Yes, I’ll take my S30 with 10 cylinders, please.
That’s what the madmen at B Is For Build thought would be a good time, and the end result is evidence that they were 100 percent correct. The V10 has been poached from a BMW E60-series M5, and the team worked an incredible amount of magic to end up with a result as polished as this.
The car on the whole has a really clean aesthetic, and the V10 manages to fit right in with the updated, yet classic 50-year-old styling of the 240Z. The S30 is such a timeless design, and I’m really excited to see the chassis continuing to be developed.
Of course, the elephant in the room is the 5.0-liter V10, topped off with a gorgeous set of ITBs. The insanity doesn’t end here, though, as the entire drivetrain from the M5 was brought over. I can only imagine how good this car feels to drive, and it’s a build that is truly inspirational.
Inside the car the BMW parts list continues as the B Is For Build team brought over the dash, shifter, and so on. I’m curious if this was a necessity for wiring purposes and to keep the engine happy, but I’m sure if you dig deep on their YouTube channel you’ll find a lot more than I’m able to cover here in a quick walk around.
Further poking around the interior I noticed an air suspension setup, something I missed when I was originally taking in the engine bay. Looking back up front, there are indeed bags on the car.
It appears the exhaust is really close to the ground anyway, but I’m glad they didn’t opt to completely slam the car at the show. It’s just my opinion, but I think the setup looks really good at this height. This is especially so thanks to the Rocket Bunny kit which helps bring the bodywork up to speed with the engine swap.
It’s a car that looks cool from every angle and has loads more details than I was able to capture here. Some sort of after-hours meeting was going on behind the car, so I did my best to give the group some space.
As with so very many cars at the SEMA Show this year a full feature really is in order, but such is the nature of the beast.
There’s loads more on the way, too…
Trevor Yale Ryan
Instagram: tyrphoto
TYRphoto.com
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
Now that will be comical to drive. In a very good way I mean. Can we have a go?
I believe it actually drives alright.
Sure, the engine is a bit heavy, but it's also very compact, being in a V-layout.
The big unknown on the performance-side is the air suspension, along with the stiffness of the custom frame.
The bags act as a variable rate spring. so performance isnt sacrificed
Heavy? L-series is no featherweight though
Only the front half of the kit is RB.
The rear overfenders were really badly made, so Chris (yup, one guy build this, with his girlfriend/partner and a two or three friends) used generic ebay-ones there, along with a custom diffusor.
The car isn't really a 240 anymore, since the body is sitting on a custom frame holding the drivetrain from the E60 M5 (for perspective, the gearbox and rear differential are about 40cm apart).
And yes, the dash was put in because the car runs the stock ECU (and stock ITBs), and that computer would've been really unhappy if a whole bunch of components went missing.
Yeah, now that you mention it the rest kit is obviously it's own thing. Shame as I really prefer the look of the rb kit in the rear to this, only seen one other tho
If you watch the videos (eventually, if you find the time) you'll see that Chris wanted to install the whole kit, but just couldn't get the rear fenders to sit right.
The diffusor is custom because (I guess) the exhaust is too.
Yeah, $4000 for that whole kit and the rear over fenders were trash. What a shame.
Front light cut-outs left empty and rear pinch welds that would normally be covered by the rear bumper just painted over and left exposed make make for craigslist level attention to detail. It's like wearing a 5000$ suit with crocs, a black eye and 5 o'clock shadow.
Sema isn't an awards show
Which cut-outs do you mean?
He got LED headlights, the blinkers got blackout-plates, and below that there's openings in the bumper to get air into the engine bay.
And no-one says the car was perfect, if you look up it's story you see that it was plagued with a major delay and only barely presentable in time.
Been following this build since upload nr1 at his youtubechannel! This is a true "learn by doing"-build in my opinion, and makes, at least me, realise that everything is possible just by trying, make mistakes, do it again and so on!!
Love this build!!
Well done Chris!!!! Big fan
Greets from Sweden!!
An interior made for a '00s car will never fit a '70s car. Great work tho.
Love the swap. One of my all time favourite engines in a unsuspecting chassis. Would love to hear this thing at full chat!
Ok, this is really sick. Damn.
When you see the tyres are literally rubbing on the fenders:
"I’m glad they didn’t opt to completely slam the car at the show."
???
Lol I'm sure it's got a good couple inches left in it
You must be new to this stuff if you have that much faith in people Trevor. LOL.
very cool build, would love to see this and the Driftworks E30 BMW with the e90 drivetrain doing demos together.
I wonder why you went with velocity stacks instead of an intake manifold. Great build nonetheless. All it needs is an ESS supercharger and nitrous, for peak madness, but you would have to forgo the velocity stacks.
Most likely the stacks are a nod to the ITB setups of past S30's, and given this isn't a wild HP motor and more of a restomod feel I think the ITB's work well.
If they wanted brute force plus purists-be-damned they'd have gone the GM crate route most others at SEMA go.
ITBS are stock on these cars.
wtf? no they are not stock on either car. Both cars use a plenum as opposed to individual throttle bodies. Do people even think before they open their mouths?
Since you're obviously misunderstood, John , I'm referring to to the S85 motor.
LOL John B you're an idiot. What do you think is under the plenum?
Sarcasm didn't translate. #fakenews
The OEM S85 V10 uses ITBs with a plenuum on top.
They have a giant plastic airbox that covers the ITB's... all he did was add the stacks to it
I've been following the build from episode one, it's a box frame chassis they welded up and the subframes are from the BMW donor. The interior was kept for all the idrive features etc and there's a custom tune. The bodykit is front rocket bunny and back has other brand arches because the rocket bunny kit had acwul fitment.
I would highly suggest you guys watch the videos, it's amazing how fast they worked and the welding work etc, Eric is a welding master!
Also they wrapped the car to make it in time for sema and gloss black paint for the window trim etc.
Can't wait for them to do more mods in it in the future!
Wild builds. We need these. Keep the game alive.
I was hooked on this from the first episode, given Chris only started doing this kind of work a few years ago it is amazing what they were able to produce. Very inspiring.
Really extraordinary amounts of custom work and fabrication too, the window louvres, grill, chassis, sub-frames etc... and to take on that BMW wiring loom was no mean feat either.
I raise a glass to these guys, to achieve this in a simple workshop without Discovery channel levels of equipment (and idiotic, cheesy scripted faux drama sequences I might add) is amazing. May there be many more like this