A few weeks ago, YouTuber Alex Kersten bought himself a very cheap E46 M3 and it was in shockingly good condition for having 190,000 miles. Or so he thought. Despite the fact that it seemed to drive very well, slide around like a new M3, and that its engine revved cleanly and beautifully, he recently discovered that it’s pretty much toast. It’s frame and subframes were in seriously bad condition, meaning it would cost him about double what he spent on it to fix and, considering its mileage, it would never be worth more than that. So he decided to turn it into another project.
See, the E46 M3 wasn’t the only car Kersten owned. He also owned an E46 3 Series Touring, in a glorious shade of purple that’s in mostly good condition, despite its high mileage. Sure, it has some rust but that can be fixed. So since he had an E46 3 Series Touring lying around whose body isn’t wrecked and an E46 M3 with a good engine, he did what any enthusiast would do—combine them.
In this new video, Kersten sets off on an adventure of taking the powertrain and suspension out of the E46 M3 and putting it into the 3 Series Touring to effectively create an E46 M3 Touring, a car that never truly existed.
This video is only part one, so it’s only the removal of the S54 engine from the E46 M3, which is pretty standard as far as engine removals go. Just with Kersten’s typical shenanigans. However, it is the beginning of a very exciting project, one I think we can all look forward to seeing completed. It’s also one I think many of us BMW enthusiasts dream about. The E46 M3 could be considered the best driving M3 of all (though the new G80 might have something to say about that) and it’s possible the best looking (I’d argue the E92 M3 is the best looking but I understand the argument for the E46). So the idea of taking its brilliant powertrain and driving dynamics and stuffing them into a wagon body with similar looks is extremely appealing. It’s something we all wish we could do.
If Kersten pulls this off, and he can genuinely create Franken-M3 Touring, he’s going to have among the most special cars in all of the UK and I think it’d be safe to say that we’d all be very jealous.
