Own A Forgotten Homologation Special With This BMW 320si

There are probably certain cars that pop into your head when someone says ‘homologation special’. The Audi Quattro SWB, Ford Escort Cosworth or Lancia Delta Integrale on the rallying side, the E30 BMW M3 and Mercedes 190E Cosworth for touring cars, or the Porsche 911 GT1 and Mercedes CLK GTR for sports racers.

All of those are mega-money classics these days, but you can still buy a road car designed to give a manufacturer the upper hand in motorsport for a lot less. Take this 2006 BMW 320si. Produced so BMW had a better car to use as a base for its World Touring Car Championship contender in the 2000s, it’s the epitome of ‘technically’ a homologation special, but still has some tantalising differences to a regular E90 3 Series.

WTCC rules called for a 2.0-litre, naturally aspirated engine, so the starting point for the 320si was the four-pot, 148bhp 320i. Some remarkably thorough changes were made to this powerplant – its bore was slightly increased and its stroke slightly shortened, there were new induction and exhaust valves, the compression ratio was up and the cast iron cylinder liners were replaced with aluminium alloy ones.

It also had a new cylinder head, cast at the same plant where BMW built its screaming Formula 1 engines at the time (a fact it was rather vocal about in this car’s marketing), and a carbon fibre cam cover, which saved a handy 10kg reasonably low down in the car.

The result was an engine that made 170bhp rather than the 320i’s 148bhp, and produced peak power at 7000rpm rather than 6200. That meant that 0-62mph dropped from 9.8 to 8.1 seconds, and top speed was up from 134 to 140mph. It was still hardly a baby M3, then, but a bit of extra shove in the E90’s already lovely chassis can’t have been a bad thing.

Things like suspension and bodywork were left alone, but the 320si did also get slightly beefier brakes and new lightweight 18-inch wheels, which are the easiest way of spotting one. BMW made just enough to qualify it as a production car in the eyes of the WTCC’s rulemakers – 2600, of which 500 came to the UK.

That brings us to this lovely blue example, which is up for auction online with Bonhams. It’s a low-ish miler at 65,225 miles, and the MOT history features patches of orange but thankfully not a sea of red. With three days left on the sale, bidding’s up to £2400 already.

We do have a handy barometer for what the hammer price could be – back in November 2021, this exact car was sold through Collecting Cars. Back then, it had done 61,484 miles and ended up shifting for £5125. We reckon it’ll go for a similar figure today, so it should still be one of the cheapest possible ways into a homologation special. Just don’t expect it to cause the same sort of stir as a Peugeot 205 T16 at your local cars and coffee.