As soon as I found out this car was going to be built, it was admittedly hard to keep my mouth shut. From the moment Sam’s car arrived at IND Distribution to get painted and modded, I knew it was going to be something spectacular. If you’ve been snoozing on IND’s builds, Sam’s original build was called Green Hell, so appropriately, this second go-around took that marque to the next level.
Although the car boasts the very same ESS VT-600 supercharger as the original build (albeit in a striking new color scheme), Green Hell’s new modifications would ensure that its track performance would walk circles around its previous season’s times while still being perfectly useable (albeit menacing) on the street. Off came the HRE x Nitto wheel and tire combination and on went some very special BBS E88 wheels shod with a meaty 275/315 tire setup (courtesy of widened rear fenders). Coupling these additions with some KW Clubsport coilovers, RD Sport sways and Challenge Engineering’s brand new aluminum adjustable rear toe arm kit, this car was never short of grip on the track. Even the Sparco seats from the original build had a work over with custom stitching and upholstery.
As you might be able to tell, subtlety isn’t Green Hell’s strong suit. And in its newest form, subtleties were thrown completely out the window with a Porsche RS Green paint job, Challenge’s newest front lip and undertray combination, Vorsteiner’s GTS-V diffuser and M24 trunk and wing. But unlike other street monsters with menacing aero, Green Hell has more than enough power, class and well thought out bits that give it more than enough all around oomph to back it up on the highway and on the back straight – including a never before seen (and heard) combination of an Eisenmann sport exhaust with a Challenge Race+ x pipe. Glorious.
I managed to take a few snaps of the car while I was filming the first part of the feature video (check it out above if you haven’t seen it), but if you haven’t had a chance to read up about Green Hell’s second build and see the full set of photos, take a look at them HERE. For the first part of the video, I wanted to keep things rather obscure as it was first designed to function as a teaser (check it out HERE. As such, lighting was kept to key areas rather than to brighten up the entire car and I opted to wait until the sun was nearly set to avoid getting any ambient light from the outside to interfere. The unique boom of the Eisenmann Sport x Challenge Race+ along with the mechanical lift played the major role in the sound department more than the audio track itself. Although I never got to use the teaser, the first film session played a perfect part in building the suspense for the full video.
I had the honor of spending the day at Autobahn Country Club with IND and Green Hell to get the track portion of the video (and the rest of the photos done). Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have as much time as I would have liked to get the shots I wanted. Regardless, I tried to make the minutes count once I finally had a chance to leave UMG’s mark on Green Hell on the track. And with an expert driver behind the wheel, those track moments were more than thrilling once I had a chance to put the cameras on pause and enjoy the car until it was begging for more fuel.
The car getting properly aligned/corner balanced for some proper laps
A view from one of the UMG camera setups in the car
Luckily for me, there was plenty of other eye candy hanging around Autobahn (as per usual). The AMS R35 which Justin (the guy who aligned Sam’s E92 M3) put together was out doing some testing and some Formula cars came out to play as the afternoon started to approach. It also gave me ample time to do some sound tests, record some key B Roll footage and spend a bit of time in GT Motoring’s E92 M3 around the track.
While the car was getting fine tuned after some test laps post-corner balancing, I took the opportunity to set up all my cameras in, on and around the car before heading out with our driver for some legitimate laps.
As the day was drawing to a close, the rain started to come down and that officially retired the media crew. Sam finally got a chance to see what the car could do and was more than impressed by how vastly improved the new setup was compared to last. And although this track season is rapidly coming to an end, I’m more than convinced that next season will bring a lot of smiles to Sam and anyone lucky enough to ride along.
That night, I spent a majority of it looking over the clips and organizing my workflow to get in a massive all-night editing session at IND to launch the full feature (photos, feature and blog) exclusively on Bimmerpost that Friday before SEMA. Powered by McRibs and a much needed McDonalds breakfast, the video rendered at 830am and we successfully launched by early afternoon that day. Despite what other BMWs may be at SEMA this year, this one has surely stolen the show without having set foot in Vegas. Kudos to IND for another amazing build and congratulations to Sam on the return of Green Hell!
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