Tung Le was shooting for Tunerzine out of Orlando, Florida during the years when the site covered the East Coast show circuit as closely as it covered California. His credits from that stretch run from HIN Orlando and Festivals of Speed in 2007 to an Integra feature the following year, with a full set of D1 Grand Prix Finals coverage in between. He lives in Southern California now, and this is one of the cars he built after moving here: a 2015 BMW M4 finished for SEMA 2019 that he kept for another three years. Like Ryan Birgelaitis’s EK a week ago, it’s a car built by one of our original contributors and photographed by the same person who built it.
The Varis VRS widebody is what everyone sees first. Tung went with Kit B, which pairs FRP front fenders, front bumper extension covers, and rear fender panels with carbon fiber pieces that include the under lip, front fender panels, Big Under Board set, and rear-fender air shrouds. He added VSDC carbon double canards, the Cooling Hood System 2, and Rear Diffuser System 1, while a 1700mm Voltex Type 2 wing sits on the trunk. The rest of the exterior is in the details: M Performance carbon mirror caps, gloss black side markers, and a black M4 badge, along with an IND gloss black kidney grille and side reflector delete, Bayoptiks Vision V3 LED headlights, and 90mm Status Gruppe titanium exhaust tips. The whole car is wrapped in Avery Dennison Gloss Metallic Bright Blue, and the hardware holding the bodywork together is a full titanium set from Chasing J’s.
The S55 under the hood wasn’t left stock, but it also wasn’t where most of the build’s attention went. A bootmod3 Stage 2 tune works with a Status Gruppe full exhaust and catless downpipes, a GruppeM carbon fiber intake, and RK Titanium charge pipes. A CSF top-mount charge-air cooler and front-mount heat exchanger handle the cooling side, while an M Performance carbon engine cover finishes off the bay.
The stance comes from Air Lift Performance front and rear struts on 3P management, fed by a Viair 444C compressor and a 4-gallon Air Lift tank housed in a custom wood-lined trunk setup. The wheels are bronze Volk Racing TE37 Ultra M-Specs in 20×10 +30 and 20×12 +20, which required converting the M4 from its factory 5×120 bolt pattern to 5×114.3 using a custom 25mm conversion along with Project Kics 11mm PCD conversion spacers. Project Kics R40 lug nuts secure the wheels, while 285/30R20 and 315/30R20 Toyo Proxes R888R tires fill out the Varis fenders. Brembo GT 380mm brake kits are fitted at both ends.
Inside, Bride Euroster II seats in black Alcantara sit on Bride rails, while a Status Gruppe carbon fiber steering wheel is finished with AutoTecknic color-matched and carbon fiber trim pieces. Willans four-point harnesses mount to a Fall-Line Motorsports bolt-in roll bar with a matching rear-seat closeout. M Performance carbon fiber covers the console, gear lever, dashboard trim, door pulls, and parking brake handle, while 3D Design supplied the pedal set and footrest. The factory head unit was also upgraded with CarPlay. It’s still a usable interior despite all the show car hardware, which makes sense for an M4 that was built for SEMA and then kept on the road for another three years.
Tung has since moved on from the M4 after keeping it for three years. The photos are his, and so is the build, which makes it an easy one for us to bring back as part of Tunerzine. This time, the car gets to live here alongside the work he shot for us all those years ago.
GalleryPhotos by Tung Le
