E36 323 or E46 325 ?

Jelly

Jelly

New Member
Hi guys, first post and i'm making it a "wot car is bestest" one,
im sure i'm going to be well popular.

Hoping for a bit of advice - i'm in the same situation as im sure everyone has been in, trying to decide what car to start with. I'm trying to get on track for less than a grand.

I've done all the searches and reading and wanted to go with an e36 325.
Trouble is 325 E36's are getting harder to find cheap. So the cheaper alternatives are e36 323's and e46 325's.
I was hoping to get some advice on which would be better - the older, lighter, simpler?, less powerful e36 323 or the newer,more powerful, more complicated, heavier e46 325.
Keeping in mind that when i say better, i mean better at being a dedicated track car thats going to be off the road, stripped, welded and thrashed.

Any advice is massively appreciated.

Cheers
 
I'd go for the 2.5, good strong engine, and it has a good strong diff, so welding it is not a problem. Also, there are so many E46 2.5 parts, go to any scrap yard, you'll see e46's with parts that are still mint that you can get for cheap. Good luck!
 
if you're not going to instal turbo in near future, get e36 328, then fit m50 manifold, cheapest and best option. 328i has more power, e36 is lighter than e46, easier to start with.
if you go for e46, get yourself 330, more bhp.
These cars have relatively low power (anything below 300 is low for me:) so try keep weight down.
 
Last edited:
Michael7s said:
if you're not going to instal turbo in near future, get e36 328, then fit m50 manifold, cheapest and best option. E36 i lighter, 328 has more power, is lighter than e46, easier to start with.
if you go for e46, get yourself 330, more bhp.
These cars have relatively low power (anything below 300 is low for me:) so try keep weight down.
Click to expand...


Cheers for the advice Micheal and sebbiehe

Trouble is Micheal that im trying to get in cheap, atleast to start and the 328's are just as hard if not harder to get cheap than the 325's.
I'm trying to figure out if its worth trading the lightness and mod ability of an e36 for the advantage of the better engine in the e46.
 
e36 are a bit lighter but a 323 e46 with a welder is fine! you can pick them up dirt cheap and just throw a set of ebay coilovers on (150 quid - 2 hours to fit) and get the diff welded. strip the back out. They slide fine thats what I started with - you can put the m54 inlet on which is the same as the m50 mod on a e36. you should easily be able to do all this for less than a grand.
 
Jelly said:
Cheers for the advice Micheal and sebbiehe

Trouble is Micheal that im trying to get in cheap, atleast to start and the 328's are just as hard if not harder to get cheap than the 325's.
I'm trying to figure out if its worth trading the lightness and mod ability of an e36 for the advantage of the better engine in the e46.
Click to expand...

Just hold out and you'll find a bargain eventually, I bought myself a non vanos E36 325 at the beginning of this year (new years day!!) with like 9 months MOT on it for £600, ran it for a bit, found out shell was knackered and sold engine and gearbox for £500. So bargains are out there.
 
I brought an e36 323 tourer, £600 at the end of the summer. Welded it stripped it and fitted m50.

It's my 1st drifter, and it's pretty good.

My friend who has been drifting a while has a 1.6 36compact and that goes so power isn't that important I have learned with my short experience so far haha
 
Had no issues in my full interior E46 320i 2.2. Don't need power just keep speed up.

Plus it's a nice refined road car if you're dailying it too.

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If you find an E36 cheap enough then yeah go for that, if you find an E46 for the same money they're usually in better condition (being newer) and you won't find it any more difficult.

E46s are yet to fall foul of Drift Tax so you'll probably get more for your money.
 
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