Here is BMW 335i racecar build part 7 of my ongoing series. You can read previous installments by clicking here.

The body kit for my racecar has arrived from the US of A, and it was time to have all the HARD Motorsport stuff fitted and painted.

Johan’s Autos

I decided to use my good friend Johan Fritz and his son, Timothy, who operate out of Johan’s Auto in Alberton, Gauteng for the task. Johan might not have the most modern of facilities, but he has worked on all my previous racecars, and his passion for his craft is unbeatable.

I needed this spirit because fitting the body kit the way I wanted it to look was going to take some doing. And an impersonal assembly line type panel shop was never going to invest the extra time in my car without giving me a bill that would probably cost more than the kit itself.

Fitting

HARD Motorsport do say that the kit is bolt on but mention that some extra fabrication could be required. And they were not kidding, most of the stuff did just bolt on, but unlike most of the other kits that have been fitted around the world, I didn’t want the pop rivets to show on the body. So, Johan went about smoothing everything down and making sure everything fitted perfectly before tackling the paint job.

The front bumper almost came together as promised, but there were small little areas that would allow horrible turbulent air to be created under the car. And this is not good, so Timothy, who is no stranger to building special one-off cars, tackled this job and made the entire bumper a one-piece molded unit.

The rear diffuser was also not up to what Sav Gualtieri wanted on the car, and he molded one from one of his fast racecars. And he decided while he was there, we would remove any extra weight and mold a roof on the car too.

Colour change

You might remember that the car was Alpine White from the factory, and then ended up M1-type orange when I bought it back. So, my plan was to get it back to its original white, but at the last moment, Timothy convinced me that we should swing for the fences and paint the car Dakar Yellow, with a blue roll cage and finished with Satin Black trim.

I agreed, this was never going to be a subtle car, and I love yellow on black for a car. And you can see the results in the pictures shown here. This 335i will be hard to miss. The bulk of the paintwork is done, and I am now sending the car back to SavSpeed to have the engine and other mechanical bits fitted…