Mike's Alpine White 1991 318is

[roguetoaster]

You know, I think you need a black spoiler with the fans.

[mike.bmw]

Looks great on your car!

Those replicas cant be cheap though! they are injection molded, I can spot some of the ejector pin faces.

Thanks! Not cheap, but way cheaper than a set of originals.

Turbo fans! That's a cool move

I see what you did there.

Looks badass! I think you may have convinced me to get a set of BBS's (not necessarily with turbofans). I have been on the fence for a while, but this is just so cool that it may have pushed me over the edge...

Do it!

At risk of posting too many photos (too late, I know), I drove out to the place my wife and I got married 11 years ago to take some photos this morning. It was a bit of a trial run as I'm hoping to take some photos of someone else's E30 at the same location in the coming weeks.

Fans off, pre sunrise

DSC_0716 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Fans on, sun coming up:

DSC_0735 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0730 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0773 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0748 (1) by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0793 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

[Nate37]

Looks badass! I think you may have convinced me to get a set of BBS's (not necessarily with turbofans). I have been on the fence for a while, but this is just so cool that it may have pushed me over the edge...

[zwill23]

Turbo fans! That's a cool move

[D.Martijn]

Looks great on your car!

Those replicas cant be cheap though! they are injection molded, I can spot some of the ejector pin faces.

[mike.bmw]

I saw these this morning. They look really good on your car, Mike.

Thanks! Your car looks AMAZING!

Love the post about the origins of the Turbofan, was actually going to ask about how they attached and you beat me to it! Very cool, glad someone as detail oriented as yourself got ahold of them and posted all about it!

Yeah, I figured not everyone knows the story behind them and/or knows how they mount. They basically have a hubcentric ring that the hex cap presses into place. They even have some relief areas on the fan "blades" for optimal balance. These are really well put together, just like the originals. I've had them on the car for a mix of backroads and highways and they stay silent, don't move, and don't contact the wheel lips or faces.

Man that looks stunning

Thanks! Definitely a fun addition with a bit of a story and some relevant history.

A couple more photos:

DSC_0893 (1) by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0842 (1) by mike.bevels, on Flickr


DSC_0885 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

[econti]

Man that looks stunning

[Albie325]

Love the post about the origins of the Turbofan, was actually going to ask about how they attached and you beat me to it! Very cool, glad someone as detail oriented as yourself got ahold of them and posted all about it!

[fresh_TD]

I saw these this morning. They look really good on your car, Mike.

[roguetoaster]

Excellent.

[mike.bmw]

Thanks for the reply! Please share the vendor if you don’t mind. PM if necessary. Thanks again and keep posting great updates.

Hilarious wheel choice, but also great. We need more info.

Thanks, guys!

These are installed on my BBS RS001s and are replicas of the turbofans BBS made specific to BBS RS001s/RS003s. They are utterly ridiculous, totally retro, and I absolutely love them.

Here's a high-level read about the history of the turbofan: https://petrolicious.com/articles/th...-to-the-street

To quote the article:

Dubbed, in totally consistent ’70s lingo, “turbofans,” these wheel attachments were the ultimate embodiment of form following function. Often painted up in garish but gorgeous contrasting colors, made of exotic magnesiums and kevlars, and sporting downright evil-looking knife-like air ducting, you knew that any car donning a set of ’fans meant business.

...

Turbofans are arguably just plain old awesome as material objects, but the real value comes from using their origins and current popularity to understand the relationship between race engineering and street car customization. BBS, the undisputed king of the turbofan, even went so far as to offer non-racing customers bolt-on covers for their RSes (as seen in the red-white colorway in the included advertisement).

...

I think we should look back on this trend with the most rose-tinted glasses we can find; through turbofans we can see the endless pursuit of gaining an edge on competition (they represent an idea taken to the edge) as well as the dynamic relationship between function and form, between physics and style. Anyone who thinks they look like hubcaps just doesn’t get it.

Here's the backside of the replica. The only place it comes in contact with the wheel is the center hub where the locking nut secures it.

DSC_0814 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

So to install them, you remove the center hex nut (which unscrews from the wheel), remove the center "waffle" and put the turbofan in its place, then reinstall the center hex nut. Here's an example that I took from the article linked above:

this-is-how-turbofan-wheels-evolved-from-racing-to-the-street-1476934313699 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

And one more photo for good measure:

DSC_0825 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

[roguetoaster]

Hilarious wheel choice, but also great. We need more info.

[getouth]

Thanks for the reply! Please share the vendor if you don’t mind. PM if necessary. Thanks again and keep posting great updates.

[getouth]

Thanks for the reply! Please share the vendor if you don’t mind. PM if necessary. Thanks again and keep posting great updates. 👍🏽

[mike.bmw]

Fans look great ! Are these Oem? If so what are they going for these days??

Thanks! Not OEM, but they were produced from a scanned OEM turbofan. Fitment is perfect, quality is great, and they cost a fraction of the $1.5-$2K an original set goes for these days. I went back and forth with the manufacturer for a couple months and I'm very pleased with the result.

DSC_0813 by mike.bevels, on Flickr