the announcers were discussing the two types of M3's in the race: i-6 variety and the M5 engined variety. They also mentioned that a limited number of future production M3s will come with the M5 motor...

Now that would be fun.... if you have an extra $75K to blow..

 

I never heard mention of a production V8. BMW had a M3 with a V8 at the event and they could do that because they can put any engine that is built by the manufacturer in the car and still be legal.

Granted, I only watched about 4 hours of the race, so it may have been mentioned at another point, but I never got the impression it was a production possibility.

 

meat,

I don't think that is exactly accurate. Other teams were upset because the V-8 isn't in production now. All a manufacturer has to do is request/receive permission to put a particular automobile in production to race in the ALMS series. The fack the BMWs V-8 M has only received this permission but has yet to produce any for the public has the other teams teed-off. I believe righfully so.

It is like the Corvettes and the Saleen. When are we ever going to see any of those on the road? That car is within the law of the rules, but within the spirit of the rules. There are millions of Corvettes on the road, while Shelby developed a race car which he "claims" will also be a production car. HA!

 

I too only watched a small portion of the race, but I heard them talking about this issue. The point they made was that BMW doesn't have to offer the V8 in the 3 series, or even intend to put it in them in the future, to use it in their race car. The engine just has to be offered in a BMW vehicle. It's in the 5 series, so they can use it in their 3 series race car without having a comparable production version. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me and seems to go against the spirit of the rules, but for that I blame the rule makers. They have the power to write the rules and get of rid of loopholes such as this.

Mark

 

but wouldn't that be so much more fun though? having the big V8 in a 3?

i've always wondered if it was possible to drop the RB26DETT in the S2K... pipe dream only.

 

Okay, I'll bite, what is it?

 

Hey guys...

It's a motor that's way to big to put into a little chassis like the S2000's. It's an iron block, aluminum head, 24 valve, twin cam, twin turbo inline 6 cylinder that has a 8000rpm redline. It's probably one of the heaviest engines Nissan's ever put into a sports car.

It usually belongs in the Nissan Skyline GT-R, but many tuning shops in Japan have transplanted this block into S13-15 chassis', Supras, 300ZXs, etc. because of the proliferation of tuning parts for it.

The dream is definitely better than the reality here in this instance. That block would make the S2000 stand on it's nose, get no traction in the rear, twist the heck out of the chassis and generally be a horror to the Honda engineers who conceptualised the car!

But, on the other hand, it would make good use of the twin outlet exhausts- from the turbos back...

Anyway- back on topic in this Off Topic forum...

BMW probably is not using the rules in the spirit of what it meant, but is definitely using the rules in the spirit of racing and finding any advantage to win.

Although I find it difficult to believe that they will ever produce such an animal for the public, it's in their best interest to win, because that's what racing is all about. Nobody races for second place- especially at that level...



[Edited by GTRPower on 03-19-2001 at 03:39 PM]

 

Per the ALMS rules, the car MUST be offered for sale to the public. Not necessarily in the US, and not in any specific numbers - so don't expect the M3 V8 to be heavily publicised, but it will be available at some point. Don't expect it to be cheap, either. They also made the point that most M3 V8's that are sold will end up on the racetrack - spirit of the rules? Whatever it takes to win, man!

 

Jason:

They'll make a minimum number and sell it to racers. It will make the I-6 M3's obsolete. It will also drive the cost of GT racing up.