NO LIMIT 700hp supercharged, wide-body BMW E93 M3
Is there such a thing as too much? Too much of a good thing? Too much of anything in general? Sometimes, maybe, but for Auvee Bhattacharjya we get the feeling that doesn’t compute. You only need to look at the E93 M3 that he’s created to realise that, because this car almost isn’t real. It’s the sort of car you might dream up if you sat down to write your ultimate fantasy mods list on a rainy afternoon and got carried away, or the sort of car you might hope to be able to afford to buy in Gran Turismo for 1 million credits. It’s a fantasy brought to life, a creation built without any real limits or restrictions and we’re very glad it exists because without cars like this and people like Auvee, the world would be a very boring, grey place indeed.
Auvee loves cars, always has done, always will and it’s BMWs in particular that have been floating his boat ever since he first started driving, all of eight years ago (yes, he’s young, deal with it). “When I first started driving, I viewed BMWs to be highly desirable and luxurious cars – but as I delved deeper into the car scene, I gained quite a bit of appreciation for BMWs’ other strengths, including a high level of customisability, their high-performance motors and unparalleled handling” says Auvee and it was this that sucked him into the inescapable Bavarian vortex that we all know and love so well. “The first BMW I purchased was a 2007 BMW E92 335i, which I bought when I was still in college,” he continues. “The 2007 Acura TSX I owned prior to that had just been totalled in an accident (I was OK, thankfully!) and, as a result, I was forced into the market for a new car. Having previously owned Japanese “grocery-getter” type-sedans I decided to look for a vehicle that was a departure from these cars. As I started to do research, I quickly came to realise that the 335i was relatively fast from the factory, with a highly-customisable twin-turbo motor and was gaining lots of traction from an aftermarket perspective. I was sold after my first test drive – the motor performed incredibly and sounded great, and the tight steering and handling were like nothing I’d experienced previously,” he says.
For a lot of people a 335i would be a great place to be car-wise but Auvee had set his sights that much higher and the impetuousness of youth meant that, after two years of twin-turbo shenanigans, he was itching to move onto the bad boy of the 3 Series family and get himself into a full-fat, V8-powered M3. While it wasn’t the only potential purchase on his shopping list, jostling for his attention alongside an Audi RS4, Merc C63 and Nissan GT-R, the M3 ticked his boxes as far as price and performance were concerned. The only decision that remained was deciding which body style to go for. “I initially set out to purchase an M3 Coupé; however, after test driving the Convertible, I was instantly sold on it. There’s nothing like being able to drop the top on the car on a summer day,” he says.
So, with Auvee now the proud owner of an BMW E93 M3 the modding could begin. Except that Auvee didn’t actually have any plans for the car at all. “I actually told myself that I wouldn’t modify this car at all. The plan was to keep this car stock for as long as I owned it. Clearly, I deviated from my plans a tad…” he laughs but it’s OK, we’ve all been there and, secretly, we’re all pretty happy about that – a stock car is a sad car. Auvee breaks the subsequent madness that ensued into two phases: phase one, which we’d like to call mild but it isn’t really because phase one alone would be a complete project car on its own; and phase two, which we’d like to call wild and that’s a bit more accurate but still falls short of accurately describing just how comprehensively this car has been transformed.
Things started off sensibly enough with the sort of mods that your average E9x M3 owner might well decide to spring for. One of the first items on Auvee’s shopping list was an exhaust and, as we always say, if you own a V8 then it’s the law that you need to get an exhaust on it. That was pretty much his thinking too, especially with the added bonus of a removable roof allowing him to enjoy that V8 soundtrack with minimal obstruction.
Auvee opted for a custom valved exhaust setup from Lowered Congress, which was later complemented by the addition of a Gintani Extreme Burble Tune for maximum aural pleasure. Next up came the air-ride; obviously Auvee wanted to get his M3 sitting nice and close to the ground but his geographical location meant that coilovers weren’t going to cut it. “Living in New York City, having the ability to raise the car to get over bumps (read: craters!) is key, especially with low front and rear lips,” he explains, so that made his mind up for him on the suspension front. His kit of choice was Air Lift’s all-singing, all-dancing height-based 3H setup and, as we all know, once you’ve got air on there you need some wheels to go with that ultra drop. With an E9x M3 the wheel choice you’ve got is truly vast, so vast as to possibly be a little overwhelming, but Auvee had his sights set on one set in particular. “I initially purchased my Work Brombacher wheels during the first phase of my build. I opted for a set with polished lips and matt gunmetal faces and they are one of the few Brombacher sets made in a 5×120 bolt pattern,” explains Auvee. The Brombachers’ classic cross-spoke design is timeless and looks great on any car, the E93 included, and the gunmetal centres and polished lips work together so well while being three-piece meant they gave Auvee the flexibility to upgrade them to suit phase two…
At this point the M3 was coming along nicely but there was still room for improvement and Auvee now turned his attention to the styling. Whichever body style you prefer, the E9x M3 is a goodlooking car so for phase one the plan was to enhance those good looks with a little bit of carbon fibre, because you really can’t go wrong with carbon. While still in slimline mode the M3 was enhanced with a GT4 front splitter, Varis upper and lower rear diffuser – which it still wears and which frames the fat exhausts perfectly – and a number of other additions.
With that fi ne selection of mods, Auvee and his M3 were in a good place and all was right with the world. Well, for a while at least, because the dangerous combination of burgeoning modding addiction and youthful exuberance meant that he was never going to be satisfi ed with his work thus far and so the ante was well and truly upped as Auvee began to take his M3 into phase two…
There’s no point attempting to beat about any bushes of any kind because the main component of phase two was what you see in all the pictures, boldly and unashamedly slapping you in the face with its outrageous width and taking this M3 from mild to wild, and that’s the Liberty Walk body kit. Love it or hate it, you can’t deny that it makes a big impact and turns heads like nobody’s business, cranking this M3’s styling concept up to 11. “After I decided to go with a wide-body build, I had two options I could choose from: either a sleek, subtle design (for example: flat duckbill spoiler and a dark, satin vinyl wrap) or a wild design – I think I ultimately opted for the latter,” says Auvee with masterful understatement and we’d second that. “Roman from Exclusive Vinyl was critical to the design of my build,” he continues. “We ran into a few problems along the way, primarily with installation of the wide-body kit, due to the fact that the E93 chassis differs from the E92 chassis, but Exclusive Vinyl got the job done for me in time for the car’s first show, where it won two awards (Best Euro and Best BMW).” Of course, fitting the kit was all well and good but Auvee needed a hit of something extra to really push the envelope as far as it could possibly go – and then a little further still – and that was the colour. Subsequently, the car has been wrapped in Signal green, originally a Porsche colour, and it’s absolutely awesome. It’s a solid shade that’s a visual smack in the face, that makes such a nice change from your usual colour suspects and which works so very well not just with the kit and the wheels but with the whole look of the car. In fact, we’d go so far as to say that opting for such an eyeball-slapping shade was a master stroke that brings all of the elements together.
We mentioned that the Brombachers’ three-piece build meant that they could grow with the car and now, via a set of serious lips, the 19s have been widened to a mighty 11” up front and a frankly scary 14” at the back, wrapped in similarly ridiculously wide rubber all-round, and absolutely necessary in order to fill out those absolutely enormous arches, which they do with aplomb.
Auvee’s M3 now had the sort of looks that stop traffic but he wasn’t done with it yet and now it was time to turn up the wick, keep turning and then just burn the whole house down for good measure. “During the second phase of my build, I wanted to take things up a notch,” says Auvee, casually. “I was looking at superchargers closely, as they are the most reliable way to make big power with the S65 motor. I spoke with Alex at Gintani who sold me on Gintani’s Stage 2.5 Supercharger kit. A short while later, I had the supercharger kit sitting at my front door. Needless to say, I’m more than happy with the level of power the car is generating at this point – approximately 700hp to the crank,” and that would be enough to put a smile on anyone’s face.
Pop the bonnet and you’re greeted by the sight of that bright red plenum, swooping carbon fibre intake and, of course, the supercharger itself, tucked away in the corner and the whole lot is topped off with water/meth injection to help keep things cool and keep the power coming. Of course power is nothing without control, as the old adage goes, and so lurking behind the spokes of the Brombachers you will find a mighty StopTech BBK, with six-pot calipers and four-pot calipers fitted front and rear respectively, capable of matching the Gintani supercharger’s massive amounts of go with equally large amounts of stopping power when Auvee demands it.
Now the end was in sight and Auvee began to apply the finishing touches, though that’s a relative term in the context of this build. The interior had, thus far, remained untouched but all that was about to change and to go with the wild exterior and ferocious power output he decided to opt for a race theme. Inside you will find a pair of gorgeous, Kevlar-backed Bride GIAS V2 seats with Corbeau race harnesses and a customised Autopower roll-cage, finished in striking yellow, along with fully-upgraded audio. The final elements of the build were the exceedingly sexy, custom, carbon-lined Mod Emporium headlights and that absolutely enormous Battle Aero rear wing with custom end plates, because when you’ve gone this far why not go a little bit further?
After all that we feel like we need to give ourselves five minutes just to take it all in because this is without doubt an absolutely monster build. Auvee has put a lot into this car and the result has absolutely transformed it into a true one-off. It’s incredibly comprehensive and Auvee has left no stone unturned, no component unmodded in the pursuit of modded M3 perfection. So, is it done?
“Though I am keeping a close eye on up-and-coming aftermarket parts, I don’t have any plans for major changes at this time,” he replies. “I like the car as it sits right now – aside from potentially changing the wheels next season and vinyl wrapping the car differently.” Were money truly no object he says he would have skipped the supercharger and jumped straight on Gintani’s twin-turbo kit but even with a build like this you have to draw the line somewhere. Besides, that money could be better spent elsewhere because, once you’ve built a car like this, very few others could possibly follow it and so Auvee has set his sights a little higher for his next purchase. “I am considering a Lamborghini Huracan or Aventador, or a Ferrari 458 in the near future,” he says and we reckon one of those might just live up to the wide-body, supercharged E93 M3 experience, which is saying something. For now, though, Auvee’s built himself one hell of a green machine and it’s never not going to put a smile on his face, which is what this is all about.
“Inside you will find a pair of gorgeous, Kevlar-backed Bride GIAS V2 seats with Corbeau race harnesses and a customised Autopower roll-cage, finished in striking yellow, along with fully-upgraded audio”
DATA FILE Supercharged Liberty Walk E93 M3
ENGINE AND TRANSMISSION 4.0-litre V8 S65B40, Gintani Stage 2.5 Supercharger kit with water/methanol injection, custom Gintani tune, custom Lowered Congress valved exhaust setup. Seven-speed M DCT gearbox
CHASSIS 11×19” (front) and 14×19” (rear) Work Brombacher three-piece wheels with gunmetal centres and polished lips, 245/30 (front) and 325/30 (rear) Hankook Ventus V12 Evo tyres, Air Lift Performance 3H air suspension, StopTech ST60 BBK with six-piston calipers and 380x35mm discs (front), ST40 BBK with four-piston calipers and 355x32mm discs (rear)
EXTERIOR Liberty Walk wide-body kit, full exterior wrap in Porsche Signal green, Mod Emporium custom carbon headlights, carbon side repeaters, Aerofl ow Dynamics carbon side skirt extensions, Vorsteiner carbon boot lid, Battle Aero wing with custom end plates, Varis upper and lower carbon rear diffuser
INTERIOR Bride GIAS V2 Kevlar Seats with Corbeau seat harnesses, customised Auto Power roll-cage, upgraded Focal component speakers and tweeters, JL Audio amplifi er, RE Audio subwoofer mounted between rear seats
THANKS I have to give thanks to Roman at Exclusive Vinyl in Long Island for helping me bring my vision to reality and keeping my car show- and street-ready at all times. I also have to thank Alex at Gintani, who has been immensely helpful in supporting my build as well!
“I was looking at superchargers closely, as they are the most reliable way to make big power with the S65 motor. I spoke with Alex at Gintani who sold me on Gintani’s Stage 2.5 Supercharger kit”
Interior dominated by yellow roll-cage and Kevlar-backed Bride buckets. Gintani Stage 2.5 supercharger kit makes 700hp Custom valved exhaust delivers a sensational soundtrack. Monster BBK lurks behind 19” Brombachers. Custom carbonlined Headlights.
