BMW 325i: Meet Prateek Dalal’s E90 drift machine!

Get past the bling of this E90 BMW 325i and you’ll find Prateek Dalal behind the wheel waiting to bonfire the rear tyres off it. The racer and drifter began his journey in 2010 he tells me, with the one-make Volkswagen Polo Cup he tells me, before walking me through the awesome beast that is his BMW. “I did two seasons, 2010 and 2011. Then I shifted to autocross. I also took part in rallies – the Royal Rajasthan Rally, Desert Storm, SJOBA, and others, securing several podium finishes.” In 2019, Prateek won the National Gymkhana Championship and National Autocross Championship, representing Team India in the Asia Auto Gymkhana Competition, an international event where Asian countries compete against each other. Prateek tells me, “In 2022, he represented India at the FIA Motorsport Games in the Auto Slalom category. In 2024, I represented the country again at the FIA Motorsport Games in the same Auto Slalom category.”

With it clearly established that Prateek knows a thing or two about drifting, we move to his gleaming drift machine. “I’m a BMW fanboy. In my college days, I had a 320d. Even then I was going sideways, but the main start was in 2022 when I owned the F10 530d. Then one day, I got to know through a mutual contact that there’s a Punjabi singer who was shooting a music video and they needed some drifting shots and since you’re involved in drifting and motorsport and you have a rear-wheel-drive car, so I went for it. We did the shoot and it came out really well, and that video got more than 2 million views. After that I started getting more music videos sent my way. Since then, I have performed in roughly 10 to 15 music videos for prominent artists, including Ikka, Parmish Verma, Karan Aujla, Arjan Dhillon and Jordan Sandhu. I did two shoots for Parmish, one for Karan, and so on,” says Prateek.

During an event at the Buddh International Circuit (BIC), the engine of the 5 Series blew up while drifting due to oil starvation, causing it to seize. That was a major setback for Prateek and getting it repaired through BMW cost around ₹5 to 6 lakh. That experience pushed him to build a project car as per his needs – purely for drifting. Having owned an E90 in college days, he knew and loved the chassis, and while he wanted a 330i first, he ended up getting himself with a 325i.

Walking me through the build, Prateek says, “We manual-swapped the transmission and welded the differential. Initially, we ran with the stock suspension and shot a few music videos on that setup. Gradually, we installed coilovers, added a steering angle kit, and carried out weight reduction. That build marked the starting point not just for me, but for nearly 99 per cent of the grassroots drifting community in India today. Together with Sportech, we have built around 7 to 8 drift-spec E90s. The viral reach of those videos drove the drift movement forward here. Sanam (Sekhon) was drifting before this, but the mainstream boom and personal connection with the audience took off when people saw some of our builds in action. Today, we have also expanded into hosting drift training sessions through Niklo Lateral. Last year, I also acquired a Nissan 350Z to step up from the E90. That build is currently ongoing. As for the E90, I have competed in it as well, such as the competitive event at BIC in 2025 where I secured second place, finishing just behind a BMW M4 that had double my car's power.”

“What was your logic when building out the E90?” I question Prateek, and he replies, “The car had a singular focus – 100 per cent dedicated drifting. I researched extensively online to identify the exact parts required. We opted for an OEM BMW 6-speed manual transmission compatible with the E90 chassis. We installed a coilover setup, we welded the stock differential. In drifting, you need either a welded unit or a LSD. Welding costs roughly one-tenth the price of an aftermarket LSD while delivering the required lock. We got an angle kit from a US-based company Unicorn Racing to increase steering angle during slides. Then I went for a tune.” The drifter goes on to add that, “A key rule when building any project car – whether for drift, track, or rally – is to first restore the base vehicle to 100 per cent healthy, stock mechanical condition. Do replace all fluids, bushings and worn components. If you buy a neglected car and immediately throw modification parts at it without checking the baseline health of the engine, differential, or gearbox, you risk catastrophic failures midway through the build.”

He logically explains, “We followed a strict stage-by-stage plan. Level 1 was the manual swap, a hydraulic handbrake, welding the differential, and the car remained visually stock and road-legal while being fully drift-capable. Level 2 was installing the coilovers, solid subframe / chassis bushings, front and rear adjustable control arms, and the front steering angle adapter kit. After observing that the power steering temperature was rising high during events, I installed a power steering oil cooler into the car. Level 3 is when we stripped the interior, installed a carbonfibre hood, lightweight fibreglass boot lid, racing bucket seats, and a 6-point racing harness. We deleted the catalytic converter in the exhaust setup with a straight-pipe midsection paired with an ECU tune. The process took about two full years.”

“Did you have formal drift training prior to this?” I ask him. He chuckles in response. “I never attended a drift school or formal motorsport academy. Everything was self-taught through seat time, experimentation, and learning through my mistakes. However, I actively listened to technical feedback from experienced peers, and if a suggested setup change works on track, I keep it, otherwise, I revert to my baseline.”

What’s next for Prateek? “Turbocharging. I have already installed an upgraded CSF aluminium radiator to manage cooling demands. The car currently develops 240bhp naturally aspirated; adding the turbo should push the output to approximately 400bhp. The reason why I didn’t do it earlier was engine reliability, given India's ambient heat. Additionally, 240bhp was plenty for the smaller tracks we ran previously. Now that track layouts are expanding, higher horsepower is necessary to sustain high-speed slides,” he says. Seeing Prateek’s drift machine in action on Instagram only proves why the E90 BMW 3 Series is such a proven drift platform, and this blinged-up drift car tends to make you fall in love with it while it bonfires off the rear tyres.