When a racing car is replaced by a successor after five highly successful years, it doesn’t fail to leave an emotional mark, as was the case with the BMW 635CSi.
In fact, the chic BMW 6 Series Coupé in the luxury class, presented at the Geneva Motor Show in 1976, was never intended from the factory for motorsports use.
Instead, it was intended to inspire as a luxury Gran Tourismo, a quick touring car for people who might have found a limousine too conservative. But the marketing experts of the white and blue brand did not expect the planners and racing teams who soon realized the potential of this car for competitive purposes.
And so the most powerful model at the time, the 635 CSi with a 3.5-liter six-cylinder engine, was converted, first in the so-called Group 2 and later in Group A of the FIA.
Because BMW itself did not have the ability to create a racing car based on the 6 Series Coupé and was still fully focused on Formula 1 racing at the time, it supplied the building modules to outside companies: Alpina, as it was experienced, took care. His Reprogramming of electronics for racing engines, the reinforced bodies necessary for motorsport were created at Karmann in Osnabrück. BMW itself contributed additional parts to the kit, such as the petrol tank.
When the first BMW 6 Series Coupés were finally released on international racing in 1981, they immediately demonstrated their potential.
Although they sometimes had to fend off more powerful competitors in terms of pure engine power, the 350 hp from Bavaria often had to fight against almost 100 more powerful units from British or Italian origin. Their strength, however, was reliable;
This car won the European Touring Car Championship three times, with Helmut Kelleners in 1981, with Dieter Quester in 1983 and Roberto Ravaglia in 1986, who even shared the cockpit with Formula 1 drivers like Gerhard Berger.
In 1983, 1985 and 1986, this car was also the first to cross the finish line at the 24 Hours of Spa and dominated the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring in 1984 and 1985. Even in the first year of the newly formed DTM, 1984, there was still no match BMW 6 Series Coupé driven by Volker Strycek.
But because the best is always the enemy of the good, it became clear in the mid-1980s that the M3, which BMW had originally developed as a racing car, could probably drive faster.
This eventually led to an inevitable confrontation in the spring of 1986, on the Italian route from Misano on the Adriatic. For this internal concept comparison, Schnitzer team boss Charly Lamm and his men brought a car that had been handpicked to what was probably the highest endurance limit of the coupe era, a real gem.
As test trials began, Formula 1 driver and frequent touring car driver Ivan Capelli was the fastest man in the cockpit. His times on the 4.2 km long track were impressive, but the crew around the engineer Werner Frowein from BMW Motorsport GmbH already suspected – for the new M3 it was faster.
In fact: Capelli had a pleasant moment with his successor, which led to long faces in the Schnitzer box. The decision was made for BMW’s racing car of the future – the M3.
But if Charly Lamm hadn’t been Charly Lamm, he wouldn’t have accepted failure in style.
So he grabbed the black flag, crouched down next to Capelli in the 6-man box and asked him to do the last, this time slowly, “moaning lap”.
With the mourning ribbon dangling, the pair returned to the pits, quietly loaded the coupé into the race car transporter and didn’t say another word about it.
This was the first big moment in the racing life of the M3. But, as we know now, it is far from being the end of it – it is still the most successful tourist car in the world.
