The original 8 Series is hands down one of the most desirable BMWs ever built but people will always crave more power. This was the case for Mike and his candy red E31 as he decided to yank out the original engine to make room for the S62 engine found in the M5 E39 and Z8 roadster. However, the 4.9-liter V8 is no longer naturally aspirated as it has been fitted with a supercharger.
Thanks to forced induction, it no longer develops 400 horsepower as output has been bumped to an impressive 600 hp, although that’s more along the lines of a rough estimate. Despite the massive bump, it’s still 40 hp less than the one-off M8 E31 prototype built in the early 1990s by the M division. The car in question was originally an 840i, so it had a little over 280 horsepower from the factory. With the engine swap, the car is now making more than twice the stock output.
There’s more to the car than its engine transplant as the interior is also quite special, having been fitted with the famous Vader seats from the M3 E36. Oddly enough and rather sacrilegious we might add, the upgraded brakes come from a Mercedes E55 AMG. Much like the engine and ECU, the manual gearbox was taken from an M5 E36 and the owner explains it wasn’t that hard to fit them to his 8 Series.
The Dinan exhaust comes from the performance sedan as well, but not the same donor car. In fact, all Dinan upgrades are sourced from different cars while the 19-inch DP front and rear wheels come wrapped in Michelin tires. What used to be a comfortable luxury gran tourer has been transformed into a tire-shredding sports coupe that doubles as a smoke machine. It certainly makes a lot of noise but largely retains the classic E31 appearance.
Source: Hoonigan / YouTube
