Super Street – October 2019

66 SUPERSTREETONLINE.COM

Sometimes you have it all figured out from

the beginning. The project car goes from idea,

to purchase, to vision in a linear fashion. Niels

Christiaens started off building this ’92 BMW

320i into a drift project, but when things went

sideways, it wasn’t as literal as he had planned.

“After some serious mods, I decided the car was

too expensive of a build to drift it!” he tells us.

Coughing up the hard-earned cash for this

kind of project might make you think twice

about taking it out drifting and tapping a wall.

The Belgium native, however, had a much more

personal reason to think twice: He did all the labor

himself, including the bodywork. Niels is a welder

by trade but admits he basically had no idea what

he was doing when it came to aesthetics. You sure

wouldn’t know it by looking, though!

The Felony Form four-piece widebody kit

is one of the few “bolt-on” options for the E36

that extends the arches 45 mm over the factory.

However, the fiberglass fenders do require some

trimming and filling to get ’em to line up with the

body perfectly, which Niels revealed was one of

the hardest things he’s ever done.

After the fenders were finished and things like

the U.S.-spec M3 front bumper and GT rear wing

were installed, he had his E36 wrapped in Nardo

Grey, a color made popular by Volkswagen and Audi.

Next, Niels had to get the stance just

right for his drift-car-turned-street-car. A

set of KW Variant 1 coilovers was modified

by Kean Suspensions to get the car down to

where the BMW sits perfectly. For wheels,

well, they’re a bit unorthodox. A good friend

offered him something truly unique: a set of

17-inch Speedline Mistrals—OEM Ferrari wheels

commonly found on the Testarossa and 308

GTB/GTS. The three-piece wheels were modified

with wider barrels, resulting in 8.5 inches up

front and a whopping 11.25 inches out back. A set

WORDS^ Austin^ Lott

PHOTOS^ Jack^ Howells

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