From left, Kyle Ulrich's E36 vert, Zaine Wherry's E36 coupe and Layne Wallace's E36 sedan.
Few cars have stayed as true to their original formula as the BMW 3 series. After just short of 50 years in production, the line of compact executive cars has grown with the times and stuck around where other manufacturers have opted to stray from winning formulas.
Whether you buy into the “Ultimate Driving Machine” messaging or not is irrelevant, seven generations and 20 million sales speak for themselves. From the streets of Munich to local racetracks in Ohio, the ubiquitous Bavarian machines have proven their effectiveness. One generation in particular, though, managed to bridge the gap between the boxy angularity of the 80s and the smooth curves of the 2000s with styling that has stood the test of time.
The BMW E36, the third generation of the legendary 3-series, has proven itself more than capable in a wide range of motorsports disciplines, drifting included. Various race-spec versions made their mark on touring car championships around the world, including the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM), Japanese Touring Car Championship and British Touring Car Championship, as well as endurance races where diesel variants proved their viability in racing.
The 3-series has never been face-meltingly powerful or incredibly light, but what it lacks in raw horsepower it makes up for in handling and driving dynamics. Non-M E36s all made between 100 and 200 HP, while the S50 and S52 M3s made between 240 and 330 HP. For the most part, they tipped the scales at around 3,000 lbs. It was inevitable that the simple, front-engined, rear-wheel-drive configuration would earn the affections of fans of spirited driving.
The S52 that powers Zaine Wherry's E36 makes right around 240 HP.
As is the case with lots of “luxury” marques, it took a little while for E36s to depreciate to attainable levels for the likes of regular enthusiasts, especially degenerate drift heads. While a few popped up here and there in series like D1GP as early as 2006, and we saw the NonStopTuning E36 that Chelsea DeNofa was piloting in the Xtreme Drift Circuit (XDC) comps around 2010, it would still take a few more years before they started to get both affordable and popular.
Nowadays, aftermarket support is plentiful and they’re a common sight at most any drift event. They’re good candidates for a wide variety of engine swaps, but they can also do just fine with their stock powertrains.
Our own Drift Indy Street League podium has been graced by a couple E36 pilots, and every event has at least 3 or 4 in attendance, often more. Zaine Wherry, Miles Harrelson and Jon Lewis all have (or had, in Jon’s case) really nice examples of E36s with a variety of setups. They contributed their tips and experiences with the chassis for this spotlight.
Jon’s E36 coupe, which he sold earlier this season, was perhaps the most basic of the four. That’s absolutely not to say that it was boring, though. Low as hell, a clean, simple body, and rocking tasteful aero and wheels, his M50-powered example both worked well and was nice to look at.
Jon ditched this thing for a KA S13. Lame.
After driving on a naturally aspirated M52 for a while, Miles Harrelson opted to go the forced induction route ahead of this season. With a Garrett 3076 slapped on the motor, he’s making around 400 HP. The Team Smooth Brain boy is running a hybrid setup with an M52 bottom end and an M50 head. He’s on the corn juice too, and an ethanol content sensor, a bigger fuel pump, bigger injectors and Super Tech valve springs all come together to push upwards of double the motor’s original output.
“It’s a fun car, it makes really cool sounds,” Miles said. A 3.91 diff makes some tracks a little tricky for him, but he makes it work.
Miles car rips with that turbo. And it does sound great.
Zaine Wherry’s Banana Boy yellow coupe didn’t start its life as an M car, but thanks to a generous heart transplant from a Z3M, it’s got an S52 under the hood. Besides the powerplant, thought, he has followed a similar recipe to Jon. He’s nice and low on some BCs, so low, in fact, that he’s gone through five front lips this season.
Zaine Wherry has been shredding in this thing this season.
While it’s not as peppy as the European market S50, the S52 is no slouch. They can be super reliable and there’s quite a bit of room for them to make more power, thanks in part to a pretty bulletproof cast iron block (German 2JZ?).
Our friends over at JEM-Sport have helped to introduce another great option for folks looking to ditch their stock engines: the plucky Ford Ecoboost. Certified shredder Vance Kearns made the change to an Ecoboost for this season and has been looking good with the boost in power. They’re lighter than the BMW 6-cylinders and make upwards of 100 HP more than the M50s and M52s right out of the box. The 2.0 and 2.3 liter turbo motors are in all kinds of Ford models, so parts are more than plentiful. Definitely worth some consideration, if only for those sick turbo noises.
Vance Kearns' Ecoboost-powered E36 coupe is super sick.
We’ve all seen the memes about BMW reliability issues. Do they sometimes leave a parking lot with more oil left on the ground than they’ve got in the pan? Sure. Do they have a tendency to overheat? Perhaps. Do they love to eat axles? Absolutely. Still, if you can keep an eye on those issues and stay on top of all that fun preventative maintenance, they can run like a top and take a beating.
The cooling issue is one that the fellas all emphasized. At this point, they’re old cars. Even nice, garage-kept examples likely have degrading, cracked plastic components. Luckily for prospective owners, though, it’s such a known issue that there are plenty of replacement and performance cooling system kits on offer.
“Cooling system, cooling system, cooling system. Everybody overheats their E36 and then wonders why; typically it’s because you didn’t replace it,” Zaine said.
“And then they blow it up their first drift event,” Miles said.
“There’s not a clip of me doing that on the internet,” Jon said, “of it being in the red and me sitting on limiter… I was trying to drive, baby!”
Three laps with the temps pegged in the red and he still drove it home. Not a bad endorsement for these German machines.
“If you’re gonna drift an E36 and you’re really set on it, just weld the diff, put some coilovers on and you’ve got something you can drift,” Zaine said.
That nice aftermarket support extends to suspension components as well. All four of our contributors are on BC Racing coilovers and SLR angle kits. There’s plenty of options out there, some worse than others, but options nonetheless. Whatever you opt for, it’s a really good idea to invest in some reinforcement for the stress points on these aging chassis. It’s not uncommon for a strut tower to blow out on these, especially in the rear if you decide to ditch the divorced setup.
“You definitely want the subframe reinforcements, and I’d stick with the divorced setup until you’re making crazy power. Divorced is definitely the move because as soon as you do a true coilover, you’ll blow right through that strut tower,” Miles said.
Styling E36s can be a little bit tricky, but it’s far from impossible. There’s not a huge amount of aero and body kit options out there, but there’s enough to make it work. Most of the body kit options are JDM-inspired, bellbottom-style sets, but there’s quite a few that seem to draw some inspiration from Euro race series as well.
With a 5x120 bolt pattern, wheel options are fairly plentiful. It’s worth noting that slapping some big, heavy chrome johnnies on might add some stress to the already-fragile axles. It ain’t always easy being steezy. Luckily, E36s aren’t crazy hard to work on. It’s definitely worth noting that they do require some fairly specialized tools, though.
“The hardest part is you have to buy different tools. You don’t have to buy quality tools, but you’ve got to buy different tools than what you’re used to buying. E-torx and shit,” Zaine said.
“When I first bought my E36, I learned everything I know about working on cars on that thing, and it was so simple,” Miles said.
So, you’ve decided all this sounds like a ton of fun and that you want your very own E36. Before you hop on Facebook Marketplace to lowball the first person you can find that’s selling one, there are a few things to watch out for. Not all E36s are created equal, so there’s gonna be a few you may want to avoid if your end goal is getting sideways in it.
The 318i comes equipped with the M40 series of four-cylinder engines, all of which would likely feel underpowered out of the box. They can be good contenders with some boost, but if your goal is getting to the track as quickly as possible you might want to aim for the 6-cylinder variants instead.
Layne Wallace's M50B25 looks sick all cleaned up.
The 320i got the 6-cylinder M50B20 and later the M52B20, 2.0-liter variants of the more powerful 2.5-liter M50B25 and M52B25 that can be found in the 323i and 325i. The highest non-M trim is the 328i that was graced with the M52B28, the 2.8-liter variant.
“The 328s are great and M3s are great,” Zaine said.
“Yeah, I think if you can, the 328 is the go-to. If not, the 325 is probably the best for something cheap and reliable. And yeah, an M3, if you find a good deal grab it right away, one hundred percent,” Miles said.
When it comes to the body style, sedans, coupes and convertibles can all work well. We didn’t get the wagon here in the US, but they’re eligible for import now so there’s always the chance that one could pop up. There also exists the divisive compact body style, and whether you think it looks like a coupe that got rear-ended or believe that it’s an excellent piece of imaginative 90s design, it’s worth noting that they are equipped with E30 rear suspension. They can be super cool, though, and they’re becoming something of a cult classic.
Is the BMW E36 the be-all and end-all best drift chassis? Who knows? Can they work great and look sick? Absolutely, and that’s all that really matters.
“E36, best car. Probably,” Jon said.
“Damn straight. That’s it right there. Best car,” Zaine concluded.