During the early 1980s, BMW supported Australian motorsport through a touring car program and introductorily in Sports Sedans with a turbocharged beast.
Built for BMW’s attack on the World Championship of Makes where it was driven by the late Formula 1 driver Ronnie Peterson and German ace Hans-Joachim Stuck, the 320i Turbo helped the Bavarian marque win this title.
Only competing in two rounds before Peterson’s death at the Italian Grand Prix, the duo contested the Nurburgring and Silverstone events as then it was sold to Jim Busby to contest IMSA GTX in 1979.
During this phase, the 320i was converted to a tube-frame thanks to its lightness and stiffer characteristics, but the weak point was the M12 power plant.
To compete against the Porsche 935s, Jim Busby Racing moved the engine, transmission and driver 20cm towards the centre.
Although reliability proved a bugbear, the 2.0-litre M12 turbocharged engine was capable of producing 650hp and was later used in BMW’s title winning Formula 1 efforts with Brabham.
Frank Gardner acquired the 320i and modified it accordingly to Sports Sedan regulations.
Raced by Allan Grice in Craven Mild colours to start before changing to JPS later during its career, with Jim Richards taking the wheel when he joined the factory BMW team in 1982.
Sports Sedans was in a period of change as the category was combined with GTs leading to some very fast combinations.
Richards was up against the Porsches of Alan Jones, Rusty French and Colin Bond, previous champion Tony Edmondson provided stiff competition in his Alfa Romeo GTV-Chevrolet.
It’s most famous moment was in Richards’ hands when it was involved in a start line pile-up at Adelaide International Raceway in 1983.
As BMW Australia and Frank Gardner’s focus transitioned to touring cars as the upcoming Group A regulations were to be introduced, the 320i Turbo passed through many owners in Australia before returning to America.
It has since been restored back to its IMSA GTX specification when run by Jim Busby Racing.
It proved an important part in BMW’s Australian motorsport journey by filling the gap ahead of its Group C touring car program in 1981.