[maxrev30]

anyone on here that can give me insight on their M235I/M240I Xdrive in a manual platform? I am going to be doing a radical body off build soon and determining if a 3 series or 2 series will be the best bet!

[DanG]

Wrong forum. I wonder if the moderators can move it for you.

[maxrev30]

Originally Posted by DanG

Wrong forum. I wonder if the moderators can move it for you.

whoops! didn't realize i was in m2 side of things haha can mods delete ill repost in correct area!

[XutvJet]

Why AWD for this build?

[maxrev30]

Originally Posted by XutvJet

Why AWD for this build?

We will be taking the car and striping the body off the car and grafting an older vehicles shell onto the chassis. essentially it will still be a bmw engine, interior, and drive train. It will be a lot lighter and I would like to keep all the traction i can get. I'm leaning towards using a salvage titled 335xi as i can get a manual awd for quite cheap. Although i would love to use a 235 as they are much nicer in every aspect for a build, aka smaller, nicer interior, suspension... etc.

[XutvJet]

Originally Posted by maxrev30

We will be taking the car and striping the body off the car and grafting an older vehicles shell onto the chassis. essentially it will still be a bmw engine, interior, and drive train. It will be a lot lighter and I would like to keep all the traction i can get. I'm leaning towards using a salvage titled 335xi as i can get a manual awd for quite cheap. Although i would love to use a 235 as they are much nicer in every aspect for a build, aka smaller, nicer interior, suspension... etc.

AWD traction, hard launches and big torque from a tune/modded turbo BMW motor will be a recipe for disaster for the 6MT and the front differential. You'll constantly be destroying 1-2 and 2-3 syncros and there are no ZF 6MT rebuild kits. You'd be much better served going with a lighter RWD chassis (about 120lbs lighter) and a set of slicks. It's far less complicated as well. It will still be hell on the 6MT, but cheaper in the long run. You'd best have an extra 6MT sitting around if you're going to be racing a lot.

You'd better really think through the tuning as so many systems are tied into power control on these cars. For example, if you buy a car with adaptive shocks and you simply unplug them, the ECU (DME) will keep the car in Comfort mode. That means a lazy throttle and all nannies on.

IMO, using a German car for a build like this will be insanely complex.

[maxrev30]

Originally Posted by XutvJet

AWD traction, hard launches and big torque from a tune/modded turbo BMW motor will be a recipe for disaster for the 6MT and the front differential. You'll constantly be destroying 1-2 and 2-3 syncros and there are no ZF 6MT rebuild kits. You'd be much better served going with a lighter RWD chassis (about 120lbs lighter) and a set of slicks. It's far less complicated as well. It will still be hell on the 6MT, but cheaper in the long run. You'd best have an extra 6MT sitting around if you're going to be racing a lot.

You'd best really think through the tuning as so many systems are tied into power control on these cars. For example, if you buy a car with adaptive shocks and you simply unplug them, the ECU (DME) will keep the car in Comfort mode. That means a lazy throttle and all nannies on.

IMO, using a German car for a build like this will be insanely complex.

Thank you for the input on this! As it stands now I'm not worried about the drivetrain strength itself as much as i am for the electronics portion of the build.

Technically it will be pretty straight forward in the fact that the car won't be changed much except for the body itself. At least to begin with.

Most of these issues such as the suspension issue you mentioned can be tuned out. I know Bmw's and german cars in general are notorious for the amount of headache their electronic side can cause.

But that being said many of these things can be avoided with custom ecu's and the correct know how!

Thank you for the insight on things like the weight savings of the awd to rwd. To be honest if i was to do a Rwd i would probably look into an m2 which would be in a completely different league as a performance stand point from factory level!

If you have anymore insight or questions please let me know!

Thanks!

[Transfer]

M235/240i xDrive isn't available in manual. sooooo are you talking trans swap? I don't think the advice you are looking for even exists.

[maxrev30]

Originally Posted by Transfer

M235/240i xDrive isn't available in manual. sooooo are you talking trans swap? I don't think the advice you are looking for even exists.

Nope it doesn't exist... unfortunately! Found out on the other forums. I guess I'm going to either use an older 3 series or an automatic 2 series