Following on from Bill Caswell’s video featuring Electric Vehicle West’s Pikes Peak-tackling electric BMW M3 Coupe, DRIVE’s latest offering sees Matt Farah head to Dynotech Motorsports for a little rolling road session before climbing behind the wheel himself.
Rather than the factory 3-litre straight-six unit, this silent assassin makes use of a twin-air cooled NetGain DC electric motor, developing 1152 Nm (850 lb/ft) of torque and 255 kW (342 hp).
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Here’s a scary machine from Jørgen Aune’s JAAS Performance company in Norway – a 1000 hp BMW E21.
Looking worryingly restrained from the outside, this old school 1982 3 Series packs a surprise under its hood in the guise of a S54 engine from the E46 M3 mated to an E39 transmission. The 3.2-litre unit features such goodies as a PTE 7654 billet turbocharger, 60 mm PPF wastegate, 75 mm blow-off valve, Bosch 1680 cc injectors and a pair of 044 fuel pumps.
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Audi driver Mike Rockenfeller dominated this weekend’s DTM round at Brands Hatch and now leads the drivers’ standings with 29 points.
Following the relegation of Martin Tomczyk’s BMW M3 DTM to 22nd on the grid due to it being 0.5 kilograms below the tolerance limit, Rockenfeller started from the front in his RS 5 DTM and controlled the pace, crossing the finish line ahead of title defender Bruno Spengler. BMW’s Augusto Farfus had an unfortunate weekend, having started from second on the grid, he was within a few seconds of Rockenfeller at one point until technical problems saw him retire on lap 65. He now lies third in the standings just three points behind Spengler’s 28.
Mercedes’ Robert Wickens ran an impressive race, starting from 13th on the grid, he was looking at fourth place, when team-mate Gary Paffett was given a 5s penalty for carrying too much speed whilst under a yellow flag, thus handing Wickens his first ever podium.
Paffett had to make do with 6th on his home circuit, finishing behind the BMWs of rookie Marco Wittmann and American Joey Hand.
“Of course I’m happy and relieved that we put the things we’d been planning for on track. In the DTM, in the race, all sorts of things can happen. Obviously, we had a superb foundation with the great qualifying session yesterday,” said a jubilant Mike Rockenfeller.
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Coinciding with the release of the refreshed M5, BMW has released details of its Competition Package for the M5, M6 and M6 Gran Coupe models.
Output from the 4.4-litre biturbo V8 powerplant is raised by a modest 11 kW to 423 kW (575 hp), which shaves 0.1 seconds from the 0-100 km/h time and 0.2s on the sprint to 200 km/h. Whoa there Neddy!
Other upgrades include revised suspension and damping settings, more tautly tuned stabiliser bars and a 10 millimetre drop in ride height. The new hydraulic rack-and-pinion system with M-specific Servotronic function provides a more direct steering response, while the Active M Differential on the final drive receives its own control unit. The Dynamic Stability Control system gets its own specific M Dynamic mode resulting in sharpened handling characteristics. Vehicle set-ups can be configured by selecting the Comfort, Sport or Sport+ via the M Drive buttons on the steering wheel.
Visually, cars equipped with the Competition Package can be identified by their exclusively designed 20-inch M light-alloy wheels along with a sport exhaust system featuring customary M twin tailpipes.
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It’s going to be another battle of the Sebastiens at the next Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup round in Monaco (23 May), when Volkswagen’s Sebastien Ogier takes on nine-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb in the 338 kW (460 hp) 911 GT3 Cup machines.
Following his first outing in Barcelona where he finished a lowly 11th, 39-year old Loeb will once again be piloting the Porsche AG-run VIP car, while his 29-year-old compatriot will be a guest of the ‘Team Allyouneed by Project 1’ in what will be the first time the two rally stars have gone head-to-head on a tarmacked circuit.
“I am really looking forward to Monaco. I sat in the Porsche for the first time last week at a test session in Hockenheim. I will obviously be keeping half an eye on Sebastien Loeb. The desire to be better is always there – but Seb has much more experience on racetracks. With that in mind, I will be trying to enjoy the weekend and, as always, do my very best,” said the Polo R WRC driver.
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Ontario-based Pfaff Tuning has completed a project based on Audi’s R8 V10 model with the assistance of a certain Heffner Performance.
Stilling going through its running-in period, the Coupe uses Heffner’s bolt-on twin-turbocharger system comprising of a pair of Garrett GT35R units running 6 psi of boost. This results in the 5.2-litre V10 developing a very health 725 wheel horsepower (est. 850 hp at the crank) – an increase of 245 wheel horsepower from stock on low boost.
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