Three letters, cut out of a rear wing and backlit by a grey New Jersey sky: LTO. Below them sits a red BMW E36 M3 that has been widened, lowered and given more downforce than it will probably ever need on a public road. There had been rain, so every panel was covered in beads of water, and the car was parked on wet grass like an exhibit that somebody forgot to put indoors. This is the E36 M3 widebody our caption called "just a 2 door Chaser".
Why "a two-door Chaser"?
It's a joke, and a good one. Take Toyota's Chaser JZX100 and BMW's E36 M3, both born in the 1990s, and the recipe is almost the same: a straight-six up front, rear-wheel drive, a manual gearbox available, and a chassis people still love to modify thirty years later. One is a four-door Japanese sedan that became a drift icon; the other is a German coupe that became a track-day staple. If you know your Chaser JZX100, you already understand this BMW.
The E36 M3 was built from 1992 to 1999. European cars got a 3.0-litre and later a 3.2-litre S50 straight-six, while North American M3s used their own, less powerful versions of the six. Either way, it is the car that made the M3 a six-cylinder car.
The LTO bodywork
LTO, short for Live To Offend, is the brand behind this look, and our caption credits the design to a designer working with them. What we saw on the car:
- Arches. Bolt-on flares front and rear, with the cut edge and the gap to the original panel left showing, the honest way to do it.
- Wing. A big rear wing on tall uprights on the boot lid, with LTO cut into the blade, nearly as wide as the car.
- Rear. A finned diffuser under the bumper and the M3's exhaust tips.
- Front. The E36 M3 bumper with a lip under it and a low stance.
- Paint. Plain bright red, no livery, just a sponsor banner on the windscreen.
Wheels: Rotiform mesh
The wheels are Rotiform, the logo is on the centre cap, with a multi-spoke mesh face in a champagne grey, a deep polished lip and yellow brake calipers peeking through. Mesh wheels and a red E36 is a combination that has never been wrong.
The verdict
Our caption also said we were "feeling uneasy about this build", and we stand by that too. A wing this big on a road car makes people nervous, in the best way. It's loud without a sticker bomb and wide without hiding the car underneath. For a very different, very serious E36 M3, see the Judd V8 ex-Georg Plasa BMW E36 M3, and for more from New Jersey, our Tommy Kaira R32 under the cherry blossoms.
Photos and video: One Breath Pictures.
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