Press Release
BMW Motorsport Shaping the Future
Related content:
A Whole Series of Victories - to the Benefit of Series Production
- The absolute benchmark: BMW's Formula One power unit.
- Technology transfer from the construction of innovative models
all the way to series production.
- Shifting gears and starting the engine in the BMW M3 just like Schumacher and Montoya.
- Touring car racing: pushing the BMW 3 Series to the extreme.
Millions of people the world over are able experience and enjoy BMW's success on the race track, with BMW winning outstanding events in international touring car racing, in long-distance and sport car races, and in Grands Prix. The World Championship in Formula One (1983) and Touring Car racing (1987), six European Championships in Formula 2, and no less than 17 European Touring Car Championships are just the tip of the iceberg made up of innumerable individual wins and national championships.
The foundation is strong and stable in all cases, BMW motorsport and BMW series development forming a strong team and both benefiting from their common efforts in many respects. Powerful synergies are being generated in all four disciplines of BMW motorsport in 2003 - Formula One, the European Touring Car Championship, the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, and Formula BMW talent promotion.
The Motorsport Division in Munich has access to all of the Company's technical resources at the Research and Innovation Center, to BMW Plants, in Design, Rapid Prototyping, Electronics or Production. Series development therefore benefits from motorsport, in particular from Formula One, serving as a high-tech research lab. For to win here you must really go all-out in every respect, completing the development to testing and racing cycle quickly and efficiently, without taking the slightest break in between.
The BMW Formula One power unit
"P83" is the simple code-name of the power machine from Munich driving the BMW WilliamsF1 Team to success in the 2003 Formula One World Championship. This new engine once again outperforms its predecessor, the P82, which already set the benchmark in Monza in September 2002 revving at 19050 rpm and developing maximum output of almost 900 bhp.
The P83 weighs a lot less than 100 kilos and, even more importantly, has a low center of gravity. It is made up of some 5,000 individual components, 1,000 of which are quite different from one another, and is assembled on average in 80 hours. Each year more than 200 F1 power units, including engines overhauled for testing and practice, leave the plant in the north of Munich.
Technology transfer from the construction of models all the way to production
All core components of the F1 power unit are developed and produced by BMW - whether it is the cylinder head, crankcase, crankshaft or cam shaft, or the electronic engine management. In the words of BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen, "the transfer of know-how from motorsport to series production and back again was our mission and commitment right from the start in our Formula1 project."
To guarantee this transfer of technology between motorsport and series development and to achieve the highest level of efficiency in the process, BMW's F1 Plant operates right at BMW's main location in Munich, fully integrating the resources of the Research and Innovation Center only a stone's throw away. Benefiting from this support, BMW was able from the start to develop its own electronic F1 engine systems in-house, instead of having to call on renowned specialists from outside the company. Engineers otherwise working on the on-board electronics of the BMW M3 and M5, therefore, also created the electronic engine management for BMW's Formula1 power unit. And the knowledge they acquire in this process goes straight back into series production, the BMW 7 Series, for example, benefiting from high-performance processors developed, tried and tested in Formula One.
Shifting gears and starting the engine in the BMW M3 just like Schumacher and Montoya
Other technologies carried over from Formula One are to be found in the cockpit of the BMW M3: the Sequential M Gearbox - SMG with DRIVELOGIC - and the Acceleration Assistant. The SMG drivetrain offers F1 transmission technology for everyday motoring, the driver shifting gears electronically by means of a paddle on the back of the steering wheel. Like in Formula One, an electrohydraulic system replaces the mechanical clutch engagement and gearshift process, enabling the SMG driver to keep his foot on the gas pedal while shifting gears. The Acceleration Assistant, in turn, is an automatic system ensuring optimum acceleration with controlled wheel slip comparable to Launch Control in Grand Prix racing cars starting from the grid.
Other examples of this technology transfer are perhaps less conspicuous
In Landshut, for example, BMW has its own in-house F1 engine foundry affiliated directly to the regular foundry for series production engines to ensure a direct flow of new casting technologies and know-how to series production. And the same sand-casting process used for BMW's Formula One V10 therefore also serves to cast the oil sumps for the BMW M models as well as the intake system for BMW's 8-cylinder diesel engine.
Significant input also comes from materials research seeking to promote BMW's Formula One activities. Conversely, the F1 Team benefits from know-how and facilities in rapid prototyping, and BMW's own in-house Formula One components production shop affiliated, like the foundry, to their counterpart for series production vehicles also serves to connect the construction and production of motorsport and series products. Again in the words of Mario Theissen, BMW's Motorsport Director: "Making enormous efforts in Formula One developments, we are able to improve our own special in-house knowledge at BMW and transfer racing know-how to series production."
Putting the transmission to the ultimate test
BMW's development and testing activities are by no means limited to the engine alone. On the contrary, the Company's resources also benefit the transmission and the drivetrain as a whole. "As a car maker we have the most advanced simulation and testing facilities otherwise simply not available to a racing team", says Theissen. "So we support Williams F1 in the design and calculation of transmission components and provide our test facilities for function and endurance tests. The range of options extends from the examination of individual components all the way to the simulation of complete races with a complete drivetrain."
Pushing the BMW 3 Series to the extreme
In touring car racing BMW is looking at a lot more than just a complex drivetrain. For here the focus is on the entire car from A-Z, the 3 Series being the car to beat both in works trim and in the hands of many private drivers. Among the many activities pursued by BMW in this area, there is the German Touring Car Challenge with the four-door BMW 320i DTC featuring a two-liter six-cylinder power unit developing approximately 200 bhp and provided by BMW Motorsport to private drivers and for other, comparable racing series outside of Germany. This is the most series or production-like racing version of the BMW 3 Series.
The BMW 320i racing in the European Touring Car Championship is a lot more elaborate and sophisticated in its suspension and aerodynamic features, the two-liter straight-six developing some 260 bhp. This car is raced by three national teams, with support by BMW's National Sales Companies. And here, too, even this more demanding touring car based in its development and further improvement on the know-how and testing facilities of BMW's production engineers follows the clear principle that racing teams must be able to understand, handle and finance their car's technical features and qualities.
Another dimension yet again is the BMW M3 GTR, the winner of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) in 2001 making its comeback in 2003 in the 24-Hours of Nürburgring. This is the most extreme M3 ever built in Munich, with its body a lot more muscular in its dimensions and overhangs than that of the regular M3 made partly of carbon fiber.
With its purebred racing suspension, this mighty coupe features a BMW V8 power unit developing more than 450 bhp instead of the usual 3.2-liter straight-six. A typical BMW M engine with its short stroke and high revs, the V8 is exactly the right power unit for the M3 GTR not only through its output, performance and driving qualities, but also on account of its compact shape and design. With the two rows of cylinders positioned at an angle of 90º and with the flat oil sump featuring dry sump lubrication, the engine fits snugly into the M3: Lengthwise, the four-liter V8 takes up two cylinders less space than the regular straight-six of the M3, providing enough room for a new cooling concept which offers not just thermal, but also aerodynamic benefits.
Formula BMW
In the process of developing Formula BMW serving to promote, up-and-coming talents ever since 2001, another Division of the BMW Group also played a significant role: BMW Motorrad. The standardized monoposto racing cars starring in both the German Championship and in a special racing series in Asia feature 140 bhp four-stroke straight-four power units carried over from the BMW K 1200 RS motorcycle. In addition, Formula BMW sets the standard above all in safety technology, featuring an advanced carbon-fiber chassis to fulfil the safety requirements made of far more powerful Formula 3 racing cars and even exceeding the usual standards in Formula One through developments such as the BMW Formula Rescue Seat (FORS). The crash tests required to substantiate these qualities are carried out in BMW's crash facilities in Munich.
