Roundel Weekly: My Turn

Written By Read Fleming of the Boston Chapter

A little background:

• The picture was taken during the lunch break at a Boston Chapter Autocross on April 23, 2016. We usually get a few wagons; it's rare that we get four 3 Series wagons at once!

• The photographer is Krystian Macek. He drives an E46 M3 at autocross events (quite well, I might add), and has been photographing these events for years. He readily agreed to sacrifice most of his lunch break to take many pictures of all the wagons.

• Most readers will be curious about the green car on the right. This was only the second autocross outing for #781, since it spent most of the previous two years under construction. You can tell from the puddle it got a little excited. Since April it has been in about twenty autocross events, an 850-mile family vacation (with a Labrador Retriever, of course), and various smaller outings.

• The #781 wagon was built from two cars. It retains the structure and interior of an Oxford Green 2003 325i Touring. A somewhat worn "donor" 2003 M3 convertible supplied the M3 running gear: engine, 6-speed transmission, diff, front and rear subframes with suspension, and brakes. It also supplied much of the sheet-metal required to make the M3-shaped fenders.

• Apart from the "square" tire setup, some suspension tuning, non-M3 mirrors, seats, and a custom exhaust (all my preferences), it's pretty much what the factory would have built.

• All mechanical work was done by Wile Motorsport of Walpole, MA. Jake is THE local guy for E36 and E46 work.

• The bodywork was done by Sublime Restorations of South Hampton, NH. They do all the bodywork for Turner Motorsport, so they know E46s.

• I showed it the Boston Chapter "Lawn Event" at the Lars Anderson Museum in Brookline, MA this summer, but it otherwise has had little exposure outside the local autocross community. To 99% of the public I'm just an old guy driving a green station wagon. How quaint! If I hear anything from non-BMW enthusiasts, it's how much they like the color.

Gearheads seem to notice it a little more. Most of the typical comments that I get are:

• "I haven't seen one of these before. They must pretty rare, huh?"

• "How did you manage to import this? It's too new." [I think a reference to the 25-year rule]

• "The mirrors are wrong."

• "WTF"

• "Can I drive it?"

I intend to keep and drive this car for a long time. I keep a low profile, but lately there seems to be a burst of interest in M wagons. I thought a green one would complement the silver factory prototype, the blue Bavarian Workshop card unveiled this summer, and the red Griot's car. Now all we need is an E36 M3 wagon in Dakar Yellow!—Read Fleming 

If you have some interesting content you'd like to submit for consideration, such as a story, pictures, or video, please e-mail Nate Risch, Roundel Weekly editor, at nrisch@bmwcca.org.