There is a saying in motor racing circles “expect the unexpected” and a quick peak under the hood of Chris Lewis’s BMW 318i will certainly raise a few eyebrows to those that know what they are looking at.
You see there is nothing externally to suggest anything other than this is a well looked after German runabout. But this is a long way from the case. You see under the hood is a fire breathing Nissan RB26DETT engine that originally lived in a Skyline GTR, a 340mm brake package, and a coil over suspension ensuring this is may well be the ultimate street weapon that can hold its own on the race track and then can be driven downtown for a coffee or to take a bunch of mates to the beach.
As the E36 BMW is 200kg lighter than a Skyline GTR the performance of this vehicle would certainly be well into the supercar territory.
As is often the case when the motorsport bug bites though, the “boulevard cruiser” has slowly but surely been leaning more toward the “trackday special” and since these photos were taken has seen the removal of the rear seat and installation of Sparco racing seats and a 6 point steel roll cage
“It started life as a tired old 4 cylinder 318i, later we did the conversion to RB20 and after that engine had a big end let go, it was then we decided to put in the RB26” said Chris “then as I was finding myself spending more time at the track came the inevitable track based modifications like the roll cage. Every modification has been done to ensure the car remains as aesthetically pleasing as possible (to showcase our craftsmanship) with a real focus on usability on the street and track!
“We find no pleasure in buying mass produced bolt-on modifications, hence so much of what we do is custom made, tried on the track and developed further.”
Chris finished by adding “The car will be prepared for WTAC in eye catching vinyls with in-house developed aero mods to ensure we lay down some respectable times. Our track-spec Evo 6 sporting a USA built 2.3L Slowboy Stroker will be coming with us next year to WTAC, but for now we’re excited to joining some of the world’s greats in August!”
About Dryden Motorsports
Dryden Motorsports started as a group of mates just working on our own cars – before long other people with similar models were wanting us to do the same mods to their cars.. Given that one of our crew is a draftsman and we have access to millions of dollars worth of CNC laser cutters and presses, we decided to create our own product line which is now distributed locally by V Sport in Sydney) and we also sell direct worldwide from our website. Our products are oriented towards setting everyday cars up for track, in addition to any custom requests that come through the door.
Another interesting thing that Dryden offer is a complete kit to bolt an RB26 into an E36 BMW here along with many other trick bits and pieces for BMWs, Mitsubishi Evos and Nissans
Read more about Dryden Motorsports.
Great work, this conversion is going to be a hit!