Front to rear weight balance is a matter of driver preference. There is no magic weight balance number, and the whole 50/50 thing is BMW marketing. You'll find very few professional cars that sit at exactly 50/50.
Back to the original question, yes, there are 318Ti's with M3 swaps that are raced and do very well. The only down side is the suspension setup. E36 front with E30 rear. It kind of limits what is available. There are many more suspension options for a regular e36 sedan or coupe.
The rear brakes also become an issue if you find that you need to upgrade them. MassiveBrakes is the only vendor that currently has a bolt on solution for the rear of the 318Ti for aftermarket brakes.
Is your mini a cooper works? I regularly track my 318ti with the stock m42 and a completely redone suspension. I can easily outrun a regular stock mini. If you get a mini with a done suspension setup and race tires it would come down to driver experience. A stock cooper works Mini can outrun my car with the right driver. The power is majorly lacking in the M42. If I had an s50 or s52 in my car I would be able to hang with other track modified M3's and the middle of the road porsches. My corner entry and exit speeds are up there with M3's and faster porsches, but I don't have the acceleration of the other cars.
With the M42 the 318ti makes a very cheap track car, easy on tires and brakes. With an s50/52 you are going to be using a lot more tires and brakes, so it might be the same cost as an M3 to track.
Honestly, if you are going to strip the car and do extra safety work, I would probably look for an M3 that is in good shape. The extra weight of the body is made up for by stronger differential, stronger subframe, and some extra little goodies that the M3 came with.
a 95 318ti has a three channel ABS, and the 96+ M3 has four channel ABS, with better brakes all the way around, and a dual ear differential carrier that is stronger that the e30/Ti single ear carrier. |