Zach Wingfield rebuilt his beater E30 BMW 325i into a stunning SEMA Show car with an S52 swap and potent Garrett GTX3582 turbo.
By Ainsley Jacobs
Founder of film production and automotive performance shop ZWING, Zach Wingfield knows how to produce machinery masterpieces. This as he transformed his beater E30 BMW into a stunning SEMA Show car. He turbocharged its S52 engine with a single Garrett GTX3582R turbocharger.
Wingfield got his E30 chassis BMW in 2015 and the 1990 BMW 352i was definitely in need of a major overhaul. Used for street drifting around Seattle, Washington, Wingfield gutted the stock M20-powered ride. After several engine failures and rebuilds, he moved on to a more modern S50 engine. He finished the changes in just three days.
The simple build served as a spirited grocery-getter while Wingfield mastered his drifting skill. A mere six months after having buttoned it up, the S50 was destroyed with another driver behind the wheel.
Wingfield used the incident as an opportunity to upgrade to an S52 inline 6-cylinder engine from an E36 BMW M3 instead. To prepare for the transplant, Dream Chasers Garage helped built the tubed front end with custom frame rails. Ryan Smith from Complete Customs fabricated the half-cage to improve both the E30’s chassis rigidity as well as overall safety.
A bulletproof engine was assembled by C & D Engine Performance using forged JE Pistons with Eagle connecting rods. Added to that was a crankshaft that had once been in Wingfield’s E36 BMW, and a Supertech Performance top end. Many of the miscellaneous components that were needed to complete the engine swap were provided by Chase Bays and RallyRoad. The heat management was handled by Design Engineering.
Next, Wingfield had Rampage Fabrication & Design put together the piping and plumbing for a killer turbo kit. Included were Vibrant Performance titanium components and a massive Vibrant front-mount intercooler. This was centred around a Garrett GTX3582R Gen II turbocharger sized to optimize flow and efficiency and equipped with a TiAL wastegate. Now the new system could support up to 900 horsepower.
To complete the powertrain, Wingfield installed a TREMEC Magnum-F 6-speed manual transmission with Quick Time SFI-rated bell housing and a 3” steel driveshaft from Drivelines Northwest. A Sparta Brakes Evolution Triton big brake kit was added. As well as an Air Life Performance 3P air ride suspension to adjust the car’s ride height on the fly and an SLR steering angle kit.
Finally, the fuel was delivered by Aeromotive products to a Nuke Performance fuel rail and flowed from a cell from Fuel Safe. Tom Bell from Custom Importz in Australia dialled in the tune-up of the Link G4+ Xtreme ECU, sourced from Mark Panic of Panic Wire. This was to ensure that it all came together as expected.
Wingfield finished out his ZWING flagship shop car E30 build as a SEMA Show-worthy stunner. All with a beautiful Live to Offend (LTO) widebody kit seamlessly wrapped by EMWRAPS. Added to this are the Volk TE37 wheels in the front with Kansei KNP rears all wrapped in Toyo Proxes R888R rubber. As well as one-of-a-kind custom Lamborghini-inspired tail lights from Illumaesthetic, and tasteful upholstery by Northwest Crafted Interiors.
Although it hasn’t been on the dyno to confirm the max output numbers, Wingfield has a blast cruising the streets of Seattle in his head-turning ZWING E30 1990 BMW 325i. All this with 8 pounds of boost from his GTX3582R Gen II turbo. Lastly, the Boss Audio Systems, wired by Jump Garage, provides the perfect soundtrack.
VEHICLE: 1990 BMW 325i
ENGINE: BMW S52 3.15-litre inline 6-cylinder
TURBO: GTX3582R Gen II turbocharger
TRANSMISSION: TREMEC Magnum-F 6-speed manual
POWER: 700+
USED FOR: street
