The E30 M3 | 30 years later, it's still winning
The chequered flag drops to end another championship and the mighty E30 M3 has bagged another touring car title, 31 years after its first and very successful launch year of 1987. The gulf in budgets means that those fake newspaper front pages the drivers so proudly display from the podium at places like Bathurst, would more likely resemble a ransom note made from cut up newspaper headlines glued back together again from my budget constraints than the perfectly printed examples of self-promotion the media departments of those professional teams so spontaneously produce. For me, I’d be happy with the former as long as they spelt my name right.
“Towe wins championship” is not something anyone typed too often I would imagine.
I have competed in the championship for the now “Historic” classified Group A Touring Cars for 16 years now and have managed to win it twice in that time. The first time was in 2004 in the ex Tony Longhurst JPS Team BMW M3 in a championship which was then decided on one race meeting but the interest and professionalism of the category; now competing as “Heritage Touring Cars” which incorporates genuine Group A Touring Cars which were the main touring car category around the world from 1984-92 and Australian Group C Touring Cars (73-84) as well, has risen to a championship which is decided over 5 rounds spanning most of the year. A change of car to the later built ex Richards/Longhurst M3 which was the last car built by Frank Gardner’s JPS Team at the team HQ in Terry Hills NSW in 1987 reaped rewards for me. The car still uses the same spec motor the brilliant 2302cc, S14 twin cam, four cylinder screamer but the shell is 20kgs lighter and has newer suspension components that were homologated that year make it a better package overall. We regularly beat the Walkinshaw Commodores, Falcon and Torana V8s at many circuits through the M3’s balance of power, braking and handling.
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The car is in very original condition with the only real changes from how it was when it took 4th outright at the Bathurst 1000 in 1987 being the fuel cell had to be replaced due to its’ age and the ECU has been updated to a Haltech PS100 because no one had the technology to tune the old ECU these days. Still running the Getrag 265 that it ran all those years ago and the same wheel rims too the car is little changed from those glory days of 1987 and then when the legend Peter Brock ran it in 1988.
Heritage Touring Cars was the first category to officially compete at The Bend Motorsport Park, the spectacular new track in South Australia where we had mixed fortunes over the weekend. It was the first round of the championship and the infield had not had chance regenerate so the howling southerly wind whipped up a fierce dust storm covering the track so badly that you couldn’t see the apexes until you were just about on top of them. I managed to not qualify due to an electrical gremlin which was easily fixed back in the pits and then went onto take 4th after starting from the rear of the grid, second in the next race and sadly DNF the third race putting me out of the rest of the meeting with a spun bearing in the engine. It showed me that I had built a fast engine and The Bend is a place I really want to compete at again.
The second round of the championship was at the rescheduled Muscle Car Masters meeting at Sydney Motorsport Park at Eastern Creek where we again had mixed fortunes. We managed to take another podium at a “muscle car” meeting, third outright in a rain hit final race but at the expense of yet another engine. This time there was a slapping noise from number two cylinder and upon stripping it down we discovered deep score marks in the piston and bore. Sadly this was discovered the day we were loading to go to Morgan Park in Warwick for round three so we had to pull out and set our sights on building the third engine for the year.
Round four took us across Bass Strait to a gem of a track called Baskerville near Hobart and a reuniting with former BMWDCNSW club member David Hall who became part of the crew for the weened. The smoothest meeting of the year saw us qualify 2nd and take 3 podiums including a race win from the 4 races held over the weekend. The tight, twisty nature of the track nullified the horsepower advantage the VL Walkinshaw Commodores and the turbo Sierras normally have over us allowing us to compete for outright placings in each race. During a personal photoshoot the day after the meeting, idiot me broke my beautiful Huon Pine trophy by allowing it to slide off the highly polished roof of the M3 smashing into 3 pieces on the main straight. Lesson learned there.
Now with a handy lead thanks to the massive points haul from Baskerville we set our sights on the less desirable horsepower heaven of Sandown in Melbourne for the last round. The surprise non entry by the ex Bob Holden Toyota Sprinter for the final round meant that we were pretty much assured of the title with the ex Garry Wilmington Jag XJS only a mathematical chance of beating us. After race 2 for the weekend where we took 4th outright the Jag’s challenge was now ended and we secured the Heritage Touring Cars “Peter Brock Trophy” for Group A Touring Cars, an achievement I’m immensely proud of.
Throughout this article you may have noticed me using the term “we” instead of “I”, that’s because although I’m the nut behind the wheel of the car, I simply couldn’t do it on my own. I have family and a few mates who work as my pit crew for each round and their help is invaluable to a season long challenge.
I need to acknowledge the help of a couple of long term BMWDC (NSW) members/sponsors whose knowledge and professionalism assisted greatly. Nick Peak from Peak Performance for his problem solving skills and advice, Andrew Schmitt from ALS Performance who has helped with parts and advice and a few of sponsors who’ve been supporting me for many years now, ADG Welding Supplies in St. Mary’s, Gearbox Express in Ingleburn and Peninsula BM in Melbourne for parts and last but not least my own employees at E.S.S. Garage Doors who keep the business running when I’m competing.
David Towe
