The racing type BMW CSL
In 1974 the racing type of the E9-CSI achieved a maximum speed of 275 km/h. This was made possible by enlarging the cubic capacity to 3498 cm3,
and by a four valve cylinder head of 440 HP with 8500 rpm. It sped up from 0 to 100 km/h within 4 seconds.
During the racing season of the manufacturer´s world championship 1976 the group 5 norm was brought in; compared to the series vehicles
these new rules allowed a lot of modifications. The Porsche 935 with 600 HP won four out of seven races, even the world championship.
Nevertheless the BMW Coupés were able to win three races, despite a great number of Turbo-Porsches 934 (from customers) took part,
and they could keep the world cup open until the last race.
On a few occasions the BMW factory team competed. By the use of a four valve technique and a turbo charger, their car achieved an
engine performance of up to 800 HP, which had only been achieved by the Porsche 917/10 before, an what was first made possible
during the turbo era of the Formula One in the 1980s. This caused such a vast torque that the breaking point of the Getrag five-gear transmission
got exceeded, and even the engine power seemed nearly unlimited: A maximum speed of 308 km/h, achieved from 0 to 100 km/h within 3.5 seconds.
For lack of a customized six-gear transmission such an engine power led to limited engine speed but not to limited resistance to motion:
Full throttle operations on long straight stretches would have had destroyed the motor of the racing type CSL due to overwinding.
The tyres of the swedish racer Ronnie Peterson are supposed to have been spinning while accelerating to more than 250 km/h,
which is why a set of tyres only lasted 64 km.
During its first race in Silverstone the Turbo-BMW achieved the second best time in practice, but only made its next
appearance at the all important last race in Dijon, where the pole position went to the factory Porsche.
But the six cylinder turbo BMW made an early exit. BMW narrowed down to supercharging the small M10 four cylinder and successfully
developed it in the following years until the F1 World Cup in 1983.
Enjoy three videos of our Coupés.
Salzburgring 2013 BMW E9 Renncoupé + 3.0 CS Alpina B2 + Clip / Motorvision
Up to 360 HP: The CSL is getting sporty.
By the launch of the BMW Motorsport GmbH in May 1972 times were changing. The young team around Jochen Neerpasch
initially put its focus completely on the CSL. To make the sports coupé more attractive to dedicated customers, the engineers
installed the new injection engine with 147 kW/200 HP, which had been slightly extended to a cubic capacity of 3003 cm3.
As Jochen Neerpasch said at that time: „Due to the fact that 1973 is our formative year, we cannot expect to win
this year´s european championship.“ The competing car weighed nearly 1.1 tons.
It had a modified in-line six-cylinder engine of 3340 cm3, twelve valves, injection and a compression of 11:1, and 360 HP.
But not only the racing type of the CSL was on everybody´s lips on the racing tracks. BMW had the first team that appeared in a unified look.
From the car transporter to the keyring: The blue-purple-red stripes on snowwhite ground characterise the appearance of BMW in motorsports until today.
Slalom Cup 2010 Autohof Wörnitz
But even our „regular“ coupés are driven in a sporty way from time to time.
The BMW E9 friends Bavaria met on 11th of September 2010 at the Autohof Wörnitz on the occasion of the Slalom Cup.
Thomas Wanner, Torsten Vorwerg, Helmut Schmid, Wolfgang Wurm and Andreas Bischof attended.
As it took two long hours to get there, they first had a strong coffee to wake up and got started afterwards.
Never forget to remove some things from your car before starting such a race, i.e. throw out all the stuff you usually drive around with.
As I didn´t take this little „rule“ to heart, I discovered a mess in my boot after the slalom.
Nevertheless it was great fun having the possibility to speed up the E9 on a closed race circuit.
Some pictures of the slalom.
Picture: Torsten Vorwerg & Thomas Wanner