Vista frontale di tre quarti di una BMW 1978 320 Gruppo 5, BMW Junior Team Racing Car, precedentemente guidata da Eddie Cheever, al London Classic Car Show
4871 x 2721 px | 41,2 x 23 cm | 16,2 x 9,1 inches | 300dpi
Data acquisizione:
20 febbraio 2020
Ubicazione:
Olympia Exhibition Centre, West Kensington, London, W14 United Kingdom
Altre informazioni:
The Group 5 version of the 320 was introduced in December of 1976, ready to hit the track the following season. It was to be raced by BMW's loyal customers on both sides of the Atlantic and while the German manufacturer also fielded five works cars for their talented 'junior' drivers, another 27 'customer' cars would be supplied to race teams all over the world. In Europe, the cars were raced with considerable success in the World Championship and also in Germany's highly competitive DRM series. Especially on tight circuits the compact BMW did very well against the more powerful Porsche 934s and 935s. Several wins were scored but the championship titles remained out of reach. In June 1977 BMW and Hervé Poulin entered a two-litre 320 Group 5 ‘Art Car’, liveried by Roy Lichtenstein, into the legendary Le Mans 24 hour enduro. The Pop Art 320 come home an impressive 9th overall after 24 hours of racing – demonstrating the reliability of the strong BMW four cylinder engine. Of course this means that Group 5 BMW 320s are therefore eligible for Peter Auto’s CER and their flagship Le Mans Classic. This example, chassis E21-R1-17 was built by the factory and sold to well-known German BMW and DRM racer, Gustav Fischer. Under the Valvoline Deutschland Team banner, Fischer would go onto compete in the 1978 Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft (DRM) season against the mighty Porsche 935s and Zakspeed Capris – taking in the great circuits such as Avus, Mainz-Finthen, Zandvoort, Kassel-Calden, Hockenheim GP meeting, Zolder, and Norisring. Despite having the best current equipment, Fischer wasn’t as competitive as hoped, and after some unreliability, he sold the car to Gerd Reiss who would enter the car under his private ‘Team Immobilien G. Reiss’. After a limited DRM campaign, Reiss sold the car to Swedish ace Kenneth Leim. Leim would enter the car into the World Sports Car Championship for the 1982 season, with 1000km entries at Monza, Silverstone, Nürburgring, Spa and Mugello
