The photographer is adamant. "OK, see the skidpad there, the painted circle? All right, my truck is here-at five o'clock." He runs from the truck to the top of the circle, gesticulating like a football referee. "I want you to goose it right here, about 12 noon, and by two o'clock you ought to be tail out, opposite lock." He runs back to the truck, yelling over his shoulder: "Try and hold it out as long as you can. And don't forget-opposite lock!"
The driver prods the engine start button, the air shivers as the 5.0-liter V10 roars to life. It isn't a liquid, burbling noise like a big-displacement V8, more of a mechanical rasp overlaying a sound like distant thunder. It's not necessarily pretty, but appealing nevertheless. Even more so considering the car it's coming from. This is no hulking M5 or M6. It's a svelte, titanium silver E92 3 Series. Such a cacophony ought not come from a car originally fitted with a 3.0-liter straight six. But here it is, and that's definitely a V10 under the hood. This car can only be one thing: a Hartge H50 V10.
The driver, Vinny Russo, hired PR gun for GGI-now the official North American distributor for Hartge (along with Carlsson for Mercedes and Sportec for Porsche)-takes a few laps around the circle, settling into the firmly bolstered sport seat. Back around at 12, he lays into the throttle. The V10 wails, Russo flicks the wheel and the rear end steps out briefly, a thin scrim of smoke issuing from the tires' edges. Then the H50 hooks up and snaps back in line.
"More tail! More lock!" yells the photographer.
Back around again, Russo flicks harder, gives it more gas. The engine shrieks more urgently, its war cry ringing in our ears. The rear breaks loose, hanging way, way out-and the car loops end over end into the center of the skidpad. Russo keeps his foot in it and the H50 pirouettes like a drunken ballerina, smoke boiling off the rear tires and eventually engulfing the car entirely.
He emerges from the swirling white cloud, his frustration evaporated like so much burnt rubber, ready to give it another shot. I stand resolutely on the sidelines, behind the truck. If anyone is going to skate this thing into the photo rig, it ain't gonna be me.
We tested the original H50 V10 in Europe about a year and a half ago. That one had an E90 sedan body with a louvered hood and twotone paint scheme. This is basically the same configuration, but aside from the V10 badges on the front quarter panels and the generously proportioned quad exhaust tips poking out the rear-perhaps the slightly more aggressive front bumper spoiler-this version is damn subtle. Even the power bulge is gone from the hood, which remains a factory E90 panel. This is the ultimate sleeper.