not a good idea...

 

would depend on year of M3....older ones can be beat, just don't play with the new ones.

 

yea i agree...new ones are what, 333hp? zooooooooooooooom

 

A good friend of mine has one with the STG or SPG tranny and paddle shifters. It's like driving the worlds fastest go kart. Sticks to road like glue and has incredible performance. We blew by a bunch of BMW bikers down in NM while following some of our buddies on their sportbikes at around 140 with the stereo on and a cold Coke in hand.
Should seen the look on the BMW biker's faces as we came by.

 

I agree.

 

E30 = Easy kill for VQ30 5sp and VQ35 Maximas
E36 auto = VQ35 auto Maxima
E36 5sp > VQ35 auto Maxima but, = VQ35 6speed
E46 >>>>> than any nonboosted (and maybe some boosted) Maximas.

Peace

 

Correction- It's SMG, not STG or SPG.

GC

 

News flash for you-those BMW bikes are faster 0-60 and have pretty good top speeds - around 150 or so. Your bussies on sportbikes would leave you too .....

 

ugh... new m3s... yeah never race them... i raced some little asian guy with a fungi color m3 at the light.... he smoked me... and Im a medium asian guy with a max... god damn i still love my car...

 

I concur.....

 

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthr...t=blown+engine

 

And there I thought BMW service was good. Those horror stories are worse than ours!

M3 is still a phat car though...one day.

 

BMW has admitted to the problem with the "explosive" engine crapola. E46 M3 owners are supposed to be getting the royal treatment due to this...

One little part and everything comes unglued in a very ugly fashion.

 

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM MMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!

BOOSTED 330 ....oh, one of those...

 

several BMW drivers took them to court so...dont think too highly of their customer service because initially -and for about a four month period- BMW was blaming everything on drivers overrevving the engine.

This fell flat on it's face when some really cool dudes -who had the semi-automatic SMG cars- proved in a hearing that the design of the SMG gearbox -specifically, its built-in overrides- made it IMPOSSIBLE for the engine to be overreved and that indeed, engines who could -because of the SMG gearbox- never go beyond 8100 RPMs were logging 8600 RPMs in the ECU logger -proving the rev logger was wrong, at which point BMW had massive egg on face.

When faced with that, BMW finally relented but it was a cat-fight for MONTHS

Now they're getting engine replacements and/or rebuilds and 100k mile warranty, which is still insufficient, IMHO

BTW, the design of this engine -3.3 liters with an unGodly long stroke to achieve those 3.3 liters- creates a piston speed that is a tad less than TWICE the piston speed of our beloved VQ's! hell, it begins to approximate the piston speed of their 18000 RPM F1 engines

Thanks but no thanks -because fix or no fix, it's still a very expensive hand-grenade...

 

I guess there is actually a limit to how much NA power you can reasonably get out of 6 cylinder. Over 300hp na on 3.3 liters is and incredible feat. But it looks like this engine is very topped out in it's development. They should beef it up and offer a factory SC ala Mercedes etc.. That way they don't have to spin the living koo-koo out of it to get the rpm based hp.

 

with the hugely undersquare engine -the stroke so long versus the bore- and not the overall level of tuning because the engine is right at 100 hp/liter.

And yes, 100hp/liter is one of those 'ohmiGod' benchmarks but there are a few other egines out there that reach that plateau with solid reliability. The Honda S2000 comes to mind...that's pumping 120 hp/liter -but its a very modern, udersquare design.

What I cannot for the life of me figure out is why BMW went with that archaic configuration!

 

Maybe it was maintain some low end torque? The S2000 is great yes, but I think the oversquare engine + small displacement really hurts the torque values.

 

And just for the record, the BMW I6 in the E46 M3 models displaces 3.2L's, not 3.3L's...

3.4" bore x 3.53" stroke = 192.3 CID or 3151.19 CC's

It's still a remarkable engine, even with it's problems. They will be fixed, though, and with the extended overall warranty, should provide some measure of satisfaction to the ones that got screwed. And I never said BMW service was good...I've always thought it to be rather shoddy myself.

 

Honda does the same thing. Maybe they know something we don't.

 

That engine blowing up stuff was really only for the first year of the new M3's (2001). Since then, they have fixed everything and these cases are rare now for 2002's and 2003's.

 

About what I would say as well!

 

Quick question for you (or anyone else), is the E46 M3's motor the same as the Euro Spec E36 motor? If I recall correctly the E36 (96-00) M3 in Europe had a 321hp 3.2L I6 motor (while the US spec only had 240hp version of that same motor).

 

The older E36 Euro M3 had a higher HP version of the US M3's 3.2L, which is the same basic engine as the '01 and later E46 M3 (with another boost of power).

 

anyways, i have no idea what kidn of m3 it was. i know it was a really nice blue color, and was stick. I wouldn't even have tried it...my girlfriend was driving and said she thought she'd win because the guy driving was old (as in 30's...).

and by the way...someone responded earlier and said the "older m3's can be beat"......i would have never known. i just alwayz assumed BMW's are fast...

 

The older E36 M3 is still more than a match for most drivers in the 5th Gen Maximas...

 

I can attest to that; I'm 0 for 2 against two different stock E36 M3s (5speed) in my auto 2K2. (Each time, I regretted not getting a 6speed.)

 

yes, I know FOR SURE the E36 M3 is faster than the Auto Maxima.

 

E36 M3 5spds will run 14-flat at almost 100 mph trap speeds. I think I've even heard of a few sneaking 13.9's still stock. It would take one HELL of a 3.5 Max 6spd driver to match that.

 

i went for a ride in a new m3 smg the other day, and it made my car feel slow

that thing bangs through the gears, when you shift it sounds like youre doing something wrong the back end shifts so hard... im considering it for my next car now lol

 

Also, you can do Euro-spec engine conversions on the cars also. Not sure if you can convert the existing engine or if it's a whole new engine. Thought I read it was an entire engine swap and the cost was like $7000 or something.