Can A Lightly Tweaked E36 BMW 328i Out-Drag A Hyundai i30 N?
As you probably know by now, we’re big fans of the Hyundai i30 N here at CT. It’s probably the best all-round hot hatch available right now, and with a lot of rivals punching well above the £30k mark spec-for-spec, it’s great value too.
But not everyone is able to drop £29k on a new car or sign themselves up to months and months of lease/PCP payments. So can you get something that’s as fast in a straight line for much less?
That’s what Car Wow is intending to find out, by fielding the £2000 BMW E36 328i belonging to one of its videographers into battle with the 271bhp Hyundai. Its M52 straight-six isn’t quite standard, having undergone the popular swap to the less restrictive M50 inlet manifold among a few other tweaks.
It now produces 226bhp, which is still a long way of the Hyundai, but enough to make this a seriously close race!
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Now this is an awesome drag race, very suprised at how well the e36 did 👌
That 328i is beautiful
E36 328 compact can beat it easy
Yeah, only if you’d swap a compact. Range topper was 323ti with m52b25 170PS I6
The e36 looks stunning on the RCs. Would take it any day over the i30
It looks like bmw was doing what hyundai is doing 20 years ago 🤣🤣🤣 not a bmw fan
I like both cars but if i had to live with one id take the i30n as its a better daily
N/A > Turbo l
All this tells me is the E36 is still a lot of bang for buck.
My question about these drag races is: do the cars have the same tires at least?
Id like to know that. I’d also like to see how well the Hyundai performs if it were to last as long as the BMW.