Fake BMW Wins Lime Rock Race

"Grab Paddle" (grabpaddle)
07/27/2015 at 12:45 • Filed to: None

Sitting on my couch watching the race, my new baby daughter in my lap, was a great way to spend a Sunday. As I watched the prototypes and GTD classes deal with each other on a small track that I have enjoyed more than once, I was jealous I wasn’t in the driver’s seat. And then I realized something quite enraging.

I enjoyed watching the new Viper struggle for rear wheel grip in a way that is most expected from a car with a massive front engine V-10. I watched the car struggle with the same corners I’ve worked over and over. It was also exciting to know that I could go buy one, in ACR format of course, the very next day.

I watched the glorious Porsche 911 RSR’s swap position over and over. Andy Lally’s 911 remove the door of Townsend Bell’s Ferrari 458 and threw it to the side of the track. That’s the first time I’ve seen that! Mostly I watch Formula 1 and thus the door removal drama is nil.

I watched an Audi R8 turn into a prototype exiting the downhill onto Sam Posey Straight and both got dumped into the wall causing a carbon fiber calamity. I love that down hill corner, it’s so fast and hairy. Flat out down the hill, as the car compresses into the pavement, just let off a little to put the weight onto the from wheels as you start your turn to the apex. As soon as you do roll on that throttle and let the car push to the outside and onto the straight, and pass and pass and pass.

As the race came to an end I realized something that I think is the coolest part of this series. I can go to the dealership and buy a street legal version of these cars, with a street legal version of these engines. Except for the car which won. And that’s where my confusion and honestly, anger, arrises. How is it ok that there is a BMW z4 with a S65 V8? Whats wrong with the inline 6 format that is in all the street versions of the Z4, M3, M4, and all-new M2?

The 911 RSR has a N/A flat 6, why can’t the BMW use an engine that’s in the street car? Even if it’s the turbo street version from the M3? Wouldn’t that push the BMW engine development for the inline 6 that is so widely used? Why go backwards?

So, BMW and Turner Motorsports, I’m happy an independent team won, but please develop the inline 6, N54, N55, N56, so that when I’m watching the race with my daughter, and she see’s a car win the race, I don’t have to tell her it’s a fake.

DISCUSSION (17)

Party-vi > Grab Paddle
07/27/2015 at 12:50

If you put the same money into a V8 and an I6, you’ll get more power out of the V8.

#science

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Grab Paddle
07/27/2015 at 12:53

http://www.imsa.com/articles/first…

BullManUGA > Grab Paddle
07/27/2015 at 12:54

The car has 5 months before it will be replaced by the 2016 M6 GT3, which will have an engine from the production car in it. Besides, Turner doesn’t have the resources, and it wouldn’t be homologated anyway. There are many other teams using the Z4 GT3 that have been running it for much longer than Turner anyway. There are very few rules in GT3. Build a car, get it BoP’d in France each year, and sell it to customers. BMW’s last M3 GTE car had a straight-six, but BMW said they couldn’t stay competitive with it, so the program died. Then they re-engineered the Z4 GT3 into a GTE car that breaks more rules than it follows.

E92M3 > Grab Paddle
07/27/2015 at 12:54

I think it’s mostly because they have years of development already tied up in that engine, and it’s proven reliable and not a competitive advantage. If they used the new engine they’d probably have to add weight to the car to erase the extra torque. I’m about to make you even more angry. Unlike their old M3’s that started as shells of the E92 you see on the street, this Z4 is a total tube frame chassis with a Z4 looking body slapped on.

Grab Paddle > Party-vi
07/27/2015 at 12:57

These cars are restricted. Meaning they all have the same amount of power. In fact, some, like the Viper has less power than the street legal version.

The BMW V8 does not perform in these conditions better than the N55 I6t, hence why a stock E9* will get smoked all day by an F8*.

Santiago of Escuderia Boricua > Grab Paddle
07/27/2015 at 13:00

Race cars at that level don’t share anything with the road cars besides looks and (mostly) engine configuration. See Mazda for how well trying to race a street engine works at that level

Grab Paddle > E92M3
07/27/2015 at 13:00

I remember the M3 GT3 cars having the S65 basically where the dash was in the street car so it could be competitive and more mid-engine.

Still, it’s a dumb thing to live in the past and more torque is more torque and more torque is more fun.

BullManUGA > E92M3
07/27/2015 at 13:06

No the Z4 is not a tubeframed chassis. That’s not allowed in FIA rules. The only tubeframes left in sportscars are Daytona Prototypes. Turner’s M3/M6 in Grand-Am were tubeframes, in fact, they were the sames chassis and engine.

BeaterGT > Grab Paddle
07/27/2015 at 13:09

So what you’re saying is...they all need V8s.

Bakkster, touring car driver > BullManUGA
07/27/2015 at 13:12

I thought the GS Camaros were still based on the tube-frame chassis, but maybe I’m thinking of the RX-9.

BullManUGA > Bakkster, touring car driver
07/27/2015 at 13:13

All Conti Challenge cars have to use the road car’s chassis.

Party-vi > Grab Paddle
07/27/2015 at 13:31

Meaning they have the same peak power, but power under each curve is going to be different. An increase in displacement allows for more power, and I’m sure the addition of two cylinders adds power as well.

Also, the F80 M3 will smoke an E90 M3 because it’s a whole generation newer with a whole generation of advancements in engine technology, transmission work, drivetrain, etc.

KylesPerGallon > Grab Paddle
07/27/2015 at 13:38

I was just up at Turner last weekend and talked to their crew chief, only part in common is the tail lights

bryan40oop > Grab Paddle
07/28/2015 at 03:04

The S65 really didn’t have much torque. Also the m3 gt2 and z4 gte cars do not use the s65 engine, but an evolution of the p60b40 used in the e46 m3 gtr touring car.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_P60B4…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_M3#E9…

Law > bryan40oop
07/28/2015 at 13:07

@bryan40oop

That is incorrect. The 4.4L in the Z4 GT3 and GTE developed from the S65 in the E9X M3 GTS/CRT.
The information on Wikipedia is full of errors. The P60 in the E46 GTR is a separate development as is the unrelated P66 M3/M4 DTM engine.

http://www.turnermotorsport.com/t-BMW-Engine-C…

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthr…

Law > BullManUGA
07/28/2015 at 13:54

The M3 GT/GT2 preceding the Z4 GT3/GTE were powered by V8s.

BMW basically did away with the I-6 format to gain an edge on Porsche beginning with the E46 M3 GTR, using a loophole for homologation. In the real world, it was hardly a “production” car. BMW sold 2 or 3 (depending on source) of these across 2 continents to homologate the GTR based on regulations at the time. The following season, FIA told BMW the quantities must be increased to 50 to meet the requirements. BMW then pulled out.

BMW gets away with putting a 4.4L V8 in the Z4 GT3/GTE due to yet another loophole in the FIA regulations. The rules specify production quantity requirements. “Big manufacturers” like BMW must regularly produce the homologated car at a rate of 1 car per week. The rules for the engine essentially mandate the basic engine block, heads, position and orientation must be identical to production trim. The loophole resides in the lack of an explicit mandate that the car & engine homologated must also be produced with the same car & engine in production trim. The rules only go over how the car homologated must be a production car and how the homologated engine must be a production engine. So BMW decided to take the production engine (S65B44) from the M3 GTS/CRT and stick it in a production car (Z4).

http://www.bimmerboost.com/content.php?47… -they-do-not-sell

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Grab Paddle
08/03/2015 at 22:41

Kinja'd!!!

Why? Because this engine is awesome.