Club News
    Getting Addicted To Hot Laps In An L6
    By: John Colmer of the River City Bimmers Chapter
     

    In 1993, my partner in the restaurant business at the time spotted a 1987 L6 at Roadshow BMW in Memphis. I couldn’t resist and told the folks at the bank not to say anything to my wife as I hadn’t told her yet. They couldn’t help but tell her how beautiful our new car was. And so it begins—and yes, we’re still married.

    Back then it was a daily driver and was even taken on some fly-fishing trips to Arkansas. Those backroads can be an awful lot of fun at speed, but I discovered that Red-Tailed Hawks can’t get airborne fast enough to clear the windshield. He cost me a windshield, but he is a great piece of taxidermy art in my shop.

    Mark Calabrese used to chair our local BMW club and hosted a few driver events at Memphis Motorsports Park. I took the stock L6 out there for the weekend, slushbox and all the roll Elvis could rock.

    That’s where the madness began. 

    Suspension upgrades were the easiest and most affordable improvements available, so I started there. A second track event had my instructor saying I was driving the car about as fast as it would go as it was configured.

    Hmmm, what now?    

    A short time later, my longtime mechanic, John Scheidhauer, informed me that it was time to fix the oil leak under the hood. That was going to be a couple grand and the used doormat I had was soaking it up just fine. Then, he remembered that he had an ’88 M5 that had been T-boned. Would I be interested in transplanting the S38B35 power-plant and manual tranny? Hell, yes!

    Barber Motorsports and Road Atlanta were becoming weekend destinations.  So, now that we can go faster, gotta stop faster too. There are an abundance of bolt-on upgrades from other BMWs. After the slicks were purchased, I realized that the stock springs weren’t enough, here come the coil-overs.

    There are a lot of things at the track that will intoxicate a driver. In the paddock, there is the visual abundance of really cool cars, the smell of uncatalyzed exhausts and hot brakes, and the sound of highly-strung engines trumpeting through custom exhausts.

    Then, it’s your turn on the track. You put on the helmet and strap in while your game-face changes your expression from the inside out. Now the real fun begins as you start turning hot laps. You and the car connect and become one. The exhilaration of G-forces and speed propel your brain to a happy place. The apex and the racing line become your objectives. And then, your instructor tells you to try something a little different in turn three.

    What? Is he crazy?

    Now you get to tell your brain to act differently than it wants to, under the influence of speed induced adrenalin. You follow his suggestion and it works! The joy and triumph of these moments not only leads to enhanced skills and better lap times, it puts a grin on your face that can’t be wiped off.

    The sixer is presently at another crossing. You see, I can catch the others in the turns, but they leave me in the straights. Only one answer there, Horsepower! Some say “buy another car”. I say heck no, not after this 22-year journey. TURBO! 

    But that’s a whole ‘nother chapter.