Yas Marina Trackday // Giantkilling

E36 M3 Euro 3.2 Yas Marina Track Day from Ahmad Lutfeali on Vimeo.

Trackdays are a great way to feast your eyes on some very juicy machinery indeed, especially in this part of the world. Better yet – grab yourself an E36 BMW M3 somewhere for under 40k (that’s dirhams), swap in a proper manual tranny, (most UAE drivers stick with granny paddles) strip it out, set up the suspension, screw on some sticky tires and chase down afore-mentioned juicy machinery all day long with some serious driving skills.

This guy is livin’ it.

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  1. I purchased the car with an ‘acting’ SMG pump and did the conversion myself. The tranny is the same 6 spd but I modified the bellhousing to put the gear gate springs and a manual pedal clutch.

    Nothing wrong with the sequentials, the E36 M3 was one of the 1st few cars (back in mid 90s) to employ this technology, same time when the F355 got the F1 gearbox, but for track purposes, the SMG 1 in the old M3 didnt hold up due to heat. The SMG 2 in the E46 is a more refined unit and can handle the abuse better than the SMG 1.

    To each its own. I prefer to drive a car without any aids (no traction or PASMs, ABS, auto/sequentials). But thats just me.

  2. ….and as such I’d submit the idea that granny paddle status can be quite easily overcome by the presence of either a) Nomex underpants or b) racing slicks. 😉

  3. I am all down for a 6 speed drive any day of the week but do we really need to be bashing on paddles and sequentials? I mean I guess Formula 1, Le Mans, top flight GT racing and rally cars are for grannies as far as this logic is concerned. “Screw a race car gimme a 20 year old BMW if it still runs and make sure its got a manual otherwise its garbage!”