We car bores love to ponder what’ll be the next hotness, and the BMW N54 six-cylinder may just be the next platform to rise up against the force of RBs, JZs, and Barras. With a 3.0-litre capacity, and in most cases twin-turbocharged, the DOHC Beemer six certainly boasts the basic ingredients for a pretty spicy dish. Intrigued by that idea, Mark Heyward nabbed a cheap 2007 BMW 335i with its original N54 to find out if the combo would make a good budget alternative to those aforementioned six-pots.

“After watching a friend spend $80,000 building a reliable, nine-second F6 Typhoon, I set myself a goal of buying and building a high-nine-second car for Drag Challenge ’24 with a total budget of $45,000,” Mark explains.

The South Australian road-tripped to Sydney to pick up this 335i for a measly $7500 in January 2024. “The turbos on it were shot, and it had a damaged front main seal with a major oil leak,” he says. “I began the build in March that year, pulling the engine and gearbox. I did all the work myself except engine machining, fabrication of the turbo outlets, and tuning.”

Though these N54s are known to make big power unopened with some bolt-ons and basic tuning, Mark wanted to futureproof the combo. “The rings need to be gapped once you pass 400kW, the rods can be prone to bending, and you need to sort better head bolts,” he says. “So, you may as well do rods and pistons while you’re there, which is what I went for.”

The standard block, head and crank remain, but the block is now epoxy closed-deck. Conrods are Manley units, topped by Mahle pistons. The factory 3.0-litre capacity is unchanged, and the camshafts are also still stockers.

The standard-style direct injection is still in place, but with a beefier fuel system to feed it. A Walbro 535 pump in the tank fills a surge pot equipped with twin Walbro 460s. “It has supplementary port injection with Bosch 750cc injectors, with a Motiv ReFlex+ controller,” says Mark. “It also controls the surge tank fuel pumps and monitors the ethanol content, while the primaries use a re-map of the factory ECU.”

On the hot side, most folks ditch the factory twin turbos for a big single, but Mark wanted to keep the original recipe with some extra spice. The twin hairdryers are TD04 high-flow units from RB Game Finishers. They feed a VRSF intercooler and charge pipe, with 30psi of boost and a bellyful of ethanol resulting in 500rwkW (670rwhp) up to 7200rpm. “It’s built for 600-650rwkW [805-870hp], which is impressive considering pretty much everything is plug-and-play,” says Mark. “The only custom part is the turbo outlets to the intercooler, due to it being a right-hand-drive model.”

As for the rest of the driveline, the Beemer’s original six-speed ZF was binned for another up-and-coming piece of German engineering: the eight-speed ZF 8HP. This one is a stock 8HP 70 from a 330D diesel BMW, using a TurboLamik controller with transbrake. The diff is also a trick piece of kit – a Ford 8.8-inch IRS unit with GForce Engineering axles. “The rear end was the single most expensive piece; it was $12,000 landed from the US,” Mark says.

All up, the build went just over Mark’s budget at $48,000, including the cost of the car. But considering the freshly built machine ran nines at Drag Challenge ’24 all week, breaking a bunch of BMW drag racing records along the way, we reckon it was still a bargain.

Mark will be back for this year’s Drag Challenge, 28 October to 2 November, but further record smashing will have to wait. “We now need a ’cage to go quicker, which won’t happen in time,” he says. “But we’ll still come along; it’s such a fun week, and people are always intrigued about it when they see the engine.”

MARK HEYWARD
2007 BMW 335i E92

Class:

Speed Pro Six-Cylinder