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Originally Posted by Maestrob4u
Is it possible to swap a VR38DETT (Nissan GTR) engine into a 1 series?
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Yes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Maestrob4u
how much could it cost and who would be barmy enough to carry it out?
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Probably no one will ever do this, as it's an exceedingly bad idea. Cost would probably be in the 50k including engine range to do a reasonable job, with much of the money spent of getting the Nissan and BMW electronics to play together and/ or replacing them with aftermarket ECUs. The Nissan's V6 may well be wider than the BMW's engine bay, requiring extensive surgery, but that would simply add to an already unreasonable bill.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Maestrob4u
I've seen a number of videos on YouTube of Nissan GTRs thrashing the upper echelon of supercars (Some after a remap and a little fettling) and it got me wondering. If a GM LS engine, Toyota 2J and R34 Skyline engine can be loaded into an E30 3-Series...
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Herein lies the fundamental folly of the question- the assumption is that the engine is why GTRs thrash supercars.
First, the Nissan's engine is not particularly special. At 542 hp and 608 lbs dressed weight, it makes less than .9 hp per pound. An M3 GTS motor, in comparison, makes more than 1 hp per pound, and that's before you supercharge it.
Even boosted to 750 hp a GTR motor is only at 1.23 hp per pound, a number that doesn't compare well with the 1.4 hp per pound available from a number of motors such as a stock McLaren TT V8, or the ~1.5 hp per pound available from a supercharged M3 V8. In other words, by choosing the GTR motor you're going to screw up the BMWs weight balance and handling more than if you picked many other options. That's only one of your problems, however.
More importantly, the fundamental issue is that making power is the easy part- there are lots and lots of easier, better ways to making 600+ hp. A chassis that makes 600+ hp usable most time is the hard bit, and that's what the GTR does. With 4wd and active torque vectoring the GTR is simply able to deploy more of its power more of the time. A rear wheel drive BMW is fundamentally unable to deploy the same amount of power unless one turns it into a funny car, and then only in a straight line. So making a supercar beater with the GTR motor also requires the gearbox, 4wd system, suspension and tires from the GTR.
Yes, before you ask, those could be fit too. Nissan did it themselves, turning a lowly Nissan Juke into a Juke GTR. This car is only a couple seconds slower around the track than a real GTR, and only costs 500k euros/ 650k USD. And yes a tuner shop could do it cheaper and not as well, but any way you slice it that's a lot of money for something almost as good as a GTR.