E46 Wagon is my vote.

BMW 2002 ......Obviously.

e21! e21!

e46 wagon is the easy button especially on the odds of actually ending up with a working car in a short amount of time. Find a cheap one - like one the auto trans has packed it in. Sell off engine to recoup purchase price and start swapping drivetrain, pedals and DME.

That drivetrain would make anything more awesomer.

I've seen the S54 in an e36 and an e30 at the SCCA National Tour. The e36 was a National title holder and took down Hyman in his GTR. I would say it's a competent setup.

318Ti. It definitely fits and I even believe the motor mounts all line right up. You'd have a bit of a wiring headache, and need to figure out a driveshaft/differential solution, but its like 85% there.