This Homemade BMW M3 Wagon Is the Ultimate Daily Machine

• The 2023 BMW M3 Touring is on its way, but as it turns out, a handful already exist.
• One belongs to David Embree, and his is the only one with a six-speed manual.
• It was a 10-month labor of love, and he ended up with something truly special.

Wagons hold a special place in the hearts of hardcore car enthusiasts, and the higher performing they are, the better. Practical, fast, fun and usable every day, the hi-po wagon is essentially the perfect car for those who can have just one. It's a shame, then, that it's a terribly un-American phenomenon. As of this writing, there are three high-performance wagons on sale in the United States: the Audi RS 6, Porsche Panamera Turbo S Sport Turismo and the Porsche Taycan GTS Sport Turismo. The Mercedes-Benz E 63 wagon is dead. But no matter, Embree wanted an M3, and BMW's steadfast refusal to build one over the last 30 years meant he had one choice: Do it himself.

"This is my dream car, full stop," Embree told us. "I've always loved fast wagons. When I was early in my career I couldn't afford a S4 Avant ... But then, once I saw an M3 wagon conversion on Instagram (@63np) around 2019, I knew it was possible and started saving money."

Once he saved up enough, Embree had to buy not one but two cars. The first was, of course, an F80-generation BMW M3 sedan. The second was an F31 BMW 328xi. The combination of their generational code names gave Embree the "F81" moniker he now applies to his M3 wagon. Once both cars were in the garage space he was renting out, it was time to get to work.

"All in all it took me, and some truly excellent buddies helping out on weekends, approximately 10 months," Embree said. "While working a full-time job I spent a rather unbelievable amount of time during the evenings and weekends at a rented shop space working on this … I am not a professional mechanic, and I've never done anything like this before. I had to learn so much on the fly, and off the internet."

A combination of Instagram, YouTube, advice from forums, know-how from his friends, and nearly a year of toil later, it was done. To Embree's credit, we've seen his M3 wagon in the flesh, and this car is as close to factory-finished as a project car could get. He said the goal was to make it look like this thing rolled off a BMW production line, and the tolerances and panel gaps are so tight, you wouldn't believe he built it in a garage.

There were, of course, plenty of hurdles, but Embree fondly remembers spending three consecutive nights on the floor of that garage drilling out 95 spot welds to remove what is, essentially, the spine of the car. He also notes that turning an all-wheel-drive 3 Series wagon into a rear-drive M3 is even less straightforward than it sounds because "you can't make an AWD shell into a RWD car unless the transmission mounts up, and you can't do that without literally removing the driver's side of the transmission tunnel reinforcement and cutting out the transfer case bubble from the floor."

Embree had to make a frankly ridiculous number of alterations to the wagon's body shell to make sure everything worked, too. He measured and remeasured to make the necessary changes, and as a result he had to cut several human-sized holes into the chassis of the wagon to fit the M3-specific parts. Then he had to strengthen them back up with new reinforcements and new welds, all while making sure there was enough room for the driveshaft, exhaust system, ECUs, and all the other associated M3 running gear.

And that's not even mentioning the car's everyday electronics like iDrive, the A/C and even simple things like window switches. When we say everything had to be swapped over, we mean everything. According to Embree, the car still thinks it's an M3 sedan, and thankfully for him, much of the wiring was plug-and-play, but a friend of a friend had to crack the car's brain and figure out how to make the liftgate and rear locking glass hatch work, which they now do. Even the sunroof works — it just isn't quite flush — but Embree assured us he's working on it.

The result of all his hard work is a true one-of-one. There are a few F81 M3 wagons in the world, but his is the only one that we know of with a six-speed manual transmission. The 3.0-liter twin-turbo straight-six S55 engine under the hood is the one out of his M3, but modifications like a new intake, new exhaust, billet crank hub, and engine remap help it make more power than before. He also added MSS height-adjustable multi-spring rate coil overs to give it a nice squat stance on the road.

All in all, Embree said the project cost him around $105,000 for everything. That includes buying both cars, all the extra parts, the body shop and paint work, and the rental shop space to do the assembly and disassembly. Worth it? As far as he's concerned, absolutely. He notes that it helps that his Frankenstein daily driver, an M3 chassis with the four-cylinder engine out of the wagon, wider arches, and all-wheel drive, helps justify all the cash he spent on the project.

Embree has just one mission left: to persuade BMW to bring the all-new G81 M3 wagon to the United States. But there is a problem. Because the regular 3 Series wagon was never approved for sale here in the U.S., the M3 version of that wagon would have to go through a long, expensive process to be given the OK for sale here in the States. But Embree isn't giving up hope. He says that if Audi can do it with the RS 6, BMW can send us the M3 Touring. He might be right, but the chances are still exceptionally low.

"Instead of getting upset, mad, or feeling sorry for us, I thought that this could be the prime time to build my dream car, and put it to truly excellent use," he said. "[I wanted] to help people see and experience in some way all that a modern M3 wagon can be, and influence some hearts and minds in the world while helping make a very smooth business case for BMW of North America to sell it over here."

Edmunds says

While we know deep down the chances are next to zero, we appreciate Embree's enthusiasm. If BMW never sells the new M3 wagon here, it just makes his work that much more special.