Before Arthur Porter sold his 1987 E30 M3 Gruppe A racecar he was kind enough
to take some photos of it for me. Those photos are presented here and show some
interesting details regarding BMW Motorsport preparation of the E30 M3 for racing
in the "early days".
I think that tracking the progress of E30 M3 factory Gr A racecars is instructive
for those of us modifying these cars today. BMW Motorsport had relatively large resources
at their disposal, and they had the luxury of working with the engineers who actually
designed the car in the first place. So now, many years later, we can still look
to the Motorsport solutions to gain insight and inspiration. Some of the technology
has changed, for instance we today have ready access to much more sophisticated
engine management systems. And the arena of materials science and surface coatings has come
a long way since then. But overall the racing world is not "that" different. The same laws
of physics governing power production, chassis stiffening, and suspension tuning still apply today,
as they did in the late 80's and early 90's.
|