Bimmerworld Unveils Wild BMW E36
Featuring a bespoke tube-frame chassis and a P63 (M6 GT3) BMW Motorsports V8 under the hood, this E36 M3 is more custom than not.
For those unfamiliar with Bimmerworld, they are a BMW parts supplier that has been supporting the aftermarket since the late 1990s. Since then, they have built up a racing pedigree and have put it at the forefront of their image, hosting a variety of BMWs in a variety of racing events and series across the world. Back in 2017, they for the first time built a race car for Pikes Peak International Hill Climb and managed a respectable 6th in class for their first outing.
Back then, the car was an E92 M3, then they entered a M4 GT4 for the 2019 event. However, this time around, they want their car to be truly something special. It will be a E36. You might think, what the hell? Isn’t that one of the cheapest BMWs you can buy and it isn’t even an M3? Well, you’d be right in both of those situations, but to be honest, this car isn’t really even a E36, it just happens that the chassis has a VIN which at a time belonged to a E36. This project is code-named “Bergsteiger,” the German word for a climber or mountaineer. Thanks to an article on the Bimmerworld website, we get to see what this car is all about.
According to the article, the project came about while stress-testing an Optima battery under terrible conditions. Next thing you know, they were cramming a 900+ HP engine into a little E36 engine bay. Their initial thoughts were to build a crazy N54 engine from the E90 generation 335i, but after seeing the crazy power a S63TU from a current generation M6 made with just a flash tune (700 WHP), they changed their minds. So after talking with BMW Motorsport, they were able to obtain a spare P63 twin-turbo V8 (the motorsport version of the M6 V8) for their project.
The team originally started with a beat-up 325is shell, but managed to find a E36 M3 shell that was in better condition instead. If you have seen any Pikes Peak car, you know that aero is king and the bigger the better. The team started test fitting some giant carbon underbody work as well as the carbon body used by E36 race cars in the 1990’s.
Initially, the team thought that they were going to fit the hot-V orientation engine and all the custom body work onto the stock chassis. However, this was completely scrapped due to complications with design and packaging and they decided to tube frame the car entirely. This is where their project took a drastic turn. Now it is a completely bespoke tube-frame chassis which features parts from a myriad of different race cars and BMWs throughout the decades.
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