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Not all M3 racers are the same, though as the saying goes it’s tough to judge a book by its cover. Looking at today’s 1995 M3 one could suggest right off the bat that it looks well built but not appreciably different than most other track-ready E36 M3s that come to the market. But it’s what is underneath that really separates this M3 – one that bucks the suggestion that beauty is only skin deep. That’s because this example is one of the reported 197 M3s produced by BMW Motorsport GmbH specifically for racing when new. They were sold to the likes of dealers and well-to-dos for Group N competition – effectively, a “Showroom Stock” level of racing. But these M3s were anything but stock as they were delivered in component form to dealerships to be built by the racer in the specification that they required. Number 136 has an interesting career, having originally been raced by Frick Motorsport in the Austrian Touring Car Championship by notable BMW factory driver Dieter Quester. BMW even went so far as to have models made of the car, liveried in Red Bull colors and wearing number 3. Since then it was turned into a privateer racer where it has consistently been, rather unsurprisingly, a front runner:
If you were a gentleman racer over the best part of the past decade and a half, there was only one natural choice for your steed; the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car was, and still is, the most popular choice for factory supported full race cars to buy brand new. But we can thank the success of the Cup formula for an entirely new lineup of racers, from the Lamborghini Super Trofeo to the track-oriented Laguna Seca Mustangs. In the FIA mandated GT3 field, the advent of the Pro/Am designations have similarly diversified the field from the standard Porsches to new entrants, from the seemingly outrageous Bentley Continental GT3 to the Aston Martin Vantage GT3. But while those names may seem like newcomers on the international circuits, the reality is that both the heritage of Bentley and Aston Martin lay exactly with those gentleman racers. No, the real newcomer to the block is the Audi R8; a name steeped in Le Mans history but a chassis built for the street, the GT3 effort resulted in the popular and sonorous R8 LMS Ultra, as Audi shifted its focus from showcasing quattro all-wheel drive in racing to the lightweight technology incorporated into the new mid-engined racer:
On paper, the 968 should make a great race car. Out of the box, the transaxle configuration meant that as with all of the 924/944 lineup which preceded it, the 968 had nearly perfect weight distribution and balance. The boxy flares of the 944 had been smoothed slightly but were still quite capable of containing very large amounts of sticky rubber. The 968 was available with a 6-speed manual transmission; one more cog to exploit that power train than had previously been available. And while nearly all examples lacked the magical turbo script, the upgraded 944 S2 motor with VarioCam meant that the torque-laden and largest post-war 4-cylinder produced in normal production runs churned an impressive 17 horsepower more than the boosted variant had in 1986, with 237 horsepower on tap. But for whatever reason, track worthy 968s are much more rare to see than 944s; perhaps it’s the residual value they still enjoy in some regards, or perhaps its the flexibility of tuning the Turbos for more boost. Whatever the reason, it’s neat to see one pop up, such as this PCA/NASA example today:
Last week, I pitted a wickedly turned up 944 Turbo against a much more tame E30 M3. My feeling was that the M3 was overpriced in comparison to the 944 Turbo – especially when you considered the performance envelope the 944 was capable of. That particular example was churning out in excess of twice what the M3 was producing from the legendary S14 – not exactly an apples to apples competition in anything but pricing. To equal the playing field a bit, this week I have two different racing M3s – the first and last of the two door variety. How does a very tuned E30 compare in value to a E92?
We’re going to finish off Motorsports Monday with a hybrid. Not a hybrid in the sense you are probably thinking, but a Swedish/German creation with looks to strike fear in the eyes of who come across it on the street and track. The Volvo Amazon was the face of Volvo in the 1960s, and even a few performance models appeared, such as the 122S and 123GT. This custom build for sale in Sweden, however, pushes the performance envelope to the extreme, with a BMW V8 under the hood producing close to 700 horsepower mated to a Nissan 5-speed manual transmission. Add in a full roll cage, Sparco racing seats and digital dashboard, this is one way to stand out from the crowd on the starting grid.
