Once I had started building several project cars, I knew it was only a matter of time before I did a European build. When BMW's 335 first came out, it caught my attention since I had always wanted an E46 M3 but didn't quite want to buy a used one and didn't really want to throw the money towards a new one. So the 335 was a great option, especially with the performance from the factory twin turbo setup. Most of the inspiration for the project came from my past cars, with a clear influence of what I had done in the past with other cars.
Read the rest of the project car buildup after the break.
Initially I wasn't a huge fan of the E92 styling since I was so much more infatuated with the E46 chassis. But it started to grow on me once I started seeing more and more modified ones out on the road. After taking my brother's E92 out for a spin, I decided I had to get one myself so I put down a deposit and ordered exactly what I wanted in June 2007. I picked up the car on August 17th, 2007 and took some photos behind Carrozzeria Designs.
Initial plans for the car was just to lower it with suspension and possibly a body kit. But then I worked out with a deal with Wheel Power. Every year they supply a car for the H&R Booth at the SEMA Show, so they decided to use my E92 as a platform. Things didn't go as smoothly as planned unfortunately, but the car was lowered a week later at Unique Fabrication on August 24th, 2007.
On the 11th of September I picked up all the Pioneer stereo equipment that would be installed for the SEMA Show. I snapped this photo outside the shop on my way home since the rear looked a little extra low with all the extra stuff in it.
I dropped the car off to Joe to have the stereo installed, keeping it simple and clean. I wanted to do a subwoofer enclosure that mounted from the top of the trunk since the space is a tad confined in the E92. Overall I was pretty happy with the stereo setup that took about two weeks to install. The install consisted of a new AVIC-N4 head unit with navigation, new front and rear speakers, including re-wrapping the rear deck in a matching black suede. The enclosure in the trunk for the subwoofers and the amps were also done in black suede. The missing panel on the sub enclosure would be a black piece of plexi with a gold tunerzine.com decal on it.
I have always wanted a set of Radenergie R10 wheels since I loved the way they looked on the E46 M3. Unfortunately my car was one of the first ones that they would test fit a setup on and it turned out to be aggressive. I got the wheels on 10/27/2007, just a few days before the car would leave for SEMA 2007. The initial fitment was definitely too aggressive with a 9 in the front and a 10.5 in the rear. But since we were so close to SEMA we decided to jsut raise the car up for the drive out there and size down the wheels after the show. I opted for a custom gold finish with a polished lip. Falken Tires was once again onboard for my fourth project.
Here's how the car sat before we raised it back up. I absolutely loved how flushed the rear was, but it just rubbed way too much.
Here's the car sitting at the H&R booth at SEMA 2007. We also managed to install a Borla exhaust system right before we headed out to Vegas.
After the car came back from the show we swapped out the wheels with a 20x8.5 / 20x10 setup which fit nicer. Here's some photos I took right after we put them back on the car on November 23rd, 2007. You can see how nice and high the car sat.
A few months later I was selling my rig, so I decided to take the car out for a quick shoot before I got rid of it. The rig shots didn't come out very nice, but here's how the car sat on February 29th, 2008. For a while I was pretty happy with it just lowered with the wheels and the stereo/exhaust.
And as usual I got bored around the six month mark with the Radenergie R10s, so I decided to sell them. I planned for the next phase of the build and after admiring the M-Tech kit that wasn't readily available Stateside, I worked with MW Design Technik in Canada to get my hands on one. It arrived early June and I had it painted and installed it on the 14th of June, 2008. Along with the M-Tech kit came a pair of AC Schnitzer spoilers. I also had a new set of 20-inch wheels on order and a Hamann Competition front spoiler. So here's how the car stack with stock wheels with the kit minus the wheels and the Hamann lip.
The wheels I had ordered were from Work Wheels. I spoke with Allen over at Work Wheels to get a set of 20-inch Work Wheels VS-XX for the E92. He talked me into being one of the first ones with their new black polished lip. So I opted for a 20x8.5 and 20x10 Work Wheels VS-XX with gold center, black polished lip and black bolts. It took a couple of weeks for me to get a new set of Falken FK-452s but the wheels were mounted, balanced and installed on August 1st, 2008. Here's also a random photo of how the trunk looked all said and done.
On September 28th, 2008 I installed my Hamann Competition front lip and painted it a flat black to match the lip on the wheels. Somewhere in between I also opted to get a gold pinstripe on the lip of the wheels to help set it off since the black lip blended in with the tire. It made a night-and-day difference on the wheels and I was really happy with how the car looked overall.
For once in my life I was pretty happy with how my car looked and drove. The car was shot for and appeared in several ads including Hawk Brakes, Turbonetics, Magnaflow, Falken Tires and most recently is in the Work Wheels 2010 catalog. In late November of 2008 I headed down to San Diego to meet up with Eric Kieu so he could shoot my car. We went out to UCSD where he did some of the best shots to this day. Here are a few, I absolutely loved the rig shot he did on the car.
The car appeared in several Falken Tires ads with several different rig shots/renditions that we did. The first one was the photo by Eric Kieu and then John Choi met up with me to shoot some more. The ad appeared several times in several different publications including Road & Track, Bimmer Magazine and European Car.
The Magnaflow ad was shot by Gene Tjin when he was still employed there. He swapped out my Borla exhaust for a Magnaflow cat back which looked and sounded much better. Here's some shots from his shoot that day on November 13th, 2008.
On April 18th 2009 I took the car back to San Diego and revisited UCSD where Eric Kieu shot the car. I did some photos myself at a few locations for a feature on Tunerzine.com.
Since the car is a lease and it's up in a few months, I put the entire car back to stock in July of 2009. Here's how she looked on the lift completely gutted.
And here she is at HIN Anaheim in early 2009. She also made an appearance at So Cal Euro Show representing for Berk Technology.
So there's my E92 build. She'll be going back to the dealership August 17th, 2010.