1991 BMW 362i Is Worth More Than a Small Flat, Owner Spent 10 Years Building and Racing It

Today's story isn't about drifting, but you will find an ounce of sideways action inside. I recently attended a Time Attack event at a local racetrack and discovered an unexpected vehicle in the paddock. While trying to figure out which cars were interesting enough to look into, I heard a thunderous noise nearby. It turned out to be the BMW 3 Series that is the star of this story. I went to the owner and asked him if that was a V8 I had just heard. He confirmed my guess was correct, but I was shocked that German engineers hadn't built it.

What is power without control?

Seeing an LS-swapped E36 at a drift event is quite common, but I don't remember ever encountering one built for Time Attack. When Matei, the owner, mentioned that his car borrowed the power plant from a Corvette, I knew I wanted to learn more about it. He spoke to me about its pushrod suspension and 3D-printed aero bits, and then we decided to shoot a short video of it on the track. I've embedded it in the story below, and once you've seen it, I'm sure you'll like to learn more about it. So without further ado, let's dig deeper and see what makes it and its owner tick.

Matei is a 34-year-old programmer who develops infotainment solutions for the automotive industry as part of his job. Not only that, but he has been polishing his 3D graphics skills for years and years now. Neither of his parents had a driving license when he was growing up. His passion for cars came pretty late in life. When he was about 16, he went on a road trip with his father and a friend who owned a diesel-powered Volvo. Regardless of the car, he lived out his first high-speed experience, which changed him forever.

"By the time I was 18, I discovered Initial D. Instead of studying for my exams, I couldn't stop watching the Japanese anime. Naturally, Takumi Fujiwara served as an inspiration to me; I liked the whole slow car-fast driver philosophy of it all." Matei took little time to buy his first car: a Fiat Grande Punto with a diesel engine. His hometown sits at the bottom of a mountain, as fate would have it. And the road that leads to the top is well-known by car enthusiasts around the country. Just like Takumi, Matei had a "touge" layout nearby, and that's where he started honing his driving skills late at night, with no traffic in the way.

"As I started pushing the little Fiat more and more, I realized I needed to bring in some mods if I was to become any faster. I bought coilovers, wider tires, lighter rims, and other minor upgrades. But I didn't fiddle with the engine at all. It didn't take long to realize I was going nowhere fast with an FWD car and switched to an older BMW E30. I paid just over $1,000 for it in 2011; it was a 316 sedan. After all the handling upgrades, I decided to buy a 2.5-liter M50 unit for it. A lot of people have helped me on my journey. You won't go far without the right people by your side."

I believe in the balance between dreaming and building

Less than two weeks later, another driver crashed into the E30, totaling it. Matei was aware that things were getting dangerous, and he decided it was time to move away from the streets and into motorsports. He upgraded to an E36, and getting a roll cage was naturally at the top of his priorities list. It's safe to say that he has been working on this project for over ten years now. At first, he was tempted by competing in the local drift championship, as he already knew how to control the car while going sideways.

But all that changed after he attended a small Hillclimb event, where he was the second fastest in the Rookies class. "Most people were driving FWD or AWD cars, but I realized that RWD vehicles can be competitive just as well. The first engine on the car was a small 2.0-liter unit, and it quickly bit the dust as expected. I spent a year in the regional hillclimb championship and won it."

"So it was time to move on forward to the big leagues. My approach was to have a car that would be as fast around the corners as possible while planted on the road. I bought 240-wide tires, and I developed my first-ever widebody kit. I was in the top 25% out of about 100 drivers. Even with less than 200 hp on tap, I competed against Group A and N Evos and STIs. Someone even filed a complaint against me, claiming I was cheating regarding horsepower. The dyno test proved them wrong, and I became the rookie vice champion that year."

The faithful E36 has never given up on its owner through all these years of abuse. Reliability was a critical factor in building the car, but Matei does remember crashing at one point during his Rally2 adventures. "I realized that rallying is prohibitively expensive. You need to afford to total a car each season if you're going to move up the ranks. So I went back to competing in Hillclimb events. The E36 chassis was relatively light and competitive at the same time."

Progress takes time and discipline

"I knew I wanted to improve every single aspect of it: more power, more grip, better handling. That's how I ended up with 300-wide tires, KW Competition products, and a solid aero setup. Choosing between a naturally-aspirated engine and a turbocharged one was a challenge. I went with a NA setup for several reasons: it's easier to drive, simpler, more reliable, and easier to adjust the power delivery. So I went for the engine with the best aftermarket support in the world: the LS V8."

And Matei wasn't going to stop there. He sourced three sets of rims from a Le Mans-spec Nissan GT-R. The 18" center lock Rays only weighed 19.8 lbs (9 kg) a piece and had to be picked up from Silverstone in the United Kingdom. All in all, redesigning the car according to his new plans took Matei almost two years. It was challenging, and on New Year's Eve, he was welding the engine mounts to make everything click together. While the E36 was getting a new roll cage, there was an intense debate on the fate of its suspension setup.

While one of his close friends suggested using a McPherson design, the final solution was a double wishbone setup. "There was no aftermarket support for this idea. So I had to design everything from scratch. We moved the wheels toward the front of the car and spent a lot of time with 3D modeling. I knew how far I wanted to take it, even though I didn't have the whole budget then. By March, the roll cage was ready, and I took part in the first race in October. With the NASCAR-style exhaust, driving the car was quite scary at first."

"It felt like trying to ride an angry bear that was set on trying to eat me. There was a lot of understeer. It took me three or four years and four suspension revisions to make the car handle how I had envisioned it. With all the aero, the car is almost as fast in wet conditions as on a dry surface. That shocked many people, especially one of the Radical drivers, who proved to be four seconds slower than me at one point."

People are the most important part of the journey

When I went out in the chase car to film Matei's E36, he asked me if I wanted to shoot some sideways action. I would never turn that opportunity down, and we found ourselves having a lot of fun up until the track marshal red-flagged us. And that reminded me of Keiichi Tsuchiya's Drift Bible and theories of the fastest driver. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Matei shared the same vision: "You can't be fast in an RWD car if you can't go sideways in it. I've never competed in drifting, but I've had my fair share of action during training sessions."

Right now, the E36 is quite reliable, but its owner plans on shedding at least 220 lbs (100 kg) soon. The body kit will also be remade, and a new paint job or wrap design might also appear. The old 3 Series could make way for a new tubular chassis design based on a BMW Z4. Until then, Matei will continue to race in Time Attack and Hillclimb events. His recent track outing put him first with a fast lap of just over one minute and 50 seconds. I've included a link to that video below too.

He still dreams of competing in rally events, but only time will tell if he can muster the resources to be successful in this venture. As I felt there was much to learn from this passionate racer, I asked him to provide the world with some advice on starting a career in motorsports. "You should decide what you want to achieve and what kind of sport you would like to compete in. Progress should come step by step; the last thing you should fiddle with is horsepower. Build a network of people to aid you in your journey. That's the most important thing! You will need help to go far. And always be open to constructive feedback!"