Photo: Lenny Karenski | Facebook
What do you do when you don't have enough space in a car? Buy a rooftop cargo carrier? Get a trailer? Get another car? Well, not this BMW M3 owner. He got half a car instead.
Lenny Karenski did what nobody else would have done. A Car Club of America member, he went from his 2011 BMW 550i GT to a 2002 BMW M3 (E46) only to find out that the M3 was, indeed, a far more interesting car to drive around. But it lacked space. Lenny needed to squeeze in his track wheels and tires and other gear he needed. But he had no room for them all. So, he decided to build his own special trailer.
For the project, he used half of another BMW M3 E46. He now drives around the one-and-a-half car assembly, turning heads everywhere he goes. He found the inspiration for his trailer on the internet. So, the next move was to start learning how to cut and weld and do metal fabrication. He achieved the skills in a tech school not far from his hometown, Ashland, Massachusetts.
He found the donor car on the internet around the time his fabrication classes finished. It was right on time. Someone was selling an M3 convertible shell for $800. It was just what he needed. But the seller lived 14 hours away, in New Bern, North Carolina. He called the seller, managed to strike a deal for $500, rented a truck and trailer, and drove to North Carolina. He drove back home with the body shell.
He sold everything he could and he did not need: the front end, pedal assembly, and all else for the money he had paid for the M3 shell. He cut the BMW in half and started working on the future trailer. He mounted the tailgate from a Nissan Frontier pickup truck and ordered original mounting brackets from Nissan. A few nights later, the trailer had a tailgate of its own.
A college friend of his wife's helped them with the shipping of a trailer hitch from the Netherlands to Germany and then to the US. The whole shipping procedure being more expensive than the hitch itself.
After months of intense work, Lenny Karenski took his half-a-car trailer to a professional painter and got it painted to match his M3. Now he uses it to carry track-day supplies. He also installed two rear seats in there, mounted a functional convertible top, and can use it as a relaxing space on track days.
In a conversation with Bimmerlife, Lenny Karenski talked about getting plenty of attention on track days as well as on the road. People turn heads, take pictures of the weird assembly, wave or just smile at him.
For the project, he used half of another BMW M3 E46. He now drives around the one-and-a-half car assembly, turning heads everywhere he goes. He found the inspiration for his trailer on the internet. So, the next move was to start learning how to cut and weld and do metal fabrication. He achieved the skills in a tech school not far from his hometown, Ashland, Massachusetts.
He found the donor car on the internet around the time his fabrication classes finished. It was right on time. Someone was selling an M3 convertible shell for $800. It was just what he needed. But the seller lived 14 hours away, in New Bern, North Carolina. He called the seller, managed to strike a deal for $500, rented a truck and trailer, and drove to North Carolina. He drove back home with the body shell.
He sold everything he could and he did not need: the front end, pedal assembly, and all else for the money he had paid for the M3 shell. He cut the BMW in half and started working on the future trailer. He mounted the tailgate from a Nissan Frontier pickup truck and ordered original mounting brackets from Nissan. A few nights later, the trailer had a tailgate of its own.
A college friend of his wife's helped them with the shipping of a trailer hitch from the Netherlands to Germany and then to the US. The whole shipping procedure being more expensive than the hitch itself.
After months of intense work, Lenny Karenski took his half-a-car trailer to a professional painter and got it painted to match his M3. Now he uses it to carry track-day supplies. He also installed two rear seats in there, mounted a functional convertible top, and can use it as a relaxing space on track days.
In a conversation with Bimmerlife, Lenny Karenski talked about getting plenty of attention on track days as well as on the road. People turn heads, take pictures of the weird assembly, wave or just smile at him.
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