These Are The Best Forgotten German Performance Bargains Of The 2000s

Photo: BMW

This homologation special came out in 2006, so we still have a little while before it can legally come to the U.S. That’s fine, though, because you can snag one of those one Euro houses in Italy, store it there and go over every year to drive it while you wait.

It’s worth it. Why? Because the 320SI is the kind of car that BMW made once and won’t make again. BMW performed well in the 2005 European Touring Car Championship, so set its sights on the World Touring Car Championship, but that meant making a road going version of a 320 with its 2.0-liter inline four-cylinder engine. That’s exactly what it did.

BMW worked the motor over by foregoing valvetronic for a traditional overhead camshaft (OHC) set-up, the bore was increased and the stroke reduced, and the compression raised from 10.5 to 11.0:1. The best part? The N45 inline-four was hand-assembled in the UK at the same operation that built the BMW Sauber Formula One engines. The cylinder head was also cast alongside the BMW Sauber F1 unit as well.

The whole race-ready package was topped off with a carbon cam cover. You got 18” BMW Motorsport wheels as well, in case the cam cover or subtle “SI” badging didn’t give away the track-focused origins of the sedan. It’s not exactly fast, with only 173 hp squeezed out at 7,000 rpm, but it’s the kind of car that you can actually drive fast. That’s exactly what Andy Priaulx did to win the 2006 WTCC, by the way.