Photo: bring a trailer
When it comes to the E36 M3, the crowd isn’t all that excited. I never quite understood why but that’s just how it is, despite the fact that the second M3 ever put in production is actually quite a good car.
If you’re a fan of the brand and the M3 model, in particular, then you might know that the E36 version got a couple of special versions. One of them was the E36 M3 Lightweight or LTW for short.
What this model brought along was, as the name suggests, a lighter construction altogether. The AC and radio were gone, the doors were made with aluminum skins, the sound insulation was reduced, the wheels were forged even the toolkit was taken out of the package. The result? The cars weighed 2,950 lbs (1,338 kg) which was roughly 250 lbs (113 kg) lighter than the standard version.
Fitted with the S50B30 power plant, they could rely on 240 HP and had other performance enhancing stuff added to the mix like a shorter 3.23:1 final drive, stiffer springs and shocks, GT front spoiler lip extension and checkered flag decals (they add at least 5 HP, everybody knows that).
Only 126 were ever made, but 11 of them were pre-production versions. Therefore, that leaves us with 115 LTW M3s out there in the world and that means we’re looking at a really rare car here.
The owner of the car in this ad claims that he is offering a mint M3 that is stock and has not been altered since delivery. As all LTWs are, this is a 1995 model that apparently received some major servicing last year, including new fluids and a transmission and differential check.
At the moment of the writing of this piece, the car's auction on Bring a Trailer was up to $27,000 and there's still a day on the clock. That's definitely not a huge price tag for such a rare car that will become a collectable in the future.
What this model brought along was, as the name suggests, a lighter construction altogether. The AC and radio were gone, the doors were made with aluminum skins, the sound insulation was reduced, the wheels were forged even the toolkit was taken out of the package. The result? The cars weighed 2,950 lbs (1,338 kg) which was roughly 250 lbs (113 kg) lighter than the standard version.
Fitted with the S50B30 power plant, they could rely on 240 HP and had other performance enhancing stuff added to the mix like a shorter 3.23:1 final drive, stiffer springs and shocks, GT front spoiler lip extension and checkered flag decals (they add at least 5 HP, everybody knows that).
Only 126 were ever made, but 11 of them were pre-production versions. Therefore, that leaves us with 115 LTW M3s out there in the world and that means we’re looking at a really rare car here.
The owner of the car in this ad claims that he is offering a mint M3 that is stock and has not been altered since delivery. As all LTWs are, this is a 1995 model that apparently received some major servicing last year, including new fluids and a transmission and differential check.
At the moment of the writing of this piece, the car's auction on Bring a Trailer was up to $27,000 and there's still a day on the clock. That's definitely not a huge price tag for such a rare car that will become a collectable in the future.
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