1973 BMW 3.0 CSL 'Batmobile' FIA Race Car

The European Touring Car Championship of the early 1970's encouraged several performance orientated manufacturers to build some rare and exciting homologation specials, notably Ford with their Escort and Capri derivatives and BMW with their CSL.

Standing for 'Coupe Sport Leicht', it was indeed light - with an aluminium bonnet, boot and doors, reduced trim and lighter sports seats, all of which created a weight saving of over 300lbs (136 kgs) , even on the road car! The race versions created even more highly evocative images (think Hans Stuck flying at the 'Flugplatz' at the Nürburgring!) with their excess of dramatic spoilers on the front and the rear and even on the roof! The 6 cylinder 3.5 litre racing engines sounded stunning too, particularly at high revs.

This car was built in 2010 by noted race team, Classic Cars of Kent, from a standard original BMW CSL road car. The shell was acid dipped, e-coated and seam welded. It was then fitted with new sills and panels where necessary and a full FIA cage welded in to place. The car was then fitted with AVO racing dampers, AP 4 pot racing disc brakes on the front (and twin pots on the rear). The engine was modified to full FIA race spec with very rare factory Kugelfischer injection and Schnitzer slides. The car runs on BBS racing wheels with slick tyres.

The engine has just been refreshed by Mathwall Engineering (Jan 2013) and the car will come to the sale with zero running hours and a dyno sheet confirming approximately 350 bhp. This is coupled to a Getrag 5 speed (dog leg) gearbox and a 75% lsd.

Professionally run for the keen amateur owner from new, the car has competed in Europe at Portimão and in the Masters series, with regular podium results. It was recently tested by Touring car legend, Paul Radisich, who found the car to be superbly set up.

Today, it represents an exciting opportunity to race in the various new 70's saloon series, including Masters, at a fraction of its original build cost. This Lot includes FIA HTP papers, a spare set of BBS wheels shod with wet weather tyres and a spare front air dam splitter, painted and ready to go.