Back in February, we introduced you to Matt A. and his E30 BMW. Under his hood was a Mitsu Eclipse 4G63 turbo engine swap, along with a 6-speed manual transmission, and a turbo that could swallow a goose whole and not even surge. Last year, Matt’s BMW was making a mere 500-ish horsepower and running low 11’s in the quarter mile at 119 mph. So, it was basically too slow, because Matt wanted 9’s. Fair enough.

It’s now July 2011, and racing season is in full swing again. On July 9th Matt took his BMW up to New England Dragway for his first real testing day this season. Right off that bat, Matt tore off a 1.586 second 60 foot time, and ran 10.538 at 132 mph. Cutting a half a second off your 1320 time, along with gaining 13 mph is not too shabby I’d say.

Can’t see the video? Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfHRID7g6AY

You are probably saying “Great, but he still didn’t do 9’s yet, so what?” Well, you see Matt has around 100 more horsepower on tap, ready to be “turned on” per se. He is just on the fence about cranking it up and grabbing 9’s in the weeks ahead, OR saving his fresh drivetrain for the 19th Annual DSM shootout in Ohio on August 20th and 21st. Regardless of when it happens, 9’s are going to happen, and you will see the video here when it does.

More to come…