E30 M3 LHD to RHD conversion

Hi All,

After reading everyones notes about not worth changing from Left to Right I'm a bit reluctant to post anything.

Well here goes anyway.... After taking my E46 M3 over to Germany for the World Cup I thought I wouldn't let the opportunity of hammering it around the Nurburgring slip, so I did that and that was absolutely amazing. All I could think of was 'I want to do it again and again and again', which I didn't regrettfully as I still had over a week of driving round Germany to do and didn't want to end up in a wall. Being Australian and having my mate from Oz with me who is an avid WRX Sti driver/track dayer, I said I need a car that is hot and handles like its on rails and will also drive on the road. We concluded that the E30 M3 is the only way to go. Unfortunately there was only about 20 odd imported into Australia and they all came via Japan so they will not only be hard to get a hold of but expensive too.

So I thought, how about getting one here and importing it back with me when I'm ready to return. Only thing is, to get it street legal in Oz, all cars need to be RHD, doesn't matter what it is.

And so, that's my reason for RHD conversion.

Does anyone have any idea of how much it would cost and who could do the work? I'm based in Leeds. But doesn't really matter where as long as the job is done right the firat time. I read in some other threads about going to Germany, Italy or France to source the car, so may do that if I have too to get the right one, plus another trip to the Ring wouldn't be out of the question, but in a hire car I suppose.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks

Most of the UK cars ( approx 70 odd )converted to RHD were by Birds BMW. I believe Birds lost their dealer franchise and set up as an independent under the same name,someplace south of London ? Anyway,they would be a good place to start.
Have you looked on www.s14.net ? There's a guy in OZ who converted his car to RHD,so plenty of info there. I know a guy with a RHD manifold that might be for sale if you are serious.
There was a time when buying in Europe meant a good saving,but people are wise to that now and I wouldn't think you save any money.You might find a better condition car in someplace a little less prone to rain though

Thanks for your help guys. I'll have to check it out a little further if it really is necessary to have it RHD.

From what I can find on the net, it seems that only cars older than 30 years are able to be registered in LHD in Oz. That www.s14net site is very helpful, thanks. I've posted a thread there as it looks like everyone imports them from Japan.

Have a read of this, taken from the website below

http://www.carshippingtoaustralia.com/australia/ausrules.htm l



"LEFT HAND DRIVE VEHICLES � importation is normally prohibited unless the vehicle is more than 15 years old. A concession period may be granted to Bona Fide Migrants for newer vehicles whereby a left hand drive vehicle can be imported but would have to be converted to right hand drive within 6 months of importation.
7"

Give them a call they may be able to clarify. Also rules are easier for car built before some time in 1989.

I looked into emigration last year and wanted to take my Evo2 so i have a bit of a vested interest.

Hope this is of help.

Kevin

Why don't you have a look on Aussie autotrader and see if any E30 M3 are for sale, then contact the owners for info.

I don't think the rules apply just to migrants.

I have converted my M3 to RHD , it was very easy , a RHD rack fits straight in place , Birds used the 325i rack when they did the conversion , I have used a Z3 rack which is the quickest off the shelf rack available , there is a small hole in the bulkhead , this needs to be made bigger , the steering column will fit in place then , the brackets that hold the top of the column were swapped over side to side as there is one that holds the column , and another the other side holding the dash , the column one is a stronger one , so cut them off and swap them over , the wiring will be the biggest job , but I had a custom loom made for the car with all aircraft spec wires and fuses , with a bit of patience you could extend each wire over to the the rh side.

I had a manifold made to go either side of the column , its a bigger bore than standard , and with a standard 215bhp engine fitted it was 230bhp at Lester Owens rolling road , so you will not automatically loose power by going rhd , depends on how its done

Edited by Ian Godney

Hey guys it's my first post here so g'day from Down Under Recently i bought the UK Performance Beamer mag and was browsing through to find some club websites and this one was one of them... Since i'm mates with an apprentice BMW mechanic i can tell you what is involved in converting it over to RHD.

Since every E30, both LHD and RHD use the same engine firewall, the steering column hole locating indent is already there on the RHS. BMW just didn't follow through with the turret hole punch at the factory.

To do the steering column transfer� On the inside of the engine firewall you'll find the steering column mount locating indents on both sides, it's then just a matter of unbolting the mount, drilling holes in the indents on the RHS and bolting the column on the RHS. The steering column mount is a universal mount, so it's used in both all LHD and all RHD E30 models.

 

RHD dash transfer� Any E30 RHD dash will fit with no need to add custom mounts etc. The dash just bolts into the existing dash mounting points.

 

Now for the front axle cross member and RHD steering rack transfer. You can use any E30 RHD steering rack if you like, and you don�t have to worry about adding mounts for it to fit too! The mounts you use are the existing mounts as they are located in the middle of the cross member (BMW made it symmetrical probably to reduce tooling costs). I suggest you use an E36 RHD steering rack as it has a lower ratio(less rotations), also by now all the sealing rubbers on the E30 racks will be hard as plastic. The E36 rack is also identical to the RHD E30 rack but it�s made of cast aluminium.

 

Exhaust header modification� All you have to do is reroute the header pipe closest to the front right wheel so it passes down under the other header pipe, so they aren�t running side by side but one under the other.

 

Headlight adjustment: Adjust the head light beam angles to ADR requirements.

Indicator addition: You�ll have to add side indicators behind the front wheels, so just use any Australian or Japanese E30 model indicators.

 

Front seat replacement: You can choose to replace the Co Drivers(RHS) seat with a Drivers seat from any RHD E30 model. So then you will have driver only adjustments on both seats :)

 

I hope this helps

Thanks. If your talking about the 87 model for �6500, would that most likely make it a Series 1 i.e 200hp? I've been told that if I'm to take one back to Oz, I should at least go for something they don't get there. Because they are all generally imported from Japan and Japan only have US spec.