3-Series Surprise

When you’ve looked at as many modified cars as we have, you can almost predict what sorta hardware a car packs in the engine bay even before the bonnet goes up. Well, this is a car that nearly floored us when we checked out its under-bonnet view!

When Sydneysider Peter Gajic decided to give his 1985 BMW 323i an injection of power, he took a very unconventional approach

“I’ve always been a fan of Toyota Soarer twin-turbos so I decided to drop the best bit of the big Toyota into my little BMW,” he says.

Sounds straightforward – but it wasn’t!

Peter initially purchased a bare 1JZ-GTE engine but soon realised it would’ve been a whole lot easier to start off with a half-cut. It turns out that the engine came from a Chaser and, unfortunately, none of the readily-available Soarer ECUs would plug in to run the damn thing! That also meant there was no electronic control of 4-speed auto trannie. Things were getting ugly!

Thankfully, Dellow came to the party with a custom bell housing that replaced the auto trans with a Supra 5-speed. This was fitted to the engine together with a heavy-duty clutch.

The engine management side of things took a while to sort out, but – once there – the 1JZ fired into life and purred like new. Peter tells us cramming the Toyota straight-six into the BMW engine bay was a very tight job, requiring custom mounts, modified cross-members, a shortened tailshaft and a few other tweaks. A custom aluminium radiator was also included in the build.

But the effort was worth it.

With the standard 280hp twin-turbo six under the lid, the 3-series had get-up-and-go at all speed ranges. It was also beautifully eager to spool up. Power output was increased beyond factory thanks to a custom 3-inch mandrel exhaust, a big K&N pod filter, a thick air-to-air intercooler and a boost increase. This saw the Beemer spitting out around 270hp at the wheels on a Dyno Dynamics chassis dyno.

“At this stage I was running the standard turbos to 18 psi and I felt they were about to let go at any moment,” says Peter.

That’s when he went to the next level of performance and visited Vince Rigoli of V&E Rigoli Mechanical Repairs. Vince removed the factory ECU (which took all that time to sort out!) and whacked in an EMS programmable system. This works with the standard injectors (which are apparently at their limit) and a high-flow Bosch fuel pump. The twin Toyota turbochargers were also removed to make way for a giant ‘700hp’ Garrett roller bearing turbo mounted on a custom tubular exhaust manifold. Boost pressure is kept to a relatively mild 15 psi using a TurboSmart 45mm external wastegate.

A TurboSmart atmospheric venting blow-off valve and oil breather were also recently installed. Note the highly polished engine bay and the high-temperature coating on the exhaust manifold, turbine housing and dump pipe.

In its current configuration, Peter’s BMW has recorded 360hp at the wheels - but we’re told that’s not entirely accurate. Nobody can stop this bugger wheel spinning on the chassis dyno rollers! Make that in excess of 360hp at the wheels.

Peter is also a bit concerned about taking the car to the drags as-is. He knows that with a set of slicks under the rear, the standard diff would likely let go. However, there is a solution in store - which we’ll come to in a moment.

Peter also went to a lot of effort to upgrade the car’s braking system. He wasn’t keen on retaining the stock picks, so you’ll now find R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R discs and callipers on the front and R33 GT-R stoppers on the rear. They were, again, far from a bolt on – and you can see the standard discs have been drilled.

The ride height has been slammed by about 3 inches with the installation of Kmac springs and dampers. Grip is provided by 215/35 Falken tyres mounted on polished ASA 18s.

The body was still being given final touches at the time of our photo shoot – Peter says it’s pretty tough to get good second-hand or new parts for this car. For example, the brand new front and rear bumpers had to be imported from Germany... Paint-wise, the 3-series was originally grey but it’s now gloss black and a whole lot slinkier. Peter’s friend – Heath Holman – can be thanked for his efforts here. Other items to note include the M3 style mirrors and polished handles.

Also visible from outside is the eye-catching custom trim. After nearly two decades of wear an’ tear, the standard BMW interior has been enhanced with Honda Integra front seats and the whole scene has been covered in quality leather. Momo is the brand on the gear knob, steering wheel and pedals and you’ll also find oil pressure, fuel pressure and AFR meters.

For the last few months Peter has been more than happy driving around with the recently installed big turbo and programmable management system. The car has acceleration nothing short of incredible.

But what about those concerns with the diff?

Well, Peter works at Samo’s Performance - specialists in rear-end upgrades. Peter had intended to treat the car to a fairly mild diff upgrade but has since decided to use the car as a promo vehicle – and to turn it into a drag car! A custom 35 spline full spool rear is now in the build and Peter’s gonna go all-out with the engine. Once the fuel system has been upgraded, there’s plenty of boost to come from the big Garrett puffer.

Performance? Well, you can bank on 10s.

This car really is full of surprises!

Contact: V&E Rigoli +61 2 9756 3413