Brock’s Le Mans Batmobile
Top of the pops racer and Pin-Up boy Peter Brock took on Le Mans aboard a BMW CSL in 1976.
It was a steep learning curve over yonder but Brock won races at home and finished the year a more rounded, polished and experienced owner-driver.
Peter Brock and John Goss aren’t Australian Racing Icons most readily associated with German cars but both went-foreign in 1976 at Le Mans. Goss’ Porsche 934 was a simple buy-a-ride deal whereas Brock’s BMW 3.5 CSL had a touch of the Fleetwood Macs about it; Go Your Own Way…
The sky was the limit for Brock in late 1975. Peter, Norm Gown, Bruce Hindhaugh, Bob Gracie and Les Small developed their Holden Torana L34 throughout the Australia Touring Car Championship (ATCC) rounds with a trio of second placings at Calder, Surfers Paradise and Lakeside. Then they brought-home-the-bacon in the Australian Manufacturers Championship (Manchamps) by taking the Triple Crown: Sandown, Bathurst – Brian Sampson shared the drive – and Phillip Island.
Brock Thinks Big, Thinks Batmobile
Interested in broadening his horizons beyond domestic dominance, Peter formed Team Brock then piqued BMW’s interest to assist them to build their brand in the Asia-Pacific if he purchased the low-mileage BMW E9 3.0 CSL (3.0 CSL is the official name but I’ve used it interchangeably with 3.5 CSL given that was the capacity of the racing cars at the time) works-built Batmobile for sale in South Africa in November 1975.
The 3498cc, twin-cam, four-valve, fuel injected 450bhp racer – chassis/VIN E9-2275991 – was built in early 1974 and raced by BMW Motorsport in one European Touring Car Championship race at the Nurburgring on July 14, Bell/Ickx DNF gearbox. On September 15 Derek Bell ran it in a German Touring Car Championship (Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft-DRM) round at the Norisring. DNF oil-pump in race one and classified 14th in race two with rear axle problems.
BMW then sold it to Alain Peltier who won the European Touring Car Championship together with Siegfried Muller aboard the Falz Alpina Essen run machine in 1975: they won at Monza and Brno and were second at the Salzburgring and Nurburgring.
That November Derek Bell and Brian Redman raced it in the Kyalami 1000km finishing third despite damaging the left-front strut and replacing it during the race. E9-2275991 was then offered for sale in South Africa.
By the time Brock got back from South Africa, handed over the D-Marks and shipped the exotic-Kraut to Team Brock’s modest Bundoora workshop BMW HQ had decided that BMW Motorsport had to be self-funding. The net effect was that Brock would have to pay for expensive parts rather than have them supplied/subsidised…
Bill Patterson – 1960 Australian Gold Star winner and Ringwood based, multi-site Holden and BMW dealer was a racer to the core – was undeterred, the planned domestic Holden programme and Le Mans was on, albeit the sponsorship reflected a Carlton Draught-budget, Moët money it was not!
Auto Action broke the story in our February 19, 1976 issue #130.
Brock’s glorious BMW broke cover and was the Belle of the Ball in the Sandown Rothmans International paddock over the February 15 weekend. Peter did some demonstration laps, not at race-pace but he was using enough revs to give us all an aural-taste of that big straight-six.
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