Is it an imposter? An imitation? A tribute? One thing is for certain—CCA Member Raphy Valdez’s 2010 Crimson Red 135i exudes OEM-plus modifications, goes beyond a 1M clone, and turns the dial well past eleven. As a bonus, it’s his three-year-old daughter Mila’s favorite car.
Mila was more than willing to be part of our photoshoot!
The E8x 1 Series chassis was introduced in 2007, coming in a variety of flavors across the globe. The U.S. market initially received two variants, the E82 coupe and E88 convertible, powered by 3.0-liter inline sixes: the 128i’s normally aspirated N52 and the 135i’s twin-turbocharged N54 (which was replaced with the N55 in late 2010).
The 1M came onto the scene for the 2011 and 2012 model years, thanks to a small skunkworks team within BMW M that raided the M parts bin to build this beastly 1 Series. The E9x M3 donated brakes, the rear subframe, the rear differential and axles, various suspension components, as well as the Competition wheels and side mirrors. The N54 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged straight six came from the Z4 sDrive 35is, producing 335 horsepower and 370 pound-feet, and propelling this 1 Series rocketship to 60 in under five seconds.
Beautiful at any angle.
As an avid 1 Series enthusiast, the 1M has always been Raphy’s goal. Raphy lives in Northern Virginia with his wife Pia, daughter Mila, and newborn son Mateo—just three weeks old as of when these photos were taken! In addition to a full-time government contracting job, he operates TouringWerks, a small shop to help friends and give back to the automotive community, out of his garage. As a former Audi technician, he knows his way around a wrench. While he’s owned a number of cool BMWs over the years, with a 1999 five-speed-manual M3 convertible and 2010 328i Touring currently in the stable, his 2010 135i 1M clone has been his long-term project.
“I’ve had this car for seven years now. It’s actually my second 135i. The first was black and had an automatic—and I just wanted a manual. When I found this one in Fairfax, Virginia, it was just going to be a daily with a few simple mods as I wanted to save up for a 1M. As 1M prices went up, I started researching costs of the conversion. That’s kind of how it snowballed, to say the least,” he says.
Raphy’s inspiration came from Marco Svizzero’s S65-swapped 1M. Raphy recalls, “Jay Leno featured Marco’s car—a 1M clone with an S65 swap. That’s kind of where my inspiration started. I wanted to build my rendition of a 1M clone—especially since these never came out in red, which is one of my favorite colors.” The 1M was only available in three colors—Alpine White, Sapphire Black, or Valencia Orange—so Raphy’s Crimson Red N54-equipped 135i was the perfect foundation for this impressive project.
While the majority of OEM 1M parts will bolt right up to the 135i, Raphy says, “the hardest part of the conversion was the rear fenders, because those had to be custom.” After purchasing a set of rear Jays 1M replica fenders, Raphy began collecting OEM 1M parts. He recalls, “I just wanted to make sure I did everything, minus the rear quarter panels, as OEM as possible.”
An OEM 1M rear bumper, among a sea of other OEM 1M parts.
How much actually bolts up? “From a 1M perspective—the front bumper, the headlights, the side mirrors, side skirts, and rear bumper. Then it’s small things, like the undertrays, the fender liners, the splash shields.” The bodywork didn’t stop there. Raphy continues, “The quad exhaust conversion, including the battery tray, are all OEM 1M parts.”
Biiiiiiig turbo.
This build is far from just exterior modifications as there has been extensive work done to the powertrain, suspension, and interior. Raphy’s 135i shares the same N54 engine platform found in the 1M, so it provided a great starting point for making big power. “It’s converted to a big single turbo—a PTE Gen2 6266 turbo from SpeedTech. It’s their whole bolt-on kit. It’s on Flex Fuel so I can run anything from 93 octane, making like 500 wheel horsepower, to up to E85, which is supposed to make almost 700 wheel horsepower,” Raphy says. In addition to the SpeedTech turbo kit, the engine modification list includes an upgraded cooling system, upgraded oil cooling, upgraded fuel system, a VTT billet aluminum intake manifold with VTT port injection using DW 550cc fuel injectors, a DocVu custom flex fuel tune (26psi), and a lengthy list of other supporting modifications.
Raphy laughs, “The [current 335is] clutch is slipping because I need to upgrade the clutch to a twin disc. The tuner said we’re around 650 wheel horsepower on the current setup, so we’re just keeping it there until we upgrade the clutch. And then we can turn it up a little bit more to make that 700. That’ll pretty much be the stopping point.” To put that in perspective, Raphy is putting down over double the power of a factory 135i and nearly double that of a 1M. Whoosh!
All of that power meets the pavement via a beautifly beefy set of wheels and tires. A set of gold-centered Fikse Profil-10s (18×10 front, 18×11 rear) are wrapped in Nitto NT555s, measuring in at a staggering 275/35 up front and 305/35 out back. The suspension consists of BC Racing coilovers, wearing 8kg front and 18kg rear Swift springs, along with a number of upgraded front and rear arms and bushings. Mila’s painted nails go well with gold centers, polished lips, and meaty 135i brakes, don’t you think?
The interior matches the exterior’s theme of performance, while still being a family-friendly space. An M Sport alcantara flat-bottom steering wheel looks right at home in front of the 1M-faced instrument cluster. A set of Recaro Sportster CS seats, with Recaro sliders and Planted floor mounts, allow easy access to the back seat for three-year-old Mila and newborn Mateo, while providing stability and comfort for the driver and front-seat passenger. Per Mila’s request of “Let’s take the red car”, the Valdezes recently just took this 1M clone on a family-of-four dinner outing. Isn’t taking the whole family out in the project car priceless?
Euro LCI headlights are a nice touch and Raphy’s favorite thing about his 1M clone.
With the majority of this 1M clone project complete, Raphy does have a couple of favorite things about this build. In regard to modifications, he laughs and says, “It’s going to sound funny, but it’s actually the headlights. To the normal eye, they look like regular LCI headlights, but they’re actually Euro LCI headlights. I know it’s something really small, but it doesn’t have the ambers, and it has the little eyebrow. It just changed the front end of the car and I love it—even though it was stupid expensive.” In regard to a favorite experience with the car, he reflects, “Converting it to single turbo. I learned a lot about the N54 platform going through that stage. I’ve never had a big-single-turbo car before. So, learning how everything works and putting all the pieces together was probably one of my favorite experiences.”
If you know, you know.
As this project has gone through a number of phases over time, it has also gone through a number of custom license plates. He started with “1M CLONE”, changed it to “1M-1SH”, and finally landed on “JOL1BEE.” Raphy explains, “For those who know, Jollibee is a Filipino fast food place. It has always been one of our favorite fast food staples, and it kind of matches the car’s color scheme. Let’s do Jollibee, and then put a ‘1’ for the ‘i’ instead. And so we’ve stuck with ‘Jollibee.’”
While Raphy performed the majority, if not all, of the mechanical work on his E82, he credits Gary at Royal Auto Body for the body work. Raphy appreciates the fellowship and friendship the car has brought, saying, “The whole community has been really interested [in this car]. It really showed love, appreciating the time, money, and heartache that went into it. It really got a lot of positive attention, and I really appreciate that. I’m definitely thankful for the community here, and across the U.S as well.” Speaking as a fellow parent, I can say that love from the car community is a truly wonderful thing, but nothing beats having your three-year-old request “the red car” with a huge smile on her face. — Mike Bevels
Tags: 135i 1M 1M Clone Big Turbo E82 Project Car