90 PERFORMANCE BMWOUR CARS
PIERS’ E46 330i TOURING
Yay! Suspension is done! The rear subframe/
beam was purchased nearly a year ago and
components stockpiled. In the end the change
from old to new was done in two sittings at
KWR. Kirk and I broke the back of the job by
getting the whole rear suspension and front
shocks done in the fi rst sitting... It was a
mammoth session fi nishing at 2am. We were
refuelled part way through by a Texas Grill meal
collected by their best customer and regular
garage friend, Joey!
The whole existing sub-frame was taken
off the car and then the refurbished/new
components where built up on to the car
starting with the diff carrier. Tourings are a
nightmare as you have to disassemble a large
amount of the rear interior to get to the turret
tops! This won’t have to be done again as the
Rogue Engineering top mounts solve the issue
with studs dropping down from the top into the
wheel arch to receive nuts from the bottom like
VAG cars.
As Kirk said it was nice to be putting on
brand new clean parts and we managed to
salvage hand brake cables and wheel speed
sensors. I can confi rm that the worst bit of
the job was rebuilding BMW’s stupid excusefor a hand brake mechanism... this defi nitely
produced the most expletives of the night.
Kirk and Joey wouldn’t let me leave without
the B16s wound right down and front and rear
over-cambered, at two in the morning I wasn’t
going to argue... I rolled around like a stance
reject for a couple of weeks with the dampers
on position one, letting everything settle and
bed in before I could get back in to fi nish the
job. I got my head around rolling lower and
loved how fl at the car cornered. The second
session was thankfully an evening rather than
an all-nighter. The car without alignment was
a revelation! I can happily say that whilst it is
not a limo ride things didn’t turn out bashy and
crashy... Phew!
I booked in with Nick down at Southampton
Car Alignment Centre and we agreed an M3
CSL spec for the car. After Nick had worked his
magic all I can say is wow! I now have three
cars that fl at-out handle! The set up reduced
the funny car camber, rears upright to help
with squat upon acceleration, fronts toed and
cambered to get things turning in and stable.
I went out and drove some of my usual roads
and a quick zip along the motorway and around
the Hedge-ring and it is like driving a new car!Awesome! The spherical and harder bushes in
the rear have introduced more vibration into
the cabin but that was to be expected, the
E46 is still daily comfortable... The E30 and
particularly the 106 toughen you up! I currently
have the dampers up to four and this has
reduced the travel through the springs, with
a bit more bedding I will then start messing
around with the dampers some more, they
couldn’t be easier to adjust, full steering lock
gives access to the front adjustment wheels and
the rears can be reached with an outstretched
arm from the back of the car.
What to do now with regards more power?
Speaking of more power Kirk’s E36 Touring M50
2.5 non-Vanos turbo is rolling around producing
log fi les and getting steadily quicker! It is one
of the most angry sounding cars I know! If you
are travelling in Hampshire beware goading a
slightly tatty old E36 Touring, it may bite... I
am now at that point in a build, more power,
how do I do it? E46 M3 drivetrain swap, ESS
supercharger, LS3 V8 or an RB30 turbo?. Or
do I put a nice exhaust on the E46, tidy things
cosmetically, some nice wheels and keep it as a
well set up daily and start something new? We
shall see.M3 CSL-spec setup
for the TouringProper alignment
essential with new
suspensionPBMW217.our_cars.ed2.indd 90 07/08/2017 08:36