To gauge our modifications, we tested Project M3 against a stock E36 M3 sedan to represent where we started, and an E46 M3 Convertible (not ideal but all we could find) to show where we were headed.

What is certain is that BMW built a true M3, with no racing inspiration required. The E36 was a track day masterpiece, packing a 3-liter straight six and unadorned manual transmission.

For those of us in our 30s, it's time to face facts. Restoring an E36-generation BMW M3 in 2025 is about the same time gap as restoring a 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle would have been when the E36 was ...

No BMW M3 has been as maligned as the U.S. spec E36 but Jason Cammisa says that it saved the M brand in America by Stephen Rivers February 13, 2022 at 09:25 ...

The E36 M3 debuted in 1995 with a 3.0-liter variant of the S52. In 1996 displacement jumped to 3.2 liters, where it stayed until the end of the E36's run in 1999.

The E36 BMW M3 is a revolutionary model in the German manufacturer's history of sports cars as it was the first to be fitted with a 3.0-liter, inline-six. This model features the larger U.S.-spec ...

The USDM E36 M3 is not the most-revered of BMW’s classic performance cars, but they’re starting to look cooler and cooler the older they get. This one, in particular, stopped us right in our ...

If it's anything like the U.S. model, then it's inferior in many ways to the European counterpart. The E30 hadn't sold that well, and BMW of America wanted to make the E36 M3 cheap ($35,000 when new).