[Paul-Bracq-BMW]

A lot is known about the famous DTM E30 track car, but the E30 Rallye Car is much less known, but still was very significant. The article below corrects that. one of the Rallye M3 greatest win was the 1988 Manx Rally (basically the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy for rallye cars) won by Belgian Patrick Snijers, an amazing feat for a non-local driver. Video of his incredible driving below:


Prodrive prowess turned era-defining E30 Group A Tourer into outright rally winner

It’s hard to fathom now, but back in 1985 a set of globally-relevant racing regulations gave rise to the mass-market ‘homologation special’. Unlike today, you could buy a car just like the one your tin-top heroes drove on weekends. It was ‘Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday’ at its best.

That year, Group A became the primary ‘tin-top’ motorsport category. Manufacturers were required to produce 5000 road versions of the vehicle they intended to race in FIA touring car championships.

For 1987, the category was also adopted by the World Rally Championship, after a spate of driver and spectator deaths confined the outlandish Group B rally cars to the history books in 1986.

It was also in 1987 that the first bespoke Group A vehicle was introduced; BMW’s legendary E30 M3.

Where previous Group A tourers were largely based on existing road cars, such as the Jaguar XJ-S that won Bathurst in 1985, the M3 was created as a racer first before refined for the road.

The result was domination. The E30 won the inaugural World Touring Car Championship in 1987, as well as the European title. Jim Richards also took the Australian crown with his JPS-liveried M3.

In the multi-surfaced rallying world, Audi’s Quattro had sounded the death knell for two-wheel drive as a true championship contender years earlier. Group A rally cars, therefore, would follow that all-wheel drive, turbocharged template into 1987, Lancia’s Delta HF 4WD at the forefront.

David Richards, at the helm of UK engineering firm Prodrive, was looking for his next move.
Having run Metro 6R4s in Group B, the rule change left his fledgling squad without a rallying partner.

“It was very much a case of ‘what now?’” reflects David Lapworth, Prodrive’s Technical Director today and chief engineer at the time.

Richards first met with BMW in mid-1986, selling not only his young firm, but the concept of rallying to a brand with a long circuit racing history.

The initial approach was bold, enquiring on the possibility of an all-wheel drive M3, but with that not forthcoming Prodrive saw its opportunity with the two-wheel drive variants, running in largely tarmac-based regional championships.

“Our sponsors were interested in targeting regional events, where the M3 would be competitive over a championship,” explains Lapworth.

Rothmans sponsored the BMW’s entry into the French Rally Championship for 1987, with Bernard Béguin – a driver familiar to Prodrive, having rallied in its 911 previously – heading the driving talent. BMW Belgium also ran a Prodrive M3 in several events for racing and rally ace Marc Duez.

Similar to the Schnitzer and Linder teams that competed in touring cars, the Prodrive BMW program wasn’t a fully-fledged factory effort, however BMW was quite receptive to it.

“Not in terms of finance, but with homologation and technical support… though sometimes you got the distinct impression they were very busy!” says Lapworth.

The initial Prodrive-bound M3s differed little from the touring car version. “We received ‘Matter’ race shells from BMW [Matter was the contracted shell constructor], though we had to modify the roll cage structure to accommodate co-driver requirements,” says Lapworth.

Items such as the endurance fuel tank (110-litre capacity, reduced to 60L for rallying), centre-lock wheel hubs and the oil-cooler mounted behind the front spoiler were jettisoned and underbody protection added to suit the rigours of rallying, while extra bracing was made for the suspension and body.

The lightweight wiring loom also needed modification to run additional equipment not needed on the race cars, including lighting and heating, among other things; the rally cars still had to work on ‘transport’ routes between stages, where they shared the road with everyday motorists.

“We also changed the braking system [thicker discs, to resist cracking] and damping to increase damper stroke,” adds Lapworth. Records show that the rally cars offered 150mm of wheel travel even in tarmac spec, as opposed to the racer’s 75mm. Bilstein assisted with bespoke valving, with the softening off the bump phase in comparison to the touring-car spec a key change.

Engine-wise the initial units were of a similar specification to the circuit cars, though Prodrive quickly adopted specific camshafts and exhaust primaries. “We wanted a broader spread of power and better torque. We ended up with less peak horsepower, though it wasn’t too much; perhaps 15bhp [initially], but with better drivability.”

As a result the 2332cc (up from the 2302cc production car, thanks to a 94mm bore allowance; the road car ran a 93.4mm bore) four-cylinder naturally-aspirated M3 engine produced an initial 270bhp (around 201kW) through the adapted Getrag five-speed manual gearbox driving the rear wheels. Rally weight started at 1050kg, but steadily reduced to 1025kg; nearly 200kg lighter than the Lancia.

Despite only finalising the BMW arrangement in December 1986, Prodrive had a car ready for Béguin to compete at the Garrigues rally, a round of the French Rally Championship, in March 1987 (FIA homologation was granted 1 March). It was an inauspicious debut, the M3 retiring from the lead with a water sensor issue, though he would go on to finish third in the next French round.

Marc Duez and Billy Coleman arrived at the 1987 Circuit of Ireland with two Prodrive M3s, though both embarrassingly retired with fuelling issues. It was to prove beneficial in the end…

Fuel problems rectified through rigorous testing, Béguin took the Touraine rally in France, giving the M3 its first rally victory and vital mileage for its world championship debut at the Tour of Corsica.

This tarmac event would see the privately-run M3s (for Béguin and Duez) up against works Lancia, Ford and Renault competition for the first time.

“We went there confident with our pace… we were nervous-slash-optimistic!” laughs Lapworth now.

“The first day went to plan, but as we headed north towards Bastia on the second day there was a massive hailstorm… and the car had just left on slicks!

“We tried to call them back to service, but there was no satellite [phone] support back then, of course. We lost over a minute and a half on the stages, but after the initial ‘Oh No!’ moment, it took pressure off us, in a way, as we became the underdogs in that situation,” remembers Lapworth.

Béguin’s nerve held, and he managed to hold out the Lancias through the worst of the weather to win the event outright, with Duez claiming sixth: It would be the last rear-wheel drive, naturally-aspirated WRC victory. It was also Prodrive’s first, but would prove to be the M3’s only rally win at the highest level.

Interestingly, Prodrive had also undertaken to run M3s in selected British Touring Car events for gun driver (and BMW dealer) Frank Sytner, prior to a full program in 1988. But as the rally program entered its second year the degree of specialisation was increasing.

“We wanted to be able to run the car on gravel, as the Belgian championship had some mixed gravel/lumpy tarmac sections, so we developed a gravel kit [indeed, Ari Vatanen, co-driven by David Richards to the 1981 WRC title, entered a Prodrive M3 in the pure gravel 1000 Lakes in 1988, though it retired with steering failure). We also added a six-speed gearbox of our own design later in development.” Further engine work yielded 285bhp (213kW).

Although unable to truly challenge the further refined all-wheel drive turbo brigade at WRC level in 1988 (unlike the touring car M3s, which could be improved by BMW making a run of 500 ‘evolution’ road cars, the rally cars had to make do with the same homologation base as in 1987), Patrick Snijers was added to the driving strength and took the 1988 Belgian Rally Championship in a Bastos-backed car.

Snijers also finished second outright in the European Rally Championship (behind the inevitable Lancia Delta), but it was his victory at the Manx International on the Isle of Man that etched the M3 into rallying folklore; perhaps even more so than Béguin’s WRC victory.

This is helped by a Duke video production of the event that shows Snijers flinging the Prodrive M3 over incredibly bumpy, impossibly narrow tarmac, lined variously with trees, earth banks and unyielding concrete walls.

The year 1989 was to be the last complete Prodrive-BMW rally effort. The in-house six-speed gearbox was coupled to the final engine evolution producing 295bhp (220kW) and Marc Duez put together a budget to run in five WRC events as well as the full Belgian series.

Duez duly won the Belgian championship ahead of former teammate Snijers, who had moved to an all-wheel drive Toyota Celica GT-Four. Duez also finished a creditable 13th outright in the 13-round WRC with a best finish of fifth on the mixed-surface Portuguese event.

He was also joined by Béguin and French ace François Chatriot for a final Corsican tarmac assault, the latter being beaten only by Didier Auriol in the Lancia Delta integrale after last-day rain lost him the lead. There was some consolation for Chatriot, as he did win the French championship outright.

These continued results with an outdated, naturally-aspirated, rear-wheel drive car made Prodrive a hot commodity, and helped commence Prodrive’s most famous rallying chapter.

“From what Subaru said, our work with the M3 program opened the door to our partnership. They wanted to start small and grow together in rallying; they wanted to showcase all-wheel drive and turbocharging,” says Lapworth. The rest, as they say, is history.

Adam Davis

http://www.motoring.com.au/40-years-...lly-car-54723/

[Paul-Bracq-BMW]

Some more of Snijers amazing driving here...

[Fakemike]

Good stuff!

[finewayne]

Nice write up, E30 all the way!