A strong contingent of BMW’s original E30 M3s will feature as part of the Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival, which marked the start of a legendary nameplate still on sale to this day.
BMW was an early adapter of the Group A formula starting with the 535 before transferring to the 635csi in 1983. What followed was considerable success for the Bavarian marque including two European Touring Car Championships and the inaugural Australian Touring Car Championship run to Group A regulations dominated by JPS BMW’s Jim Richards.
When the new E30 model of the BMW 3-Series began development a variant designed purely with motorsport in mind. The M3 was reverse engineered by BMW devoting its time to develop the best race car before converting it back to a road-going version at the height of 1980s homologation specials.
It’s rival, the Ford Sierra Cosworth and latter RS500 specification was developed similarly, but instead it’s philosophy was based on turbo power. The BMW not so much.
Light yet powerful for its class, the M3 was built to the Group A regulations perfectly.
BMW Motorsport GmbH made 20 changes to the E30’s bodywork featuring wider box wheel arches, deeper side sills and bumpers, a rear spoiler in addition to a completely revised rear window and boot profile.
Under the skin, the M3 includes heavy-duty wheel bearings up front and five-stud hubs to accompany the larger brake package.
Caster angle was increased, a faster steering rack fitted, spring rates and dampers were replaced and a front anti-roll bar was connected to the struts.
The rear did not have much change making the road-going package very solid.
Powered by a four-cylinder, naturally aspirated 2.3-litre S14 engine went against the six-cylinder philosophy BMW had pushed since the start of the decade, but the advantages included more low-end torque, better reliability at higher revs and preferred engine positioning further back. S14 used the best learnings from BMW’s Formula 1 and M1 programmes.
Believe it or not, the M3’s debut was in Australia for the opening round of the local championship at Calder Park and it was also the first start for Ford’s updated Sierra Cosworth.
Richards finished fifth, but went onto win the crown as BMW Motorsport in Germany filtered down parts throughout the season for the Frank Gardner-run squad.
Globally, the inaugural World Touring Car Championship was full of controversy from the outset as BMW’s Roberto Ravaglia took the crown.
The E30 M3 went through many iterations including an Evolution version in 1991 and raced until 1993 overlapping with the release of the E36 3-Series the previous year.
Fans will be able to see a variety of M3s including from factory team Schnitzer and the classic Gardner-prepared versions locally at the Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival on March 16-17.