BMW CCA Club Racing #089 DM

Page 1: Summary & Background
Page 2: Modifications & Specifications
Page 3: Development History
Page 4: Detail Pictures
Page 5: Grassroots Motorsports Ultimate Track Car Challenge Update!

We believe this is the only 4 cylinder turbo being raced in BMW CCA Club Racing, and it was built by two complete amateurs, in my garage.

Here is the 2.0 Version!

Sneak Peek:

Prepare for version 2.0 of BMW CCA CR #089...

News: Look for us on newstands now!

Our little project is featured in the September 2009 issue of Performance BMW magazine, and even has a shot of the car on the cover!

Stay tuned for information on the major udpates that contine on the car.  A new look, upgraded instrumentation, a custom intake plenum and water injection.

News!  Rookie Driver & Turbo M42 finish #4 in Region

The 2008 BMW CCA Club Racing season was a chance for us to focus on sorting the car and getting Paul through his rookie license period.  We focused on our race craft while Paul approched each session with the same goals:  Have fun, improve, drive an incident free race, and bring it home.  While we were not planning to score points, sheer reliability and dedication brought us to the end of the season with Paul scoring 58 points and allowing us to finish 4th in the Pacific region and in the top 10% Nationally.

We have a lot of plans for the off-season including updating the body work and paint, making the car lighter, and improving the weight distribution.  Stay tuned for more details!

News! Privateer Turbo Proves Resilient, Scores Points!
The reliability of the only turbo M42 in BMW CCA CR (#089 DM) delivered the first podium finish (in class) on Sunday to rookie driver Paul Quattrocchi. BMW Car Club of America Club Racing held a premier event at Buttonwillow Raceway Park the weekend of July 19th and 20th. With the depth of talent and cars in the DM Class, the home built team approached the weekend with modest goals: to run good, clean races, practice race craft, show improvement throughout the weekend, and drive the car on the trailer at the end. The field saw a lot of attrition due to heat and other issues. Track temps were over 170 degrees and air temps were around 100 degrees.

Ignoring the heat, Paul drove the #089 DM in every session to deliver consistent improvement throughout the weekend. He found about 4 seconds a lap over the weekend, despite a fuel starvation problem on Riverside and Star Mazda. Paul jumped a number of spots on the start of Sunday’s last race but got stuck outside on of turn 2. He ended up harassing the tight racing group that included Tom Bell, Ralph Warren, Blain McNutt and Bill Elder while nursing a bad secondary fuel pump.

About HQ

Rob and Paul are two friends and IT Sales & Marketing guys who decided to get into amateur racing. Although we’re car guys at heart, we have no formal training in the automotive field, do not work in the industry, and in fact have no background in any engineering field. We started with a chassis that Paul knew well and was affordable, reliable, and easy to work on. Over the last few years we’ve transformed a 1989 BMW 325i (E30 chassis) beater into the only turbo 4 cylinder in BMW Club Racing.

All the rage in the BMW community has been to add Euro parts, and if engine swaps were done it was to add cylinders not remove them. Regardless of that fact, we pulled our 6 cylinder and built a turbo DOHC 4 cylinder.

It is a home built project, and our first race car as well. It has been a long term project, but we've taken a methodical approach and done our best to carefully understand each step.

The car as it stands was developed for BMW Club Racing under the rules for Modified cars. We specifically chose to run in the DM class as we knew we lacked the funding to field a car competitive with the profesionally built cars in any of the other Modified classes (that being said, DM cars regularly compete for the overall win). Based on the class rules for forced induction, we carry a 50% displacement burden so our 1.9L turbo competes with 2.9L NA cars.

A Real Grassroots Effort:

The build plan all along has been to follow the NASA (the space guys not the race guys) guidelines of cheaper, better, faster using off the shelf technology. Aside from the machine work for the engine and head, precision fabrication & welding for the exhaust, and safety considersations for the cage all of the component selection, engineering, build, and installation has been done by us, in my garage. We know the limits of our skills and are willing to outsource those jobs that we know we can't do.

This is where the car lives and is our build site. No, there is not a lift but Yes, those are operating room lights. Aside from the work we outsourced, everything else was done here. All the engine and drive line installation and removal, cleaning the interior to remove the sound deadening material, new suspension, brakes, bushings, electronics, and plumbing were all done here. We also did the engine tear down and rebuild.