BMW M
February 1, 2005
Thirty-three years ago, with its 1800ti and 2000ti winning races and championships in the hands of tuners and privateers, BMW decided to enhance its burgeoning motorsports position by creating its own in-house racing group. Thus was BMW Motorsport GmbH created in 1972 by then-BMW AG board member Robert A. Lutz–yes, the same Bob Lutz who is now vice chairman and product guru at General Motors.
“A company is like a human being,” Lutz said at the time. “As long as it goes in
for sports, it is fit, well-trained, full of enthusiasm and performance.” The
managing
director was former Porsche factory driver and Ford of Europe
racing manager Jochen Neerpasch, who attracted drivers of the caliber of Chris
Amon, Hans-Joachim Stuck, and Dieter Quester, and developed a lightweight 240 hp
2002 for rally racing and a 3.0 CSL road-racing coupe.
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The latter, a 360 hp, 2,400-pound rocket with aluminum doors, hood, and deck and a magnesium transmission housing (“L” stood for “light”), proved virtually unbeatable in European touring car competition. It won six championships between 1973 and 1979 and dominated international touring car competition for nearly a decade.
Also highly successful in U.S. competition beginning in 1975, the 3.0 CSL was known for advanced technology (BMW’s first 4-valve 6-cylinder engine and early antilock braking) and for its glorious blue/violet/red-on-white paint scheme, a BMW racing trademark to this day. Between 1973 and 1982, BMW 4-cylinder engines also dominated Formula Two single-seater racing, the training ground for international Formula One Grand Prix competition.
An important sideline began in 1976 when the Board assigned the Motorsport team to establish a BMW driver’s school. Neerpasch had taken his cadre of top pro drivers to the Swiss ski resort of St. Moritz in 1973 for “fine-tuning” by a sports instructor and a sports psychologist. This then-novel approach apparently worked, and discussion began about offering similar courses for nonpros. “As the company responsible throughout BMW for all motorsport activities,” stated the original driver’s school literature, “BMW Motorsport GmbH wishes to promote the driver in his performance as part of the man/machine system.”The target was 800 participants a year, 300 at BMW’s proving grounds and another 500 on racetracks. One of the primary attractions was that BMW provided the cars–125 hp specially tuned 320i’s–so participants did not have to worry about wear and damage to their own cars. (Since 1997, these schools have been known as BMW Driver Training.)
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