BMW had a few of their historic (and one of their current) race cars on display at Sebring, back in March, and we were fortunate enough to check them out up close and personal before the crowds came in. This afforded a very close look without people getting into all the shots, or having someone from BMW Motorsport telling us maybe we should stop drooling on their price less race cars.
The LMP was cool, any chance to get that close to one of the greats is a chance well worth savoring.
But my favorite was the Prototype Technology Group E36 M3. These were absolutely top of the GTU pack back in the late 90s...the Porsche 911 RSR of the day simply could not touch them. It wasn't until the 996-based GT3R came out in 2000 that it's dominance was really challenged.
Big flares, aggressive looks, great sound. The V8 may be the future of GT class racing, but nothing sounds sweeter than a 6. I can remember drivers like Boris Said dominating the Daytona 24 hours, and pretty much everything else back then. PTG of course went on to run the Panoz GT program, and is currently working on something else at the moment, can't recall what.
The turbo CSL was pure 70s excess. Big turbo power, funky decals, wide flares, a real character machine.
A bit more spartan inside than the M3, but still gets the job done.
Finally, one of the newest E92 M3s was there as well. It really contrasts what passed for safety back then, compared to now. The cage inside the CSL looks like matchsticks compared to this Rahal-Letterman machine.
I meant to go back and get more pics at some point but never did...maybe next time. Looking at these is enough to make me want to start looking at old Bimmers! Hmmmmm
_WRS
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