Back to Features You've heard people call a car 'a bit girlie' but in this case it's true. Meet Jenn Kaufman and her 318i. Take a quick glance through some back issues of PBMW and it becomes immediately apparent that the US is a huge showcase for hot Beemers. There's rarely been an issue of PBMW without some tasty morsel from the 'Land of the Free'. However, until recently we dismissed Canada as a serious hotbed of modified Bavarian talent. But, after we received several temptors of what lay in the undiscovered country how could we resist exploring what lay north of the 49th parallel? What we found were some truly stunning examples, including last month's E36 M3-powered E30 and this pristine specimen. Make no bones about it, this is a very cool car. It may be a 318i auto, but don't let that put you off, as this car is all about style. Of course, another interesting factor is its owner. Now, we don't want to sound patronising, but it's very rare to have a feature car owned by a female, as the modified car industry is generally a male-orientated domain. With this in mind, 22 year-old Jenn Kaufman's efforts stood out even more. It would seem though that she's not alone in her efforts to promote womens' lib in modified cars and is a member of Sweetie Girl Racing. While this may sound like the Spice Girls' new race team, it's actually a serious outfit created by ladies who are really into their hot cars. Admittedly, most of the cars are rice rockets, but there's the odd Beemer and Veedub in there as well, just to add some Euro flavour. If you want to check out the girls (sorry, cars), point your computer in the direction of www.sweetiegirlracing.com. Jenn bought the brand new 318i back in 1998 and never really intended on modifying it (Oh, that old chestnut ~ RT) but, after a coming together with a deer, things took a slight twist. The bodyshop doing the repairs informed her that instead of the original front bumper she could have one from a Ti Sport which closely resembles the M3 saloon version. This change started the ball rolling; before she knew what had happened, the car had completely transformed. Wheels are always a major decision and Jenn got it out of the way pretty sharpish. She opted for a set of 19" Mille Miglia Evos coated in BF Goodridge rubber which, up until a week before the shoot, were silver but are now that very eye-catching white. Despite the large rimmage, Jenn has never had any problems with unwanted contact, of the rubbing kind, even with it decked 2.5" on Apex springs. With it now sat on Ground Control coilovers, there's the possibility of going even lower. However, she's reluctant to do this because of the dreadful state of the roads around her home town of Niagara, and the fact that she uses the car every day. The bodywork was the next target for change, E36 M3 mirrors and side skirts were added along with the wing vents from an E46 M3. They're not the cheap stick-on kind either, but real straight-from-the-dealer examples. The rear wing is a JSP Touring wing with a Rieger rear bumper. The front splitters are from Autotint Design and are actually the second set she's had, as the first set fell victim to the notorious Niagara roads. Once the bodywork had all the extra appendages, it was time for the car to take a trip to Burke and Scooter (Weren't they in Sesame Street ~ JT) at Advantage Collision who fitted everything then resprayed the car. The colour is, in fact, a bizarre pearl effect paint but, unfortunately, pearl paints are the hardest thing to photograph so you're going to have to look very closely or just take our word for it. The base coat, believe it or not, is an Arctic silver base with blue and orange pearl mixed in. It then had 12 coats of lacquer containing blue, orange and gold pearls added to create an individual effect. Barring the obvious auto gearknob, there's very little inside to give the game away that this is actually an auto. The original front seats have been replaced by a pair of Sparco Junior seats while the rear bench was recoated in silver vinyl to coordinate with the rest of the car. To carry on the racer theme from the seats, there's also a half-cage, made by the appropriately named Monkey Bars, and an Autometer gauge pod with auxiliary gauges for volts and vacuum. Other details include an ally dash kit, Birba white dials, Sparco pedals and a polished Zender handbrake. With Jenn running a 318i, she's never going to have devastating performance, so at the moment there's only a Ractive DTM-style exhaust system. She'd like to fit some sort of induction kit but the Canadian police don't allow any changes to the air box, it's an on-the-spot ticket if caught. The same rules also apply for lowering your car or having window tints. In fact, Jenn has had so much heat because of the window tints she was planning on removing them straight after the photoshoot. Maybe Mounties aren't as nice as Due South would have us believe. There may be standard speakers in the front and rear but they're the only standard parts. The head unit is a Kenwood touch-screen unit connected to a pair of Lightning Audio amps and a PlayStation2 in the boot. Also in the boot is a Clarion flat screen TV, mounted in the bootlid. The bass is supplied courtesy of a pair of 10" Lightning Audio subs. It looks like Jenn's story isn't over yet; she loves the car and hasn't been bothered so far by the lack of power. She feels the style and ICE make up for this deficiency. However, the car should be complete soon as she's got an M3 engine waiting to be fitted. She's also seriously thinking about losing the auto 'box as she now realises it was maybe a bit of a mistake to buy the lazy shift. Still, hindsight is a wonderful thing and it should be sorted soon. What this also means is that if any of you North American readers are thinking of entering your car in some shows this year, your job has just got harder. Or should we say nigh-on impossible, as Jenn and her 318i are a regular sight on the show circuit around Toronto. She entered 12 shows last year and won first in class on 11 occasions! This girl certainly knows her stuff, and as Space quite rightly sang: "The female of the species is more deadly than the male." Back to Features