Congrats to Thaichi808 and AW/ir0smg

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Two of our founding members and enthusiast James and Jack have been featured on Bimmer Magazine pls get your copies now! November issue #78


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FIVE-CAR STUDS
With a slew of Dinan mods to engine and chassis, these 5 Series wagons fill the gap left when BMW decided not to build an E39 M5 wagon.


BY ZACHARY MAYNE
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ZACHARY MAYNE



When it comes to making high-performance versions of its station wagons available to enthusiasts, BMW has been inconsistent at best. Unlike Audi, which nearly always offers pumped-up versions of its wagons even to U.S. customers, BMW has offered M-series wagons only intermittently and has never sold them in North America. The company has never made an M3 wagon, and the first M5 Touring didn’t appear in Europe until 1992, when the E34 M5 sedan had already been in production for nearly four years.
And although BMW currently offers an E60 M5 wagon, at least in Europe, it didn’t even bother to create a Touring version of the third-generation E39 M5. That left wagon enthusiasts to build their own, perhaps on the basis of the 540iT. With a 290-hp M62 V8 under its hood, the 540iT offers a good starting point for the creation of an M5-alike.
That’s exactly what Jack Soliman and James Laitipaya used to create a pair of E39 wagons with M5-level performance. As much at home on a winding back road as on a run to the grocery store, these vehicles blend speed and functionality like only wagons can.


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Soliman’s silver streak (AW/ir0smg)
“I’ve always loved wagons, from the 1991 Toyota Corolla I had to the Mercedes AMG 300TE 6.0 that I could only dream about,” says Soliman, a personal financial advisor in Los Angeles. “The E39 wagon has everything for me. It’s practical, elegant and quite powerful even with the stock 4.4-liter engine.”
In late 2005, Soliman began searching for a 540iT of his own, in particular an example from 2003, the final year of E39 production.
“In the final year of production, Sport Package included such goodies as the M-Technic aero kit, 17-inch M alloy wheels and and some special interior additions,” says Soliman, who estimates that fewer than 100 such wagons were made, though the actual figure is almost certainly several times greater.
His nationwide search turned up a few, but all were high-mileage examples on the East Coast. Ironically, the right car eventually turned up only 40 miles away from his home.
“It was January 2006, on an early Sunday afternoon. I had updated my internet searches, and this time a loaded Titanium Silver on Gray leather 2003 540iT with only 26,000 miles showed up,” Soliman says. “I frantically called the owner, and after five calls spoke with him and headed straight down.”
Upon driving his E46 M3 to the seller’s garage, he found an immaculate 2003 540iT Sport parked next to an equally immaculate Porsche 911 Turbo. Soliman knew he’d found his car, and he was soon finalizing the deal with a handshake.
Although he’d gotten a stock, low-mileage example, Soliman planned to start modifying the car as soon as he’d taken ownership.
“What I really wanted was an M5 wagon,” admits Soliman. “The closest thing was to supercharge my Touring and tastefully do everything possible to complete that package inside and out.”
Soliman put his 540i in the capable hands of technician Hermond Manoocheri at Bullet Motorsports Speedlab (BMS) in Santa Ana, California for an extensive Dinan conversion.
“Since this is my daily driver, I wanted something reliable and street legal,” says Soliman. “Dinan was the only tuner that could meet both requirements.”
Manoocheri installed a Stage III Dinan supercharger kit, which relies on a Vortech centrifugal supercharger, plus a Dinan exhaust that terminates in a single oval tip. Together, the mods allow the 540i to deliver 327 horsepower to the rear wheels.
To put that power to the road as effectively as possible, Soliman also had Manoocheri install a Dinan 3.45:1 limited slip differential in place of the stock 3.15:1 unit.
Dinan also contributed an S3 suspension upgrade to improve the car’s handling. Up front, the S3 kit adds Koni adjustable shocks paired with stiffer Dinan lowering springs and a 17mm anti-roll bar. Dinan camber plates relocate the tops of the shocks inward to increase negative camber and grip while reducing understeer during aggressive cornering; a Dinan upper strut brace increases torsional rigidity. At the rear, the car is equipped with adjustable Koni shocks, Dinan lowering springs and a 27mm adjustable anti-roll bar.
The Koni shocks that replace the stock self-adjusting rear suspension were originally available only in Europe, where they were sourced by Bullet’s Chris Welch.
Astute E39 enthusiasts will note that Dinan’s web site doesn’t list this setup. The company prefers to retain the OEM system whenever possible, not only for its superior ride quality but also to retain the ability to electronically adjust ride height using the factory diagnostic computer.
As he had on the rest of the car, Soliman splurged when it was time to upgrade the brakes on his increasingly rapid wagon. He gave the car a StopTech big brake kit that utilizes 14-inch slotted rotors at the front clamped by four-piston calipers and 13.6-inch slotted rotors at the rear clamped by two-piston calipers.
Outboard of the brakes, the 540iT wears a set of AC Schnitzer Type II alloys that measure 8.5 x 19 inches up front and 9.5 x 19 inches at the rear, shod with Michelin Pilot Sports in 245/35ZR-19 front and 275/30ZR-19 rear sizes. “They aren’t the lightest or the newest,” admits Soliman, “but I’ve always loved how those wheels looked, long before I could afford a BMW to put them on.”
Next on Soliman’s to-do list was giving the 540i a more M5-appropriate interior. First the wood trim on the dashboard, gearshift and emergency brake handle was replaced with understated Birch Anthracite trim. Since his 540i hadn’t been equipped at the factory with an upgraded stereo system, Soliman had a BMW DSP system installed, plus Bavarian Soundwerks Rainbow speakers and a BSW 10-inch subwoofer.
Soliman then had a full complement of BMW Motorsport items installed, including an M5 rearview mirror, instrument cluster, tire pressure monitoring system and M3 SMG steering wheel.
The last item enabled Soliman to fit a Mr. Paddleshift kit that uses M3 SMG paddles to control the 540i’s Steptronic transmission. “I had gotten too addicted to paddleshifting in my E46 M3 for four years,” he says.
The final step in the project was modifying the exterior with a handful of M5 components. Up front, Soliman installed an M5 grille with silver kidney inserts. He also swapped the original exterior mirrors for M5 retracting mirrors with European-spec aspheric glass and replaced the headlights and taillights with clear Euro-spec items.
So equipped, the car is distinctive, yet not outrageous. “I like that I can pick up my daughters from school, drop them off at home, turn right back around and head for the drag strip,” says Soliman of his tweaked wagon.
Running mundane errands is the furthest thing from our minds when Soliman hands over the keys to the 540. The sound of its V8 at idle is much more menacing than that of a straight six. It’s as if a big-block American V8 has met precision European engineering, and the sound has gotten even better with the addition of forced induction. When we plant the throttle while driving through a tunnel in downtown L.A., the motor lets out a deep rumble overlaid by the subtle whine of the supercharger.
Acceleration isn’t neck-snapping, but it is considerably stronger than that of a stock 540i, particularly when the supercharger is spinning up. With plenty of torque from the engine’s 4.4-liter displacement and increased midrange power from the forced induction, this 540i pulls hard throughout the entire rev range, building power with smooth linearity.
The paddle-shift conversion works nicely, too. While the autobox doesn’t shift as quickly as a real SMG, it offers a very similar feel as we tug on the left and right paddles.
Most impressive, however, are the handling and braking of this BMW. A 5 Series wagon isn’t exactly a small car, but the Dinan suspension gives Soliman’s car an unexpected nimbleness. Though feedback through the steering wheel is minimal, the wagon responds well to inputs, changes direction quickly enough and corners flatly with a lot of grip, while the massive Stoptech brakes slow it with authority.
All up, the performance of Soliman’s wagon more than lives up to the promise of its understated but still purposeful aesthetics.

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Laitipaya’s black beauty (Thaichi808)
James Laitipaya is another longtime wagon enthusiast, and the black 2001 540iT is his second from BMW. He bought it from Crevier BMW in late 2003 to replace a 2000 528i Touring that had plagued him with constant problems since its purchase.
“It was a lemon, and I had bought it without any type of warranty,” he explains. Finding the black 540iT as a Certified Pre-Owned car promised to put an end to his misery; that it was black was a bonus. “I’d always wanted a black one,” he admits.
He initially planned just a few aesthetic enhancements—a slight lowering and M5 wheels—and the installation of a better sound system. “I commute every day from Irvine to downtown L.A., so I just wanted to alter the stereo,” recalls Laitipaya.
That changed when he saw an E39 540i sedan with an M5 front bumper. “I really liked the way it looked, so I started asking around to see if the M-Technic kit could be made to fit on the Touring,” he continues.
It could, and soon enough a set of M5 front and rear bumpers had found their way onto his 540i. Since the rear bumper had cutouts for a quad exhaust, Laitipaya decided to have Euro-Rev in Inglewood, CA fill them in with a four-outlet Eisenmann exhaust, though one pair was just a “dummy” at the time.
That was enough for the moment, since Laitipaya’s 540iT had recently been joined in the garage by an E46 M3. With the M3 handling recreational duty, the 540iT would serve primarily as an orchid delivery vehicle for Laitipaya’s flower business until fate again intervened.
“I was in the Inland Empire one day running errands when one of the taillights went out on the wagon,” Laitipaya recalls. Heading for the nearest dealership, Savage BMW in Ontario, Laitipaya arrived to discover a Dinan Engineering demo day in progress.
There, he met Soliman, who was so enthusiastic about Dinan’s products that Laitipaya mistook him for a Dinan representative, not just a satisfied customer. Needless to say, Laitipaya found himself becoming increasingly enchanted with the idea of going all out on his Touring. “Jack was very knowledgeable and was pretty influential in the whole process,” he notes.
On the suggestion of one of Dinan’s official representatives, Laitipaya also decided to attend the annual Bimmerfest event in Santa Barbara. There, he ended up purchasing a new wheel and tire package for the Touring, and soon thereafter laid out a more extensive plan to get the most out of his wagon.
Like Soliman, Laitipaya chose Bullet Motorsports Speedlab to perform the mechanical upgrades. Initially, changes under the hood were limited to a Dinan throttle body and mass air-flow intake, though shortly after our photo shoot Laitipaya also had Bullet install the same Dinan Stage III supercharger kit used on Soliman's 540iT.
“I haven’t dyno’d it, and I’m not really a ‘numbers’ kind of guy,” admits Laitipaya, who says that, for him, the proof is in the driving. The forceful acceleration his wagon can now boast is all the proof he needs that its now considerably quicker than the engineers in Bavaria intended.
While the car was at Bullet, Laitipaya also had its technicians swap the quad exhaust for a fully functioning X-pipe system that breathes through Magnaflow mufflers. To make it fit under the 540i’s rear end, Bullet relocated the air pump for the standard self-leveling suspension—which Laitipaya kept in place—and performed some minor modifications to the mufflers.
Up front, the suspension is a Dinan S3 setup, just as it is on Soliman’s car. Laitipaya borrowed another page from Soliman’s playbook by adding the same StopTech brakes, though he left the differential stock.
He also made his own choice when it came to wheels and tires. Straining mightily at the BMW’s fender arches are a set of Radenergie R10 alloys that measure 8.5 x 19 inches up front and 10 x 19 inches at the rear, shod with 245/35R-19 and 285/30R-19 Yokohama Advans.
The exterior cosmetics on Laitipaya’s car were also completely redone, though more by happenstance than by design. “Last Memorial Day, I decided to go to Hollywood for the weekend,” he says. “I got a call from the hotel while I was out that there had been an ‘incident’ with my car.”
One of the valets had crashed an SUV into a line of cars that included Laitipaya’s wagon, and the end result was an extensively damaged 540i. Seizing the opportunity for a makeover, Laitipaya had the entire BMW repainted in its original shade of black, then had his body shop extensively sand the multiple coats of clear that had been applied on top for a much deeper shine.
At the same time, a carbon fiber Vorsteiner hood and pair of front splitters were installed, as well, along with a carbon rear diffuser mounted below the rear bumper, all left unpainted to leave no doubt that this wagon means business. The exterior changes were rounded out by clear Euro-spec Hella headlights and taillights before Laitipaya moved on to the interior.
There, Laitipaya installed a set of M5 seats and the center section from a European E39 dashboard. The latter gives front-seat occupants more leg room, since the Euro dash doesn’t place the bulky DOT crash pads in front of the occupants’ knees. Laitipaya also added an Alcantara headliner and carbon fiber interior trim from Stealth Auto that tie the interior to the redone exterior.
The driving experience in Laitipaya’s wagon is similar to that of the silver wagon, though it hadn’t been given forced induction at the time of our test and thus didn’t accelerate as strongly. Nor has it received the lower differential gear that also improves acceleration on Soliman’s car, though it’s plenty quick all the same.
As on Soliman’s 540iT, the uprated underpinnings mean that this wagon is most impressive for its handling and braking. It sails around corners with negligible body roll while displaying a reassuring level of stability and responsiveness that one simply doesn’t expect from such a large, spacious vehicle. A dab of the brake pedal delivers authoritative deceleration from the StopTech brakes.
In both cars, in fact, the only thing getting in the way of a truly M-like driving experience is the Steptronic automatic transmission. A manual would close the gap almost completely, though we have to acknowledge that the automatic gear change makes commuting painless.
Regardless of the transmission, driving these cars reminds us of what we miss when BMW fails to create a Touring version of every M5, and what we further miss every time it decides not to bring its highest-performance wagons to the U.S.
Too bad. There aren’t many automobiles that offer the combination of pace, practicality and style that these two BMWs provide.

[Laidback]

More mods have been done to Thaichi808's wagon...i'm sure he'll chime in on the mods he has done so far after the photoshoot...

[t3stman]

Dang, i never thought a wagon can look so damn good with after the mods :D

[415Banker]

Dang, i never thought a wagon can look so damn good with after the mods :D

ignorance is bliss :D jk bro! =P

[mbox]

congrats to james and jack! wagon power ftw!

maybe you can sign my copy since you guys are celebs now?! :D

[Laidback]

+1:Dcongrats to james and jack! wagon power ftw!

maybe you can sign my copy since you guys are celebs now?! :D

[batman]

James and Jack deserve mad props for all the work they put into those beautiful wagons. Two awesome guys and two amazing cars. Congrats, we are very proud!

[JEDDERS]

congrats guys!

[Stean]

james is the ****!! Grats on both of you guys... I think my next car is definitely going to be a wagon lol..

[Orange fever]

here for some wagon LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[David @ ViP Status]

NICE! Congrats fellahs!!!


I think they forgot to call Jo...

[cullen61918]

sick, congrats

[E90///M3]

congrats braddah James!

[NeRwEEzy]

congrats =)

[Mattie]

congrats studs. cars look great.

[///NEM3SES]

the wagons are dope!! I always gawk at Jo's lol