Tony the Beemer

Text by: Ben Photos by: Ben & the POWAA Crew

"When life gives you a lemon, drift it!" It is by following these wise words that Darren, Glen and Kelvin (aka the POWAA Crew) decided to use their off-road, beat up E34 for sideways fun.

Rewinding the story to a few months earlier, the POWAA Crew was on an active hunt across the web in search of a suitable ride to start drifting in. After combing through many different overseas sites, it was a bright orange BMW 535i that not only caught their eyes, but was a perfect fit to their budget as well. A harrowing auction later, they found themselves arranging for their new toy to be shipped to sunny Singapore, while registering the car with the SMSA to import it as an off-road track car.

Flash forward a couple of months; the seabound beemer reached our sunny shores, and the POWAA Crew finally got to see their new possession in the metal. As it was taken out of the container, the E34 proudly displayed its stickered self with, amongst others, a big ‘Tony the Tiger’ taking its crowning spot right in the middle of its bright orange hood. Before we even knew it, we were already referring to the car as "Tony".

This particular E34 was born in 1988 (how’s that for auspicious?) and is powered by the Bavarian 3.5L M30 motor pushing 208hp and 305Nm of torque, which should be enough to start drifting with. For now, that is.

Their first inspection revealed... Well a lemon. A dirty and gritty orange lemon, but a lemon that could still run soundly, which was the most important, right?

So the self-dubbed Tony was taken back to Perfect Power, and the Crew started cleaning their German tiger. Off came the stickers , the wirings were simplified (read: about 4kg of redundant wiring was ripped out), the interior given a painful scrub down, and basic maintenance was given to the engine to make sure it could handle the abuse that the future had it store for it.

One undeniable fact about Tony is that he has one heck of a badass attitude, especially the fuel tank, which is made from a military-style jerrycan bolted in the boot!

With the new roll cage and the stripped-out interior, Tony is all business.

Tony was now ready for his first taste of the local asphalt. The Crew took it out during the Perfect Power Drift Rd. II for its first wheelspins , where Tony displayed his prowess and even managed to kill the British tyres it came with. The stock suspensions gave it a rather scary body roll, though, but this issue will be fixed soon.

Stay tuned as we'll be following Tony the Beemer in its drift endeavours across the island!