Goodwood Festival 2003
Nelson Piquet and BMW to celebrate 20 Years of the Formula One World
Championship. BMW's 3.0 CSL and M3 CSL meet for the first time and 80 years of
Motorrad racing success celebrated.
Goodwood, England, July 10, 2003 ... Ten years after the inaugural Festival of
Speed at Goodwood, BMW Group Mobile Tradition will be presenting a very special
gem from its collection of historic automobiles. Thundering up the hill towards
the Goodwood House will be the 1,300 horsepower Brabham BT52B BMW racecar. To
pilot this fierce machine, the BMW Group managed to enlist Nelson Piquet, the
driver who became Formula One's first turbo World Champion in the Brabham BT52B
BMW. Also present will be Paul Rosche, Technical Director of BMW Motorsport at
the time who was responsible for developing the powerful engine that was
installed in the Brabham BT52B BMW. Many other members of the World
Championship team will also be present.
20 Years of Formula One World Championships: BMW Power Secures Success
In 1983, we witnessed the achievement of a feat nobody thought would be
possible. Thanks to the consistent pursuit of peak performance and an extremely
powerful BMW engine, Nelson Piquet won the final Formula One race at Kyalami in
South Africa to take the World Championship title from motor racing's most
highly regarded race class. This first World Championship win made history and
demonstrated BMW's commitment to professional International competition.
Today, the BMW WilliamsF1 racing cars with BMW power have similarly proved to
be as successful, with the Munich-manufactured engine ranking as the strongest
in the field. To demonstrate, current Formula One driver Juan Pablo Montoya
will be taking the WilliamsF1 BMW FW24 out onto the track at the Goodwood
Festival of Speed. Two Decades of BMW Formula One involvement will thus be
represented by top-flight racing drivers.
Lightweight Sports Cars: BMW 3.0 CSL and BMW M3 CSL
BMW will also be displaying highlights from the past and the present in the
sports car arena. The BMW 3.0 CSL that earned its nickname, "Batmobile", will
be in North American IMSA race series trim to drive along with the contemporary
BMW M3 CSL. Together, they will climb the hill at Goodwood with nimble
confidence. The abbreviation CSL stands for Coupe, Sport and Lightweight, and
symbolizes the enhanced power/weight ratio.
Even in its standard form, the "Batmobile" featured doors and a bonnet made of
aluminum, with further modifications shaving around 440 pounds off its weight.
The latest M3 CSL, meanwhile, employs materials such as carbon fiber-reinforced
plastic (CFK) and sheet molding compound (SMC) to achieve a weight/power ratio
of 8.49:1 to assure the sheer driving pleasure traditionally associated with
BMW autos. The classic BMW 3.0 CSL also celebrates the 30th anniversary of its
first victory at Goodwood. On July 8, 1973, Stuck and Amon won the six-hour
race at the Nürburgring.
Straight-sixes, V8s, V12s: Power From All Cylinders
Other cherished models from BMW's racing past will also be out on the track.
BMW Motorsport Director Dr Mario Theissen, for one, will be at the wheel of the
car that won the 1940 Mille Miglia, a BMW 328 Mille Miglia Coupe with bodywork
by Touring. Jörg Müller, who drives for BMW in the FIA European Touring Car
Championship, will be behind the wheel of the BMW V12 LMR that claimed victory
at the 1999 24-hours of Le Mans race. BMW's involvement in touring car racing
will be represented by the BMW M3 GTR, with Dr Burckhard Göschel, BMW AG board
member responsible for Development and Purchasing, in control of its
450-horsepower V8 engine.
To mark the 25th anniversary of the production launch of the BMW M1, Marc Surer
will be behind the wheel of a BMW M1 Procar. The Swiss driver, who has
contested many races with great success (winning, among others, the Formula 2
European Championship in 1979) played a key role in the development of the BMW
M1 that marked the start of BMW's successful M cars.
80 Years of Motorcycles, 80 years of Sporting Success
When the first BMW motorcycle was developed 80 years ago, it was clear to the
engineers led by designer Max Friz that their new product would wind up in the
world of racing. With its revolutionary combination of a transverse Boxer
engine and Cardan-shaft drive, this new horizontally-opposed two-cylinder model
by BMW had the equipment necessary to race reliably. In 1923, the R 32 was
already competing in the Solitude race and went on to win the event a year
later.
For the Goodwood Festival of Speed, BMW Group Mobile Tradition is once again
dispatching some outstanding examples from BMW's motorcycle racing past onto
the track. Besides an R 37 that reminds you of the 1925 racing season, and an
RS 500 on which Walter Zeller thrilled racing fans in the 1950s, Helmut Daehne
on an R 90 S TT will demonstrate motorcycle racing in its most fascinating
guise.
One particular highlight scheduled to race at Goodwood this year is the BMW RS
500 Kompressor, a supercharged machine formerly driven by racing legend
Schorsch Meier and later owned by Formula One and Motorcycle World Champion
John Surtees. The special attribute of this two-wheeler is that it has been
preserved in its original pre-war state; in other words, it was not modified
for subsequent racing involvements after the Second World War. BMW Group Mobile
Tradition recently acquired this unique motorcycle from John Surtees and will
be presenting it at Goodwood for the first time as part of its collection, with
Karl-Heinz Kalbfell, BMW Group Senior Vice President Group Marketing astride
the historic machine. The selection of BMW motorcycles on display will be
rounded off by three models from the current BoxerCup series.
Mobile Tradition's Comprehensive Exhibition
The BMW Group has been a firm fixture of the Goodwood Festival of Speed for ten
years now. As in previous years, the 2003 event will also feature a pavilion
with exhibits from the company's racing past that afford a fascinating insight
into the world of BMW driving pleasure to an anticipated 140,000 visitors.
Among other exhibits, the engine of the Brabham BT52B BMW racecar will be on
show. Highlights of the exhibition celebrating "80 Years of BMW Motorcycles"
will include an R 32 going back to 1923 and Ernst Henne's world record-breaking
motorcycle of 1937. Rounding off the presence of BMW Group Mobile Tradition at
Goodwood will be a range of accessories and spare parts for sale.
Goodwood Festival of Speed: Classic Motorsport, British-Style
"The Goodwood Festival of Speed" is its official title. It's an accurate
description of the event and at the same time a classic example of British
understatement. The Goodwood Festival of Speed is a historic motor racing event
of international distinction. Since 1993, its host, Lord March, has never
failed in his endeavor to bring alive Europe's glorious motorsport past in the
magnificent grounds of his estate in southern England. BMW has been actively
involved for years and contributes to the event thanks to its longstanding
tradition of building as well as racing motorcycles and cars.
The Goodwood Festival of Speed is an occasion for many of the world's
outstanding racing personalities to come together, and in this it is probably
unrivalled. They come here to demonstrate, before a crowd of some 140,000
spectators, the performance of the assembled historic vehicles that constitute
an extraordinary and invaluable roll-call of racing machinery.
Over the years, the Goodwood Festival of Speed has also emerged as an
automotive and social occasion of the highest rank. The public celebration of
motorsport looks back on a long tradition here. The classic Goodwood House with
its horseracing and its racetrack is quite unique, with the rolling green
countryside of the Sussex Downs lending the event an equally exceptional
setting.
One could hardly imagine a more attractive fixture. At Goodwood, the past comes
alive, memories are shared, and emotions run high, both on and off the circuit.
Proof positive that the BMW Group is very much at home in Goodwood is the fact
that, not far from the estate is the site where Rolls-Royce cars are being
produced. These luxury sedans are hand-built at the new headquarters of the
brand. That will make Goodwood a center of excellence for classic car
construction in true Rolls-Royce tradition.
For the BMW Group, it is a matter of both duty and pleasure to preserve and
keep alive its own heritage. The company's name is synonomous with
technological leadership, innovation and dynamic ability, as it has long ago
proved. Focusing on its past is at the same time an investment in the future.
That is why BMW established a division in 1994 devoted to the promotion of the
company heritage from the beginnings in 1916 to the most recent past, a
department where all heritage-related activities are gathered together under
one umbrella. This division is called "Mobile Tradition", a name that
underlines its understanding of heritage not as the static conservation of the
past but as the active involvement with cars and motorcycles which remain fully
operational at all times. The Goodwood Festival of Speed is a signal example of
the fact that motorized progress is a firm and fascinating aspect of
life-enhancing mobility.
Biography: Earl of March
The Earl of March is 48 years old (born January 8, 1955) and took over the
management of the Goodwood Estate Company from his father, the 10th Duke of
Richmond, in 1994. He lives in the Goodwood House with is wife Lady March (nee
Janet Astor) and their children Charles, William, Eloise and Frederick. He also
has a daughter Alexandra from his first marriage, who is 18 years old.
Lord March is President of the BARC (British Automobile Racing Club), Patron of
the TT Riders Association and an Honorary Member of the 500 Owners Club and the
Guild of Motoring Writers. Lord March is the founder of the Goodwood Festival
of Speed (1993) and the Goodwood Motor Circuit Revival meeting, the first of
which was held in September 1998 after he re-opened the circuit. Goodwood motor
racing was originally founded by the Earl of March's grandfather (the 9th Duke
of Richmond) in 1948.
Before taking over the management of the Goodwood Estate, Lord March was a
well-known London advertising photographer under the name of Charles
Settrington. The Goodwood group of companies is comprised of horse racing (21
days a year) at Goodwood Racecourse, the Goodwood Road Racing Company (Festival
of Speed and Motor Circuit Revival), a 3,000 acre farm and dairy, forestry, an
aerodrome and flying school and the 4-star Marriott Goodwood Park Hotel. The
Goodwood Estate covers 11,500 acres of Sussex to the north of Chichester, a
cathedral city situated between Portsmouth and Brighton on the south coast of
England. Lord March's father (the 10th Duke of Richmond) remains chairman of
the company, having established the modern Goodwood group in the late 1960s
after a career with the textiles company Courtaulds.
BMW Group In America
BMW of North America has been present in the United States since 1975. Since
then, the BMW Group in the United States has grown to include marketing, sales
and financial service organizations for the BMW and MINI brands and Rolls-Royce
Motor Cars; DesignworksUSA, an industrial design firm in California; a
technology office in Silicon Valley and various other operations throughout the
country. BMW Manufacturing Corp. in South Carolina is part of BMW Group's
global manufacturing network and is the exclusive manufacturing plant for all
Z4 roadster and X5 Sports Activity Vehicles. The BMW Group sales organization
is represented in the U.S. through networks of 340 BMW car, 327 BMW Sports
Activity Vehicle, 148 BMW Motorcycle retailers, and 70 MINI dealers. BMW (US)
Holding Corp., the BMW Group's sales headquarters for North, Central and South
America, is located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.
Information about BMW Group products is available to consumers via the Internet
at http://www.bmwusa.com http://www.bmwmotorradusa.com and
http://www.miniusa.com
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Journalist note: Information about the BMW Group and its products is available
to journalists on-line at the BMW Group PressClub at the following address -
https://newsroom.bmwgroup.com/global/en
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