Is it possible for a car to be too perfect straight from the showroom floor? It's certainly not a common problem, and we all think of many ways to improve nearly every vehicle we look at - call it a sickness if you will, but it's one we're willing to live with.
When pressed for an example, BMW's iconic 3-Series may be the closest to automotive perfection to roll out of a dealership, south of $80k. The E46 in particular needs little done to make the car a real knock out. Yet there are those who accept the challenge, avoid the pitfalls, and end up with the perfect blend of what BMW intended, plus something more.
BeBe Sfetcu has done just that, yet never intended to own an E46 at all. But after a dealership sold the car he really wanted, they made him an offer he couldn't refuse on this Orient blue sedan.
"Initially I went to buy a 7-Series. The 3-Series wasn't something I was looking for but the salesman wanted to make it up to me and sold it to me at the trade-in price. So when I first got the car I didn't have many plans for it. But you know, one thing led to another..." BeBe laughed.
The Illinois resident runs his own construction company, so getting his hands dirty was nothing new. When it came time to modify his car, he jumped in and did as much as he could. Of course, he also knows when to let others take over, so when friend and bodyshop owner Anthony Palella bought a house in need of some work, BeBe was quick to work out a deal. "I completely restored his house, and he did the work on my car," he said. "The funny thing is the day I finished his house was the day he finished my car! It wasn't really planned that way, but that's how it happened. All it took was a handshake and some work."
As BeBe tackled the house, Anthony went to work on the Bimmer. BeBe had already installed an OEM E46 M3 front bumper, but the slightly wider bumper didn't line up with the sedan's fenders. So the front arches were widened using 2" fiberglass extensions, while the rear gained an extra 3" to match.
The bumper itself had the intakes next to the foglights filled in for a cleaner appearance, while an AC Schnitzer front lip brought the front closer to the tarmac. Rieger side skirts and a rear valance brought the rest of the car down to match. Both the skirts and valance were then molded to the car - a move that could spell disaster in the event of any accidents but, as BeBe put it, "That's the risk you take to enjoy what you have."
A metal bser-style hood extension was grafted on, while the chrome trim was switched to black, carbon-fiber kidney grilles were added and E36 M3 mirrors provided the final touch up front.
The rear trunk was swapped for a CSL unit, and BeBe was such a fan he decided to mold a carbon-fiber roof spoiler to match.
"I had a roof spoiler but it didn't go with anything on the car. I often sit in my garage and look at the car to think about more stuff I can do. So I took a mold from the CSL trunk lid and created a roof spoiler so it has exactly the same curve," he said. "It was more work than I thought - the spoiler took about seven months to get it right but it's finally done."
In fact, BeBe spoke to Euro-Spec.net about selling the spoiler and they recently made it available to the public. BeBe had specific thoughts on the pricing: "I asked them to sell it as cheap as possible so people can enjoy it. I didn't care if I made money from it" he said.
His generosity toward fellow E46 owners and the European community in general says much about BeBe and how he works it into his life. "I just got married and Anthony was one of my groomsmen," BeBe laughed. "The photographer, Jon, took the photos at my wedding. He's shot my car so many times that when it came to my wedding I didn't want anybody else. For me to convince my wife to accept it took a lot of work, though."