Super Touring Pioneer
A marque woven into the very fabric of touring car racing is BMW. From the Capri-killing 3.0 CSL ‘Batmobile’ to the legendary box-arched E30 M3, which remains German marque’s most successful model of them all. Needless to say, the E30 M3 left big shoes to fill when regulation changes left it obsolete from most touring car championships in the early 1990s.
Enter the BMW E36 318i. Boasting a two-litre version of the E30’s bulletproof two-litre engine and thus adhering to the FIA’s new Super Touring framework of rules, the 318i more closely resembled the production 3 Series in the showrooms. It proved quick, very quick, winning a plethora of domestic touring car championships around the world.
The car featured here is chassis number E36A-033, which was the very first Super Touring Class 2-specification 318i, built as a factory BMW Motorsport entrant for the 1993 British Touring Car Championship.
In 1992, the BMW of Great Britain satellite team had represented the Munich marque in the BTCC. But as BMW itself withdrew from the DTM in Germany at the end of 1992, it instead sanctioned a full Works assault on the British series for 1993, operated by its trusted outfit Schnitzer Motorsport. The two car team would field factory BMW Motorsport drivers Steve Soper and ‘Smoking Jo’ Winkelhock.
The BMW’s maiden competitive outing came at the opening round of the BTCC at Silverstone in March, wearing the race number six and assigned to Steve Soper. In their first weekend on British soil in a British championship, Schnitzer Motorsport was the class of the field. The brace of BMWs proved unstoppable, Soper clinching pole position and outright victory with this very 318i ahead of Winkelhock in the sister car.
The next round of the BTCC at Donington assumed an elevated status in the paddock as it served as a support race for the 1993 SEGA European Grand Prix, the race in which Ayrton Senna made everyone else look like they were standing still in what were truly biblical conditions. Soper once again picked up where he left off at Silverstone with an impressive pole position.
On Sunday, the wet-weather Michelin tyres fitted to the Renault 19s of Tim Harvey and Alain Menu gifted the French team a spectacular and unexpected one-two victory. Soper’s deft display of driving in the frankly atrocious conditions resulted in a third-place finish and this BMW’s second podium in as many outings.
Suffice to say, BMW dominated the BTCC, clinching the Manufacturers’ Championship by over 50 points. The Driver’s title, meanwhile, was secured by Winkelhock. This iconic 1993 BMW E36 318i Super Touring is currently available from Girardo & Co. Photos © Girardo & Co.