GKD Legend - BMW donor car choice

[Richard]

Choosing a donor car for the GKD Legend.

The basic choice as advised by GKD is either the BMW 3 series E36 or E46.

This covers a truly extensive range of vehicles in theory, however not all of those series are suitable.

I also suspect that given the engineering design of BMWs that a mixture of series will also work within certain constraints and maybe with a little change from Peter at GKD a greater range of components can be accommodated. As I go through my build I'll test a few practical items and feedback with Peter the minor changes I can see that would be needed. That said the use of BMW components was an influencing factor for me and given the vast array of BMW aftermarket parts, significant modding scene already in place and a very ready supply of parts and knowledge this brings a large selection of options to work through for your own chosen car.

I thought as I'm possibly one of the earliest self builds if not the first to start I'd share some of my findings in a few postings as it may help others in the future. Much of this is well known I am sure but I thought I'd put it together for any other novices like myself. I will try to keep each post short and put something on this regularly as I have several months of research to catch up on already and I'm sure more to come.

There is a huge amount of BMW information available for all through companies and forums where some extremely knowledgeable and helpful people generously give their time and knowledge. What I've found is that not much of this is targeted to kit car building but much is reusable.

To return to the topic.

The E36 was in production run from 1990 – 2001 with some 54 variants, and,
The E46 was in production run from 1998 – 2007 with some 104 variants.

The E36 wasn't in sale in the UK in 1990 so I think the earliest RHD models will be 1991.

Not all are suitable as a donor for the GKD Legend. It is aimed at the BMW 4 cylinder models only.

The 6 cyls are just plain too long.

The V8s after some research will most likely fit if you do a few changes, but those BMW V8s seem pretty big lumps. So for me it is a step too far, however, I'm sure at some point they'll be done by someone.

The 4 cyl diesel engined vehicles would give in some guises a significant amount of torque and likely would fit but for me my research was really limited to the petrol models.

With that in mind you might imagine that the choice of models and engine was limited, here you'd be wrong. During that period of time BMW used engines called the M40, M42, M43, M44, N42, N43, N45, N46 and within each of those a few variations were used as well. There is one very special engine that BMW created for themselves to race and that is the S42 based somewhat loosely on the M42, for a NA engine it was quite something with 285bhp rising to 315 in last guise. If someone has a version similar to the S42 for sale let me know!!

The choice is of either series is a critical first step before ordering.

The E36 being older than the E46 is much more readily available cheaply at the moment and with this being the model before August 1995 if you wish to build a kit car without a Cat then this is the more likely option for you.

Then follows the choice of car derivative, this is where the engine choice can be very much influenced. For example even in one year say 1994 not all 318 models had the same engine or power.

In the next posting I'll cover the engine options in a bit more detail.

['The Gaffer']

Nice post Richard and thanks for the updates.

I think your BMW doner is a great idea. I had a BMW 635 CS! for many years. The E24 engine in that was completley bullet proof. I'm sure with good servicing any BMW lump will provide you with years of trouble free motoring.