SP Rides: The Purple Monster
BY MICHAEL KITCHENS
Year, make, model: 2004 BMW M3
Owner: Joshua Golden
Age: 37
Occupation: U.S. Navy
Hobbies: Outdoors, hiking, paddling
Color: Twilight Purple (OEM)
Engine: Balance/blue printed/port/polish/3.427 bore/.008-inch resurface, Garrett GTX4202R, modified 4-inch Outlet Tial MV-R waste gate, Tial Q BOV 11PSI, Wiseco custom 9:1 pistons and heavy duty wrist pins, custom Pauter rods, Supertech valve springs, ARP L19 head studs and hardware and more
Suspension/drivetrain: SMG Manual Swap, CAE shifter, Clutch Masters FX850 street twin disc with steel flywheel, AKG Poly bushings and more
Exterior: Stripped and painted in Twighlight Purple with fresh hardware and body redesign, 2-inch custom metal widebody, custom vented front fenders, custom carbon fiber front diffuser, custom carbon fiber side splitters and more
Interior: Complete full suede interior (black, grey, diamond stitch Including A,B,C pillars, dash, front and rear door panels, rear seats, roof Liner, custom Recaro topline (power seat adjustment, power heat and cooling, lumbar) seats in black and grey suede, black Nappa leather, diamond stitch/Recaro sliders / wedge brackets, and more
Audio/visual: Alpine IVA-W505 Mobile Multimedia Station (with navigation) head unit, Wicked C.A.S. 10-inch sub enclosure, JL Stealth 8-inch sub boxes and two Image Dynamics subs
Wheels, brakes, tires: 18-by-12, 18-by-13 CCW D540 (all black package) wheels, 315/30/18 335/30/18 Toyo R888s, Tirestickers.com, Apex Racing 90mm stud conversion, Gorillaz color prism lugs, Rogue Engineering RSM, Fortune Auto 12K/14K Muller coils, AP Racing 6-pot front BBK with 14-inch cross drilled and slotted rotors custom-painted white, AP Racing 4-pot rear BBK with 14-inch cross drilled and slotted rotors custom-painted white
It’s not often that you come across a ride like this 2004 BMW M3. Known as the ultimate driving machine, the BMW M3 is an icon of the high-performance sports car. However, this wide-bodied purple monster has gone well beyond the expected. It’s pure insanity and Joshua Golden is the man behind the madness.
When it came to the engine, Golden wanted something that would push him back into his seat. He wanted to be able to cut loose and have the feeling of absolute power. I’d say he’s reached his goals — quite spectacularly.
Words on a page, like 1,056 horses and 694-foot-pounds of torque, do little to truly describe the beast sitting in this car’s engine bay. The modification list is quite literally too long to fit here. Everything has been modified, touched, massaged or replaced. The Garret GTX4202R turbo is primarily responsible for the stratospheric horsepower numbers, but the supporting modifications to reach such numbers are massive.
Although the engine was the primary focus, Golden didn’t skimp on the rest of the car. To support such horsepower numbers, it was absolutely necessary to reinforce the existing hardware. To that effect, the suspension has been completely reworked with AKG poly bushings all throughout the components, the addition of AKG adjustable rear control arms, sway bar end links and sway bars. The drivetrain itself has also been reinforced with upgraded rear axles, a Drive Shaft Shop carbon fiber drive shaft, a differential brace and more. Many subframe components have been swapped out completely for hardier components.
The exterior is obviously a showstopper, which features 2-inch custom metal wide-body and bulbous wheel arches that have been coated in a BWM OEM color of Twilight Purple that has been turned up to max. Custom vented front venders are melded together with carbon fiber components throughout, such as the front splitter, side skirts and mirrors. All of the lighting hardware has been swapped out to include Umnitza V4 Angel Eyes equipped with color-change LED Demon Eyes as well as the rear tails. A Vorsteiner CSL front bumper glares menacingly while the rear is a vented GTR type. It’s pretty much impossible to cover the extensive amount of exterior modifications — this machine is wild.
When it came to the ride, Golden opted for a meaty rubber combination of 315/30/18 335/30/18 Toyo R888s on ginormous 18-by-12 CCW Wheels in the front with 13s in the back. That’s a huge amount of contact patch we’re talking about. And with all that power, you have to have brakes so an AP 6-pot and 4-pot big brake kit has been matched to the 14-inch cross-drilled and slotted rotors. Tons of additional hardware has been added to keep this monster in check.
Whew. I haven’t even touched on the interior, which is wrapped completely in suede and also features a wide range of modifications as well as all of the necessary monitoring equipment for this purple rocket.
For Golden, the BMW E46 was the first luxury ride his growing family owned and it represents a nostalgia that he appreciates. It’s why he stuck with it. The fact that it can destroy pavement with a stomp of the pedal doesn’t hurt either.
