If there's an underlying theme in the story of Jeff Wasserman's BMW M Coupe race car, it's, "Be careful what you wish for." Because it may take you a year and a half of gut-wrenching labor and a ton of big-denomination banknotes to make that wish come true.
It all started so innocently. Jeff, a long-time autocrosser and south Florida BMW club member, wanted a great ride for the street. He found just the car in BMW's M Coupe, and purchased one in late '98. The car was, in Jeff's words, "A nice, tight car. It was really an excellent daily driver." But Jeff, a competitor in track events for more than 20 years, began to have visions of the racetrack once again, and there are few better implements for the track, out-of-the-box, than the stubby little coupe.
Nature took its course, and a short time after he purchased the Coupe, Jeff took it to Roebling Road for a BMW CCA Club Race. When the engine self-destructed, Jeff looked to BMW for consolation and got words to the effect of, "You were doing what with our lovely piece of machinery?" That started the long journey from casual club racer to full-bore ground pounder. "When we got the word from BMW that the engine wasn't covered, I started looking for other options. We found a couple of Euro M3 motors overseas and went from there."
When you get into construction of a pur sang race car, it's hard to know when you're done. To demonstrate the fact, Jeff's car evolved over a period of 18 months. "Once you do this, it make sense to do that," said Jeff with a shrug. "Eventually the car got finished."
Jeff was fortunate enough to hook up with the stalwarts at The 901 Shop, in Pompano, Fla., early in the process. The Refenning family, in accomplishing the remarkable transformation of Jeff's Coupe, proved they can prepare a BMW to the same exacting standards exhibited on their many Porsche projects.
That the car is a custom effort from the get-go is evident at a glance. A 21-gal. fuel cell, especially constructed for the car by ATL, occupies most of the area under the hatch. As you move forward, you'll realize the cage protecting the cell is not just another to-the-rules safety item. Every frame location point is triangulated at least two ways, then gusseted. There's room for the driver in this jungle-gym construct, but just. In fact, rumors abound that Brady Refenning, primary cage constructor, had to be extricated from the final few welds under the dash by the local fire department rescue team. Even the front wheelwells were double-walled by Brady for extra stiffness. Add these details to an existing inflexible structure, and you have a bomb-proof platform.
Bolted to this virtual tube frame are all manner of goodies to make it stop and go. The 3.2-liter M motor, with a custom programmable engine management system by EFI Technology and stainless headers fabricated by The 901 Shop, has indicated 365 hp on a dyno with 270 lb-ft of torque available at 6800 rpm. The engine has been left nearly stock internally in the interest of durability. Backing the motor is a custom JB Racing aluminum flywheel and a 5.5-in. dual-disc Quartermaster clutch. Next in the chain of propulsion is a stock five-speed transmission and, finally, a limited-slip differential modified for 75-percent lockup.
Information is provided to the piloto via a stacked digital display by EFI Technology. The display has extensive data acquisition and transmission capabilities to assist in on-track performance evaluation. No longer can the driver of a rocketship like the M Coupe rely solely on seat-of-the-pants feedback.
Keeping the car off the ground at the front is a MacPherson-strut-based coilover assembly damped by JRZ double-adjustable shocks. At the rear, the fully adjustable trailing arms harken to Prototype Technology Group practice, featuring multiple Heim joints. Swaybars are 1.5-in. cockpit adjustable at the front and 1.0-in. three-way adjustable at the rear. Braking is accomplished through Alcon four-piston calipers front and rear, squeezing 14-in. cryogenically treated rotors at the front and 12.5-in. at the rear. Activation of the system is courtesy of a Tilton dual master cylinder with cockpit-adjustable bias.
Wheels are 18-in. center-lock, 10-in. wide at the front and 11 in. at the rear. Careful placement of all these goodies has resulted in an all-up weight of 2250 lb, with bias of 50/50 front-to-rear and side-to-side, driver in position, full fluids.
The car acquires its mean-and-evil appearance through a custom front shroud, including vented hood, spoiler and rocker panels by Patritti Design of Hollywood, Fla. The carbon-fiber rear wing is a fully adjustable unit by Crawford Composites.
Jeff's Coupe has been a flyer since it first turned a wheel on the track. Winterfest, a joint Porsche Owners Club/BMW CCA event held at Sebring last January, provided ample evidence of this fact. The scorecard at the end of the weekend was three firsts out of three events. Subsequent club-race outings have provided no relief for the competition. Jeff has five firsts in six events thus far, and only an over-long pit stop prevented a six-for-six record.
Such unbridled success inevitably leads to one question: What next? Brady Refenning was sanguine with reference to Jeff's success thus far. "We're kind of a big frog in a small pond as far as club racing goes. We've been looking at the next step, and we've considered the 4-liter V8."
But wouldn't prying one of the high-tech motors out of the cloistered confines of BMW Motorsport be quite a task, and expensive as hell to boot? "Yeah," Brady admitted, "the 4-liter may be a bit much. But Prototype Technology Group has some of its six-cylinder race engines coming available, and it's a combination that the Grand Am officials haven't had a look at yet. So they may give us a break, weight-wise."
Whichever real-world solution Jeff chooses for his next step, the ultimate goal is to jump in with the Big Boys at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, in February. "A lot will depend on financing," said Jeff. "We're talking to potential sponsors now, but getting the car ready for Daytona will take some big-time sponsorship."
The ingredients are all there. The car is fast and getting faster. With a little luck and some creative financing, maybe the hard-core Bimmerheads among us will have a high-flying privateer to root for at Daytona this year. Stay tuned.