Turbocharging older cars is one rather simple way of keeping your beloved old timer on pace with modern contraptions. When it comes to high performance cars like the BMW E36 M3 for example, the results can be even more impressive. The 3.2-liter S50B32 engine has great potential in this regard, even though the engineers in Munich probably didn’t build it from the get go thinking of such a possibility.
We’ve seen a number of tuned M3s using forced induction to get ahead of the competition, but what we have here today is one of the more extreme examples out there. Under the hood of this Bimmer hides a host of new parts that take the power output up to 670 HP and 800 Nm (590 lb-ft) of torque. Furthermore, it’s a manual which means gear shifts must be a joy and a curse at the same time, knowing that if you mess up, you might end up in the ditch.
Fortunately, in the video we have here, that’s not the case as the driver seems to know what he’s doing. On the other side of the drag strip we have a proper supercar in the shape of the McLaren MP4-12C Spider. Launched back in 2012, the 12C was the tip of the McLaren spear with the specs to match. Its 3.8-liter turbocharged V8 makes 625 HP and 600 Nm (443 lb-ft) of torque out of the box. It was also quite light on its feet, tipping the scale at just 1,376 kg (3,034 lbs), which also works in its favor whether on or off the track.
However, the BMW seems to have it when it comes to engine output. Then again, one car here is a British-developed supercar with a 7-speed super-fast automatic gearbox while the other is a Bavarian machine modified by an enthusiasts with a thing for manual gearboxes so the end result is quite hard to guess from the get go. As the video will show, the two are not as far apart in terms of performance either, the Bimmer putting up quite a good fight.
