One of Ford’s snarkiest commercials was for the 2007 Shelby GT500. As a white-and-blue one is unloaded from a ship, the stevedore pops off with, “So, you couldn’t find a car you like here in Germany?” After a quick Autobahn montage, the owner replies, “No. I couldn’t find a speed limit I liked in America.” Besides the fact that the owner is not wrong (officially, anyways) the sentiment was that there was a strong preference for an American powertrain. Can’t argue there, except for one thing: it’s not like Germany can’t build a car. The land of the world-famous unrestricted highways has produced some winners in their own right. BMW is one of the nameplates that the world over has a fanbase that borderlines on rabid, and for good reason…the M-series of vehicles are known for performing quite well.
The BMW 318ti isn’t quite as well-remembered. Namely, it’s the standard 1990s-era 3-series, but in hatchback form with a truncated arse. They were sold for around $20,000 new and were intended to compete with the likes of the Acura Integra, Toyota Celia and Nissan 240SX. In their sales planning, half of the buyers were to be well-to-do and under 35 years old; a third were to be “empty-nesters”. It didn’t work out. The BMW Roundel might have prestige, but the 318ti was BMW’s Cimarron moment, the point where brand name alone wouldn’t do all of the work.
So what do you do with a stubby little German bit of engineering and maybe, just maybe, something a sight bigger than the inline-four that these things came with stock? You go old-school hot-rodding and you jam a Ford V8 where it was never intended to go. In this case, it’s a carbureted 5.0L V8 from a 1986 Mustang with a World Class T5 backing it. Small car, good powertrain choices, open ended options for making this Beemer scream. $1,500 buys the car. How much further could you take it for the remaining $4,500?
Thanks to Shawn Anderson for the tip!
It seems somebody actually used their brain as there’s not an LS under the hood!