derBayerische May/June 2022 - 21

A U N I C O R N
VIN, and it was true! And that's how
I met Austin Sera.
Austin is, from my perspective,
an impossibly young guy with
a true passion for BMWs - especially
unique ones. He is a largely selftaught
mechanic and had his own
shop in Frederick, MD until his
lease ended in early 2020. He had
planned to move to the west coast at
that time but changed his plans
when the pandemic first hit. He
currently rents space in Leesburg,
VA and works on cars belonging to
previous customers and friends.
Austin's specialty is engine and
transmission swaps, and he has
done an impressive number of
those projects. I went to visit him in
July 2021 and he was working on
an E9, two E24s, an E31, a bunch of
E30s, an E39, and a Ferrari 458 with
which he had been entrusted to
repair and re-engineer some parts
that had been a chronic weak link
from the factory. I've since seen him
buy and sell cars with rare BMW
Individual paint colors, E36s with
S54 swaps, and more. He completely
fixed up a Z8 so it could be
auctioned. He just has an unbeliev-
R E B O R N
the car into an Alpina tribute. The
car is his daily driver and parts
hauler.
One challenge Austin had with
the car was the firmware for the
SMG. In the time after we had it but
before Austin got it, the firmware for
the SMG had been flashed with the
version for the sedan, which came
with a 3.23 differential. Since the
wagon came with a 3.46 differential,
the rev matching didn't work
correctly, and it wouldn't shift
smoothly. After figuring this out,
replacing the clutch, and rebuilding
the slave cylinder, Austin reported
that the SMG drove spectacularly.
When I visited Austin, he was
■ ZHP engine swap in progress. Photo by Austin Sera.
able amount of knowledge in his
head and a borderline obsessive
need to get all of the details right.
It turns out Austin had purchased
our E46 wagon from the
dealership tech we sold it to, adding
it to his " unique but not very desirable "
car collection. Austin appreciated
the SMG transmission and
wagon combination as rare. After
purchasing the car, he not only
■ The car today wearing its beautiful Alpina wheels. Photo by Austin Sera.
accomplished so many of the projects
I had contemplated to put the
car back into good condition, but he
went significantly further. The car
was upgraded with a ZHP 3.0L
engine, absolutely everything was
refreshed, genuine Alpina wheels
and an Alpina front lip spoiler were
added, along with Alpina floor mats
and fancy interior trim. He has
since added Alpina decals to make
kind enough to let me drive the car.
The ZHP engine coupled with the
shorter differential that came in the
wagon has made it an extremely fun
car! Words cannot express how
much it means to me and my wife to
see this car, that was so special to
us, cared for and appreciated. It
warms my heart to see all the care,
effort, and money that Austin has
put into not only preserving this
unicorn, but also transforming it
into his own unique creation.
May I June
21
derBayerische May/June 2022

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