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"The BMW E30 M3 and rallying, two of my favourite subjects, but perhaps two subjects that are rarely linked. Here follows the story of a (then) small preparation company who went on to dominate world rallying and give us two British World Rally Champions.


At the end of 1986 Dave Richards Autosport were left with a very expensive yard full of Group B cars which were rendered useless (and worthless!) overnight, due to the banning of the Group B formula by the governing body.


For 1987 the company would be rebranded Prodrive, and the first car ever to wear the Prodrive badge would be an E30 M3.


Prodrive had managed to secure a deal with BMW France and Rothmans to run the French pairing of Bernard Béguin and Jean-Jacques Lenne in the 1987 French Rally Championship, the deal would also include the WRC event 'Tour de Corse' which was in fact back then part of the French Rally Championship.

The car was homologated on 1st March 1987 and made it's debut on the Garrigues Rally on 26th March 1987, it had problems (you can read about them in the article below)


A couple of photos from that 1987 Garrigues Rally







Next was round 2, the Alpin Behra, Béguin gave the car it's first finish - 3rd overall.


One week later, a pair of M3s showed up at the start of the Circuit of Ireland Rally, one was for Belgian race and rally driver Marc Duez, the second car being driven by Irish rally legend Billy Coleman, the event was a big disappointment for the team with both cars hitting problems early on (again, see below article)


Here is Billy Colman at the start of the 1987 Circuit of Ireland, note the car has had it's Rothmans decals deleted, this was to satisfy UK television laws on tobacco advertising.




Below is an article originally from the June 1987 edition of CCC magazine, it was printed straight after the Circuit of Ireland.











"

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Þórður
'99 M5 SC // '89 M3 S85 // '04 Patrol GR

Leggst yfir þetta í kvöld

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Sigurður Rúnar Rúnarsson

No guts, no glory

Þetta gangverk + compact boddý......

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Hilmar B Þráinsson S 822-8171

Svo var einn þarna frá Prodrive með kastara fyrir framan nýrun, kom út eins og hann væri með sex aðalljós, megacool

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BMW E30 325i Coupe

Round 3 of the '87 French Rally Championship was held just one week after the Circuit of Ireland! Béguin became the first driver to take a rally win at the wheel of an M3 on the Touraine Rally. Four Rallies into it's career and the M3 was a winner :flag:


Some photos from that '87 Touraine Rally
















But next, was a far greater challenge, the WRC event in Corsica, the works teams of Lancia, Ford and Renault would all be present, you have to remember that Prodrive were a privateer team and BMW only gave them limited support, after all the M3 was a touring car not a rally car, so why should BMW care at all.

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Þórður
'99 M5 SC // '89 M3 S85 // '04 Patrol GR

Round 5 of the 1987 World Rally Championship, the Tour of Corsica, or as the French call it the 'Tour de Corse' The only WRC round held on clear tarmac roads, almost certainly the only chance all year that Prodrive would have to take a win at the very highest level.

The event was run to a new rally format, 24 special stages, approximately 380 miles of flat out driving over three days, on some of the most demanding roads in the world.

Béguin had last competed in Corsica in 1985 in a Dave Richards prepared Porsche 911, he had finished 3rd overall, so there was little doubting his ability on the island's incredibly twisty roads. The M3 created crowds as it arrived, this was almost certainly the first time anyone on Corsica would have seen an M3, as they had only just been launched.




Béguin went into an immediate lead.




...but on stage 5 the weather changed to rain and fog and most drivers were caught out, this allowed the works Lancia Delta HF 4WD of Yves Loubet into the lead, Loubet was a Corsican (so no need to question his local knowledge!) who had been signed by Lancia specially for the event.




Day 2 - Loubet held his lead for the first stage but he then hit tyre problems, Béguin didn't allow this to go unnoticed and snatched the lead back, the roads had now dried and would stay like that for the remainder of the rally, it was looking good at this stage.







Béguin's driving over those final two days was faultless, a high speed journey around the island of Corsica was to be had.













Although the '87 Tour de Corse is on record as being run entirely on tarmac, this photo shows the car did see a gravel section.




Service during the event. In 1987 the cars weighed in at 1050kg, produced approximately 275bhp and used a 5 speed gearbox.




The end of the rally brought a popular victory for this French pairing and a very small British team, this was the first time a privateer team had won a WRC event since 1981 when Dave Richards was sat in the co drivers seat next to Ari Vatanen, this time Richards was team owner and Prodrive had scored it's first WRC victory. Not forgetting this nimble little car from Munich which was solely designed to win the World Touring Car Championship (Which of course it did later that year)


To this day, no normally aspirated, front engine, RWD car has since won a round of the World Rally Championship, so I suppose it marked the end of an era for a certain type of rallying.

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Þórður
'99 M5 SC // '89 M3 S85 // '04 Patrol GR