As a well-informed BMW follower, you would possibly properly pay attention to an immense recall operation in connection to the Exhaust Gasoline Recirculation (EGR) cooler fitted to varied diesel BMW fashions. Final month, we reported right here concerning the recall marketing campaign which encompasses practically all diesel fashions produced over a interval between 2021 and 2022. You would possibly now ask your self the query what does this need to do with the title of this story. Enable me to elucidate!

The last word mortgage automobile

As an proprietor of an ALPINA XD3 from 2021, I used to be knowledgeable by way of my iDrive system of a BMW Technical Motion with the code 0011050700, requiring the substitute of the exhaust fuel recirculation cooler. After a dialog with ALPINA headquarters and a neighborhood BMW dealership, I came upon that my automobile was now being recalled due to the EGR cooler drawback. This meant beginning the method of changing the half and bringing the XD3 in for investigation on the largest European ALPINA supplier, Cuntz in Speyer, Germany.

Subsequent to being a BMW & MINI supplier and repair middle, the specialist from Rhineland-Palatinate has a number of expertise with ALPINA automobiles and has a protracted historical past in motorsport. Forward of this yr’s motorsport season opening on the Hockenheim Ring, I used to be handed as a shock the final word mortgage automobile, the staff’s BMW M4 Competitors monitor instrument and security automobile for the upcoming DMV Goodyear Racing Days.

DMV Goodyear Racing Days

The season opening occurred on April twenty third on the German Hockenheim Ring. Motorsport legend Timo Glock was one of many drivers for Cuntz Motorsport throughout the opening race of the DMV BMW 318ti Cup at DMV Goodyear Racing Days. As a former System 1 and DTM driver, Glock was accompanied by his good pal, two-time DTM champion Timo Scheider. His son Loris races for the Cuntz Motorsport Crew within the coming season.

Glock achieved third and fourth positions. The changeable climate, a mixture of sunshine and rain showers, made the 2 races on the Hockenheim Ring a slippery affair. “I had a number of enjoyable drying,” mentioned Glock after crossing the end line on Saturday and Sunday. The 42-year-old expressed that it gained’t be the final time he races within the sequence, however subsequent time he would share the automobile together with his pal Timo Scheider. “The thought could be that we one way or the other drive a race collectively this yr – on one automobile,” says Glock, asserting a doable additional visitor look.

Monitor instrument as a loaner

However let’s return to the M4 Competitors, which isn’t any peculiar car anymore! Other than the truth that Cuntz affords the car as a security automobile to officers at lots of their races, this F82 M4 Competitors is completely highway authorized and is absolutely TÜV homologated, which is without doubt one of the strictest car laws authorities on the planet. The motorsport staff added a sequence of upgrades to the car, akin to a Öhlins Street & Monitor suspension permitting for top and hardness adjustability, adjustable uniball assist bearings, modified stabilizer hyperlink rods and a suspension setup that includes particular person wheel alignment plus improved axle load distribution for monitor day use.

The improved suspension arrange was essentially the most noticeable improve to the automobile after I left the dealership’s car parking zone. The extra compliant journey provided quite a bit much less physique roll with out essential compromising the stiffness of the general package deal. The properly weighted arrange provided much more really feel by means of the steering wheel and made the M4 F82 really feel as if it had a a lot smaller footprint. On the subject of the brakes, steel-flex brake traces together with racing brake fluid and BMW M Efficiency brake pads provide enhanced braking energy, which is instantly felt below your proper foot. The burden-optimized 18-inch wheels are usually shod in semi-slick tires, however because of the chilly climate situations they have been this time outfitted with Michelin Pilot Tremendous Sport tires.

A number of Aero Parts

The skin of this F82 M4 Competitors incorporates a vary of BMW M Efficiency aerodynamic parts, akin to carbon fiber rear wing, entrance splitter and left and proper aspect wings. A particular wrap design offers the M coupe the general motorsport look. The inside is upgraded with a light-weight BMW M4 roll bar, a rear-seat delete and RECARO Pole Place seats. A lacking element is the absence of an Alcantara steering wheel.

On the subject of the dealing with, many particulars have modified enhancing the skills of the monitor instrument casu quo security automobile. Curiously, there aren’t any engine efficiency upgrades, which implies that the M4 Competitors places out the identical efficiency as a inventory mannequin did a few years in the past when it got here off the manufacturing line. The 3.0-liter S55 twin-turbo six-inline produces a complete of 450 hp at 7,000 rpm and 550 Nm of torque between 1,850 and 5,500 rpm. Additionally, the exhaust system was inventory throughout my mortgage, however upgraded forward of the opening of the monitor season. The staff fitted an Eisenmann exhaust cat-back system.

All in all, this Cuntz Motorsport monitor instrument is in use on the supplier’s racetrack occasions and is obtainable for rent to formidable contributors throughout these occasions. For me, the F82 M4 Competitors was only a mortgage automobile used to do my weekly run to the native grocery store whereas providing the chance to go to a number of the native sightseeing highlights and naturally the Hockenheim ring the place it’s typically in motion on the monitor. Ultimately, whenever you get handed such a car, you don’t say no to creating a pleasant variety of kilometers hitting a number of the native nation roads and the well-known German Autobahn to expertise the total potential of this tuned ///M automobile.

Again to the ALPINA

With the XD3 having completed its investigation, it was time at hand within the M4 on the supplier in Speyer and finish the distinctive expertise behind the wheel of this track-themed machine swapping again to the ALPINA mannequin, which now wants to attend about two to 3 months earlier than its new EGR cooler will arrive. Fortunately, no leaks have been discovered so I can drive many extra comfortable kilometers stretching the legs of my diesel-powered SUV whereas overlaying lengthy distances relaxed.

[Photos provided by Vincent Toth / Cuntz Motorsport / Denis Petermann]