When Ralf Schumacher held aloft the winner’s trophy in Imola, after the 2001 San Marino Grand Prix, it marked the return to the highest level of one of the icons of motorsport, BMW.
BMW’s racing heritage began with the 328—not the recent saloon but the 1940 roadster with the kilometric hood held in place by a pair of leather straps, and in front, of course, the twin-kidney grille. In that year the 328 challenged a gaggle of Italian cars to take the Mille Miglia, literally a thousand miles of racing across Italy. A pair of 328s won 1-2 in their class, thus beginning the sporting heritage of BMW. Another tradition was also born: the 328s were powered by inline-6 engines.
Racing, as well as the BMW car factory, ground to a halt during World War 2, but BMW resumed its production soon after and returned in due time to motor sports. In the 1960s BMW raced the 2000Ti, the first touring car to lap the infamous Nordschleife, the original Nurburgring, in under 10 minutes. Touring car competition continued to be popular into the 1970s, and BMW made sure its 3.0 CSL regularly gave the Porsche 911s a run for their money.
BMW roared into the 1980s through the German Touring Car (DTM) races. The 635, seen as Cybill Shepherd’s car in Moonlighting, soon gave way to the lighter and faster M3. That M3 was truly a product of motorsport, essentially a detuned race car, produced to fulfill the requirement that 1000 units of road car be built alongside the racing model. The M3’s 2.5 liter inline-4 generated 355 horsepower in race trim, and was capable of sustaining 10,000 rpm on race tracks.
The German racing outfit soon took on the pinnacle of motorsport, Formula One, in 1982. Engine designer Paul Rosche took the engine block from the 1500 road car (displacing 1.5 liters), added a 16-valve head and a huge turbo to produce 630 bhp, about 20% higher than competing 3.0-liter normally-aspirated engines. When the engine proved reliable, Rosche and his team kept boosting the pressure, until the unbelievably strong engine block’s output approached 1400 bhp! Nelson Piquet became F1’s first turbocharged champion, with the unbreakable BMW engine.
Another innovation then was electronic control systems for the engine. The ECU in those days was “as big as a biscuit tin”, according to Brabham designer Gordon Murray, but it helped the engine keep itself together when others were expiring. The same engine powered Gerhard Berger, then in a Benetton-BMW to his first GP victory in Mexico, 1986. After introducing other innovations like engine telemetry, BMW bowed out of F1 just as the turbo era ended too.
The triumphs didn’t end there, though. Another significant victory was achieved in 1995, with the sister company of current Formula One rival McLaren-Mercedes. That company was McLaren Cars, founded to produce the ultimate road car, the McLaren F1. The definition of “ultimate” was on the terms of Gordon Murray. He wanted a no-compromise supercar that was still civilized enough to drive every day. Mr. Murray approached BMW and again, Paul Rosche, to produce the powerplant for his ultimate road car, asking for 550 bhp from a 6.1-liter normally aspirated V12. He instead received 627 bhp, churned out by one of the most fantastic road car engines ever made. It was as compact as a conventional V8, no more than 600 mm long, and weighed a mere 264 kg with exhaust and ancillaries attached. No expense was spared to create this masterpiece: its headers alone cost more than the entire V12 engine of a 750iL.
The ultimate road car soon found itself on the race track, where it routinely clobbered other sports cars like the Ferrari F50 and Lamborghini Diablo. The race tracks led to Le Mans and the 24-hour endurance race. In 1995, in what was essentially a road car fitted with a roll cage and rear spoiler, the McLaren F1 screamed to outright victory. It finished 1-3-4-5, thanks in no small part to the M Power engine at the heart of the car.
After its stint with the McLaren F1, BMW returned to Le Mans with the same engine, this time powering a car produced with Williams Grand Prix Engineering. This was no road car but an outright single-seater open car. Le Mans once again meant victory in 1999.
The partnership with Williams was a mere test bed for a more lofty goal: the return to F1. Retired F1 racer Gerhard Berger now headed the F1 program. The BMW V10 engine made its race debut in Australia 2000, and produced an astonishing third place for Ralf Schumacher. Thanks in part to the reliability of the engine, the Williams F1 team secured third place in the Constructors Championship in 2000. Though Honda was the engine being hyped up for a big F1 return, it was BMW that helped to deliver the points.
For 2001, BMW added sheer power to the reliability, and made the BMW-Williams the fastest car on the circuit in terms of top speed. Two victories and a strong third place in the Constructors is the team’s current standing. With that thundering 18000-rpm engine badged with the spinning propeller, the only place the BMW-Williams F1 team can go is to the top.
By Jason Ang | Photos Courtesy of BMW
Originally Published July 2001 Issue
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