Alpina

I think Graeme Clyde has/had a 320i E36 race car, but I don't know if that was one of Lyall's old machines, built for Brett Riley and Craig Baird to run in the NZTCC. Kevin Bell also drove cars prepared by Lyall, and he may even have owened one of the 320's. They originally had two 325i E36's (Baird & Riley), one of which was retained even when the 320i's were built, and was run for Jason Richards, who was just a newbie. I don't know if that was the Riley car, which is now inthe hands of Brett & Andre Cowan or the Baird car, which for many years has been raced, rallied and nearly rolled by Mike Tubbs. Both of the 2.5's have been uprated to 3.2 M3 engines with 6-speed boxes, and are regular competitors in the BMW Race Series.

You might be talking about the JPS 635, which Jim drove many years ago. He also had the chance to drive it (and the Sidchrome Hillman Imp) at the Dunedin Street Race in Feb 2006 - here's some pics I took at the event. The car is currently owned by Jim Boult, who I believe lives in Chch.Speaking of JPS, Frank Gardner also built two 325i E30's, as forerunners to the E30 M3's. Those cars were owned and raced by the Clyde brothers in Chch, but I understand they are now with a collector in Wanaka. The B&H car in which Denis Hulme died in 1992 is now owned by Kevin Underwood. (Auckland) Any other surviving B&H cars might have been converted to Diet Coke cars, after tobacco sponsorship was banned. Rick Michel's (pictured at Levels, Feb '06) is one of those, and he also takes care of the other, which I think is also owned by Kevin. (Auckland) Yes, Mike's 320 Turbo Grp 5 is now in Singapore, along with the NM500-winning Schnitzer M3, previously owned by Warren Good. Those two cars were part of the deal involving the 3 WTCC cars. The Soper M3 was owned by Jim Wallace, but is now raced by Mark Scott of Wellington. The car lives in the South Island, is prepared by Rick Michels, and was at Pukekohe in January. A truck-load of the South Island's best made an appearance at the HRC meeting - Rick's Diet Coke car, the Denis B&H car, Mark's Soper car and Stephen Gellet's E30 M3. (pictured) I think that last car is a former DTM racer, subsequently converted to a hillclimb car in Czechoslovakia. There is also many other "active" cars with history - Dougal McGibbons 635 CSi was placed 2nd in the 85 (or 86) Wellington Street Race, driven by Sytner and Morton. They believe they actually won, but Mark Petch managed to convince the officials that his Volvo had done one lap more than everyone else thought they had. the attached picture shows Dougal "dicing" with a Viva in Dunedin. (Feb '06) Peter Thorby (Chch) runs the Group A 323i E30, which was the model before the JPS 325i's.

Thanks again for the offer - we have already been back to the South Island. Last weekend was the Teretonga round of the SFOS, and we managed to locate a back-up shaft to take with us - fortunately, it wasn't required. Only one weekend to go now - the 3 Mile Hill Climb on Saturday and the Dunedin Street Race this Sunday. Then some well-earned TLC for the Alpina.

Yes, it's Grant here! Not sure what sort of power the Alpina has - we've never measured it. Your E30, is that a 323i? If so, then then the Alpina would probably be a bit less. Not sure of the exact cam specs, but I think it's over 300 degree duration - a solid mid-range from 5,000 and revving all the way to 8,000! We run a 4.11 diff combined with the Getrag close-ratio box (1:1 5th), and 205/50-15 tyres. What that gives is excellent acceleration, especially in the mid-range required for Targa (80 - 140 km/h) but it does mean fairly high revs at higher speeds. We're doing 4,100 rpm per 100 km/h, so that's 8,200 at 200 km/h. (at the end of Pukekohe's back straight) I'll guess we'll get close to that at Teretonga this weekend - I'll let you know! We could try a slightly taller diff, such as 3.89:1, but I think 3.64:1 is too tall.

PS: If you just want to get rid of one half-shaft, that would give me a spare for the weekend. How much, and where do you live.

Thanks for your message. Yes, unbelievably, we did get a part!! After struggling to get the last part of the old piece out of the diff, a guy came through the pits and after a short chat said that he knew someone, who knew someone, who owned a 2002 and lived in Timaru. So I called the guy on Sunday morning, told him I wanted to "pull his car apart" and had the part fitted to my car before lunch. We managed 3 more races that afternoon, and refitted the part to his "daily driver" on Monday morning, before driving down to Dunedin. Many thanks to Ron Hart of Timaru!! Thanks for your offer of 02 bits - on advice, we're now going to upgrade the rear-end. We'll probably end up with E21 or E30 diff and half-shafts, which are much stronger. That won't be in place for this weekend's round at Invercargill, but we'll have to take the risk.

We're racing this weekend (Feb 11/12) at levels Raceway in Timaru, and the 2002 has sheared the output shaft. Sounds nasty, but it's a fairly simple operation. problem is, my spare diff is back in Auckland. What we need is someone with a diff - the required part easily unbolts from the diff (without opening the diff up) and could be borrowed / purchased. We could also get the part off a diff in the car, without too much more work. However, we really need to get the part on Sunday morning, so we can at least have a couple more races. That means you'd need to be within an hour of Timaru. If you can help in any way, please reply to this post, or call me on 027 269-2002, that's 027 BMW-2002, ANY TIME!!