It's important to know what you're looking at. We convinced BimmerWorld's James Clay to come with us. Apparently, James is a bit of a hero to the car's seller.
Also in attendance: Rennie Bryant, of Redline BMW Performance. He was similarly amused.
Sure, the paint isn't great, the interior is rough, the drivetrain is missing, and somebody swiped most of the M3 parts–but at least there isn't much rust.
We're pretty sure Chevy's LS1 will fit here.
Scouring Craigslist for cheap cars is a bad idea. It’s an even worse idea to do it late at night after a few drinks.
World, meet our latest bad decision: This 1997 BMW M3. We picked it up for a song.
What’s it missing? The drivetrain and most of the suspension bits that made the M3 special. We’ve got a plan, though: V8 power, courtesy of a Chevy LS1 that’s been sitting in the corner of the shop for a few years.
Things are about to get interesting.
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What?! I can't believe you're going to ruin the perfect dynamics of the E36 with an American V8 swap, blah, blah, blah, complain, whine, etc. There got that out of the way.
Cool project. Any idea what the story was on how this car got in such rough shape?
Why do you hate Bavaria? 
NickD, we got bits and pieces of a few different stories (the seller really was speechless when we told him James Clay was the one asking questions), but as far as we can tell this car was just on the losing end of somebody with more projects than resources. Its parts were used for something better. And I totally understand–it happens to all of us.
Big thanks to James and Rennie for coming along, by the way. They instantly spotted what was and wasn't from a real M3, which made negotiations quite easy.
crud- with this recent talk, too bad you don't have an ecoboost 2.0l in the corner....
A few drinks? How smashed were you? . This is gonna be good.
Bad idea nothing... V8 BMW sounds like a great decision to me!
Having owned both an E36 and an LS1 Camaro, I wholeheartedly condone this marriage
I'm sorry, where was the bad idea?
Will this sell magazines? Yes.
Will this generate a bunch of buzz on online forums? Yes.
I'm not seeing how this is a bad idea, either.
Genius! Can't wait!!
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