This M3-Engined Land Rover Discovery Has Just Sold And It Makes Us Sad

Fancy an M3-powered Land Rover? Of course you do, because when racecars meet off-road terrain, great things happen. Sadly, this big ol’ YouTube starlet has just sold, and for really sad reasons.

You might have seen this rally-prepped Land Rover Discovery before, drifting neatly - and loudly - around British rally courses, beating all sorts of likelier metal to surprisingly respectable finishes. V360 OUM is the very car you can see in the footage online, but the seller, who also built it over five years, lost a leg in a motorbike accident back in February and has been forced to offload the Discovery.

The final bid took the selling price to £8100. Click ‘see original listing’ to get the whole picture of what the car is about. The build looks to have been done properly, with loads of photos available through all stages of construction. Modified to compete in rallying and competitive safari racing, it’s built strong. At its heart is an E36 M3 engine technically mounted in the middle (behind the front axle) for better balance. It’s tuned up to around 350bhp.

The powerplant is bolted to a late-model Discovery TD5 gearbox with low-range removed from the transfer box and shortened ratios giving a roughly 105mph top speed - but maximum acceleration. It also uses a viscous coupling from a Porsche 911 Carrera 4S to send between five and 40 per cent of the power to the front wheels.

The front brakes have been borrowed from a BMW 750i so they’re much bigger than standard. Also enhancing its ridiculous go-anywhere ability is a full set of Fox coilovers with 14 inches of travel. The seller says he’s reworked the chassis to allow the old Landie to use all 14 of them…

The spec sheet is a long and impressive read. It has cleaned up nicely by the looks of things, and comes with “roughly three sets of wheels.” It’s road-legal, has a current MOT and is fitted with MSA-approved roll protection, seats and harnesses.

We’re sad to see the car get sold under these circumstances and we’re gutted that the guy who built it can’t enjoy it any more, but it’s such a glorious thing to see and hear in action that we hope whoever has bought it puts it straight back into competitive racing where it belongs.

Hat tip to Steve