Personally I love BMW E34 Tourings. Admittedly I am a little biased as I have recently become the owner of an aga-powered example, but I have always had a soft spot for BMW's chief load-lugger. So when I heard the theme for November was to be Haulers & Sedans, Graham Beatie's 540 Touring immediately sprang to mind for a feature.
There are plenty of cars that would fit the bill of 'comfortable daily driver that you can take to a drift day and have fun'. The E34 540 touring is just a little bit different from the normal S body route.
Graham picked up a clean, unmolested example with the daily drifter idea in mind.
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Body styling is left almost exactly as originally intended, with just the addition of black kidney grills to give a slightly more aggressive look to the front end.
The 540 Touring has self leveling suspension as standard. This proved to be quite a pain when trying to source aftermarket coilovers, so the self leveling system was removed and KW shocks and springs fitted. The drop from the uprated springs was only billed as 30-40mm but with the deletion of the factory hydraulics the height looks just right.
JDM meets GDM. Graham had some custom hub adapters made up to increase the options of wheel fitment. I would have never thought Nissan GT-R wheels would work on the E34 but they just do!
The M60 V8 provides 280hp with 300lb/ft torque which is more than enough for a bit of fun at a drift day. The only modifications are the deletion of the rear exhaust silencer and the additions of some bosozoku style exhaust tips.
As this is a daily driver as well as weekend drifter all the interior creature comforts have been retained.
Well it wouldn't be a drifter if it didn't have a collection of stickers adorning the rear window.
Graham describes his car as a 'tramp drift daily' which I think that is a little unfair. It's a great looking car that sounds fantastic! Not only can it haul all of his gear during the week, It didn't cost a fortune to build and is more than capable of getting the adrenaline flowing at the weekend, while hauling all of your gear during the week.
Ross.
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
I want it.
BMW is from munich, and noch from stuttgart (Porsche for example :P)
But a very nice looking E34! Only the exhaust is, yeah..
This is awesome! I hope to get my Touring to this level some day...
that Filthiest sticker, where do i get one?
pleaseee desctops!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm diggin' the car overall, but the boso pipes are no bueno. Nicephotos as well.
funny how R33 GTR wheels look good on everything except R33 GTR's
2nd to last picture is so dope, love the contrast of the stickers, great machine and dig the exhaust.
Desktops
Sweeet bring on more station wagon features this month!!! Love it.
it looks the part! liking the rims, when you look inside it doesn't look like your typical drift machine - just goes to show you can get a lot of car for your money if you search them out - they do exist.. good feature!
absolutely love it!
R33 GTR wheels aren't the best match to the E34 rather cubic lines.
IMO, some old-school EuroDM deep-dish wheels would give a better package.
RONAL
SCHMIDT
BBS
Speedline
OZ
AC schnitzer
etc
My parents have a 525 touring here in australia, they're incredibly rare here. The standard suspension has mostly given up the ghost and its so low now it looks great on the standard mesh. great car too, handles very well.
me thinks you guys need to stop spamming the desktop section with pictures of race cars, we all want real cars like this on our desktop not some textbook show car.
Whhhhhyyyyyyy?
Icky...
Always loved e34 =)
Jeremy- Most of us are interested in proper, built-to-race cars, not DD's.
If you want a picture of a daily driver on your desktop, go take one.
daymn them pipes are crazy!
BMW = Munich
Porsche = Stuttgart
VW= Wolfsburg
Mercedes = Stuttgart
Thanks for the comments folks , the exhaust tips are removable , I couldn't go picking up the classier girls with them fitted now could I.
The car currently has the stock 2.93 diff welded up for drifting , but I plan to replace this with an M5 LSD to make the car a little more civilised and a lot better drive/accelleration. (3.64 ratio)
Other plans are to fit a hydraulic handbrake because the stock BMW one is just about useless.
Suspension wise polybushes all round and KW shocks and springs are fitted , along with 2 stock anti roll bars clamped together on the rear. The double ARB's made a massive difference to turn in and oversteer!
I was tempted to loose some weight on the car (she's almost 1800kgs) but I like my gadgets and sound system for when i'm on a longer journey!
Graham
Yeah boy! Graham your car looks sweet on here! I'm lucky enough to have had some giggles in this motor and it's great. Drift Weapon one minute followed by thoroughly pleasant freeway tourer the next. KW FTW.
Go G
YYYYYYEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!! orgasmic
lose that ridiculous exhaust, and it's nearly perfect.
I Love the subtle takeyari pipes. "daymn them pipes are crazy!", lawl, those pipes are smaaaall, chu' talking about? Anyways, clean as hell, I love it.
I really like this E34 wagon!
Ugh, everything was great until the bosozuku tips, good job ruining a great car's aesthetics.
LOL , I love the reaction the pipes get , like i mentioned above they are just a removable trim , I tend to run with them fitted more than without because they turn heads and i've always loved the bark they add to the exhaust note.
But without them , there is just a regular pair of tails in black , nice and subtle when she needs to be.
The car did used to run on BBS Pitlanes but they got boring fairly quickly and I stuck em on another e34 I had to sell it. I fitted some Rotas in 17x9 flavour et25 , and the nissan adaptors made the effective offset et0 , once i had lowered the car these proved to be a little too wide , so swapped out to the GTR's which give me 5mm more to play with and the car sits ok.
Absolutely love this to death. Fudge the haters, the tail pipes are sick too. These are becoming more and more rare, nice to see one still being used to its full potential. Build thread?
There a short thread on driftworks , but not much of a build , just suspension , wheels and welded diff , exhaust really. All you need.
My 535 sport does it better
Best touring I've ever seen. E34 is simply the most beautiful car in the world, no one ever created better design for a car
Best use of a BMW ever. loving the wagoo drifter
id shit bricks if i saw a 540 wagoo with a lock diff driving on the streets
never seen n e thing like it, at lest not in new zealand
Possibly for sale soon i think , anyone care to make a valuation?
Saw this at Norfolk Arena a while back, thing's awesome, pipes are hot.
Awesomeness in E34 form!
Good work bolf
Where are all the comments
Well okay its 2 years later .. but im still thinking about that fitment ... 17" Skyline r33 GT-R Wheels on a Bimmer ... is it possible if someone could post the exact data .. like its in all the newer car posts ? Maybe Graham still has that ride and could tell us a thing ur two ?
@Onecton Basically a machined spacer , with holes for 5x120 and studs for 5x114.3 , 25 mm thickness , also accomodating the correct bore sizes.
This thing is sick, Great inspiration!! Just wondering if its still going strong and how many kms the donk has on it?
so it's like 4 years on or whatever but some desktops or something would be awesome
aussieANON fire me an email to keep_th@manfoot.in and i'll send you some , don't forget the resolution.