The Cult Classic You Need to Drive -2004 BMW E46 330i ZHP POV (Binaural Audio)

welcome back in all my years of driving bmws i have never driven the zhp 330i and today we're here at wild motorsport and luckily i'm not dropping off my car well actually i am kind of dropping off my car because it is throwing a check engine light probably secondary air system lucky me but more importantly i'm driving one of their mechanics zach's uh 330i zhp and if you don't know what this is the zhp was kind of like the m sport of the non-m3 e46 they they made them for the lci version so that's 2003 and a half i guess the 2003 model year but for those counting the 0.5 and through 2006 and even though bmw had done m sports in the past with the e34 and the e39 they didn't call this an m sport they called they just gave it the zhp package and in canada it was the zam that sounds pretty good actually the zam so in canada you'd have the zam e46 but anyway the whole point of it was basically to have a hotted up cam a little bit higher redline to 6800 rpm instead of 6500 rpm and some suspension modifications but because it wasn't getting a different motor and just that cam is changed you also have a shorter rear drive so it does feel a little bit faster everything in here standard e46 fare except for these seats these are the m3 seats and the owner of this car has done a castle tune on the car we've got this unmistakable irp shifter and like most zhp owners it's received some m3 bits so it has an m3 front sway bar and motor mounts i'm most excited because this does not have an s54 swap in it i know that sounds crazy but you know what i've driven a lot of m3s i've never driven a zhp i want the zhp experience but before we get rolling today's video is supported by clip coffee clip coffee was created by enthusiasts to bring cars and coffee together beans are sourced from carefully selected farms and delivered directly to your doorstep each batch is made to order so you'll know you're getting freshly roasted beans that will brew beautifully every time head over to clipcoffee.com to order your beans today and get energized for your next drive this irp shifter is probably the beefiest thing in the car and to put it in reverse it's not just the typical bmw push and forward you've got to hit the lockout button that's kind of fun and while a lot of these cars feel all tuned and hotted up this one has everything other than the shifter is just nice and soft and enjoyable now it's got to make some noises this car has 180 000 miles on it and i was assured that anything that rattles is not necessary for functional running so we we should be in the clear we'll be a little gentler on the shifts it's not a gear slamming kind of car although the transmission and shifter can certainly take it this doesn't feel like an upgraded clutch we're not dealing with some big sticky aggressive heavy stage 2 thing so ideally this is more of a enjoyable road course car you're not going to be going slamming gears drag racing people on the highway but the zhp has such a cult following it's kind of crazy and people people will do everything to resurrect a good chp even a bad chp over the years because i'm still seeing them today in great condition with people maintaining them and this has been you know many many years this is almost a 20 year old car at this point and my first zhp memory was in high school because one of the special needs teachers this uh this middle-aged woman just drove this beautiful actually i think it was the same color as this uh 330i zhp and it was just so cool to see this pull in because i i knew it looked different that's the beauty of the zhp is because there's some subtle cosmetic changes on the car that just let you know this is a little more than the standard car and to option this package you'd have really had to care about the driving experience but also not been in a position to buy an m3 either for financial reasons or because you absolutely needed a four-door sedan you'll notice there's no sport button down here and the throttle does not have that ultra ultra sharp bmw bite you know when you go to red match if you floor it you give it a little that's like totally to the floor you're not gonna get the uh the crazy m3 bite but that's what kind of makes this car charming is that oh i just that just scared the out of me see i forgot it like to me i'm looking at this dashboard and i'm seeing an m dashboard and i forgot that that's miles per gallon not oil temperature and it just went down to 12 all the way pegged i just thought this thing was about to grenade oh okay this is the problem we'll let this guy go i need to cool down a little bit that was scary i thought we just exploded this engine [Music] as an m driver you get very used to checking your gauges all the time and your oil temperature gauge is pretty critical on that list so when that needle goes up my heart sinks to the floor the best thing about the zhp is that it's an if you know you know kind of car you pull into a car show in a chp and you're going to get a lot of questions people want to see it people want to know what you've done to it people want to know if you've either converted it to an m3 like a four door m3 because this is really the car you would do that with or if you've just maintained it so well that wow you've got this 2 300 000 mile chp that runs like a top and it's no surprise that this is the favorite car of wild motorsport i think every person in wild motorsport right now owns a zhp and most of them have been s54 swapped the kids are coming home from school we will be gentle on the throttle until we get to the on-ramp you definitely don't get the same grunts of an s54 but then again you don't have s54 problems you're not doing valve adjustments you're not doing individual throttle body crap i don't know why i'm blinking soaking up the bumps doing my best not to slam gears of this thing the clutch does feel a little soft and i don't want to wear it out but you know it like i said it's not a race car there's a little bit of a torque div around 4000 rpm and you can feel it just back off a little bit i don't notice it as much when i was just at like wide open throttle going through the whole thing i think it's just as you go through it so quickly but uh yeah it's definitely there i think that's part of what the tune is designed to eliminate but i guess there's still a little bit of a remnant of that rx7 you could argue that it needs an s54 but you got to remember m cars especially s 54s and s65 they have no torque low down they're not really like a 2000 rpm car whereas this is more of like designed for normal driving like i can get into it a little bit here and i'm off whereas if you've got an s54 now you always need that downshift before you can even think about pressing on that throttle i feel like everybody who's owned one of these has owned like 10 of them they've just gone through them either because they've literally gone through them they've destroyed the one they own and they need another one or they sell it regret it and always have those like fantasy nice romantic remembrances of their chp what a weird way to say that what is wrong with me got these pfc pads this is what old bmw was all about you know what they weren't rocket ships they didn't need to be they were fun to drive dynamically this is just what a car needed to be and they gave it to us they really figured out the joy of driving that was their slogan back in the day i mean it was after e46s i believe but still they really had that locked down it doesn't need to be a three 400 horsepower beast to be an enjoyable driving experience and i can definitely see myself ripping this around mountain roads after you know using it as a daily everywhere else in the city it just does all the things and by the way kudos to zach because this is smooth all the wheels are straight and true and the alignment's like legit so this is why you drive mechanics cars sometimes they've got some weird rattles and oddball stuff but my god are they dialed in when you drive them and even though they may not be fast in a straight line they can certainly handle the speed like you can go 90 100 110 miles an hour in this car and not feel like anything's wrong because the chassis is okay the chassis is okay with it nice breaks it's kind of fun because you've got a bunch of body roll it's not this crazy stiff thing you can actually lean it into a corner wow how much fun is this i could get used to that the side bolsters on the m3 seats kind of block my elbow a little bit i got to keep my arms up i got to get back into my racing position there we go this all goes back to my slow car fast as more fun philosophy because i mean it's got enough power it's not underpowered we'll say that it's enough for what it is but at the same time you know you're not in some rocket ship that's gonna get you arrested when you stay in the throttle for like three four seconds you can actually ring this out and enjoy it and it sounds pretty good like bmw engines i think people forget like non-m cars do sound good they've got you know when i can remember my neighbor always had non-m bmws and every time he'd start it you'd hear that nice bassy rumble of the idol and as it kind of rolled up into 3000 rpm you can just hear it like through your body and i love the sound of these cards they're just fantastic [Music] so there you have it that's probably the best non-m3 modern bmw you can buy i love the zhp just because of what it represents it represented bmw creating a non-m car more affordable that was still exciting and exhilarating to drive without being the full-blown 64 70 000 beast it was at a time when they really cared about the driving experience and they knew that their customers expected more and man does this does this just make me yearn for the old days so hopefully bmw gets their in line although i do love their suvs they make good driving suvs but that's just not what i'm in it for that's not why i love bmw this is why i love bmw so thank you so much for watching liking commenting and subscribing don't forget to respect the drive and i'll see you the next one

Channel: Tedward

Views: 204,920

Keywords: tedward, tedwarddrives, bmw, m3, driver, driving, respectthedrive, vlog, auto, autos, cars, automotive, POV, binaural, test drive, zhp, m54, dinan, struts, kassel, tuned, manual, IRP, shifter, M3 seats, mechanic, wile motorsport, cult classic

Id: hR1Wwy7f14c

Length: 13min 28sec (808 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 22 2020