Pic Post: (vintage) NATCC T.C. Kline BMWs at Cleveland

Stance what? Stance who? It ain't nothing new kids. And as awesome as these BMWs look, for better or for worse, it's cars like this that fed the somewhat questionable huge wheels / tacky spoiler trend of the mid to late 90s. But these insanely low, over-wheeled sedans were proper race cars, and they handled and went like nothing else in a sedan body, to say nothing of the stopping. Several cars ran twin front calipers and discs as big as anything seen in their time. It wasn't exactly a spec series, as there were all sorts of makes, models and drive trains allowed, but there were strict rules to adhere to, and the rear wheel drive BMWs and all wheel drive Audis suffered heavy weight penalties. By the point these pictures were taken (1997) they were pretty handicapped and not all that competitive with their front wheel drive competitors. 



The Super Touring formula which the NATCC adhered to was as follows:

• No more than 2.0 liters displacement - Most brands were said to make 290-320hp, and were seen in 4, 5 and 6-cylinder variations. Most were 4-cylinder.
• 8500rpm maximum
• 19x8" wheels
• Four-door sedans only
• Rear wing and front splitter were the only aerodynamic add-ons allowed
• Engine was to be 'stock block' and had to be sourced from the model line, but didn't have to come in the car being raced. As the Audi A4 BTCC thread over on Club GTI shows - these were some awfully trick 'stock block' engines. 

And so in America, we only saw these cars for two years, 1996 and 1997. As I understand it the cars were not especially cheap to run, with their 6-speed sequential gearboxes and highly-strung engines, but they were a blast to watch. Dodge was the only American company to step up to the plate, and their in-house built Stratuses (Strati?) were some of the strongest in the series.

Somewhere our intrepid slacker Josh has at least another 5-6 rolls of film from this trip we took to Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland for the CART  race, for which the NATCC was a support series. Getting him to develop it or print it will be something else altogether, but maybe if I'm lucky he'll see this post and be guilted into it...right after the 2001 and 2002 Daytona 24 Hour races.

_WRS

BMW (vulgar display of) M Power

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