Shortly after the new year it became time for Andrew to start searching for a new a car. He can’t ever make up his mind. It went from E39 M5 to E46 ZHP to probably a Yugo at some point or another. It’s a bit ridiculous. One day a customer came in with a 335i and JB+ upgrade. Customer was gracious enough to let us take it around the block and see what the Juicebox was really all about. Needless to say we were impressed and that day was basically what made up Andrew’s mind.
The search began, but in typical Andrew fashion it was pickiest of the picky. The search first started for an E90 335i with a Lemon interior. Lemon interior option is extremely rare and wasn’t really on the option list when ordering. Now on the LCI models the option is known as Oyster. Lemon interior is white seats and leather door inserts with black dash and carpet. Then to top it off it had to be a 6spd. It was like finding a needle in a haystack. To this day Andrew still states that he thinks the E90 body looks more aggressive than the E92 coupe body.
One morning searching auctions for other automobiles. A white on red 6spd coupe arrived at the auction lane that morning. Rich brought it to Andrew’s attention and said there are no pictures OR condition report, but it should be in the price range we are looking at. Andrew wasn’t sure about red interiors. Felt it was too much red, but agreed to at least see what happens. So around lunch Andrew pulled up the auction online and watched it come up on the block via the webcam. So here we are looking at this car from the ceiling through a fuzzy camera. Manheim didn’t get the color listing wrong. It’s definitely white…. hmm, maybe a Mtech front bumper? We see black wheels (yuck). The auctioneer starts the bidding spouting out numbers and then finally somebody starts the bid. And hits the button to place his bid, then it hangs. Nobody else bids. Auctioneer doing his damnedest to get somebody else to go. He hits the hammer, SOLD to European Auto Garage. Andrew is excited, but a bit nervous not knowing a thing about the car.
Over the weekend we get into contact with a transporter to bring the E92 from Dallas, TX to good ole Knoxville. What felt like one of the longest weeks of Andrew’s life. Transporter tells us the car will be picked up Wednesday and arrive at the shop Friday. Mother nature had other plans. Once again just like a year ago. Nasty thunderstorms rolled through Tennessee with lots of wind, hail and rain. A bit worried about the car, but hoping maybe he is behind the storms. We get a call saying it will now be Saturday and in fact he is behind the storms. A sigh a relief there, but still very anxious to see the car. Saturday morning arrives and we have a Cars and Coffee event that day. We were told it would arrive at end of C&C at 12. Get a call around 11 saying it won’t be till 3. The WAIT was killing Andrew.
3:00 arrives and the truck rounds the corner. There it is on the back of the trailer. And when we say Andrew was beside himself, he truly was. Cloud Nine hit. He yells “Those black wheels….THEY ARE VOLKS!!!” And then he came back to earth very briefly to realize everything else it had. “Are you kidding me!!!! Front AND Rear Brembo GT big brake kit!!!” Quad exhaust system, AC Schnitzer roof spoiler, Vorsteiner trunk spoiler and front lip, Alcantara black headliner, short throw, ZHP knob, RPi front mount intercooler, BMS dual cone intakes (filters missing?). And not to help Andrew’s big flipping head at this point. The trucker fills it with stories about the trip to Knoxville. He stopped at a BMW dealership to drop off a few cars for them. All the sales guys were excited to see the white 335 only to find out it wasn’t theirs. Truckers were on their CBs complimenting how nice it looked. He said the CB chatter was non stop and that the few Porsches he had on the trailer never even got a comment.
Car is now off the truck and by this point Rich has already gotten the phone call about it and is racing over to see it. Rich thought Andrew was just so excited that it was just some exaggeration. Rich pulled into the parking lot and came to a dead halt and yelled “ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?” Rich pops the trunk to find a box and opens it. A set of Macht Schnell catless downpipes. Andrew definitely hit the jackpot. Car immediately got pulled into the shop and up on a lift to see what else was hiding. Turns out it was sitting on some Bilstein PSS9s and had front and rear H&R sway bars. And now able to look at the quad exhaust setup a bit better. It started out as some exhaust and then had a different set of mufflers welded onto it. Knowing this car had to have been on E90Post, Andrew did some digging. Turns out it has a Britalman exhaust with custom mufflers. This 335i doesn’t sound like any other 335i we have heard.
So first things first were getting some cone filters for the intakes. Ran to the local auto parts store and bought two 3″ K&N cone filters. Once the filters were installed Andrew was able to give the car a good test drive and see if it had a Juicebox or some sort of piggyback on it. Turns out the car was also equipped with a Vishnu Procede as well!! The Volk Racing TE37 in matte black finish are 19×8.5s in front with a 19×10.5 in the rear.
So now that the amazing story of how this car was acquired is out of the way lets get to the details. It is a 2007 BMW 335i, Alpine White on Coral Red with a 6spd manual transmission. When car arrived it only had 40,000 miles on the clock and yes it came with all the upgrades mentioned for a STEAL. Now some stuff needed to be addressed. The clutch was toast. It was slipping. An angel eye bulb was out. Left rear tail light LED strip was done. The car kept setting Vanos faults just cruising down the highway.
So we here immediately put the wheels in motion. A clutch was ordered up. Just a factory one for now. When we pulled out the old one it was toast, but the flywheel had some interesting wear on it. Andrew ordered a set of Arc White angel eye bulbs from BMS as well as a JB4. The brake pads were gone. So Andrew ordered up some Carbotechs. The Vanos solenoids came out and were cleaned and reinstalled. The vanos faults would still come back during normal cruising and would send the car into limp mode. We decided to first bring the entire car up to date coding wise. Andrew forgot to turn the Vishnu off and it coded right onto the Vishnu (whoops). Andrew was a bit annoyed by that because with a JB4 if it is turned on the Autologic can not read the car. It’s interesting the more expensive piggyback doesn’t have this feature, but yet has VIN locking? So JB4 was installed into the car and the coding was redone and brought up to date. Vanos faults and boost pressure fault have not come back since. No telling if the Vishnu was truly at fault, but do have to wonder.
The car is still on its original high pressure fuel pump and injectors. Hopefully it’ll stay that way (but highly unlikely). One thing we did address with coding is the wastegate rattle. It was obnoxious on the car and still is on start up. But before the coding on deceleration you could hear them rattle. Between 7/06-7/08 BMW released a firmware update to help with the rattle. It has made a tremendous difference with the rattle on deceleration. No notice in decrease in performance or anything either.
BMS has been working on new firmware for the JB4 to make a more dedicated E85 map. Andrew has been testing these new firmware updates. On 93 alone the new updates are very very impressive. With a 50/50 mix of E85 its bonkers. An easy 17PSI is hit and literally just pulls like a train. The car has not been dynoed yet, but cars with similar upgrades and 50/50 mix are in the neighborhood of 410whp/440wtq.
So you maybe wondering the car has basically everything what does the future hold for this car? Well the curb rash has got to be fixed on the Volks and will get re-powder coated matte black with new updated Red Volk stickers. At first he wasn’t a huge fan of the Volks on a BMW. But it blends his passion for Japanese cars as well as his passion for BMW. A BMS Methanol kit will be added for more POWAHHHH, as Jeremy Clarkson would say. You can never have enough power. More coding tricks up the sleeve just to add some unique touches to the car. But the most radical upgrade for the future will happen once the car is paid off. The stock quarter panels will come out for some M3 quarter panels to fit those 10.5 wide wheels correctly. And will also get a Mtech rear bumper with diffuser. Andrew isn’t very keen on the Vorsteiner front lip as well. M Aero lip is planned to make the front end a bit more aggressive looking and more flowing. Alcantara shifter boot along with E-Brake boot to match the rest of the alcantara interior. And plans for a M3 instrument cluster to go in as well to spice the interior up a bit more.
The day Andrew bought this 335i he probably should have bought a lottery ticket or played some poker in Vegas. Just extreme luck. Stay tuned for more developments on this car and see whose ego will wind up biggest in the shop.
