Maserati V8 in a BMW Station Wagon? Why Not?
BMW station wagon loses its six-cylinder heart and finds a Maserati V8 with Ferrari heritage in its place. Oh, and it’s a manual.
First off, let’s address the elephant in the room. We know this is the Dodge Forum, and this is a BMW. We also know we’re stretching a bit by using Stellantis’s ownership of Maserati as a reason to put this car here. Let’s all just be honest, though. This thing is rad. It’s got a Maserati V8, it’s got a manual transmission. Any true automotive enthusiast is going to appreciate this thing. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get after it.
This 2007 BMW 328xi Sports Wagon just sold on the auction website Cars and Bids, and, frankly, the price tag seems mighty reasonable. For just $28,050, somebody is now the owner of an all-wheel-drive six-cylinder station wagon that is no longer all-wheel-drive and no longer has a six-cylinder. Instead, it has a roaring 4.7-liter Maserati V8 under the hood.
Plenty of Power and A Punchy Roar
Out of the box, this Ferrari-derived V8 engine produces 433 horsepower and 361 pound-feet of torque. It sounds absolutely ferocious and revs to around 7,500 RPM in stock format. However, this particular example is mated to a catless M3 exhaust system and an ECUMaster full-standalone ECU. So, there’s a decent chance the custom tune is delivering a bit more power than that. For reference, that’s at least 200 more horsepower than the car came with. It also has M3 brakes and orotrs as well as H&R lowering springs to help make use of that power.
Most notably, though, this screaming Maserati engine is mated to a CD009. For those outside the zeitgeist, that’s the holy-grail six-speed manual transmission from the Nissan 350Z that seems to be made from bulletproof fairy dust. They’re quite robust and well-known for reliably handling high power. Combined with the Serial Nine shifter, a manual steering rack, and a custom clutch to take the power, this thing has to be an absolute blast to drive.
This is A Great Deal
AT $28,000, it may seem like a pretty hefty price tag for a near-20-year-old spicy station wagon. However, a quick eBay search reveals that one of these engines costs around $10,000 on its own. The Speed Gems adapter kit to bolt it to a CD009 is a cool $2,000, the transmission itself is another $2,600 new, and just the shifter is $500! Just the engine and transmission are already eating $15,000 of that expense. That doesn’t even begin to consider the custom driveshaft, the real Volk TE37s, the M3 components, suspension, or, importantly, the work involved with bringing this Frankenstein’s monster to life.
If we had $28,000 to throw around on a whimsical car purchase, we’d have been very tempted. This thing rocks.
Photos: Cars and Bids
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