12 HOURS OF PAIN // BMW 335i BATHURST 12 HOUR RACE CAR

There it sits, with its silky smooth lines, its slightly tame yet aggressive stance puts doubts in your mind about its true identity. As you move closer you see the finer details, something  only german enginnering can produce. You reach out and grab the door handle, a bond immediately occurs. The door opens in one smooth motion; your eyes are drawn straight to the supple leather door trims perfectly blended in with an elegant wood grain finish. Thousands of thoughts run around your mind, but the only thing your brain tells you to do is to get in. Your body is instantly embraced, completely surrounded by leather.

The suspense starts to build. Your hand moves to the ignition barrel, as if the keys are being drawn to a magnet. A slight twist of the hand and the beast comes to life. Your natural instinct is to select first gear and release the clutch while feeding in a small amount of throttle. You don’t even think, you just do it. Doubt begins to come over you as the exhaust noise is nonexistent. All you can think of doing is to feed in more throttle, to eliminate the doubt. The turbos begin to spool, and all the doubt you had is now gone, you change up the gears and within seconds your at 140km/h. Your overcome with warmth as you ease of the throttle as you whisper to yourself 'this is the one!!'... [read more]

This is exactly what Gary Holt thought when he first got the pleasure to drive a 335i at his local BMW dealership. Gary wasn’t like every other person who walks into a BMW dealership. Gary was looking at the big picture. He was in search for a car that could conquer the Mecca of Australian motorsport, Mt Panorama, Nonstop for 12 hours.

There is no way a standard car would cope with the abuse of 12 hours of nonstop driving around Bathurst.  Gary spent months planning out what components where to be used in the build and what needed to be done to give his team the best chance of conquering the race.

Upon receiving the keys of his brand new 335i Gary swiftly began pulling it apart and begin the transformation from street car to race car. Once stripped the car was quickly sent to get the body of the car up to spec. With all seams weld and a full FIA approved cromoly roll cage to ensure complete rigidity and to meet the safety requirements of the event. The car was then resprayed in white and was stickered up to match up with Gary Holts Eastern Creek Go Karts colours, which really sets of the car.

Once the body was sorted out the attention was drawn to the suspension department. The rules for the 12 hour state that all suspension arms must remain factory but springs and shocks could be changed. Gary went straight for the best there is to be found in Australia. Murray Cooate from MCA made up some custom valved Proflex coilovers with remote canisters which should offer the best handling and will happily last the 12 hour race.

To ensure the suspension could work as planned mutable sets of Team dynamic racing wheels in 17x8 and 17x9 which are commonly used by most teams in the BTCC where rapped in Yokohoma A048 Semi Slicks. Fitting inside those wheels is a pair of Nascar spec  4 spot Brembo brakes up front and 2 spots on the rear using endless brake pads. Not only will these pull up the car from 250km/h each lap but the brake pads should last for the full 12 hours.

Due to the strict regs that the competitors were forced to abide by the standard engine had to be used, however it was managed by a Motec ECU which allowed for tweaks to the power curve to get the turbos to kick in earlier. The car ended up making around 225kw at the treads. With no changes to the engine to be made the focus was on reliability of the whole drive train to ensure it would last the full race distance. Very large oil coolers where used on the engine, gearbox and diff. With oil temps in check the focus was then shifted to water temps where a large triple bypass aluminium radiator was used with large thermo fans. To ensure the engine wouldn’t be starved from fuel a large fuel tanks was adopted with baffles and along with a surge tank setup. A new filler system was also used to allow for refuelling during the race.

The interior also received some treatment with an aftermarket steering wheel with a quick release system to make it easier when driver changes come into the equation. All the necessary safety equipment was installed such as race seat, window net and racing harness. The interior is rounded off with a fancy motec dash which constantly monitors all the vital fluids throughout the car.

All and all the regs set out by the Bathurst 12hr organises ensure that it really is a production based event that is relatively inexpensive to partake in for most manufactures. This should see the number dramatically increase next year and I can’t wait to see what changes Gary will make to the car to make it even better next year.

Photo/Editorial: Matthew Mead