HISTORIC TOURING CARS

Boozy BMW

It’s rare all right. In fact, bar one final car built in 1998 — and now on display in BMW’S own museum in Munich — and a second, sister car, E36 STC 97/017, built in 1997 for the BMW Italia team, the distinctive Jägermeister orange E36 STC 97/16 owned and raced in New Zealand’s Archibalds Historic Touring Car Series by Christchurch car dealer Bruce Miles is the last in the line of BMW Motorsport– built 320i supertourers.

With no contemporary record of activity regarding the ‘sister car’ — raced in the 1988 and 1989 Campionato Italiano Superturismo, or Italian Super Touring Championship, by Emanuele Naspetti — the Miles’ car is certainly the last of BMW’S iconic line of E36 BMW supertourers still in active, not to mention, race-winning, use.

STILL CHARGING HARD

In the southern hemisphere motor racing season just passed, Miles won five out of the eight races that made up the 2019 Archibalds New Zealand Historic Touring Car Series. Included on that list were all three at the big Skope Classic meeting at Bruce’s home circuit, Mike Pero Motorsport Park at Ruapuna, and two of the four were at the final round at the Evolution Motorsport Classic Speedfest meeting at Invercargill’s Teretonga Park a fortnight later.

The hard-driving Miles won against quality opposition, in fields that included later model front-wheeldrive supertourers such as the former Team Dynamics Nissan Primera of Phil Mauger and the 1977 Kelvin Burt BTCC Volvo of Lindsay O’donnell.