A few weeks ago, we mentioned a project in Sweden in which an S85 V10 engine from an E60 BMW M5 was crammed into a Lotus Exige. But that may have been just the tip of the engine-transplant iceberg: Stuffing big BMW engines into unlikely places seems to be a more common practice than we thought. Two more examples have come to light recently, one concerning an Eastern European relic and the other involving an exotic BMW.
First the BMW-to-BMW operation. Gabura Racing Technologies is a Munich-based firm that specializes in building racecar transmissions as well as complete racecars. The company, therefore, has a lot of experience in maximizing a car’s potential. Its latest project involves transforming BMW’s cutting-edge plug-in hybrid sports car, the BMW i8. Except that Gabura doesn’t like the plug-in part.
So it bought a stock BMW i8 and removed the hybrid powertrain. The electric drive, the high-voltage batteries, the three-cylinder turbocharged engine, the two transmissions—all gone. In their place, Gabura is installing a pumped-up S63 V8 that formerly powered a BMW M6. The S63 gets a dry sump, additional cooling, a new intake, and some other trick parts that will bump the output to around 800 horsepower.
The i8’s front and rear subframes are being replaced with custom-built ones to hold the new drivetrain. Which end gets the new gasoline engine? Good question, and the answer is, not the one BMW originally intended. In Gabura’s V8i—which is what it is calling the car—the engine goes in the front. The S63 V8 will drive a six-speed sequential transmission built specially by Gabura that will be located forward of the rear axle.
According to Pistonheads.com, Andras Pecsenye, Gabura’s Chief Technologies Officer, admitted, “It's an extraordinary project. We're turning the i8 upside-down.” Word is that Gabura will build a V8i street car for customers for a mere $843,000. Pecsenye revealed that a race version is being planned, but with a price tag in excess of $1,056,000. For that kind of cash, the owner had better race it very carefully. It’s not like there are a ton of spares out there for a one-off, front-engined BMW i8 racecar.
We suppose that if you’re going to transplant a big BMW V8 into something, and you don’t mind cutting up a brand new car that the rest of the world would love to have just as it is, you may as well stick that V8 into an i8.
However, not everyone has the engineering budget for a project of that magnitude. So at the other end of the BMW V8 transplant spectrum is the story about an enthusiast in Poland who found himself with a used M62 V8 from a wrecked BMW 540i, and nothing good to transplant it into.
That didn’t stop a mechanic named Grzegorzovo who, according to autoforum.cz via Car Guys, owned a souvenir from Czechoslovakia’s cold-war economy: a rusted-out, 1962 Skoda Octavia built about 30 years before Skoda came under Volkswagen’s umbrella. We wouldn’t call it a match made in heaven, but Grzegorzovo had a vision and he would not be denied.
The Octavia’s first engine was a massive one-liter job that cranked out an amazing 42 horsepower. Don’t laugh. The Skoda only weighed 2,028 pounds. Okay, now you can laugh. Still, the power was adequate for the task of driving around Czechoslovakia in the 60’s. Replacing the engine with a presumably reliable BMW V8 that upped the car’s power by almost 600 percent is definitely an upgrade, provided the mechanic can find a place out of the weather to stuff all the computers and wiring. Along with the M62, the Skoda received the 540i’s six-speed automatic transmission and rear axle.
Naturally the car required a ton of bodywork. While he was at it, Grzegorzovo lengthened the body a bit. Perhaps for safety reasons, or perhaps to help hold it together—or maybe both—he added a roll cage.
When it was all reassembled, the car weighed 2,640 pounds. Let’s see, 30 percent more weight and 600 percent more horsepower. Good deal. Grzegorzovo is not done, however. He is contemplating a limited-slip differential and forced induction for more power and a better way to put that power to the pavement.
Check out this video of the BMW-powered FrankenSkoda:
As long as there are people with tools, imaginations, good BMW engines, and either an unlimited budget or the willingness to invest sweat equity, we will continue to see these types of transplants and motor swaps. Purists might wag their fingers in disapproval, but enthusiasts who have modded their rides—even a little bit—should at least be interested in what emerges from the melding.—Scott Blazey
[Photos and video courtesy of Pistonheads.com and autoforum.cz via Car Guys.]
