BMW e30 m52 2.8 swap

Words: Daniel Bevis Photos: Adam Rous

BMW e30 m52 2.8 swap
We all have different routes to car ownership. The factors which influence and define what sort of cars we’re into are many and varied, and always uniquely personal. For Adam Mansoura, it could all have been very different; his first car was a Ford Fiesta 1.1, closely followed by an XR2i 16v that he readily admits he’d love to still have today. But dinky Ford hatchbacks aren’t his true calling, not really. To get properly under the skin of his motoring proclivities, it’s pop legend Madonna whom we need to interrogate. “I remember the first E30 I ever saw,” Adam wistfully recalls. “It was red, it had a sunroof, and Madonna was blaring out of the radio. It was probably a 316i, I was too young to remember... but I do distinctly remember the look of that iconic front end.”

It was inevitable that Adam would find his way into E30 ownership at some point in his life, and much as Madonna was keenly wailing ‘Express Yourself!’ round about the time the car we’re shooting today was first rolling out of the factory gates, so the future path was clear. “I’ve always liked the old BMWs, especially the late ’80s and ’90s models,” he reasons. “The boxy, no-compromise design is timeless; car technology has moved on massively, which I think is a bad thing for those who love driving. I like there to be no computers telling me what I’m doing wrong, I like the way an old BMW can make you feel 10 years old every time you see one! Sure, I can appreciate

Words: Daniel Bevis Photos: Adam Rous

exotic supercars and the like, but if one was parked next to an E21, an E28 or an E30 I would still be looking at the Beemer first.”The car under the spotlight here is, in fact, Adam’s second E30. The first one he owned was a 325i Sport, something he bought on the logic that it was the best possible spec short of an M3. That car ended up running hot cams and a custom exhaust along with BC coil-overs; his approach is that E30s are so beautifully balanced from the factory that they don’t need extreme mods or a huge amount of horsepower to make them perfect, simply a tickling in all the right places – a smidge of extra power, the odd chassis tweak, all to augment the sublime factory package. The Sport ultimately ended up moving on because, despite being as rotten as a pear, somebody offered Adam silly money for it and he just couldn’t refuse.
He used the spoils to fund a brief dalliance with a VW Golf R32, but it wasn’t long before the yearnings for an old-school Bavarian fix started itching away at the base of his brain until, eventually, the cravings became too rich and insistent to ignore.

“The R32 was quick, comfortable, and bagged, but after a month of ownership I realized it wasn’t for me,” he recalls. “The E30 is great because it has character and makes you feel a certain way, whereas I felt the VW was sterile and boring. So after six months of no E30, I started to look again... I was initially looking for a project car when I came across this one: a well-known shop named JustE30z was selling this completely redone, engine-swapped example. So I messaged them, and after some lengthy discussion and a deal that would make Mike Brewer proud, I drove the car home.”
The engine swap in question is beautifully executed, and a very smart choice. What you’re looking at here is a 2.8-liter swap M52, the straight-six whose family debuted in 1994 for use in the E36 3 Series.
BMW M52 2.8 E30
ENGINE AND TRANSMISSION
N2.8-litre straight-six M52B28 from E36 328i, M50 manifold, custom stainless exhaust system, remap. Five-speed automatic gearbox, 3.73 LSD

CHASSIS
8.5x17” (front and rear) Lenso BSX wheels with 195/40 (front and rear) Nankang AS-1 tyres, GAZ Gold coilovers, Ultra Racing strut brace and adjustable anti-roll bars, Powerlex bushes, E36 M3 steering rack

EXTERIOR
Dolphin grey metallic, M Tech II kit, Hella high-beam covers

INTERIOR
Sport seats, M Tech II steering wheel

THANKS
Thanks to JustE30z, Adam at ASR Photography, my wife Kerry for making sure I have time to do what I love, my kids' Grace and Sam for always reminding daddy ‘righty-tighty, lefty-loosey’, and my good friend Pete and his dad Bernie who have both turned wrenches on all my cars
From PERFORMANCE BMW