Why the BMW E46 M3 is so great…

A couple of weeks ago I posted a picture of an E46 M3 and asked if people wanted to hear my thoughts on them and why I love them so much. For some strange reason, people seem to want to hear what I have to say… bear with me, I am not a writer, just an idiot with a set of spanners. As the founder of Charles Gates Racing people often ask me my opinions on cars and the age old question ‘what’s your favourite car’. These short articles are an opportunity for me to put my thoughts onto paper and I have thoroughly enjoyed writing this one.

When it comes to cars, I don’t worry about the statistics. As a performance car specialist by trade, I have no idea what horsepower any given car has. Unless, of course, I have strapped two big turbochargers to something and can see the power figures for pub bragging rights on a screen controlled by what I can only describe as a computer wizard. These wizards take what guys like me have installed on cars and make those components work. In my opinion, it’s the most important part of it all. I look at all the ingredients a car has been put together with and make my own judgment on what kind of machine it should be. This, on paper, doesn’t do it for me either. I’ve always loved driving, and that’s where my passion lies.

I’ve been very fortunate in my career to have driven a lot of different cars on the road and track. One car that has resonated throughout all of those years is the BMW 3 Series E46 in all its forms. At the top of that list is, of course, a manual, coupe M3. I have driven some of the nicest examples including a CSL and some of the roughest ones to! A friend of mine suggested maybe 12-15 years ago that we should buy and modify E46 BMWs to sell. They were cheap, looked great, and were easy to modify in a way that made them stand out from the crowd. He also stated that, at the time, a 10-year-old E46’s looks were timeless. He was right, and that’s still a true statement to this day. I recall a late-night conversation with one of my track day buddies around the same time, and we both agreed that buying a £5k M3 was the way to go for track days. You could buy an M3 for £5k! Okay, maybe not the nicest example in the world, but more than good enough to hammer around a track. Neither of these ideas ever came to fruition, and I’ve always wondered what could have been.

My love for the E46 M3 started when I maintained and drove a very well-kitted-out car for a longstanding customer. Those wide front wings, the bonnet bulge, and the chrome kidney grilles instantly had my attention. They come with a 3.2-litre inline 6-cylinder engine producing (who knows?) how much power and not a huge amount of torque. I favour a manual as I find the SMG gearbox unnecessarily challenging to drive. The manual cars still take some care to enable seamless gear changes; the drivetrain and individual throttles weren’t designed for smoothness—they were designed for strength and drivability. The chassis is simple and easy to work on, yet extremely effective. I stand by my comment that the E46 chassis is one of the best ever produced from a driving point of view. I have never felt so connected to a car. I don’t think a 5-minute drive in one of these cars would make you feel the same way, but sit in one for an hour on a dry country road and tell me I’m wrong.

They do, however, come with their faults. “Highly strung” is a term I would use for pretty much all M cars. Fantastic machines when cared for correctly, but they could easily bite you financially if you are unlucky or neglect the common issues. Some examples are starting to show their age in the form of rust underneath, and rear arches can be a problem. There is good reason I race an EP3 Civic Type R and not an E46 M3. The Honda is incredible, and like I did a few weeks ago racing on the Snetterton 200, had a nasty crash. Most importantly, everyone was okay; secondly, I can buy pretty much everything required from eBay for not a great deal of money. I can assure you that if I was in an M3, I would be parting with a considerably larger chunk of change to get me back out racing again. If I popped an engine in my Honda, I could buy one today, throw it in within half a day, and race. An M3 engine, being 5-6 times the price and needing far more checks and preventative measures, doesn’t make it a viable option for me. Maybe one day…

You may have heard of the ‘Big 3’ when an E46 M3 is considered. The ‘Big 3’ are the well-known major issues these cars suffer from: con rod bearings, Vanos rebuilds, and boot floor reinforcement. On top of this, you could throw a head gasket issue into the mix! These problems are well-known and expensive to rectify. M3 maintenance is often about taking preventative measures before the worst happens. When buying one of these cars, it’s always a better bet to spend a bit more and get a well-prepared car with paperwork to prove it. Don’t be fooled by a car that’s had the con rod bearings done a decade ago at BMW or by a specialist who didn’t state what components were installed. The geek inside me can tell you that a BMW S54 con-rod bearing is not strong enough. There are a few companies who have developed suitable bearings for these engines. The good ones, such as ACL or King Race, have developed bearings from scratch using more suitable materials that are up to the job, rather than recoating a BMW bearing, which will have a limited lifespan and disastrous consequences if it fails in the future. I always urge M car owners to take yearly oil samples that are sent off for analysis. This is a simple procedure done at the time of a routine oil change. Once the report is back with me, I can get a good indication of any wear inside the engine based on the materials found in the sample. For example, if high levels of iron are found in the oil, that would indicate the possibility of piston ring, cylinder liner, crankshaft, or camshaft wear, etc. Maintenance on these cars is key!

The interior is a lovely place to be—simple yet effective, especially if you are fortunate enough to have an all-black interior or, even better, tan seats. Icy cold air conditioning comes as standard, but the lucky ones come with heated seats. The factory seats are comfy enough for long trips but supportive enough for spirited driving. There is also a ‘sport’ button, which in the case of this car, actually does something. You can instantly feel the throttle response change when that button is pressed.

When it comes to driving one of these engineering masterpieces, I could talk for hours. The clutch is heavy enough to feel exactly what’s going on but light enough not to be a nuisance in traffic. The throttle response is instant, allowing seamless heel-and-toe shifting on the downshifts. The 6-speed manual gearbox is easy to navigate, and the final drive ratios as standard mean it’s quiet and relatively economical at motorway speeds. The high-revving, naturally aspirated six-cylinder engine punches way above its weight, even by today’s standards. The exhaust note is deep at low RPMs, but the iconic rasp comes into play when the rev range is explored. Coupled with a CSL airbox, it sings a song like no other. The induction noise is the main attraction here. With a CSL airbox, you’ll gain a few extra bhp, a bit more mid-range torque, and a handsome lump of carbon fibre in your engine bay. But more importantly, it transforms the drive of the car. Possibly down to the driver going full throttle at every opportunity to hear it sing, but this airbox modification removes the air mass meter measuring the air drawn into the engine and simply uses an intake air temperature sensor to monitor what’s going on.

I am very fortunate to live in the countryside with some awesome, yet heavily potholed roads on my doorstep. This makes the 18-inch wheels over the 19s the obvious choice for me. I personally think they are way more suited to the car from an appearance point of view, but the smaller wheel and different tyre size change the ride quality. Less crashy and more compliant, in my opinion. I don’t feel the need to ring the neck off that S54 engine at every opportunity, but drive at maybe 60-70% and enjoy every second of it. These cars feel balanced and nimble, inspiring confidence to push on. The factory LSD (when in good working order) suits the car well; you can’t feel it working, to be honest, but it makes the power delivery manageable and the slides predictable. The brakes are responsive and plenty effective for road use; however, for track days, I think a brake upgrade early on is money well spent. The factory geometry settings mean the car has a sharp, direct turn-in. A great upgrade to the steering system is to use a ‘purple tag’ steering rack and ditch the rubber coupler for an aluminium one. Shorter steering ratios and removing the slack from the steering column only improves the feel of an already fantastic drive. For fast-road cars, I run a little extra toe-out on the geometry, but that’s not for everyone—it can make the car follow the humps, bumps, and cambers in these British roads. I have never felt so connected to every driving aspect of a car. The driving position, the power delivery, the handling—all make me want to give the team who designed and made this car a hug.

In my eyes, these are some of the best driver’s cars ever produced. If you have a good one, hang on to it, and if you don’t own one, go and buy one before it’s too late. Finding a nice, unmolested example is becoming a rarity these days, and you will have to part with £20k, if not more, for a really nice car. These cars are an automotive icon at 20+ years old, and I can’t see that changing anytime soon. The understated looks are respected by all, but only a true enthusiast will stop and stare. Give me a well-sorted E46 M3 over a supercar any day.

My ideal road spec:

Colour and body – Coupe, Carbon Black, CSL bootlid, manual

Interior – All black or all black with tan seats

Wheels – 18-inch wrapped in the finest Michelin tyres

Modifications – CSL airbox, Eibach lowering springs with Bilstein dampers, purple tag steering rack, aluminium steering coupler, slightly tighter LSD (factory diff works, but I’m a hooligan), maybe a set of big anti-roll bars!