One of the greatest touring cars to come out of Munich. Feast your eyes on the original 1987 World Touring Car Championship BMW E30 M3, proudly showcased here at Mortimer Motorsport Heritage Museum, North of Auckland, New Zealand.
If you're born in the 80s like me you definitely grew up watching Touring Cars on TV and imagining how cool it would be to see them racing live at the track. Let alone standing next to one as I'm doing right now a few decades after.
The story of this mean machine is filled with meaninful moments and it's mainly due to one of its legendary driver, Gianfranco Brancatelli, a renowned Italian racing driver who's brilliant career spanned various disciplines of Motorsport.
From Touring Car Racing in the WTCC, BTCC, Italian Superturismo to Endurance Racing at the 24hr of Lemans competing for a total of 5 years and driving Group C cars like the Lancia Beta Montecarlo in 1980, then Jaguar XJR-6 in 1986, the Sauber C9 in 1989 where he finished in 2nd place and his last appearance in 1990 with the Nissan R90CK.
Brancatelli was also involved at Bathurst with the Cosworth Sierra 500 and obviously with this great E30 M3 that we see here today. No wonder this car is so special, it was taken to victory all over the world in Italy, France, Australia and here in New Zealand too where it finished 2nd place in both 1989 and 1990 Group A Racing Series and 1st place in the 1991 NZ Touring Car Championship.
At the heart of the beast we find the famous S14 DOHC inline-four cylinder engine, it's the 2.3L power unit before the 2.5L was introduced a few years later. It pushes out 300hp at 8200rpm and it's mated to a manual gearbox with dogleg transmission and limited slip differential.
Inside the cabin it gets pretty epic too with the suede steering wheel, racing gauges, full harness and roll cage, and the signatures on both the centre tunnel and main dash. Clear evidence of a long racing career filled with many victories and historical relevance.
A real thoroughbred I have the privilege of presenting you here today at Racecars Universe, with huge thanks to the Mortimer Motorsport Heritage Museum.

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