@Levent Haha, yeah the E60 M5 was a hot mess. Lovely car, but so, so many issues. I love the E46 too, almost bought one, but then I read about the floor pan issues and it was enough to turn me away from them entirely. The S85 would be nice, but a turbo'd LS would give you a lot more power at a much cheaper price  Luckily I'd just aim for 525ish HP/TQ, as the stock DCT only likes up to 650 and I'd rather not drop a few thousand on new clutch packs. DCTs are expensive where you are? They're dirt cheap here. You can get the shifter, wiring, transmission out of a low mileage car for about $1,000. E90s are reaching that age where one with issues will sell cheap, and one with light damage or vandalism will be written off entirely; that's what I'm hoping to find. One for a couple hundred from a salvage auction, since no one would buy it if I ever tried to sell it so the branded title wouldn't matter.

Ahhh fair. The cheaper controller offering only works on the E90 M3 fwiw. You need to use the more advanced one that's $4k to use the F series DCT, and even then it involves tearing the transmission apart to require it, whereas the other one is a simple plug and play* operation. Haha, at 25k you'd be better off importing 4 or 5 LS motors. Have spares for if something goes wrong. With some looking they're only $600ish each. The rest is unlikely to break (turbo pipes, engine mounts) and the other stuff is available where ever you are.

The E46 M3 was a beautiful car. Grabbing one with a temperamental SMG tranny and throwing in a DCT would be an amazing mod and you wouldn't mess with the weight balance.

I imagine it'll be a while. I need to replenish some savings from COVID draining, and then find the base car. I also want to make sure the actual programming of the DCT isn't rocket science difficult. As I dig deeper apparently it's pretty easy to put the 6 speed auto in from the Camaro. The Camaro SS with the auto hits 0-60 in about 5 seconds...but the E90 when built would have 150 more HP and weigh almost 800 pounds less, so I figure it'd be mid to low 4's. DCT would be way cooler though. I love them paddles.

Really, I've just always wanted a car with a wide body kit. I love hte look. But it seems stupid to have one without the power This solves both!

Also, yellow gauges. Ever since I saw them in a Porsche 911 I've desired yellow gauges. I'm a simple man