The Company That Wants To Be Singer Of BMW

Renner Projekts aims to bring a sense of Singer reinvention and personalisation to the world of BMWs. “I remember seeing the E30 M3 compete in DTM as a kid,” founder Ronald Norat tells us in his Miami workshop. “I’d be glued to the TV with a little notebook. Both it and the Mercedes 190E were made to be the best things possible to kill each other on track.

“The E30 remains my favourite car. I can work on a Pagani or Bugatti but if I see an E30 M3, my legs start shaking.”

The Renner philosophy is to restore and then sympathetically modify a select band of older BMWs, fitting one of a trio of M Division hall-of-fame powertrains in the process. The Projekt 3 builds on an E30 M3, the Projekt 5 upon the E28 M5 and the Projekt 8 transforms the E31 8-series, with an E34 M5 Touring in the works. Your engine choices are S62 V8 (from the E39 M5), S65 V8 (E90 M3) and S85 V10 (E60 M5), each allied to their contemporary gearbox options. The requisite upgrades to brakes and suspension, meanwhile, all come from the BMW parts catalogue.

Just ten of each Renner model will be made, and each will be uniquely commissioned by its owner much like they would a Singer over on America’s Pacific coast. In fact, several of them have one of those already.

The Projekt 8 you see here is Renner’s first-ever show car, the company’s proof of concept and its ongoing work in progress as techniques are honed ahead of customer commissions being completed.

“I worked for BMW for 12 years before I decided to go independent,” Ronald says. “Back in 1999 someone put a red 850CSi in my booth, owned by Pat Riley, the owner of Miami Heat, and I fell in love with it. Ever since then, it’s been in my head ‘Why didn’t BMW do an M8?’”

This car enjoys the 400hp S62 4.9-litre V8 from the E39 M5 hooked up to the rear wheels via a contemporary six-speed manual gearbox. Stock 8-series suspension remains, but is lowered, while the brakes have been spruced up to handle a rise in power and torque over the old V12 and to better match the retro-modern vibe Renner has targeted. So there are E60 M5 brakes up front, E92 M3 at the rear, while a set of Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres brings grip up to scratch.

Norat insists on power steering and air conditioning in its cars due to the stifling Florida heat, though the S62 is positioned lower and further back into the chassis than the engine it replaces to boost the handling of a car always conceived with more of a GT bent than those pop-up lights provocatively suggest.

“This is a heavy car and you really want some decent torque to propel it forwards,” says Ronald. “The S62 presents a good balance for that chassis. You get to enjoy a car that looks classic and luxurious but it has the power for you to go faster. We’ve sampled so many exhaust systems trying to make the noise correct. You don’t want idle to be uncomfortably but you want a little motorsport flavour when you move away from the lights.”

Our drive suggests he’s nailed it, too. As we navigate the boundless four-way junctions of Miami, frequently pausing at lights, I’m given repeated demonstrations of the amazing balance that’s been achieved. Chiefly an assertive (but not uncouth) sound on throttle but a passive and classy sound when cruising. It’s such a crisp and responsive engine, too, with lots of legs in first gear for really making the most of my brief glimpses of acceleration, actually able to tickle the upper reaches of the rev counter despite the strictly urban landscape.

The action of its stick shift is lovely, too, and more up-for-it than I recall a manual 850CSi feeling. The controls are all weighted wonderfully and encourage you to get stuck into the Projekt 8’s performance rather than just rely on its abundant torque. All told, this feels like a respectful engine swap done with classy OEM upgrades across the board.

As well you might hope for the price, which ranges from $275,000 (around £220,000) to ‘anything’ depending on your dream spec. “People need to understand that a perfect BMW has a particular price point, then a car that is coach built has a different language,” says Ronald. “An E30 M3 was $25,000 a few years ago, now a chassis costs that! You need the right person to understand what we’re doing. They usually already have a collection of BMWs and want the missing piece of something different.

“If I was buying one of my own cars it would be a Projekt 3, painted Diamond Schwarz metallic like an M3 Evo. I’ll go six-speed manual with a full carbon fibre intake. It will happen. A 50th birthday gift to myself!”

Photos: Fabian Guerreros