An exciting new car to the Australian Manufacturers Championship broke cover just prior to round four’s ‘THE FIGHT IN THE NIGHT’ meeting at Queensland Raceway scheduled for this weekend.
Beric Lynton’s 1 Series M Coupe completed final testing before heading off to the Willowbank raceway for the Shannons Nationals meeting with Lynton saying, “The shakedown test went well, albeit we had a few issues that we hope we’ve fixed. This weekend will be a big learning curve with the car for us.”
One of just 100 allocated to Australia, the car was crashed in a road test drive with Australian Top Gear magazine. BMW Australia considered it too damaged to repair and offered it to the Gold Coast BMW dealer for a bargain price.
“When this model became available we wanted to get one – being a BMW dealer, but they were all sold out,” Beric Lynton said. “I really don’t know of another 1 Series M being built around the world as a racecar.”
Lynton assembled an experienced crew to oversee the rebuild including grand prix designer Ralph Bellamy, a gifted designer in F1 and F2 Grand Prix racing and other cars from the 1970’s and 1980’s. “Ralph helped me out for more than ten years since the days of my pink E46 M3 and he just does it as a hobby,” Lynton added.
They worked with CAMS on homologation for this twin-turbo straight six rear-drive BMW that boasts 250kW in power output and 450Nm of torque. The roll cage was built by Peter Beehag and PWR did much of the work on the radiators and cooling system. It is fitted with KW suspension and an AP brake package.
The pocket rocket is a Class A Extreme Performance contender up against the all-wheel-drive Mitsubishi Lancer Evo Xs and 9s as well as a Subaru Impreza.
Qualifying for ‘THE FIGHT IN THE NIGHT’ is at 10:50am on Saturday, August 11, with the first of two 200 kilometre races starting at 6:10pm, well after the sun has set. Sunday’s second leg begins at 4:30pm and is expected to conclude in the dark.
All that action can be seen www.itvlive.com.au as well as on Speedweek, screening at a time to be advised on both SBS and Speed TV on Fox. There will be updates on Facebook and Twitter (@2011_AMC) across the weekend.
