Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon bought himself a present after his 2005 championship season. It wasn’t a Ferrari. It wasn’t a Lamborghini. It was a 2006 BMW M3 with a six-speed manual and a Dinan tune. The man knew exactly what he was doing.
That car has now surfaced on Bring a Trailer, and it tells you everything about what made the E46 M3 special and why the right spec still commands serious attention two decades later.
Wheldon’s M3 came equipped with BMW’s Competition package and the Dinan S upgrade, pushing the naturally aspirated 3.2-liter inline-six to 355 horsepower and 281 pound-feet of torque. No turbo. No supercharger. Just displacement, engineering, and an 8,000-rpm redline that rewards every inch of throttle travel.
The color combination alone separates this car from the pack. Carbon Black metallic — really more of a deep midnight blue that shifts in the light — over a rich brown nappa leather interior with a color-matched headliner. It’s the kind of spec sheet that suggests its buyer understood restraint as a form of aggression.
The E46 generation occupies a singular place in M3 history. The original E30 was a homologation special, raw and wonderful. The E36 arrived slightly dulled for American consumption. The E90 that followed went V-8 and ballooned in size and weight.
The E46 hit the sweet spot — enough power, enough poise, not too much car. This example is from the final model year, 2006, making it the last of a bloodline that BMW has never quite replicated.
This one has the six-speed manual, which matters. BMW offered a sequential manual gearbox as an alternative, and while it wasn’t as terrible as its reputation suggests, it aged like milk compared to the dual-clutch units that followed. The stick shift is the correct answer, and Wheldon — a man who shifted gears at 230 mph for a living — chose it.
The Dinan modifications are tasteful rather than transformative. A software reflash, intake, and exhaust add modest peak power but more importantly liberate that inline-six to breathe and sing. At 78,000 miles, the car has been driven enough to stay healthy but not enough to be worn out.
Inside, the cockpit is a time capsule of the era before touchscreens consumed every flat surface in automotive interiors. One button on the steering wheel. A Harman Kardon audio system. Navigation that probably still thinks the Berlin Wall is up. You’re not buying this car for its infotainment.
Dan Wheldon was killed in a crash at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in October 2011, a loss that still reverberates through open-wheel racing. He was 33 years old, a two-time Indy 500 champion, and by every account one of the most genuinely liked drivers in the paddock. His car choices reflected the same quality — no flash, just substance.
The auction closes July 22. Bidding will tell us where the E46 M3 market stands in 2026, but this particular car carries weight beyond its spec sheet. A race winner’s daily driver, configured with the precision of someone who understood machines at a molecular level, preserved in a condition that suggests every subsequent owner respected what they had.
Peak-spec E46 M3s with the manual and Competition package already command strong money. Add Dinan hardware, a flawless color combination, and provenance tied to one of IndyCar’s most beloved champions, and this is the kind of car that doesn’t come around twice.
Someone is about to buy an Indy 500 winner’s idea of the perfect street car. They won’t be wrong.
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