mika
Still Wondering
TodayÔÇÖs Birthdays / Calendar
If anyone is listening this would be interesting information for MOA to post
thebeachcruiser.com
March use statistics
bikernewsonline.com
International Female Ride Day 2008
crash.net
Race results for Jerez MotoGP
Schumi Watch: Finishes 4th in first real bike race
autoracingdaily.com
No motorcycle racing career for Schumi
worldsbk.com: Official Web Site ÔÇô News, features and more
motogp.com: Official Web Site ÔÇô News, features and more
BMW Sauber F1
BMW Motorsport
I am taking a twist this Monday.
This week the BMW PressClubs featured the following historical piece on the BWM M1. It appears to be the first of hopefully more pieces building ups to the opening of the redone BMW Museum.
Icons for Connoisseurs ÔÇô Thirty Years of the BMW M1
Munich. The star came in pure white: When the 64th Paris Motor Show opened its gates in autumn 1978, sports car fans and lovers had only one destination ÔÇô the stand of BMW Motorsport GmbH. There they were able to admire a super-low, extremely dynamic new model making it quite clear at very first sight that this was GermanyÔÇÖs fastest road-going sports car: the BMW M1, 1,140 millimetres (44.9???? ) high, 204 kW (277 bhp) strong, and well over 260 km/h (160 mph) fast. ÔÇ£Everybody was crowding around BMWÔÇÖs new mid-engined sports carÔÇØ, wrote the press. And: ÔÇ£The list of orders coming in exceeds even the wildest expectations ÔÇô an American fan of BMW, just to mention one example, has already put in an order for three M1s.ÔÇØ That was indeed quite something, considering that BMWÔÇÖs super-sports car had a price-tag back then in 1978 of exactly DM 100,000, enough for four BMW 323is plus a couple of optional extras.
It is indeed fair to say that few cars have ever been expected with such excitement and anticipation as the BMW M1 representing all of BMWÔÇÖs know-how in motor racing. Project E 26, as the then still nameless M1 was initially called within the Company, had started in 1976. This was to be the first really unique car built by BMW Motorsport GmbH, BMWÔÇÖs motor racing subsidiary established in 1972. Having already made a great name for itself in the international racing scene with the fast BMW 2002 and the truly superior BMW 3.0 CSI, the racing company now planned to lift this success to an even higher level with a competition car specially built and prepared for the Group four and five racing series.
According to Group four regulations at the time, a car qualifying for entry required a production run of at least 400 units in 24 successive months, it had to have two seats and bear a distinct resemblance from outside with its production counterpart. And that made it quite clear that the E26 had to be not only a thoroughbred racing car, but also a street-legal sports car.
A Bavarian with Italian blood.
The problem was that BMW Motorsport GmbH totally lacked the capacity to develop and build such a car all by itself. After all, this team of specialists had concentrated so far on ÔÇ£simplyÔÇØ turning series-production cars into racing cars, making the chassis and suspension tauter and the engine more powerful.
In its lines and design, the new coup?® was intended to clearly boast that special Italian style. It was modelled around the gull-wing turbo, a turbocharged concept car created in 1972 by BMW designer Paul Bracq. Proceeding from this design study with its rounder lines, Giorgio Giugiaro created the sharp profile of the M1 with its distinct, almost jagged edges and corners.
Indeed, Bracq and Giugiaro had already cooperated in the past in creating the BMW 6 Series coup?®.
First choice in the engine department: a straight-six power unit.
Choosing the engine, BMW Motorsport GmbH initially focused on two concepts: Advance studies of Formula engines had led, inter alia, to a ten-cylinder code-named the M81, a V-engine with its cylinders at an angle of 144??. Suitably modified, this engine was also examined for its possible use in a sports car. But then the team around BMWÔÇÖs Motorsport Director Jochen Neerpasch quickly opted in favour of a new straight-six, an engine concept supported by the excellent experience BMW had gained in the CSI races.
After all kinds of rumours with the grapevine running wild, BMW unveiled the secret in spring 1977, officially confirming the development of the new super-sports car. Then, in autumn of the same year, BMW published the first photos of the M1 in production trim, the car then making its first public appearance again half a year later: Together with TV presenter Dieter K??rten, Jochen Neerpasch proudly introduced the Group four version in the colours of Motorsport GmbH in a prime-time Saturday evening sports programme on Channel Two of German Television. And although this racing machine bearing starter number eleven was not yet ready to go, the first test drives were scheduled for April 1978.
277 bhp in a purebred sports car.
The big day finally came in autumn of the same year, the public being able to admire the first E26 at the Paris Motor Show. By that time the car bore the model designation M1 standing for the first car developed and built by BMW Motorsport GmbH.
Measuring 4,360 millimetres (171.7???? ) in length, 1,824 millimetres (71.8???? ) in width and 1,140 millimetres (44.9???? ) in ÔÇ£heightÔÇØ, the M1 exuded a genuine flair of power. And indeed, this mid-engined sports car was driven by a 3.5-litre straight-six fitted lengthwise in front of the rear axle and developing maximum output of 277 bhp. Code-named the M88, this engine was based on the volume-production six-cylinder combined with the four-valve cylinder head carried over from BMWÔÇÖs CSI racing engines. Within this two-piece cylinder head, the lower section formed the combustion and coolant chamber, the upper half comprised the camshaft bearings and cup tappets.
The fuel/air mixture was delivered through three double throttle butterfly manifolds featuring six 46-millimetre individual throttle butterflies to the cylinders through two intake ducts per cylinder measuring 26 millimetres (1.02???? ) in diameter. The all-electronic digital ignition system also reflected the latest state of the art.
Dry sump lubrication bore clear testimony to the sporting genes of the M1, the car being able to achieve a very high level of lateral acceleration. Fuel was supplied to the engine from two tanks right and left in front of the rear axle, each with a capacity of 58 litres (12.8 Imp gals). From the engine power was transmitted through a ZF five-speed gearbox connected to the engine by a two-plate dry clutch. The final drive differential came as standard with 40 per cent locking action.
264.7 km/h (164.1 mph): GermanyÔÇÖs fastest sports car.
The six-cylinder power unit was smooth and free of vibrations throughout its entire range of engine speed, even remaining quite docile at lower speeds. But this changed instantaneously once the rev counter hit 5,000 rpm, the M88 pushing the M1 forwards up to its top engine speed of 7,000 rpm with power and energy making even the most jaded car testers wax lyrical: ÔÇ£Once the throttle butterflies are fully open you feel a tremendous kick from behind continuing well beyond the 200 km/h-mark. There is no need to shift to fifth gear, for example, until you reach a speed of 213 km/h (132 mph) and from there you continue to accelerate up and up to the carÔÇÖs top speed.ÔÇØ Which, as recorded by GermanyÔÇÖs leading car magazine in autumn 1979, was 264.7 km/h (164.1 mph). Acceleration from 0ÔÇô100 km/h in 5.6 seconds also looked very good, which is not surprising considering the power-to-weight ratio of 4,7 kg/PS, making things relatively easy for the 204 kW (277 bhp) engine.
The M1 was conceived and built for racing right from the start, the elaborate suspension with double wishbones on each wheel, gas-pressure dampers and two anti-roll bars remaining in command throughout the carÔÇÖs entire speed range. With the exception of the more comfort-oriented response of the moving parts and the modified spring/damper setting, the road suspension was identical to the chassis and suspension on the Group four racing version. Four inner-vented brake discs ensured phenomenal stopping power from any speed and the front axle came with 30 per cent anti-dive minimising body movement even when applying the brakes all-out. Tyres measuring 205/50 VR 16 at the front and 225/50 VR 16 at the rear, finally, were certainly very big and muscular in those days.
A low centre of gravity of just 460 millimetres (18.5???? ) above the road, track measuring 1,550 mm (61.02???? ) at the front and 1,576 mm (62.04???? ) at the rear, together with the mid-engined concept providing weight distribution of 44.1:55.9, made the M1 a genuine performer in bends, even though the car called for an experienced driver when pushed to the limit. Typical of a mid-engined performance car with a low level of inertia around its vertical axis, the M1 required quick and forceful counter steering as soon as lateral acceleration exceeded a reasonable limit and the rear threatened to break away. But the rack-and-pinion steering without power assistance and with a direct transmission ratio was simply perfect for this kind of control. Displaced castor and a small steering roll radius served at the same time to combine ease of control with supreme road contact absolutely essential for the active driver. The twin-joint safety steering column, in turn, was adjustable for reach.
A racing car with crash-proven passive safety.
Although the M1 was a sports car par excellence, both the driver and passenger enjoyed a certain standard of comfort. For whilst the suspension was firm and taut, it nevertheless absorbed bumps on the road without requiring the occupants to take any heavy jolts. Indeed, the driver and passenger were safely cocooned in a rectangular steel-profile space-frame complete with a bonded and riveted plastic skin free of distortion. The luggage compartment beneath the front lid was sufficient for a weekend for two, and even air conditioning was available. And the BMW M1 was safe: Since the new sports car received general homologation for the entire production series (as opposed to individual approval of each single model one-by-one), BMW was required to substantiate the passive safety of the M1 in a series of crash tests ÔÇô a precaution which later benefitted many a racing driver.
But whilst the public was admiring the new super-sports car from Munich, with orders coming in one after the other, production of the M1 suffered a nasty setback: Lamborghini was unable to assemble the new car as planned and the order instead had to go to Baur, the coach-building specialist in Stuttgart. This made the M1 a genuine challenge in the production process with the space-frame being built by Marchesi, the glass-fibre-reinforced plastic body shell by T.I.R., both in the Italian town of Modena, and Giorgio GiugiaroÔÇÖs company ItalDesign assembling these two basic units and adding the interior trim and equipment. From there the car went to Stuttgart, where Baur fitted all the mechanical systems and components.
A big attraction in Formula 1: the Procar Series.
Facing these delays and re-planning requirements, BMW suddenly became hard pressed for time. After all, 400 units of the new car had to be built within 24 months for homologation as a Group four competition car. And other companies were also pressing forward. So to get the M1 on to the race track faster, Motorsport GmbH Director Jochen Neerpasch, teaming up with Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley, launched the Procar Series, with races held just before most of the European Formula 1 Grand Prix events in the 1979/80 season.
The big difference versus the road going car was the engine of the Procar racing version: The first step for motor racing was to tune the M88 six-cylinder the classic, conventional way, with new camshafts, larger valves, forged pistons, optimised flow ducts, slides instead of throttle butterflies and a modified exhaust system boosting output to 470ÔÇô490 bhp. With this kind of power, the Procar version weighing just 1,020 kilos and fitted with the longest transmission ratio had a top speed of approximately 310 km/h (192 mph). Goodyear racing tyres measuring 10.0/23.5 x 16 at the front and 12.5/25.0 x 16 at the rear, together with a mighty rear wing, served to provide the right kind of grip on the road. Driving one of these Group four BMW M1s, Marc Surer lapped the Northern Circuit of Nurburgring in just 7,55.9 minutes.
Built to Group four regulations, the M1 was not only placed at the disposal of five Formula 1 drivers in each race for the Procar Trophy, but was also sold straight from the factory as BMW Motorsport GmbHÔÇÖs first ready-to-go racing car at a price of DM 150,000. And indeed, some of the most renowned racing teams quickly took up this offer, Schnitzer and Heidegger racing their own M1s on the track, just like Osella in Italy and Ron Dennis in Great Britain.
Putting up a unique show for the crowd: Driving skill was the decisive factor.
Benefitting from this combination of BMW M1s prepared for racing by Motorsport GmbH and those entered by private teams, and with the cars driven by the big names in Formula 1 as well as ambitious racing drivers in other categories, the Procar Series gained unique popularity. This is where the worldÔÇÖs best drivers faced the old hands and newcomers in the scene, comparing their skills with cars virtually identical in every respect. The crucial factor, therefore, was driving skill ÔÇô and this really caught the attention of the crowd: The Procar races proved just as popular as the ensuing races for the Formula 1 World Championship.
The recipe for success was perfectly prepared. The fastest five Formula 1 drivers in the Friday practice sessions were placed against 15 touring car specialists. With the Procar races being held on the Saturday, the first five places on the grid went to the stars, the remaining places were shared by the touring car cracks lined up according to their practice times. And they all joined in: Drivers and racing teams were happy to participate in the Procar Series, provided they were not barred from doing so by their contracts.
Continued
If anyone is listening this would be interesting information for MOA to post
thebeachcruiser.com
March use statistics
bikernewsonline.com
International Female Ride Day 2008
crash.net
Race results for Jerez MotoGP
Schumi Watch: Finishes 4th in first real bike race
autoracingdaily.com
No motorcycle racing career for Schumi
worldsbk.com: Official Web Site ÔÇô News, features and more
motogp.com: Official Web Site ÔÇô News, features and more
BMW Sauber F1
BMW Motorsport
I am taking a twist this Monday.
This week the BMW PressClubs featured the following historical piece on the BWM M1. It appears to be the first of hopefully more pieces building ups to the opening of the redone BMW Museum.
Icons for Connoisseurs ÔÇô Thirty Years of the BMW M1
Munich. The star came in pure white: When the 64th Paris Motor Show opened its gates in autumn 1978, sports car fans and lovers had only one destination ÔÇô the stand of BMW Motorsport GmbH. There they were able to admire a super-low, extremely dynamic new model making it quite clear at very first sight that this was GermanyÔÇÖs fastest road-going sports car: the BMW M1, 1,140 millimetres (44.9???? ) high, 204 kW (277 bhp) strong, and well over 260 km/h (160 mph) fast. ÔÇ£Everybody was crowding around BMWÔÇÖs new mid-engined sports carÔÇØ, wrote the press. And: ÔÇ£The list of orders coming in exceeds even the wildest expectations ÔÇô an American fan of BMW, just to mention one example, has already put in an order for three M1s.ÔÇØ That was indeed quite something, considering that BMWÔÇÖs super-sports car had a price-tag back then in 1978 of exactly DM 100,000, enough for four BMW 323is plus a couple of optional extras.
It is indeed fair to say that few cars have ever been expected with such excitement and anticipation as the BMW M1 representing all of BMWÔÇÖs know-how in motor racing. Project E 26, as the then still nameless M1 was initially called within the Company, had started in 1976. This was to be the first really unique car built by BMW Motorsport GmbH, BMWÔÇÖs motor racing subsidiary established in 1972. Having already made a great name for itself in the international racing scene with the fast BMW 2002 and the truly superior BMW 3.0 CSI, the racing company now planned to lift this success to an even higher level with a competition car specially built and prepared for the Group four and five racing series.
According to Group four regulations at the time, a car qualifying for entry required a production run of at least 400 units in 24 successive months, it had to have two seats and bear a distinct resemblance from outside with its production counterpart. And that made it quite clear that the E26 had to be not only a thoroughbred racing car, but also a street-legal sports car.
A Bavarian with Italian blood.
The problem was that BMW Motorsport GmbH totally lacked the capacity to develop and build such a car all by itself. After all, this team of specialists had concentrated so far on ÔÇ£simplyÔÇØ turning series-production cars into racing cars, making the chassis and suspension tauter and the engine more powerful.
In its lines and design, the new coup?® was intended to clearly boast that special Italian style. It was modelled around the gull-wing turbo, a turbocharged concept car created in 1972 by BMW designer Paul Bracq. Proceeding from this design study with its rounder lines, Giorgio Giugiaro created the sharp profile of the M1 with its distinct, almost jagged edges and corners.
Indeed, Bracq and Giugiaro had already cooperated in the past in creating the BMW 6 Series coup?®.
First choice in the engine department: a straight-six power unit.
Choosing the engine, BMW Motorsport GmbH initially focused on two concepts: Advance studies of Formula engines had led, inter alia, to a ten-cylinder code-named the M81, a V-engine with its cylinders at an angle of 144??. Suitably modified, this engine was also examined for its possible use in a sports car. But then the team around BMWÔÇÖs Motorsport Director Jochen Neerpasch quickly opted in favour of a new straight-six, an engine concept supported by the excellent experience BMW had gained in the CSI races.
After all kinds of rumours with the grapevine running wild, BMW unveiled the secret in spring 1977, officially confirming the development of the new super-sports car. Then, in autumn of the same year, BMW published the first photos of the M1 in production trim, the car then making its first public appearance again half a year later: Together with TV presenter Dieter K??rten, Jochen Neerpasch proudly introduced the Group four version in the colours of Motorsport GmbH in a prime-time Saturday evening sports programme on Channel Two of German Television. And although this racing machine bearing starter number eleven was not yet ready to go, the first test drives were scheduled for April 1978.
277 bhp in a purebred sports car.
The big day finally came in autumn of the same year, the public being able to admire the first E26 at the Paris Motor Show. By that time the car bore the model designation M1 standing for the first car developed and built by BMW Motorsport GmbH.
Measuring 4,360 millimetres (171.7???? ) in length, 1,824 millimetres (71.8???? ) in width and 1,140 millimetres (44.9???? ) in ÔÇ£heightÔÇØ, the M1 exuded a genuine flair of power. And indeed, this mid-engined sports car was driven by a 3.5-litre straight-six fitted lengthwise in front of the rear axle and developing maximum output of 277 bhp. Code-named the M88, this engine was based on the volume-production six-cylinder combined with the four-valve cylinder head carried over from BMWÔÇÖs CSI racing engines. Within this two-piece cylinder head, the lower section formed the combustion and coolant chamber, the upper half comprised the camshaft bearings and cup tappets.
The fuel/air mixture was delivered through three double throttle butterfly manifolds featuring six 46-millimetre individual throttle butterflies to the cylinders through two intake ducts per cylinder measuring 26 millimetres (1.02???? ) in diameter. The all-electronic digital ignition system also reflected the latest state of the art.
Dry sump lubrication bore clear testimony to the sporting genes of the M1, the car being able to achieve a very high level of lateral acceleration. Fuel was supplied to the engine from two tanks right and left in front of the rear axle, each with a capacity of 58 litres (12.8 Imp gals). From the engine power was transmitted through a ZF five-speed gearbox connected to the engine by a two-plate dry clutch. The final drive differential came as standard with 40 per cent locking action.
264.7 km/h (164.1 mph): GermanyÔÇÖs fastest sports car.
The six-cylinder power unit was smooth and free of vibrations throughout its entire range of engine speed, even remaining quite docile at lower speeds. But this changed instantaneously once the rev counter hit 5,000 rpm, the M88 pushing the M1 forwards up to its top engine speed of 7,000 rpm with power and energy making even the most jaded car testers wax lyrical: ÔÇ£Once the throttle butterflies are fully open you feel a tremendous kick from behind continuing well beyond the 200 km/h-mark. There is no need to shift to fifth gear, for example, until you reach a speed of 213 km/h (132 mph) and from there you continue to accelerate up and up to the carÔÇÖs top speed.ÔÇØ Which, as recorded by GermanyÔÇÖs leading car magazine in autumn 1979, was 264.7 km/h (164.1 mph). Acceleration from 0ÔÇô100 km/h in 5.6 seconds also looked very good, which is not surprising considering the power-to-weight ratio of 4,7 kg/PS, making things relatively easy for the 204 kW (277 bhp) engine.
The M1 was conceived and built for racing right from the start, the elaborate suspension with double wishbones on each wheel, gas-pressure dampers and two anti-roll bars remaining in command throughout the carÔÇÖs entire speed range. With the exception of the more comfort-oriented response of the moving parts and the modified spring/damper setting, the road suspension was identical to the chassis and suspension on the Group four racing version. Four inner-vented brake discs ensured phenomenal stopping power from any speed and the front axle came with 30 per cent anti-dive minimising body movement even when applying the brakes all-out. Tyres measuring 205/50 VR 16 at the front and 225/50 VR 16 at the rear, finally, were certainly very big and muscular in those days.
A low centre of gravity of just 460 millimetres (18.5???? ) above the road, track measuring 1,550 mm (61.02???? ) at the front and 1,576 mm (62.04???? ) at the rear, together with the mid-engined concept providing weight distribution of 44.1:55.9, made the M1 a genuine performer in bends, even though the car called for an experienced driver when pushed to the limit. Typical of a mid-engined performance car with a low level of inertia around its vertical axis, the M1 required quick and forceful counter steering as soon as lateral acceleration exceeded a reasonable limit and the rear threatened to break away. But the rack-and-pinion steering without power assistance and with a direct transmission ratio was simply perfect for this kind of control. Displaced castor and a small steering roll radius served at the same time to combine ease of control with supreme road contact absolutely essential for the active driver. The twin-joint safety steering column, in turn, was adjustable for reach.
A racing car with crash-proven passive safety.
Although the M1 was a sports car par excellence, both the driver and passenger enjoyed a certain standard of comfort. For whilst the suspension was firm and taut, it nevertheless absorbed bumps on the road without requiring the occupants to take any heavy jolts. Indeed, the driver and passenger were safely cocooned in a rectangular steel-profile space-frame complete with a bonded and riveted plastic skin free of distortion. The luggage compartment beneath the front lid was sufficient for a weekend for two, and even air conditioning was available. And the BMW M1 was safe: Since the new sports car received general homologation for the entire production series (as opposed to individual approval of each single model one-by-one), BMW was required to substantiate the passive safety of the M1 in a series of crash tests ÔÇô a precaution which later benefitted many a racing driver.
But whilst the public was admiring the new super-sports car from Munich, with orders coming in one after the other, production of the M1 suffered a nasty setback: Lamborghini was unable to assemble the new car as planned and the order instead had to go to Baur, the coach-building specialist in Stuttgart. This made the M1 a genuine challenge in the production process with the space-frame being built by Marchesi, the glass-fibre-reinforced plastic body shell by T.I.R., both in the Italian town of Modena, and Giorgio GiugiaroÔÇÖs company ItalDesign assembling these two basic units and adding the interior trim and equipment. From there the car went to Stuttgart, where Baur fitted all the mechanical systems and components.
A big attraction in Formula 1: the Procar Series.
Facing these delays and re-planning requirements, BMW suddenly became hard pressed for time. After all, 400 units of the new car had to be built within 24 months for homologation as a Group four competition car. And other companies were also pressing forward. So to get the M1 on to the race track faster, Motorsport GmbH Director Jochen Neerpasch, teaming up with Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley, launched the Procar Series, with races held just before most of the European Formula 1 Grand Prix events in the 1979/80 season.
The big difference versus the road going car was the engine of the Procar racing version: The first step for motor racing was to tune the M88 six-cylinder the classic, conventional way, with new camshafts, larger valves, forged pistons, optimised flow ducts, slides instead of throttle butterflies and a modified exhaust system boosting output to 470ÔÇô490 bhp. With this kind of power, the Procar version weighing just 1,020 kilos and fitted with the longest transmission ratio had a top speed of approximately 310 km/h (192 mph). Goodyear racing tyres measuring 10.0/23.5 x 16 at the front and 12.5/25.0 x 16 at the rear, together with a mighty rear wing, served to provide the right kind of grip on the road. Driving one of these Group four BMW M1s, Marc Surer lapped the Northern Circuit of Nurburgring in just 7,55.9 minutes.
Built to Group four regulations, the M1 was not only placed at the disposal of five Formula 1 drivers in each race for the Procar Trophy, but was also sold straight from the factory as BMW Motorsport GmbHÔÇÖs first ready-to-go racing car at a price of DM 150,000. And indeed, some of the most renowned racing teams quickly took up this offer, Schnitzer and Heidegger racing their own M1s on the track, just like Osella in Italy and Ron Dennis in Great Britain.
Putting up a unique show for the crowd: Driving skill was the decisive factor.
Benefitting from this combination of BMW M1s prepared for racing by Motorsport GmbH and those entered by private teams, and with the cars driven by the big names in Formula 1 as well as ambitious racing drivers in other categories, the Procar Series gained unique popularity. This is where the worldÔÇÖs best drivers faced the old hands and newcomers in the scene, comparing their skills with cars virtually identical in every respect. The crucial factor, therefore, was driving skill ÔÇô and this really caught the attention of the crowd: The Procar races proved just as popular as the ensuing races for the Formula 1 World Championship.
The recipe for success was perfectly prepared. The fastest five Formula 1 drivers in the Friday practice sessions were placed against 15 touring car specialists. With the Procar races being held on the Saturday, the first five places on the grid went to the stars, the remaining places were shared by the touring car cracks lined up according to their practice times. And they all joined in: Drivers and racing teams were happy to participate in the Procar Series, provided they were not barred from doing so by their contracts.
Continued
