Performance BMW — September 2017

12 PERFORMANCE BMW

good stuff, that being E85 in this case, and

Perttu has fi tted 1750cc Bosch injectors

being fed by twin Bosch 044 pumps and a

Bosch transfer pump. So just how much

power does all this add up to? The answer

is a Tarmac-trembling 823hp, backed up

by a mighty 601lb ft of torque, produced

at a heady 1.9 bar of boost. Perttu’s fastest

pass to date is an astonishing 9.7 seconds

at 148.5mph, which makes it as fast as a

Bugatti Veyron Super Sport and faster than

every other hypercar currently on sale,

including the McLaren P1, LaFerrari and

Porsche 918 Spyder, all of which would

set you back over £1million each, so we

reckon Perttu’s got himself a bit of a

bargain here.

Of course, just building up a massively

powerful engine, sticking it in an E30 and

hoping for the best isn’t going to cut it and

there’s plenty going on beneath the surface

to ensure that all that power makes it to

the Tarmac without destroying everything

in its path in the process. Perttu has fi tted

the ZF Type-C fi ve-speed gearbox from

the E36 M3 and it’s been bolstered with

a triple-plate Quartermaster clutch and

Bling Factory fl ywheel while power is

transferred to the rear wheels by a motley

drivetrain crew made up of a modifi ed

E34 M5 cardan shaft, E34 M5 3.45:1 ratio

diff and custom driveshafts. The chassis

has also been suitably upgraded with D

coilovers up front and Avo rear items,

poly bushes front and rear, the rear

control arm mounts have been raised

by 3cm and Perttu has also added rear

camber adjustment. While brakes aren’t

so important out on the drag strip, this

car does get driven on the road and that’s

where you want to make sure you’re

able to control 823 rampant horsepower

which is why you’ll fi nd four-pot Wilwood

calipers up front with 310mm discs while

at the back sit 300mm discs with E

calipers. The wheels are 17” Keskin KT1s,

eights up front and tens at the back, but

for drag racing these are replaced with a

pair of 10x15” wheels wrapped in Hoosier

10x26x15 slicks for maximum traction.

These are actually the reason for the

car’s outlandish outward appearance as

Perttu explains; “I wanted to run fat slicks,

so I had to make the car wider,” he says

and that’s exactly what he did. The car’s

been fi tted with fi breglass E30 M3-style

front and rear arches but the rears have

been widened further still, adding an

additional 5cm per side and giving this

E30 some incredible road presence,

though obviously being able to squeeze

some seriously wide rubber under the

rear arches is what this endeavour was all

about. The removable bonnet is also made

from fi breglass, the side windows are all

polycarbonate, the front bumper wears an

aggressive front lip and has been drilled to

provide the huge front-mount intercooler

with maximum airfl ow and there’s a side-

Column-

mounted oil

pressure gauge

Drag racing fuel

cell in boot

PBMW217.e30_turbo.ed2.indd 12 07/08/2017 08: