Pandem: Rocket Bunny’s Latest

If the sheer number of Liberty Walk and Rocket Bunny wide-body conversions present at this year’s SEMA Show is anything to go, there’s still a lot of love left for over-fenders.

I’ll be talking more about this next week when I do a more a detailed post on the trends of SEMA 2015, but for now I want to focus on one Rocket Bunny equipped car that caught my eye – a BMW E36 M3 owned by Dylan Coleman.

E36-M3-05

If this car looks familiar, that’s because Dylan bought the M3 as a former demo car which featured the original Sarto Racing wide-body designed by Kei Miura.

E36-M3-06

For this year’s SEMA Show, the M3 received a large exterior makeover with a swap to the new Rocket Bunny Pandem kit – one of the latest designs from the mind of Mr. Miura.

E36-M3-02

In contrast to the more rounded design of the original kit, the Pandem fenders feature more of a blister design that look right at home on 1990s cars like the E36.

E36-M3-03

One of my favorite things about this car are the wheels – Rotiform RBQs measuring 17×11-inch and shod with sticky Toyo R888 tires. The RBQ was designed as a collaboration between Rotiform and Rocket Bunny, and the four-spoke face is very well suited to the wide-body look.

E36-M3-08

Further enhancing the visual aesthetic is a custom 3M vinyl wrap which might remind you of BMW’s famous Art Cars.

E36-M3-04

The same theme has been carried over to the interior, which features a trick roll bar setup and air tanks that have been decorated to match.

E36-M3-07

So what do you think? Do you prefer Miura’s original E36 wide-body design or does the Pandem kit work better? Regardless of your thoughts, it seems as though the Rocket Bunny movement is showing no signs of slowing down.

Stay tuned for more from SEMA 2015…

Mike Garrett
Instagram: japanifornia_media
mike@speedhunters.com

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1

I can't see the body kit for the life of me. The wrap is a cool design and all, but it's horrible on a car. It looks like a test car tbh. Like something manufactures do with GT3 cars while they're still testing them, and they use a fucked up vynal wrap to desguise the actual lines of the car. I get seizures looking at this.
Wheels are pretty dope though.

2

This probably wasn't the best car to show off the new pandem kit because the wrap is very similar to the camo car manufactures put on new cars so you can't see the shape and curves of the body.

Rad car though.

3

Bring on the SEMA. I can't wait to see what you feature. Waiting patiently...

4

I feel like I should let my eyes cross and wait for the 3d image to jump out at me.

5

I love the prototype camo and wheels and pretty much everything about this...but I would have done the flares in an oposing pattern to break up the monotiny

6

Boom!
Tidy! - love to see him branching out in every which direction he can, my dreams of a RBXCRX can live on a little longer!

7

Vanilla Ice approves of this car.

8

Definitely need r888's on a car that will probably never see a track...

9

I feel like ray charles looking at this

10

Horrible wrap choice unless he just doesn't want anyone to be able to tell it's a widebody from afar. Can't even make out the lines on the kit.

11
turbo BEAMS ae86

Roll bar + air.....That does it

12

Since everyone is doing it!  I'm going to start my own slap-on wide body fender kit company and name it Played out b
Bull$#i+...  I'm sure I can copy the existing brands/models out there and sell them as my own and still be successfull...  people who like this kind of crap are probably also into fake parts...  ebay would love me...

13

Yup

14

Some bent body panels and broken windows would compliment that collapsed suspension look

15

Nope. 
The paint and that lousy air ride....just no. 
The one to the driver side in the last pic would be a more worthy post, not this scribbled up abomination.

16

This is pretty hard on the eyes, overall. I really wish they would've at least gone with a solid color to show off the new kit... Oh well... It's an art piece more than anything-- I can respect that.

17

Pretty much the worst car to show case anything other than the graphics. It might as well be a stock bodied 316i under all that.

18
CloudMusicProduction

those graphics are used to hide prototype cars so that the body lines arent visible that well. so why in life do they wrap the car like that if they want to showcase a new bodykit. thats the dumbest u could do. nobody is able to see now what the kit does or how it looks like ...

19

CloudMusicProduction There were four other e36's with the same kit. I don't think it matters.

20

Maybe the graphics and the physical shapes of the car compliment each other in person, but considering this is a camo pattern similar to what is used to hide body lines from photographers on development cars, this is a complete failure, it might as well be a Toyota Corolla there is nothing to see here. Again, maybe a great car, just not for a photo feature. 

I can't say I understand why this car was built, as in what aspect is being enjoyed by the owner? Track (cage, R compounds), Comfort (air ride), Looks (non functional aero + pink wheels), no-Looks (camo pattern hides all)?? I am just confused I guess...

21
CloudMusicProduction

gcvphoto CloudMusicProduction im talking about this car. the one the article is about. and this one hides the actuall body lines and design of the car and the kit. so all it does is showing black and white randomly placed stripes and forms. probably a nice build but it hides all the work that made it special.

22

I kinda took the wrap job as graffiti honestly. The wrap doesn't work on this car but hell why not? I imagine there were plenty of Diesel engines swapped into old trucks and muscle cars this year.

23

CloudMusicProduction gcvphoto I agree, at stance/works there is one with Tic Tac stickers that can show the bodykit. (Looks Similar).

24

CloudMusicProduction gcvphoto Rocket Bunny -^

25

Cool wheels. Too bad you can't see the body kit.

26

sidewaysstyle43 CloudMusicProduction gcvphoto That's the Sarto Racing Rocket Bunny kit, not the Pandem Rocjet Bunny Kit

27

When i get older i want to get into fabrication, it would be an honor to work for rocket bunny, liberty walk, or RWB. But i would also love to have an independent company (yes i realize that is extremely hard to do, but its my passion and i will stop at almost nothing to do so.) and just work with rocket bunny once a year to come out with "the perfect" kit. But anything can happen in the future, fabrication could be dead in 4 years, or it could be one of the biggest things put there. Only time will tell

28

And isn't it ironic? Don't you think?

29

DRiFTaddict you need 80's group 5 based kits.  No you don't have a choice. Do it.

30

Here it is :)  Camo done right.

31

It's on air dude

32

bluestreaksti DRiFTaddict  wait what dont i have a choice to. My dad has a '93 z32 vert and ive talk to him about a modern rear diffuser for. (one that is part of the original bumper, like and rx8.0 i cant draw so thats why i have no pics of it. But ive thought about it lots lately. I think i could change the front bumper very slightly to match the rear diffuser, and maybe have a small lip on the skirts.

33

These are the renders from Rocket Bunny's Facebook that show off the kit a bit better, as well as the E46 kit.

34

As much as I like some spacey LSD graphics, they make it really difficult to see something like a shape or body kit...at least in pictures.

35

Rocket Bunny are the Kanye West of the tuning world. Always doing new stuff for the hell of it.

36

Yep brilliant idea, if you ever need the cage a couple of extra metal missiles in the cabin will surely be a big bonus!

37

@turbo BEAMS ae86 Yep brilliant idea, if you ever need the cage a couple of extra metal missiles in the cabin will surely be a big bonus!

38

This kit looks a lot better than the first. Agreeing with everyone on the poor graphical choice. Seriously.

39

The stickers don't really allow you to view the kit itself

40

It is the same car that was the old kit and old wrap. It now has the new Pandem kit and crazy wrap. Here is a picture of the kit being fitted you can see the lines of it.

41

Oompa LMAO exactly!! With this setup in a rollover situation, I think I would rather have the roof cave in on me than take one (or both) of these steel tanks to the skull. WTF?

Also, the awful graphics are completely camouflaging what might be a good looking aero kit. This is just so wtf.

42

Another hard parked queen. Yawn... Such a waste

43

Now THAT is how you do a livery on a wide body E46. Love it!!

44

Is it coming or going??

45

Do you have any understanding of aerodynamics? If not, I wouldn't recommend designing a defuser. In fact, unless you plan on putting serious investment into turning the Z32 into a track car, there's no point in putting a diffuser on it unless your goal is to add weight and reduce fuel economy.
Getting good at fabrication takes a long time, it's an art. If it's what you want to do, go for it!! But please, if you do, do it right.
Study some automotive history. These Japanese guys don't come up with these wild concepts out of the blue. They all have deep roots in racing. Due to the age of these guys, most of their inspiration comes from racecars from the 60s, 70s, and 80s (eras which were completely dominated by racecars with the most massive fender flares you've ever seen I your life).
The vast majority of automotive customizing trends (aside from bags) arise on the street because someone saw it on the track first, which means there is an actual purpose behind it.
Take gooseneck wings for example. These type of rear wings are now starting to show up on street cars, but they come from Super GT, DTM, and GT3 cars. If I see a car with one of those wings, and the owner can tell me the story behind it, then all the power to him. But if all he says is "well it looks cool", then I can't respect that. That's just copying what you saw someone else do I hopes of being cool.
Moral of this rant, study auto history, and especially study racing history. Especially especially if you want to end up doing custom fab on classic cars.

46

Twitch_6 ... what these are purely to made for looks and to appeal to retarded kids. They have all the aerodynamics of a brick and don't even get me started on the wheels at 45 degrees. "These Japanese guys don't come up with these wild concepts out of the blue" yes they do no race car has ever looked that stupid.

47

eejjkk Oompa The car is  a bit "try hard" for me. Good looking kit(? Cant tell), With the geometric camouflage graphics that manufacturers use to DELIBERATELY  disguise body shapes.
Then you put in a cage for "Safety" and bolt the air bottles up high where they are most vunerable.
The car IMO does nothing well but I'm an engineer not an "Artist"!

48

I can appreciate the effort of doing the vinyl wrap which in itself looks pretty cool but as other have mentioned it kinda defeats the point of putting a new kit. The wrap reminds me of the camo manufacturers put on cars to hide their new models new look from journo-spy cameras and i'm sure this kit looks awesome in person but i'm finding it really hard to make out the details, the nuances etc from these photos; hopefully i'll eventually see this in a simpler paint scheme some day

49

I would like to see more of that! There is a reason why Mfg's use grafix as seen on the sema car, to obscure lines. Mr. Coleman has suck-esfully done that with this wrap.

50

I CANT SEE PAST THE WRAP

51

@killer111, personally I wouldn't use the term "stupid", but there are hundreds of racecars which have looked extremely similar to that, if not even more extreme to the point of looking rediculous (in terms of extreme wide body and crazy aero). I'll agree that some of the stance treatment (and airbags) is un-racecar, but the aero/wide body treatment that companies like LW, RB, and RWB are putting out right now are absolutely inspired by GT racecars from the 70's and 80's
@Mike Garret, you guys should to a story on the history of wide body, and the transition from racetrack to street.

52

atrocious all round.

53

close enough

54

I actually LOVE the design! Kudos to him for going for it. SEMA is not the show to play it safe. Love the body kit too. This car inspires me for ideas for a'94 Acura Vigor

56

I love E36 M3's, but that thing is a mess IMO. Way too much going on it's beyond confusing to the eye(less is more people!!). I'm one of the few hoping this over fender/RB/LBwalk etc thing is hopefully coming to an end soon.

57

LukeEVOVIII That's probably a good thing IMO. The E36 doesn't need a kit, and wide body/over fenders are so last year now.

58

John Key NZ And not very good at doing it either :P

59

Anyone else feel like we're about two steps away from Mattig kits on Astras being a "thing" again?

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4087/5167211121_3a4993548e_b.jpg

60
jbfromsiliconvalley

LAME. Call me a hater IDK.

62

Great idea with a bit of an issue, there is good reason that car manufacturers use that kind of wrap on prototype vehicles.  It is because it totally destroys the lines of the car, preventing you seeing the shape :D
I can't tell what it looks like!
Wheels are HAWT though :D

63

For over 2 years I've had an E36. At first I liked it, but over time I came to hating it - it was heavy, unreliable and in some places badly designed (the differential mounts, the stupid way the speed sensors are connected to the ECU etc.). Yet when looking at this thing, I can't help but feel sorry for the car. The paintjob is stupid, the wheels ugly and the air ride unnecessary (all it does is make the suspension look broken :P ). The kit itself might not look bad, but the way it's presented is just plain horrible

64
Gianluca FairladyZ

Looks like someone does not want his products to be copied...  All over the world you find Rocket Bunny copys.. It's a sad thing and i don't understand the philosophy behind copying someone's artwork! Man if you can't afford it, don't buy it. If you can, spend that money and get the original!

65
Gianluca FairladyZ

CJC_Matty I remember the VW corrado and Opel Calibra with the Testarossa Style body kits! .............................

66

CJC_Matty I remember drooling over this CRX in the early 90s. Sigh.

67

The kit:
Is magnificent. Better fit to the e36 than the Sarto imo. The e36 in coupe form always looks a bit skinny to me, and this kit puts that right… and then some. And yes, you can make out the lines of the kit with the wrap on. If you want to. You just have to look a bit harder. And that's surely the point here (see below).

The wrap:
The similarity to car camo is clearly intentional and it's, derr, clearly a joke. Personally i like it. And yes, the kit is so good that there are bound to be loads of cars wearing it if, so chill the hell out, whingers, you'll get your chance to see one un-squiggled.

68

It's always fascinating to me with how well dazzle camo can trick the eyes into not seeing certain details without actually hiding them.

69

kphillips9936 Ever actually ridden in that car with the "lousy air ride"?

70

Gianluca FairladyZ Flares aren't a new thing. So anyone else doing flares is copying RB now, LOL!

71

What I can see of it I like it. Very difficult to make out the actual lines of it with the wrap. Huge E36 fan and would definitely like this in my garage :)

72

Kei Miurra is doing way too much coke.

73

I was standing next to this car at sema when the owner walked up and got in it. I turned around and walked away.
Out of all the cars at sema, this one Mike? Really?! Different strokes for different folks but damn, there is absolutely nothing appealing about it.
The previous iteration wasn't bad. I know the dude can build a cool car. This time it was a big swing and a big miss.

74

Im getting this kit as soon as I can afford it. Just the fenders and ducktail. Should be 1200-1800. Will be worth every penny. Saw it in blue. Its not for sale yet though.

75
karikaturisti17

JermaineSimpson its not that difficult to meke ur own fiberglass ductail and wrap it with carbon fiber replicating wynil and clearcoat it after, save a ton of money and will be ur own creation

76

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