For those watching Formula Drift on the regular, the name Kristaps Bluss might sound familiar. He’s a Latvian veteran in the competition, a 36-year old adrenaline junkie who just so happens to be drifting what used to be a BMW E46 M3 in the famous competition. However, this M3 comes with a twist.
While originally its German creators meant it to have close to 350 HP coming from a naturally aspirated 3.2-liter straight six engine, in the drifting world that figure isn’t even close to what you need in order to keep up. Therefore, an LS7 V8 was thrown under the hood together with a Whipple supercharger. That sole move transformed the BMW so deeply, it would be hard to recognize it anymore.
With anything between 900 and 1000 WHP, this beast was nearly ready to start tearing tires to bits. Of course, other changes had to be done to the car, in order to keep it sideways and the driver safe. Everything that didn’t serve an immediate purpose was removed from the interior to make things lighter while a proper roll-cage was added. The suspension was modified as well and replaced with a Nitron setup while the brakes are now coming from Willwood.
The attention to detail is remarkable and everything was designed to make sure drifting in tight spaces seems like the natural thing to do. Chip in a crazy good crew with a camera and things will soon turn into eye candy, like the footage included below.
[fvplayer src=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4-0Bca8Ji4″ width=”640″ height=”360″]
