Tony Salloum the Racer

Once I revealed my intention of supercharging Baby, the first thing Tony said was �Let�s see if we can do the brakes.� �If we cannot stop this thing, I�m against a supercharger�.

This was, as I was to learn, the underlying philosophy of his;
Do it right!

Brembo Rotor

We bought and installed a 355mm 4 piston caliper Brembo GT F1 brake system.

Brembo 355mm Rotor & 4 Piston Caliper

Brembo Brakes in place

The next step was to reduce Baby�s unsprung weight at the wheels. I had seen Fikse FM-10 wheels on some of the Porsche cars at the Driver�s Schools I had attended, and Tony arranged for a set from Fikse.

Fikse Forged Aluminum Wheel Center

With the Brembo calipers showing through the FM-10s Baby looks like she is serious about performance.

Brembo Brakes shown behind the Fikse FM-10 Three Piece Forged Modular Wheel

There is a noticeable difference in handling with the 8-9 lb. per wheel weight savings. The next change would be a custom made double adjustable coil-over suspension from Pro-Trac. This system would permit adjustment from a comfortable street setting to a serious no nonsense track set-up when the need arises.

Some other �Tony� suggestions were a custom 5 point Team-Tec harness for driver and passenger which would help with Baby�s luxo front seats. Once again the lack of performance options for the E38 necessitated some innovation.

Tony and the VAC staff would wind up pulling out the entire rear seats and weld additional hardware in place to accept the long shoulder belts Baby would need for her track appearances.

Another suggestion was a heavier metal shift knob to make the B&M short shifter operate even better. Finally, what I consider Tony�s crowning achievement in this project, the SALLOUM RACING M5 flywheel.

Not Taking "It Can't Be Done" for an answer

When George Lawton sent the M5 clutch and flywheel assembly to VAC we were surprised with the weight of the dual mass flywheel. It weighed over 38 pounds. With a gleam in his eye, Tony proposed a light weight aluminum version based upon the BMW M5 flywheel�s dimensions. What he came up with defies belief in its simplicity and its performance.

T6061 Billet Aluminum Blank

"Maestro" Tony Double Checks the CNC Machine Settings Before Work Begins

VAC Motorsports' HAAS CNC Machine Does it's Stuff

SALLOUM RACING Flywheel Bolted to the Motor's Crankshaft

M5 Pressure Plate Mounted in Place

With this 16 pound flywheel in place Baby revs very quickly as compared to her stock form. With the SC installed Baby promises to be scary in terms of putting power to the ground.

Tony�s next suggestion made perfect sense as well, a custom Limited Slip 3.15:1 differential based on the BMW M5 unit. Little did we know what the engineering involved would entail. The premise was to avoid having all that power primarily directed to one rear wheel. Things became very complex with the E39 M5 diff having similar yet sufficiently different measurements then the E38 diff. There were many measurements and subsequent calculations to be made before the modified (60% lock) M5 diff finally went into place in Baby�s rear sub frame.

VAC Motorsports Modified (60% lock)M5 Differential (View from front)

VAC Motorsports Modified (60% lock)M5 Differential (View from rear)
Trust me, Don't Try this at home. The engineering involved is a VAC Motorsports trade secret

Another wrinkle we encountered was the need for a custom drive shaft. There are none in the BMW inventory because the E38 that had the manual transmission option (Europe only) was the shorter wheelbase 740i Sport and not the longer wheelbase 740iL. Therefore we had to have one custom made.

The Custom Drive Shaft Finally Fitted in to Place.

The next challange proved to be the ESS SC install

We discovered a difference in the size of th US & Euro AC Compressor

So VAC modified Baby's existing AC mounting bracket to accept the ESS SC bracket. Final fitment is checked before milling Baby's Bracket on a BMW V8 engine block.

Corrected AC compressor bracket & AC compressor bolted in.

Tapping Baby's OEM crank pulley in order to bolt on the ESS SC drive pulley

Here the ESS crank pulley is bolted onto Baby's OEM crank pulley assembly. The tolerances were remarkably close for this operation.

Rough fitment of the ESS Supercharger

Repositioned ABS Control unit to allow for the supercharger.

The supercharger finally in place and plumbing completed.

Taking a step back the re-assembly of the front bumper is ready to begin. Note the external oil cooler lines below the kidney grill intakes

Finally Tony suggested and installed an East European 13mm rear anti-sway bar which had to be fitted with custom mounts because this assembly had not been available in the US either. All of the above took weeks to accomplish because of the approach Tony and his brother Armand take; "What is the best way to make this work?"

Tony (left) & Armand (right) Working Out the Details

I confess at times I was frustrated by the fact that I was driving a mini-van and suffering the indignities one experiences in a mini-van at the hands of the rice heads that seem to populate our highways these days, while Baby sat on a lift at VAC Motorsports. But that has changed.

The New Baby

Now my �Old Man�s Land Yacht� should be the equal of just about anything out there and with none the wiser. Baby looks like a 7 Series with fancy wheels and that is all.

So in truth, what began as a straight forward transmission swap had evolved into an almost complete remake of Baby. In went a lightly modified 740iL and out came a refined high powered sport sedan. A feature I especially favor is Baby�s appearance. With the exception of the Fikse FM-10 wheels there really isn�t much of an indication to the casual observer that reveals her true abilities. Baby has become, at least in my mind, the �Ultimate Driving Machine�. She has the horsepower to weight ratio of the excellent BMW M5 and the renowned cruising manners and passenger compartment roominess one has come to expect from the BMW 740iL. Her ability to accelerate is unheard of in her E38 counterparts, and she has the handling to match all but the finest of sports cars.

VAC Motorsports.....
When you are serious!