When BMW first introduced the 335i E92 to the market, performance enthusiasts worldwide rejoiced. There was finally a cost-effective alternative to get yourself into a BMW that truly performed, without having to break your bank account for an M3. The 335i is one of those vehicles that get tons of positive reviews; but unless you've experienced it yourself, you just don't know how great of an automobile it is.
We knew that the market would be strong for the BMW E92 335i, so we jumped on the opportunity to lease ourselves one, deck it out and show it off. It was a great platform to keep all of our partners and affiliates happy, that has kept us afloat all these many years. So we took delivery of the 2007 BMW 335i coupe and went straight to work.
The car was originally a display car at the H&R booth during SEMA 2007 with a set of 20-inch Radenergie R10 wheels in a custom gold, with a Borla exhaust and a full stereo by Pioneer. But as soon as the SEMA show and rush were over, we took off the exhaust, wheels and suspension and went straight to work in building the second phase of the project.
At that point in time, the M-Tech kit was announced but was still difficult to get in North America. But we had no fear, we contacted our friend Lewis Fan (who is also a contributor to Tunerzine.com) over at
MW Design Technik to score ourselves one of these exclusive kits. While we were shopping with MW Design Technik, we decided to order ourselves up AC Schnitzer's rear trunk and roof spoiler and put our name down to score the first Hamann Competition front lip to come into the States for the M-Tech kit.
Once the kit arrived, we had it painted and installed and immediately the car was completely transformed. But what was lacking was the perfect set of wheels. Luckily we had ordered a special order set from Work Wheels USA. A set of 20x8.5 / 20x10-inch VS-XX. Originally we wanted to keep it simple with Work's traditional bright gold center and a polished lip, but Allen Hsu over at Work Wheels sold us on the new black lip option that they offered. The last piece of the puzzle at that point was to get the finest set of rubber on the project. Having worked with Falken Tires on several projects before, we knew we didn't have to look far than to get ourselves some FK-452 in a 245/30/20 and 285/25/20 variety.
We got the wheels and tires on and we were pleased, but something was missing. We called up our friend Styles to do some quick pinstriping action on the lip of the wheel. That was it! The gold pinstripe on the black lip completely set off the wheel and made a world of difference.
Now that we were happy with the aesthetics, we turned to the performance aspect of the vehicle. We opted to swap out the Borla axle-back system for a full cat-back from Magnaflow. The performance difference was immediately noticed and the individually paired mufflers was a nice change of pace. The tone was deeper too - it was perfect for daily driving. Berk Technology brought in their first set of cat-less downpipes for the project, instantly shooting our horsepower figures upwards. But it wasn't until Burger Motorsports' equipped the E92 with their JB3 that we were really in action. No forced induction car is complete without a blow-off valve, so we turned to Active Autowerke for their high quality piece.
Finishing the suspension involved swapping out the softer H&R coilovers for a stiffer and more adjustable set of KW v2s. We were glad we did; the E92 now had handling capabilities to match its new power gains. We kept the H&R sway bars that were installed for SEMA to keep everything nice and balanced.
Unfortunately the story for our E92 is coming to an end, but we look forward to our next project - whatever it may be. But we have to admit, this vehicle has been a complete blast and by far one of our favorite cars to drive on a daily basis.
