M3 vs. 335i for occasional HPDE and wknd fun car

[Z K]

Originally Posted by imserious

335s will not last a full track day. My buddy got maybe a half day in. Reduced power the rest of the day due to heat soak.

335s are just not meant for track abuse. Still a great car.

There's a few modified 335i that run very fast on track. There's a local here that I run into on track. He has a complete M3 wide body conversion on his 335i, M3 suspension arms, BBK, clutch type LSD, coilover suspension etc. He also has a upgraded turbo with a ton of cooling modifications.

No problems running all day at the track and he was running much faster lap times than an M3. Of course his car also costs much more than an M3 to build... But that's what he likes.

It is possible to build a great 335i track machine if someone wants to put in the money and effort.

[CRCE90]

Originally Posted by TTony

Look at the total cost of ownership. The 335 will eventually depreciate to almost nothing. The E9x M3 depreciation has already seemed to have flattened out and (hopefully) will increase.

M's tend to keep their value better than other BMW's because of exclusivity I believe. Hopefully the 335i's like mine have bottomed out in value at this point as well. The N54 motor is highly touted in the tuner world and manual 335i sedans are not very easy to find at all.

[imserious]

Originally Posted by Z K

There's a few modified 335i that run very fast on track. There's a local here that I run into on track. He has a complete M3 wide body conversion on his 335i, M3 suspension arms, BBK, clutch type LSD, coilover suspension etc. He also has a upgraded turbo with a ton of cooling modifications.

No problems running all day at the track and he was running much faster lap times than an M3. Of course his car also costs much more than an M3 to build... But that's what he likes.

It is possible to build a great 335i track machine if someone wants to put in the money and effort.

Of course it can be done. But for someone who is not hardcore enough to essentially build a race car? I wouldn't recommend it.

I'm no expert, but I imagine you'd need to aggressively address cooling if you're serious about driving on the track regularly.

[Transfer]

There is no scenario that I would trade my M3 for a 335i with any number of mods. They are just two entirely different cars. It's like comparing a Maserati to a Ferrari. No effin' way. Get out there and spend some time with an M3 in casual driving to feel the quality and in full speed ahead to experience hair on fire. Play with the powerband throughout the rev range, redline repeatedly, listen to the mechanical symphony, feel the action of the differential, the steering, and don't get too wrapped up in straight line speed until you're accelerating from at least 60 mph.

[Longboarder]

335's are so cheap now I'd consider it again just to mess with. My last 335i had a wavetrack LSD, coils, wheels/tires, track pads, srf fluid, downpipes, meth, track tune (linear power band 400 wheel) auto trans paddle shifted. I'm sure all that is possible to replicate at half the cost of a similar year / condition M3.

[pbonsalb]

I think the 335i is the bang for the buck easily modded Euromperformance car, particularly the 07-10 or “is” models with the twin turbo N54 (although single turbos can also be modded easily and some looking for big power convert the twins to a single). You can find them for $7k to $10k.

Of course E9xM3 are now findable right around $20k with occasional ones in the high teens. Also a bargain performance car.