What better way to kick off the new year than with one of the most popular platforms in the word for modifying, the BMW E30. This E30, concocted by the team at Vorshlag, was built to compete in the Grassroots Motorsports $2010 Challenge, and then went on to win the $2012 event the following year. Watch as it goes through three engine swaps and two paint-schemes, all while being cleverly modified by the Vorshlag team to be competitive while keeping under the budget limit.

CLICK HERE for the full build thread.

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Confession: I’ve had a long-running man-crush on Fluid Motor Union ever since I first stumbled across their posts on the StanceWorks forums. Their famous flame-spitting Gallardo image is my Ps3 wallpaper, every day I look forward to their in-depth posts about the latest goings-on at the shop, and I constantly day-dream of sending my Datto over to the land of 1-gallon soda cups for a bespoke one-off FMU exhaust system. Not only do they do some of the cleanest and most impressive fabrication work I’ve seen, but they take the time to document their daily activities on their own blog and various forums, so people like you and me can enjoy gawking at glorious TIG beads from our computer screens all over the world.

Recently the team embarked on giving a damaged BMW X5 a new lease on life, but kept a lot of the progress shrouded in secrecy, until now…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgteARWn1c8

CLICK HERE for the full build thread.

FluidMotorUnion.com

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I saw a video of this beastly creation a couple of weeks ago and the first thing that struck me about it was the appearance of the car without it’s rear bodywork. I love how the builder has almost created the car in a ute/pickup fashion, making the bodywork rear of the b-pillar detachable for easy access to the rear section of the chassis and driveline. To my delight, a Latvian reader submitted a link which showcases the build of this unique BMW (or what’s left of it), read on for more details…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0Md198drmw

CLICK HERE to read the build in blog format.

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When I look back at the 4 BMW E30s I’ve featured on the site in the past, it’s interesting to see that only one of them retained it’s original motor. The other three were powered by an RB26DETT, an E39 M5 V8, and an E60 M5 V10. So that means we’ve had 4 cylinder, 6 cylinder, 8 cylinder, and 10 cylinder E30′s, so where to from here? Well a V12 is really the only natural progression…

Thanks to Archie for submitting.

CLICK HERE for the full build thread.

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I’m noticing more and more BMW 2002′s popping up on forums and blogs lately, and I finally got to see two fine examples in the flesh at the recent Stance|Works Melbourne meet. To say I’m a fan would be an understatement, I love these little things, so maybe the increased exposure is all in my head because I want to see more of them. Regardless, I was fishing through my submissions folder and became disgusted with myself after noticing this build just sitting there, waiting to be featured. This build is just that little bit more special considering it was the owners first car. After being in storage for 10 years, he dusts off the cobwebs and begins a very detailed restoration, bringing it back to better than factory condition. I’m really in awe over just how much work the owner takes on himself, dabbling in just about every aspect of the build, my hat is tipped!

Thanks to Sebastian for the link.

CLICK HERE for the full build thread.

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Dave from Stance Is Everything must be the hardest working guy in the automotive blog network, every time I check his site there’s a bunch of new posts and updates, which is much more than I can say for myself! I remember reading an older post of his where he reminisced about the influence his old high school auto-shop teacher had on him, and I thought to myself how cool it would have been to have a teacher who was in to cars, let alone actually have auto-shop available as a class (my school never provided it). Fast-forward to last week, Dave put up a new post about the most recent work his old teacher has undertaken, a tube-frame Lamborghini Diablo replica powered by a BMW V12. Sure beats the usual Pontiac Fiero based replicas, talk about stepping it up!

CLICK HERE to see the full project, there are 13 pages of images, page 5 has links to earlier build photos.

Thanks again to Stance Is Everything, go check it out!

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You’ve seen it before, you’ve heard the love, you’ve no doubt heard the hate, and you probably aren’t sitting on the fence when it comes to your own opinion on this ride. I’m not here to sway you either way, but the owner/builder/evil mastermind behind this infamous and ever-evolving 5-series has just put together a beautifully photographed build thread showcasing its entire colourful past from the very beggining, including the 1JZ swap and recent roof chop, and it’s my job to bring it to your attention. Link after the jump.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuQHB63o7fM

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mplEGh7H9qM

Visit http://www.stanceworks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10970 for the full story, might take a while to load but it is definitely worth it.

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Here’s another build to go with the other chassis-swap projects that have been previously featured. This time it’s a 1959 Ford Thames van being sat on top of a shortened BMW 2002 chassis, built by it’s owner, Mike Pugh. Kindly submitted by Mikael.

So, after featuring a handful of projects like this, it begs the question; what would your ultimate chassis-swap project be?

For more info head to http://www.britishv8.org/Other/MikePugh.htm

As the title says, a V10 from an M5 was transplanted into a Z3 Bimmer, the only catch is that apparently it was done by a teenager from Bulgaria!

Found on JDMST

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More images:
http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2010/08/teenage-racer-squeezes-v10-into-bmw-z3.html

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Firstly, please excuse me if the title is wrong, but I’m assuming this is an E28 M5, someone please correct me if it’s not. This build was submitted by Mikael, and I’m not too sure what the country of origin is, but I know it’s far from here! That’s the beauty of this game, it doesn’t matter where you’re from, we can still communicate through a common interest.

There’s no build thread as such but there are plenty of pictures to keep you occupied in the following link: http://www.kinnby.com/kms/cslbyggbilder.htm

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