Patrick's E30 and E34 BMW Monsters

Patrick Philpot isn't your ordinary BMW owner. He owns not one but two of the most powerful street BMWs in the country today. Starting life as an original E30 M3, this first car was turned into a beast with an Alpina-built B10 twin-turbo motor. But now it's force-fed by a custom Master Power Super T-Series turbocharger. The second car, which at first is easily mistaken for a family five-seater--oh wait, it still is--started life with a modest 3.5-liter factory BMW engine. But in this car Patrick dropped a custom-built 3.7-liter low-compression motor into the engine bay, propelled by a huge T88H turbocharger for some serious juice. To say these are big horsepower cars is an understatement.

The E30 M3
When Patrick first got this car and decided what he was going to do to it, many M3 purists ridiculed him for wanting to "destroy" this thing. Still, he sold the original 2.3-liter motor to finance the project that even his mechanics --Paul at Budget Performance Shop, Wayne at TPG Products, and Lenworth and Garry at Speed Injected--thought he was crazy for thinking up, but they did it anyways.

Paul made what Patrick called a "masterpiece" of a tubular manifold and installed the motor and driveline. Wayne fine-tuned the DTA engine management system and Lenworth and Garry installed the braking system and made sure the fuel system would be adequate for 25-psi boost. Today that translates to a mind-numbing 610 whp that remains flat through redline, and a tarmac-disintegrating 703 lb-ft of torque.

When asked how he copes with so much torque on the street Patrick laughed and said, "We're actually working on getting the traction control done through the DTA EMS for both wet and dry conditions." That EMS will definitely have its work cut out for it.

The E34 5 Series, AKA "Big Red"
This car started out as a stock 535i with an automatic transmission. Inspired by the Alpina B10 bi-turbo motor, Patrick and a friend set out to get some ideas, only to have no one take them seriously and a few actually laugh in their faces. After temporarily losing all motivation to continue, they bounced back with an initial stock engine and tranny setup sporting two small TD05 16G Mitsubishi turbochargers, putting out a very healthy 321 whp.

Patrick then went to Jim Rowe at Metric Mechanic and had him build an engine for the E34. Jim was also responsible for transforming the power delivery to the wheels, including the time-consuming five-speed manual conversion. After withstanding 521 whp at 21 psi boost with a T72 turbo setup, a ring land eventually gave way in cylinder number one.

Once again Patrick's mechanics went straight to work. Paul made a tubular exhaust manifold, Lenworth performed the machine work on the motor and Wayne retuned the EMS to cope with the new turbocharger, this time an even bigger T88H turbocharger. "With this car we made 620 whp 'restricted,' because we are running out of injectors at 26 psi," said Patrick.

Patrick, you poor guy!

"This car is an ongoing project since my loving spouse won't allow me to have another car, so I must keep working on this one," said Patrick. After finding out that Patrick also owns an original 1992 Alpina B10 twin-turbo 5 Series, reported to be the only one in the country, as well as a PTG wide-bodied E36 that, as I write, has a T78 turbo setup going into it, I have to concur with Mrs. Philpot.

No, no more cars. Instead, Patrick is in the process of dropping in an S38 motor off the Euro-Spec E34 M5 into Big Red, but not before stroking it to four liters (but, of course).

Think Patrick belongs in "Obsession"? My vote is on a new section called "Completely Insane!"