BMW-March M1 @ Le Mans 2011

Here it is, our first adventure with the BMW-March M1!
After some careful inspection of the brakes and getting new tires and fuel (quite a task).. the only option was to get some track time and see what would happen. We compete in the Youngtimer Touring Car Challenge with a BMW E30 M3 Group A (see my other vids), and the next race was on the legendary (bugatti) circuit of Le Mans, and a lot of test sessions where planed by the organisation.. We, ofcourse, where tempted by the idea of testing the car there for the first time, on the track where it's sister car did the 24 hours in 1980.
To get the car ready in time was no easy job, and there where times where it seemed it would never happen. We planned a dyno session, but the time schedule was comprimised by late arrival of the tires. So.. the only test to see if it would actually move was on the parking lot of our tire supplier..you can see it in the video.
The next day we where ready to make the 700 km trip to le mans with both cars.

We arrived safely.

The time was there to do a lap.
A very cautious lap.. you never now what happens after 28 years in storage!
After some very very cautious laps...it was time to get around the corners a bit more quikly and give it a bit more loud pedal.. Immediately it was obious that there was grip..very very much grip..
The loud pedal gave some issues though.. the clutch went slipping just as the power really kicked in. But it was clear there was POWER . (700 of them actually)
After two sessions it seemed like the clutch wasn't covered with oil or that I used the wrong shifting technique. After some inspection we found that the clutch couldn't disengage fully, but it was easily fixed with some adjusting.
Now it was possible to get a bit of a feeling for the car.. it handled really well and after some gentle warm up laps even the brakes began to work. I was more and more confident, and therefore going faster.
Then there was the front straight of le mans.. coming out of the chicane in first gear..pedal down..noise,acceleration, speed came very quickly after that.. grabing second.. KLING.. and then there was no acceleration.
A drive shaft broke. The same thing that was very often the problem in the past.
But we had our laps. We are happy.

Now we will look for a good solution and then come back to a track to give it a real go and do some onboards.

For now, we have these shots of the whole trip.

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