The E36 is slowly but surely becoming the quintessential car to “stance”. From M3s, to 328s, to the Alpina you see before you, more and more builds are popping up day after day. But what’s really setting apart one from the other? With this new trend it becomes harder and harder to sift through and decide which cars are worth taking a closer look at. Originality makes history, and that’s exactly what Michal is doing with his Alpina B3 build. Michal hails all the way from Poland where “stance” isn’t as popular as it is here in the states, especially on a BMW. He tells us that all the BMWs look the same to him; (17 x 8.5 in front and 17 x 10 in the rear & on the same wheels, OZ Mitos or AC Schnitzer’s.) Not that there is anything wrong with it, but the cars tend to be modified in a very “cookie-cutter” way, and Michal was determined to do something different and push the boundaries. He wanted his car to stand out and prove to himself as well as others that a BMW can have proper negative camber and super aggressive wheels, not just Japanese imports.
With that said, the very first thing you’ll most likely notice about Michal’s E36 is of course fitment. It’s simple insane. The OZ Breyton’s are a pretty standard wheel in the Euro fitment world (stateside), but the sizing of Michal’s setup is not. Mical’s Breyton’s measure at an unheard of 11 in wide in the FRONT! Out back he opted for 11.25 inches in width. In order to make these wheels work on the stock body, Michal is running -8 degrees of camber in the front and -9 degrees in the rear. The camber and wheel widths gives combined with that lovely tire stretch give the car a truly menacing posture, all without the assistance of air suspension. He also tells us that he occasionally sees people referring to his car as “ruined”, but obviously he could care less and has done a great job not paying much attention to negativity. In most cases it’s people who don’t even own cars. I guess that’s Internet for ya…
Michal chose to run E36 M front and rear bumpers to help with overall appearance of the car. The M bumpers are far more appealing than the standard bumpers that comes on non M cars. The LTW wing out back was another nice addition giving the rear just as attractive of look as front end of the car. The front headlights are tinted black and the rear tail lights were swapped for full red ones. Everything flow just right with this one!
Michal daily drives his E36 and quite honestly gets a joy out of making people confused as to how low to the ground the car really is. The aggressive wheel fitment may not get the attention of those who aren’t familiar with what we do, but seeing a car sweeping the ground and throwing sparks will definitely throw everyone off! Michal constantly hears people saying that they “could never be that low because the roads are bad where I live” but fact is, the roads are bad everywhere, especially in Poland. Michal simply doesn’t care and he tells us that he wishes others didn’t care so much about scraping or wearing through tires, then maybe there would be more stanced cars in Poland.
At the moment the scene in Poland is very conservative, part of the reason why Michal’s car gets the attention that it does. Michal is hoping that in due time stance will be more welcomed in his country and we here at StanceNation will keep our eyes on Polska. We hope you enjoy a few more photos and make sure to check out JLZ1.com to see more!
Wheels/Tires/Suspension
OZ Breyton (17 x 11 F/ 17 x 11.25 R)
Hankook Ventus V12 (215/40r17)
AP Fahrwerke coilovers, camberplates, and camber arms.
Exterior
E36 M Front and Rear Bumpers
LTW Wing
Black Tinted Headlight housing
Full Red Tailight covers
Engine
K&N Conical Filter
Manual Transmission swap from 328i
Straight Pipe Exhaust
Upgraded Exhaust Manifold