BMW Rallying Forum

I started building my compact rally car at the beginning of the year, it has an 1800 m42 engine and is pretty flat. I bought an e36 m3 to donate its engine and gearbox but after taking the engine out I couldn’t believe the size and weight of it. As much as I love the sound and power I couldn’t bring myself to put it in the compact. I got hold of some m3 throttle bodies, removed the centre pair and fitted the other 4 to the m42 which then sounded like a proper car and went better but was still flat. I have done a few rallies in it now and have had much better results in other cars I have owned but never had as much fun as I am having in the compact.
For the last rally I should have bought some better tyres as the ones on the car I have been using for 4 years and they were second hand when I bought them

A short clip from a Friday night stage (my navigator got a bit lost on the notes after the moment)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jhy-SOMZy4

A Saturday morning stage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr7OIsj9OWM

I am loving the car and am having so much fun as it is but need more power. I have bought a diesel crank to raise the capacity and looked into solid lifters etc but even the m42 weighs loads and there is not much else I can remove from the car to loose weight. It is 1130 kilos which is far too much as my minimum weight limit is 1000kilos.
the car has cost very little, it has done 3 rallies and never let me down. i have hit a few banks and it seems pretty tough so far and parts are easy to get hold of so i am looking forward to more events in it and hopefully more power before too long

I think the 1000kg mark is difficult but achievable, mine is 1800cc too and with full tank is 1076kg without any fiberglass part used, only poly windows.

I´m on the same thinking of you, the m3 engine is awesome but the compacts with their stock engine are 50%/50% and the handling is the best part of it, and fitting a m3 engine surely will push this balance to the front.

I´m going the m42 turbo route, the regulations are very open here so I think is the best weight/power way to take.

Cheers