A Beamer With A Behemoth!

For car enthusiasts everywhere, it appears that Chevrolet’s LS engine series is the latest and greatest. We’ve seen every kind of conversion from first generation Camaro, the mid-year Corvette, and every iteration of Nova to the unusual, like Studebakers, classic Ford coupes, and even some old school pick-ups. Whatever your take on the aforementioned, you have to check out this cool find.

While surfing the usual tech forums, we found a creative circuit racer who threw out his 1987 BMW E30’s S52 inline six-cylinder for a powerful LS1 power plant. Bob Ederer was gracious enough to share the story with many photos and even a couple videos which allow you to immerse yourself in the entire project from start to finish. When we saw this outrageous setup, we knew it would be perfect for our readers. Please enjoy this article and let us know what you think!

When we contacted Bob, he was happy to tell us all about his journey which first began with a $600 ‘parts car.’ Originally, Bob had plans to make his new gem a street legal circuit track car with a partial cage and a turbo charged M20. After discovering his competitive ability by winning his first SCCA SM division championship in 2005, Ederer dropped in an overhauled S50 power plant for more ‘instant’ power. The engine modification allowed him to continue his success throughout 2006 to win his second championship in the SM class.

Here’s what Bob Ederer has to work with... a 1987 BMW E30 built for road coarse racing.

However, the car made a turn for full time track duty in 2007 when the owner built a full cage. Although the beginning of the season went well, a costly engine failure put his racing on the back burner. In 2009, the BMW adopted a powerful S52, providing nearly 300 horses to the rear wheels. upgraded suspension, brakes, and composite panels added to the new additions, and Bob’s hard work paid off with a trouble free year and another championship. However, the demand for more power and better competition lingered in the back of Bob’s mind. He craved to run in the GT1 division, but he knew that the S52 would be obsolete and upgrading to a new BMW would be costly. Bob had the perfect solution to his horsepower woes. He would play ‘Dr. Frankenstein’ and transplant the heart of a Chevrolet Corvette, an LS series V8, into his BMW E30.

Bob’s old engine, a beefed up S52, will be taken out to make room for an improved LS1.

With the old engine out of the way, it was time to begin looking forward to new beginnings.

With the mock-up engine in place, Ederer was able to build his own headers to fit, as well as make the necessary adjustments to the frame and firewall.

Bob sent the new weapon’s bottom end to Jackson Machine for the block work and the heads to Lingenfelter Performance Engineering to be CNC ported and reassembled with new valves and Patriot gold springs. While the bottom end was at Jackson, it received ARP studs and rod bolts, forged rods and pistons, a heavy duty timing chain, and an upgraded cam. After the engine parts were returned from the machine shop, Bob did the final assembly in his garage. The complete build included hardened push rods, Harland Sharp self-adjusting roller rocker arms, an LS6 intake, and a ported throttle body. After some slight oil pan modification, the power plant was ready to mate with the fresh T-56 transmission. However, the engine would not fit without some minor modifications.

Ederer chose to go with a new set of Harland self adjusting roller rockers for his valve train assembly.

Although Bob could have used the original motor mount points, he modified the sub-frame slightly to allow more header clearance. With a little help from a foam mock-up block, Custom motor mounts were made to hold the horsepower to the frame, and a custom transmission mount was made to cradle the T-56. Although most hybrid situations call for a partially fabricated firewall, Bob’s BMW accepted the setup nicely, only requiring slight modification around the transmission hump. Along with a custom built driveshaft, Bob set his ride up with a beautiful exhaust system beginning at the engine with 1 3/4-inch headers which drop into a 3-inch collector before meeting at an X-pipe and continuing to twin Borla XR-1 racing mufflers. With all of the chassis modifications completed and the engine ready to run, Bob began the installation of his new toy.

Ederer fabricated his own motor mounts to allow a resting spot for his power plant.

Ederer’s custom built headers got sent out to get a little makeover, adding a little bling to his project.

Everything went together smoothly, only running into a few minor bumps along the way. Before he knew it, Bob was ready to hear his beast roar. That’s right folks, Bob had finally done it. The evil genius had traveled into the unknown and created a monster! Who in their right mind would strap such a behemoth into a compact coupe and push it to it’s limits?!

The LS1 fits nicely between the frame rails of this sports car and it is bound to make for a fun ride!

Bob Ederer’s genius creation headed to the dyno where he would learn the true power of his diabolical concept. The Frankenstein project produced a whopping 411 horsepower with 384 foot-pounds of torque on standard high octane pump gas! Sure, the car proved powerful on paper, but how would Ederer’s concoction hold up against the 700 horsepower giants in the GT1 class? Bob’s maiden voyage for the LS1 Beamer gave him a fifth qualifying spot and fourth overall in the feature event, being the fastest ‘non tube-frame’ car. Although it appears Bob is the underdog in the GT1 division, he continues to astound competitors and fans by consistently posting impressive finishes.

We found some awesome video of the dyno run and the maiden race for you to check out. Hopefully all of you LS “hybrid” fans can get some encouragement out of this to begin (or finish) your own swap!