Photo: Benny Kirk
Take every notion you've ever had about Germans being stuffy and un-comedic and throw it out the window. Why? Because this 1994 BMW 316i swapped with the 5.6 liter V12 from an 8-series is hilarious and impressive in every sense of those words.
This fantastic creation was made in 1996 by Racing Dynamics, and it is here to offer you inspiration if you still have a BMW E36 rotting in your yard. The car was a true sleeper in its times, and it could still burn some rubber on the streets. There, it says the project's goal was to swap the largest BMW engine the owner could find with the smallest BMW vehicle they could get their hands on. That turned out to be a 5.6 liter V12 from a mid 90s E31 850CSi. The tuner paired it with a six-speed manual gearbox from Getrag. You can imagine that the 316i shell needed some upgrades as well. These also came from another famous BMW, the E36 M3. In Europe, that car produced 321 PS (316 hp). The same top-spec 3-Series also provided the limited-slip differential. After all these mods, the car was able to rocket from 0 to 62 mph (0-100 kph) in 4.5 seconds, which is great even by today's standards.
The 850 CSi was a very different car from the comparatively economical 3-series. It was a powerful, sleek V12 sports car with all the luxury fixings it was possible to obtain in the mid-1990s. It must have taken hundreds of hours to remove all the old engine components and retrofit the larger one under the hood. Lord knows there's no bolt-on kit for this project like there is for the LS engines in retromodded muscle cars. It needed work, patience, dedication, and devotion to the craft that most tuners simply don't possess.
That said, the tuner did a fantastic job looking like a very average 3-series lift-back coupe. The same goes for the interior, glistening aftermarket manual gearbox shifter included. It's not until you pop the hood and look inside that you see just how unique this car is. The aftermarket M badging may be annoying to some. But we have to admit, we are charmed by them in this specific case.
It shouldn't be possible to retrofit such a massive engine into such a small car. But if you know anything about DIY Gurus, those kinds of words are a challenge, one that they usually win with the right skills.
The 850 CSi was a very different car from the comparatively economical 3-series. It was a powerful, sleek V12 sports car with all the luxury fixings it was possible to obtain in the mid-1990s. It must have taken hundreds of hours to remove all the old engine components and retrofit the larger one under the hood. Lord knows there's no bolt-on kit for this project like there is for the LS engines in retromodded muscle cars. It needed work, patience, dedication, and devotion to the craft that most tuners simply don't possess.
That said, the tuner did a fantastic job looking like a very average 3-series lift-back coupe. The same goes for the interior, glistening aftermarket manual gearbox shifter included. It's not until you pop the hood and look inside that you see just how unique this car is. The aftermarket M badging may be annoying to some. But we have to admit, we are charmed by them in this specific case.
It shouldn't be possible to retrofit such a massive engine into such a small car. But if you know anything about DIY Gurus, those kinds of words are a challenge, one that they usually win with the right skills.
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