CUSTOMER FEATURE: Chris’ Near Perfect BMW M4 (F82)

Ever heard the saying, ‘The early bird gets the worm’?

Well, we have, and this article is all about waking up early to catch the sunrise with our fantastic customer and friend – Chris, and his near perfect BMW M4.

But first, who is Chris?

Chris is an Eastern Suburbs local, who originally hails from Ireland but has called Australia home for 9 years. He has a career in construction and has had two, almost lifelong hobbies: Cars & Music. Chris own’s a customised BMW F82 M4 in Yas Marina Blue over Silverstone Interior, which even though his distance - chooses us for all his servicing and maintenance needs. We’ve chosen Chris for this article due to his commitment, not only to our workshop – but always putting his hand up to attend events and help in any way he can. Plus, he probably the cleanest modified M4 in Australia and a fun back-story…

What is this fun backstory?

Well, growing up in Europe during the Max Power, Fast Car & Redline days - show cars were something he lusted for. These publications, events and DVD’s were relative to our Hot4s, Auto-Salon and Ignition DVD. Over his years Chris has owned just over 20 cars, with at least 15 of them being customised in some shape or form and a handful being front-cover quality! It all started with a passion for Volkswagen Automotive Group (VAG) cars, mainly VW and Audi. Only ever expanding to BMW - for now at least…

Let’s talk more about some of these past custom cars.

First off, we’re not going to talk about all 20 - that would be near impossible. We’re going to talk about the handful Chris has actual fond memories of; whether from building, experiencing, or missing. It all started with a Volkswagen Mk4 Golf, it was the 1.4L and was purchased stock. After a couple weeks it was lowered with wheels, had custom lights and all the other basic ‘first car’ things. This, this was the bug biting.

After some time, his Mk4 wasn’t the Mk4 he dreamt of, so sold it and bought another. This time he was going to go a little further and it received a full body kit and colour change respray. This was satisfying… until an offer to good to ignore was made and it was sold. But, surprise-surprise, his third car was also a Mk4 golf! But this time he wanted to build his perfect custom Mk4. It went a more subtle route receiving a bora body kit, colour change respray and had all the trims and door handles smoothened out. With the obsession towards custom cars well and truly set in, his next car was arguably one of the most special he’s had.

Chris managed to purchase an already modified show-car, a car modified by Max Power themselves. It was a VW Colorado in black, fitted with a complete Reiger wide-body kit and was at the time, the best of the best. This car was amazing, but being such a popular car it wasn’t long until someone wanted it more than Chris and made another offer he couldn’t refuse. After having something so strongly in the spot-light Chris decided to try something a bit more subtle this time, with a bit more dynamic breathe.

He ended up sourcing a Volkswagen Mk2 Golf GTI. Then plan this time was keep things cleaner and lean towards the performance, rather than the cosmetic. It was red and just right with all the best suspension upgrades, as well as all the performance parts available. This is when the performance bug bit, and as Chris mentioned, ‘this is the one that got away!’.

After the subtle Mk2 GTI Chris wanted to experience more speed, ending up in an Audi S3, in canary yellow… and then a silver one! When they were no longer fast enough, a Subaru Impreza WRX STI popped up and came into his life. This one was fun and received a very period correct flip paint respray and a complete custom interior trim. After the Subaru he tried his hand at BMW, a 325ci and then a 330ci.

Time to jump the pond, the big one down-under.

When he moved to Australia the car habit didn’t stop. Surprisingly the first car he tried to buy was a Volkswagen Mk6 Golf from one Oscar in Castle hill, his first interaction with Eurowerke, then Hills Eurohaus. Chris ended up in an A4 2.0T, which he threw on some Rotiforms and enjoyed his starting his new life in Australia. When the time came to move on, a Volkswagen Mk5 R32 golf was selected, in manual of course. This got a set of BBS LM’s and had the engine bay all painted and detailed. This is where the obsession for engine bay began.

After the Mk5 he stayed VW but went for the cooler shaped Scirocco, which got candy red calipers, engine detailing and a whole array of bolt on accessories. After the Scirocco Chris wanted more space and began searching for an Audi RS4/5 B7 or an Audi RS3. He couldn’t find one with low kms, in the colour he wanted or with the service history he’d like. But during this time, he had a blue M4 saved on his carsales list… Looking at it again one night, he noticed it was located near his work - so he thought why not and booked a viewing.

The rest is history, he saw the car and it had 19,000kms and was in perfect condition both cosmetically and mechanically. It had the carbon ceramic brakes, the right colour and interior. Chris had to have it. Since then, he’s slowly modified it into what you see today.

Bringing us to his BMW M4 in Yas Marina Blue.

Time has passed since purchasing his M4 and many, many thousands of dollars have been invested into creating Chris’ dream M4. The exterior is a collection of the best parts on offer for the BMW M4, all in the highest quality Carbon Fibre with OEM fitment required to give it a truly executed look.

Moving inside, the interior is once again a collection of only the best parts on offer for the BMW M4, all the right parts without going over the top but giving the interior an upgraded and finer executed feel.

Then you’ll notice the satin black wheels with concave which complement the huge ceramic brake discs behind. With the tyres, wheel spacers and KW suspension framing this car with millimetre perfected stance.

Under the hood you’ll really see Chris’ eye for detail. All the best parts have been selected but going above and beyond, he’s also hand polished ALL the aluminium parts under the hood. It’s not chrome you’re looking at - it’s blood, sweat and tears!

All the years and cars from Chris’ past have brought him to the M4 today, the learnings and mistakes giving him the ability to truly understand how to put together a complete package, how to tie it all together and it ‘not be in your face’ in the slightest. This is the kind of car, you notice, and it draws you in… when you’ve been drawn in, you’ll then see near perfect execution to every element. It is, the nearest the perfect BMW M4 we’ve seen.

Thanks are in order.

A big thank-you must go to Chris for firstly entrusting us with your beast of an M4 and more notable for this article…  meeting up with us at 5:30am on a Sunday to get capture photos and videos. We hope the reflections of the glorious sunrise truly show the quality of Chris’ paint and undeniable amount of work that has gone into cresting such a subtle, yet incredible BMW M4.

CUSTOMER FEATURE: Chris’ Near Perfect BMW M4 (F82) – Gallery: