Hi Gang
Before I put this up on Bring a Trailer or Hemmings or in the Roundel, I thought I'd offer it to you guys.
It's a 1996 318ti with a '97 M3 motor, 5-speed, brakes, front suspension, instrument panel, seats, a/c, and radio/disc player, plus an M Coupe LSD and M body kit. The conversion was done by a BMW shop in Jacksonville, FL, using parts from a wrecked '97 M3 with 47,000 miles. I bought it that way in 2008 or so. The build sheet shows a $10,000 fee for the conversion and tons of new BMW parts. Don't know what it cost them for the 318 or the wrecked M3.
It now has TC Kline double adjustable suspension, Motion Dynamics splitter, Ward wing (similar to the lightweight E36 M3 racers--up high), camber plates, and big front sway bar. We also upgraded the motor to Turner Stage 3 (cams, big jets, Porsche MAF, and removal of the cats). I have the cat pipe, of course, which goes with the car. Total cost of those mods was about $8,000 (parts and labor)
The last mod I did was to install an Active Aeroworks supercharger in December 2017. That cost $10,000 for parts and labor. We took it to a track day in 2018, but it wasn't running right, so back to the shop for further tuning--they found a vacuum leak,some loose connections and other stuff, and now it runs strong.
So I figure my price of $18,000 is fair--you sure couldn't build one like it for less unless you used junk parts.
By the bye--everything done to the car has been by professional BMW shops. I didn't install anything.
In the meantime, I came down with a medical condition that affects my legs; in short, I can no longer drive the car. Oh, I can drive it--but I can't race it. My feet get tangled up so I hit the brake and clutch at the same time.
So now I have a perfect car for HPDEs and track days, but I can't drive it. It was supposed to be my swan song. My buddies were getting faster with newer cars, and I wanted to thrash them before I hung up my helmet. Before the supercharger, it could run with E36 M3s, Z06es, Porsches, etc--you know, the cars running one group down from the Vipers and other superfast cars. Here's a video of it running ahead of a modded E36 M3--he stays with me until my tires get hot, then I run away:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upeyJtTN_II Does the Ward wing work? Yes indeed--it let me go flat through the Kink:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pme7K-30NiE Both of these are without the supercharger. And, yeah, I'm not that fast. I don't throw the car around or slide it. Hey, I'm 75--imagine what the car would do with one of you young dudes driving it.
I don't know the mileage on the chassis because they installed the M3 dash, but the engine has about 80,000 miles on it.
It sits in my garage 95% of the time. Until the recent medical problem, I'd drive it to the track on the street Hankooks, run the event, drive home with the a/c on, and put it back in the garage. We'd go to 4-6 events every year.
Minor problems:
Wiring has loosened up behind the dash. Can't read the odo, and the stereo sounds awful.
Gets vapor lock--after a blast down the highway, it gets vapor lock when I shut it off. We get around this with a fuel pump cutoff switch, but the fuel lines need to be insulated (may be fixed soon)
It comes with:
New pads, new Hankook tires (just half a track day on both)
Four spare wheels with bald Hankooks
Catalytic converter pipe (just bolt it up to pass inspection)
Track stuff (pads, rotors, side jack,etc)
Tons of original parts
Email me at
rmerritt@controlspr.com if you have questions