Chassis Reinforcement Plates

[MattDearPhoto]

Thinking of doing these, which ones are really necessary and which
ones do the M3 have that the standard car doesn’t?

[Nate047]

I don't know what the differences are between M and non M, but on 96+ M3s you want to do rear sway bar mounting tabs, RTAB pockets, rear shock upper mounts, and you do not need to worry about the floor pan in general like you do on an e46. Early cars might be different. some people also do front subframe reinforcement plates, probably a good idea if it's a track car.

[TexaZ3]

Might want to throw on an x-brace under the front of the engine as well.

[MParallel]

The M3 has the 4 rear axle and 2 gearbox reinforcements.

[M3AN]

Some early M3's, don't know when, didn't have front shock tower reinforcements, these are easy to add (no welding). Also later cars had the front subframe reinforced (at the engine mounts) but big washers under the engine mount bolts will suffice.

As above, Z3 or equivalent rear tower reinforcements (bolt on), rear trailing arm pocket reinforcements (weld on), especially if you have poly bushes (look on YT to see what happens when one lets go) and rear sway bar mounting tab reinforcements (weld on), especially if you have uprated sway bars. Years of worry-free auto-xing.

[MParallel]

March 96 (so halfway point of MY96) the front reinforcement plates were introduced.

The Z3 rear reinforcement plates are such a must-have. Very cheap and super easy to fit. You'd be almost stupid not fitting them.

[MattDearPhoto]

Thanks for all the help guys!

[bmwstephen]

March 96 (so halfway point of MY96) the front reinforcement plates were introduced.

The Z3 rear reinforcement plates are such a must-have. Very cheap and super easy to fit. You'd be almost stupid not fitting them.

were the reinforcements in the front subframe to compensate for the added power of the s52?

[MParallel]

were the reinforcements in the front subframe to compensate for the added power of the s52?

My guess is as good as yours. But I doubt this reason. The EU 3.0 already had more power than the S52 and that car didn't have these. And it's not like there were failures in front struttowers.

Also the S52 didn't add anypower even compared to US S50B30. It got more torque compared to S50B30US, but not more than the early S50B30US.

March 96 is also well beyond the introduction of the S50B32. And these didn't suffer from failing towers either. Could be a better safe than sorry part. Although surprised they never fitted the Z3 rear reinforcement plates to the E36 from factory.