This is the second time this 1995 BMW M3 Lightweight is up for sale. Just last summer, the special M3 was being sold at a New York auction. At the time, the odometer showed 99 miles. Fast forward to today and the same car is again up for sale, but with an extra mile.
The M3 Lightweight came to life due to heavy pressure from US enthusiasts who wanted a racier variant of the E36 M3 to compete with lightweight Porsches. BMW finally caved in 1995 and debuted the E36 M3 Lightweight. Essentially, it was exactly what its name implied, a lightweight variant of the E36 M3. At least that’s how it came from the factory. It had less sound deadening material, cloth seats, no air-conditioning, no radio, no trunk lining, a massive wing and a special fabric floor carpet. All in all, the E36 M3 Lightweight was around 200 lbs lighter than the standard car.
All examples were painted in Alpine White and each and every car had its engine had picked from the assembly line to insure its perfection. It was then shipped to PTG Racing in Virginia where M-colored checkered flag decals were placed on the left-front and right-rear corners of the car. Buyers of the E36 M3 Lightweight also found new parts for their car in the trunk, such as a special oil pan, oil pump with dual pickups from the European M3, spacers to make the wing higher and some other performance parts. These parts would make the E36 M3 an illegal road car in the US and the car came with a paper for owners to sign acknowledging that any installation of these parts would void the warranty.
The car also includes aluminum door skins, reduced sound deadening and insulation material, BMW Motorsports forged alloy wheels, carbon fiber trim, a 3.23 rear end, special aero package, and deletion of the radio, sunroof, and toolkit. The sale includes a number of factory performance parts that were delivered new with all Lightweights, including the dual-pickup aluminum oil pan and taller rear wing.
The alloy wheels feature embossed BMW Motorsports text around the lug bolts and measure 17×7.5″ wide up front and 17×8.5″ wide at the rear.
The cabin is simplified compared to the standard E36 M3. The sport seats are upholstered in grey cloth with a red pattern, and all Lightweights were delivered without a sunroof or air conditioning. No radio headunit is fitted, though the cars were equipped with speakers and radio wiring.
The shifter surround, center stack, door sills, and dash all feature carbon fiber trim. The odometer showing 100 miles can be seen in the gallery below.
This example is listed in the BMW M Registry and is sold with a clean New Jersey title and clean Carfax verifying the mileage. The clean Carfax report shows the first mileage report at 33 miles when the car was originally titled in Pennsylvania. 99 miles are shown when the title was re-issued in South Dakota in 2009. The odometer just rolled over to 100 miles when the seller was preparing the car for auction.
Only about 125 Lightweights are believed to have been built, though exact production numbers are unknown.
[Source: Bringatrailer]
