This vehicle started life in very late (December) 1995 as a Hellrot 3.0L V8 530iT with Parchment interior. We acquired it from the second owner with some slight damage to the right front fender. The interior was excellent but the clear coat was pretty severely worn. After saving the right front fender, we set about refinishing the car in Imola Red with an extremely high quality clear coat, added Bilstein and H&R suspension components and a nice set of genuine 18” M Parallel wheels. We also built a custom 4.4L V8 for this one using a low mileage M62tub44 block and heads with M62 non-VANOS timing gear and M60 front covers and performed a manual conversion using a 6 speed transmission from an E39 M5 and new OEM clutch, hydraulics, and shifter components. After performing some various minor repairs to get it just right the car was featured on Bring A Trailer and also appeared on Hooniverse.
“I pursued this car for a year because of the quality of the workmanship. If your work is the quality of Joe’s, then people will repeatedly pay above market...all the because the quality of the work is obvious and the product is well considered...what I don’t see is a daily driver that improves upon what BMW originally made, and that’s what Joe offers that no one else does. I’m not talking solely about a bump in horsepower, I’m talking about a niche that BMW failed to fill. Joe offers a car that does not exist. I have a car that is the equal to an M5 Touring in any sense...”