Roundel Weekly: My Turn

The project car—it's the pinnacle that all true gear heads think and dream about. Everyone has their own perspective of a project car. Some have just one, some have many. Most of them don't run. I think it’s safe to say that most of the project cars out there were started with the best intentions, but sometimes we do get over our heads.

I may or may not have thought out what I was getting myself into by taking on this project, but if I'm going to ever have an opportunity to massage an E36 M3 Lightweight back to life, then I'll figure it out. 

What had originally started out as a small favor to drive an M3 Lightweight 1200 miles south from its stable in New Jersey, turned into a cross country mission to retrieve a legend of its era and bring it to San Diego for its massaging, in preparation for its official debut in Monterey, CA for the big BMW celebration. If there is ever going to be a time and place to glorify a BMW in 2016, its going to be in Monterey this August.

If it weren't for the BMW CCA, I probably would have never met this LTW’s second and current owner, Matt 'Cadillac Boy' Russell. He wanted to not only get around to fixing this car (like how most project cars go), but give me the privilege to be the one to do the work. Considering I live in a place where we don't have things like winter, this was no easy hand off for either of us. We agreed to meet half way in Dallas, TX at the BMW CCA Annual Meeting and Chapter Congress.

When we arrived in Dallas, Matt gave me the rundown on the M3's current driving condition after driving it 1600 miles from New Jersey. “Well, it wants to step out on you above 50 mph in the wet and it has a strange, intermittent misfire that eventually clears up while driving.”

I thought to myself, “OK, this will be interesting.”

Matt then says, “Oh, we did lose a muffler hanger along the way so the muffler is hanging crooked and we recommend wearing shorts when driving.”

The gears in my head were turning with mild concern as Matt takes me out to the car in the hotel parking lot where I do a brief once over. I had to make sure there is nothing that developed on the way down that will hinder our 1300 mile trip back to San Diego.

Now, no semi-cross country road trip would be complete without a good co-driver. Good thing I was able to bring my good friend and BMW Performance Center West Driving Instructor, Brandon Watson, to drive this M3 home with me. It took very little arm twisting to get Brandon to buy into this little trip. Since we had worked at the dealership for about 7 years, I really didn't think Brandon would want to miss out on spending a few hours with me in a car like this. But by the time Brandon realized the Lightweight didn't have air conditioning or a radio, I had already booked his ticket.

Before I can really tell you about this Lightweight, you need to understand a few things: this is no ordinary M3 Lightweight! And I say that because almost every M3 Lightweight I've seen (and probably you've seen too) is either a BMW CCA club race car, or a low mileage, concours winning show car. This particular M3 Lightweight happens to be, arguably, the highest mileage M3 Lightweight with 183,960 miles and counting! From all the roads, tracks, and 20 or so years of east coast winters, this M3 has seen it all.

We didn’t get a chance to properly acquaint ourselves with the car the night before we set off on our road trip, all this was done during our morning departure from Dallas. This car is kinda noisy with the rear seats down and the trunk filled with tools, parts, luggage, and an authentic, unpainted, aluminum, passenger door.

We notice a few things right away: the passenger side A-pillar cover is missing, multiple warning lights are illuminated on the instrument cluster, and the shifter trim isn't even attached anymore—and it doesn't look like it will ever reattach again.

A funny but annoying problem was when you went to use the turn signal and go over a bump in the road at the same time, the high beams would flash on. 

Oh, and the steering wheel would go crooked due to the worn RTABs in the back?

We hit the road just after 6 a.m. and set out on our 1343-mile mission back to San Diego. With half a tank of gas, I hit the highway while Brandon connected our Valentine 1, dash cam, iPhone chargers, and Bose bluetooth speaker.

The first 75 miles were me trying to see around the giant rear wing, which sits perfectly in the middle of the rear window where I would conventionally look out of. I found myself completely redoing my mirror settings, all while trying to get comfortable in a new-to-me-but-worn-out car.

We came to our first pit stop and it was time to switch places with Brandon. The cool part here is that this M3 isn't exactly stock. Let’s just say that the original, handpicked, high output, 3.0 S50 is loooooong gone and will never be found again. So this M3 has been fitted with a 3.2-liter long block for some added kick. But when you add that 3.2-liters of kick to 3.38 rear differential gearing, an 11-lb flywheel, DINAN intake, a pair of long tube exhaust headers, and some 24-lb injectors with a mysterious, custom engine tune... You sure do get a nice kick from the Frankenstein S52ish under the hood!

The last time I drove through Texas was 2011 in my new E90 M3. Here I was four years later with a co-pilot and I still hate driving through Texas. Sorry Texas, nothing personal, but y'all got too much plain scenery and road kill for my liking. Needless to say, the long drive from Dallas to El Paso wasn't that exhilarating except for the part where a rock made its mark on the windshield. Grr...

Once we got through the halfway point in El Paso, the drive started to get really good. Traffic was nonexistent and the scenery got better. I was back at the wheel and after changing into shorts, I realized what Matt was talking about. You really need to think around that no air conditioning option on this car!

By now we have acclimated to the car's characteristics. The noises, the imperfections, the crooked driver’s seat frame, the irritating misfire that would cause the engine to surge for a split second. All of it.

We switched off from driving every other tank of gas along with Brandon's occasional bathroom breaks. While stopped we got some beautiful pictures of the car that we shared on our social media channels and the BMW CCA Instagram page. Despite the car's up close condition and missing parts, she is incredibly photogenic.

Even though the car hiccupped the entire 16 hours of the 1343 miles of highway we conquered on the way home, all three of us made it back safe and sound with lots of stories to tell. Stay tuned as I go over and under the car to evaluate its overall condition and start the planning on making it the car it deserves to be.—Nick Owen