Vorshlag "E46 M3 GTR" : S65 V8 + DCT swapped SCCA Max4 Time Attack

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Project Introduction - Dec 26, 2025: This isn't a really a "new" project but more of a radically changed one - where we merge parts from 3 different BMW builds and mash them into one. This black 2002 BMW 330ci changed so radically from its initial plan that it calls for a whole new build thread. Basically we want to do this...



This thread will explain how we came upon this idea, and it was not something we mulled for a long time - it took all of 5 minutes to decide to do this. We started with this mostly abandoned, caged WRL endurance E46 chassis with body panels and carbon bits stolen from a widebody E46 we never started and continues with the progression of ourS65 + DCT swap from our E36 M3 Max5 race car that we have since stopped working on.

PROJECT HELLROTTEN E36 M3: S65 + DCT SWAP - STOPPED!!

We had planned an S65 BMW 4.0L V8 + DCT swap into our 1995 M3, a car we call Project #Hellrotten. This V8 is a high revving (8400 rpm) 414 hp cross plane V8 that came in the E92 M3, from 2008-2013. These came with 6 speed manuals and a 7 speed Dual Clutch sequential transmission - which is a joy to drive.



We bought this 1995 M3 years ago, started prepping it in 2024 and my wife Amy campaigned this in 9 SCCA Time Trial events the 2025 season in the Max5 class. I will briefly try to explain how this V8 swap project started for that car then morphed to this car - or you can read the whole tale here.

So Amy had a great 2025 season in Max5 Time Attack competition, but the car was 500+ pounds overweight for Max5, and we just did not see a path to get down to 2550 lbs with driver. It just wasn't possible, even with heroic efforts + scrapping a ton of work we had done so far.



She wanted to race her 2013 FRS in Max4 with a Honda V6 swap, so I figured I would race the E36 in Max5 next seasons, with some possible weight loss from a carbon hood and trunk. Then after the October SCCA Nationals at PITT Race, the track was sold for some damn AI data center. Then SCCA surprised me, moving Nationals to ECR as the 2026 championship spot. That's one of our HOME TRACKS since 2008, time for me and Amy to get serious about our SCCA Time Attack cars for 2026!


I cannot fathom running a car at a National Championship event in a car 500+ pounds over minimum weight again (like I did in 2024), so I went to my bench racing buddy Paul. He had the mad idea to put an S65 BMW 4.0L V8 and DCT into the E36, and bump up to Max4 class, which has a 3000 pound min weight with driver. We had 3 months to get it done, as the season starts in March.



I quickly signed up for GRM's UTCC event, which is held during the Time Attack Nationals, October 2026. And I got dragged into a trash talking mini-shootout with some other automotive journalists and bloggers for this event, and GRM picked up on the story and promoted this S65 swapped E36 being at Nationals + UTCC.

On Monday, December 8th 2025, we had the E36 unloaded from the trailer after November SCCA event, since Amy had her championship in the bag and we could skip the December event. It was time to start on the S65 swap, as we needed every day until the end of March to get this E36 swapped, wired, plumbed, sorted, tuned, and tested.



I also found out December 1st that the Lexan rule for Level 3 Safety" I had asked to be modified in June passed with flying colors. That "Lexan allowed behind the main hoop" of a roll cage allowance suddenly made a certain car I had ignored for any SCCA Time Trial Max class duties LEGAL as it sat, with the cage and Lexan and gutted doors it has.

I realized as we were about to take the E36 apart, that this swap with this car was insanity, and we switched the S65 + DCT swap to this caged E46 chassis.

REPLACING THE ALPHA CAR - OUR STORY WITH V8 SWAPPED BMWS AND E46 CHASSIS

I started building an LS V8 swapped BMW E36 318is back in 2000 in my home garage - first LS swapped BMW in the world. That led to a lot of things (including this business I have run the last 20 years), but in its earliest form our "E36 ALpha" car was a 2500 pound V8 powered monster that was simply a joy to drive. Autocross, track, everything - just a blast.



The first 2 years we raced it with a junkyard stock 340 whp 5.7L LS6 and it was fast AF with 315mm Hoosiers, really good suspension, and a roll cage. It later got a 488 whp stroker 7.0L V8, but it was sold shortly after that due to a business change, and I have regretted that for 16 years.



I have been trying to recapture the best qualities of this E36 build for years. The lightness, the spicy power-to-weight ratio, the massive tires. In 2015 I bought a 2001 BMW E46 330 coupe, shown below. We did some of the same things to this E46 (really good suspension, wider bodywork and tires, lightness) and big aero, but within tighter class rules confines it kept this car from being the "Alpha car replacement". In 2018 I was offered a nice amount for this car by a customer and sold it, without thinking about what was next.



During that same time frame we were building a mega widebody V8 powered big aero E46 coupe for a customer, shown below. We went over the top with the fit and finish, brakes / ABS / EPAS, Motec EFI, and the engine made 686 whp - but took a long time to get tuned correctly. It was fast - but it wasn't as light as I had hoped, and had some things we had to do that I wouldn't do on my own car.



It is foolish to think you can to depend on any customer's build to fulfill your own racing dreams - it was too expensive to borrow from him to race, even though he offered. I drove it a few times during track tests and it was a BEAST but we handed that car over and haven't seen it since. Such is life.



I later built a Max1 prepped Mustang (above left) with an even crazier LS V8 engine that made 744 whp. It was eventually caged, widebody, carbon everything, giant aero - but in the end, still a bit too heavy (3450 pounds) to be the "Alpha car replacement". This Mustang (Trigger) just didn't feel the same driving as the Alpha car - even though it was faster, it was much harder to drive. I even bought back the super light E30 318is (above right) we sold in 2008, and we almost did a crazy engine swap on that (those plans are on hold for at least a year), but it up would ruin the history of this car. There would be no E30 left when we were done.

THREE PROJECTS MELD INTO ONE

Chasing the Alpha car replacement dream has been a long running goal ever since it was sold in 2009. With this new build we're taking the S65 slated for the E36 M3, plus two E46 coupes we had gathering dust - both of which had great parts - and merging it all into this GTR clone Max4 build. Let's talk here about the two E46 coupes we are reviving and merging together.

THE BLACK 330 "TEAM CAR"

We had this E46 330Ci as part of this aborted endurance race car build that we purchased in 2018 and started to build in 2019. You can read all about this car's work up to this point starting here in this thread. But the employees who were all building it have left, and the WRL series and class (GTO) we were building for have both radically changed.



We worked on this E46 through 2021, then it sat and collected dust. I paid an employee to do some tasks briefly in 2022, but then it sat for 3 more years. We have since stole the Tremec TKX 5 speed out of it for our Fox Mustang project this year, then pulled and sold the 5.3L aluminum V8 engine to Jason (at Vorshlag) earlier this month.



We weighed the car with the aluminum 5.3L underhood at 2031 pounds, right before the engine came out in December. We had already stolen the 18x11" wheels to use on the E36 M3 Max5 build in 2024.



But it was still a great chassis with an E46 M3 rear subframe / 210mm "big case" limited slip diff, and a subframe had been reinforced and powder coated. All suspension bushings were spherical back here, too. The rear of the chassis was also reinforced at the subframe mounts and RTAB pockets.



This E46 already has an EPAS electric assist steering column from a Prius installed, Sparco Circuit II racing seat, lightened dash, tube bumpers, and the rear fenders have been cut and patched to clear very wide tires.



The chassis also had a carbon fiber "GTR" style hood from Seibon (24.2 lbs) and carbon trunk (15.6 lbs) with MCS RR3 remote triple adjustable coilovers, with coilover rear conversion. Damned good chassis, just looking for a new purpose - which we found with this GTR clone project!

THE RED 328

I purchased this red E46 328 coupe in November of 2017. It had a full Flossmann GTR widebody kit installed, a pair of carbon fiber doors, and a carbon fiber roof - just bolted in place (not yet bonded). I got it because I thought we would quickly use it for a customer or shop project, and it was just sitting in storage for years...



It was mostly gutted but still had a dash and a few other items, and it barely rolled - the body kit had never been properly fitted, but the rear flares were bonded in place. It had a very cut up floor for a side exit exhaust, which was a turn-off because that isn't allowed without mod factors in NASA racing, which I was doing at that time.



It looks a little rough bu the body kit looks right once fitted with proper width wheels and tires (above right), and the carbon doors alone were worth more than I paid for this whole car. I had been storing this car for 8 years, waiting for the right project to come along to use it. Well, this GTR clone was the build, just not with this chassis.



On December 9, 2025, Brad and I removed this car from its car cover and unwrapped it from the "car cocoon", peeling off the clear plastic that covered open windows. Brad removed the doors, then we dragged it over to the shop with the John Deere tractor and Brad got to work disassembling this car, removing all of the valuable body panels and carbon.



By December 10th, the red 328 was completely stripped and it was time to start putting these fiberglass and carbon parts we removed from this chassis on the black 330. We sold the red 328 for next to nothing a week later to a racer who needed a replacement chassis for his wrecked E46 M3 endurance car, so this car should live on as a race car itself.

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QUICK PROGRESS WITH S65 SWAP

Now that we had the S65 engine from the E36 M3, and the best parts of the red 328, it was time to put them all together on the black 330 and truly begin our E46 M3 GTR tribute / SCCA Max4 race car build.



On the same day that Brad finished stripping the red 328 of the widebody parts (all except the bonded on rear flares, which we have a plan for) the Flossmann front fenders were being installed onto the black 330. Things were moving rapidly, especially considering we had FIVE other shop builds that were gobbling up time and resources, including two other NEW builds getting engine swaps (the red FRS and white Fox Mustang shown above).



Later that day I made this video above, which explains my reasoning behind doing this E46 chassis instead of pushing the S65 into the E36 M3. Most people agree that this E46 chassis makes a lot more sense, considering the extensive weight removal and proper roll cage it has.



Over the next two days Brad worked on the the black 330 chassis fitting the Flossman front bodywork, then starting on the roof swap. The black 330 had a steel roof and sunroof panel delete kit, but we felt like there was another 20 pounds to lose if we did the carbon roof swap - just like the BMW E46 CSL had from the factory, we will use 3M panel body to adhere this to the chassis.



After a few weeks of searching (during the E36 M3 phase of this swap), I finally found a proper DCT from a 2012 BMW E92 M3 across town for a good price on December 11. The reason I bought this particular DCT was because the salvage yard ALSO had the factory "DME" (engine computer) from the same car. They sold me the DME, two body modules, key reader and key - so theoretically we could have bought the chassis harness from this same car and make it all work. This means the DME is "married" to this DCT, which makes the swap easier.

Instead of using a stock harness, we're going to buy a stand-alone harness from Randy at EPIC Motorsports to control the engine + DCT transmission, and we won't need the key reader. That simplifies the swap and allows the DME to be reprogrammed but keep the factory refinement of transmission and engine control.



By December 12th we had the drivetrain in the car, and our E46 "GTR" build was well underway, as shown in this Dec 12th video. In the days since we have built drivetrain mounts, ordered parts to make the driveshaft and long tube headers, sent the DME to Randy at EPIC for his tune and stand-alone harness, and this E46 GTR build is truly going at Warp Speed.

EXPLAINING SCCA MAX CLASSES + SAFETY PREP LEVELS

This is the last section of this thread, which explains the CLASS RULES CONSTRAINTS we have to build around. Before you start offering up crazy engine upgrades, know this - we are building this for SCCA Time Trial Max category class 4 (Max4), and we will ensure that the car will be 100% legal. That series has some pretty austere limits on what you can do to an engine in the lower classes (there are 5 Max classes, with Max1 being the fastest / wildest), and we're building for an "unmodified" engine swap (the long block has to remain stock, but intake / exhaust / oil pan and water pump are open).

We ran the E36 M3 in Max 5 class in 2025 (slowest Max class), and Max4 is only one jump up from that. We're gong to Max4 because it has LIMITS on engine mods and power levels, which will save money on the drivetrain, save on consumables, and save on the overall build. The virtually unlimited allowance Max1 class build on my S550 Mustang (shown below right) will have cost more than 3 or 4 of these Max4 / Max5 cars would!

Let's back up and explain the 5 Max classes and 3 safety levels we can build around.


Left: A "Tuner 3" class prepped 2023 BRZ. 18x10" wheels, MCS, race seats. Right: Max1 prepped Mustang will full aero, 200TW tires, swapped engine

SCCA Time Trial has 4 categories of classes: Sport, Tuner, Max and Unlimited. We've built for Tuner, Max and Unlimited classes, and Max seems to be the sweet sport for "builders" and shops like us - we can go "all out" on the suspension, drivetrain swaps are relatively unlimited, and you can add some functional aero, all with 200TW tires as the tire limit (but currently no tire width limit in any Max class).

• SCCA TT Max Rules: Link

As I have seen first hand, Tuner classes are generally cheaper to prep for "to the limit" than Max, but you need a relatively new car to be competitive in Tuner. We had good luck with a 2006 C6 Corvette, but we had to really lean on it to keep up with newer cars in T2 cars at the time. Our 2024 Darkhorse was a faster car in T2 and relatively mild build. My dream Tuner class build is a T1 classed C8 Corvette - we'll see if 2026 goes well and I can score a good C8 Z51 to start with for that suspension development mule / Tuner build.



Max levels the playing field with enough additional mods so that you can make anything fast - old or new, obscure junk to factory sports car. The spending goes up as well, but a fast Tuner car is often quicker than the typical Max3-Max5 cars. It just comes down to power-to-weight ratios, as it is often tough to make minimum eight in Max classes, and most folks are scared of engine swaps.

Our Max4 E46 build here should be below min weight (so we can ballast) and with roughly 400 whp from an uncorked S65 V8 + DCT, it should be quicker than any of our previous Tuner builds. Will it be faster than a hopped up Supra or C8 in Tuner 1? I guess we will see next season!

• SCCA TT Safety Rules: Link

There are also 3 options for "levels of Safety" you can choose for your car in all SCCA time Trial classes. Level 1 Safety is stock 3-point belts and stock seats. You need ALL of the interior in a Max car with Level 1, plus a proper helmet. That's it.



If you go for Level 2 Safety (see above - our E36 M3 above left, our E46 330 above right) you need a properly built 4-point roll bar, and fixed racing seats 5+ point belts. Level 2 safety then allows you to gut the interior behind the roll bar. But you still need a headliner (ahead of the main hoop), interior panels, carpets (from the front seats forward), door panels, windows, dash, and a heater + wipers.


There can be alternate materials used on the required interior bits - read this thread for more ideas on that. We have taken our Max5 prepped 1995 M3 to the limits of Level 2 Safety material replacements, but it was still 550 pounds heavy for Max5. That min weight just wasn't realistic for the E36.



Level 3 safety (see above) is a fully caged car (that meets SCCA or NASA Club Racing specs) and if the cage "goes into the doors" you can gut the doors, remove the door window glass. Like with all W2W race cars, Level 3 only requires the driver's seat. Level 3 cars can also remove ALL of the interior carpets, fabrics, and plastics - except the dash (but it ca be alternate materials or lightened).

Level 3 is a much safer, of course, but a considerably more expensive level of safety to build. It can with the right planning allow for a lighter overall car. This level is never a real "street car", but it is allowed for those that can tow their race cars to events and want the ultimate in safety on track. As of November of 2025 (See FasTrack image above), Level 3 cars can now replace the rear door/quarter windows and back window with 3mm or thicker Lexan / Polycarbonate. That saves roughly half the weight of the tempered glass.



I wrote the letter asking for this back in June to be legal to run in SCCA Max as Level 3 Safety cars. And also because my Max1 already car had Lexan, and it was legal in Max up through 2024. This rules change was the last piece of the puzzle that made our E46 "team car" legal for Max, and also now allows so many W2W cars into Max category Time Trial. Hopefully that quick and dirty explanation of Max classes and Safety Levels will makes sense.

HOW THE S65 4.0L V8 FITS INTO MAX4

Each of the Max category classes have "formulas" for engine both NA and boosted displacements, associated minimum weights, and even modified vs unmodified engines. The most attractive (and cheapest) Max classes to run are Max4 and Max5 classes. The formulas for both are shown below. Remember that weights INCLUDE the driver, and my 200 pounds needs to be added to the chassis weight to reach the total minimum weight.


That "2550" pound minimum weight for Max5 with the "up to 3.0L" engine formula was impossible for the E36 M3, as that would mean 2350 pounds plus my body weight. This is why Max4 looked so much more appealing - with the "A" formula for 3.7-4.5L unmodified engines having a 3000 pound minimum weight. Could we have made the 2700 pound min weight for the "B" formula? Probably, but we already have a 3.7L swapped FRS using this "B" formula in my wife's 2013 FRS.



With the full roll cage and Level 3 Safety in our E46 chassis, the 4.0L engine fits nicely in the "A" formula for Max4 - we could not find a more powerful "unmodified" engine up to 4.5L that wasn't 3x the cost (some exotic engines). There is no penalty for the DCT transmission in this class, other than the extra weight it adds over a true manual transmission roughly +80 lbs). We have not seen this S65 + DCT swap done in SCCA MAx4, so that will be a first. And from early weight checks we're going to easily end up well under the 3000 lb min weight - so much so that we are planning a large amount of ballast, and where to put it.

And yes, we've cleared all of this build and the S65 + DCT swap with the "powers that be" within SCCA Time Trial - they know the details of this build, and are actually excited to see a more developed Max4 build like this. I post updates daily on this build on my Facebook page as well as regular updates to the SCCA Time Trials MAX Track Builds facebook group. We aren't hiding anything.

WHAT'S NEXT?

We're much further along than this post shows, but I need to wrap up this introductory post and let you folks digest the reasoning, the rules, all 3 builds merged into one, and the early progress of this build.



The next post in this thread will show the S65 + DCT drivetrain mounts, more "progress" weights on the chassis, parts weights like the 11.8 pound carbon doors, and details about the Prius EPAS column. I've got a ton of parts that have arrived for the paddle shifters, new steering wheel and QR hub, and the race seat should be back in the car next week. We have an E46 M3 driveshaft to modify to fit the DCT output flange, modifications to the S65 oil pan to show, new valve covers, DTM style side mirrors, and more.

Thanks for reading!