The trip to Germany Part II
(Day 3)
ore
cars, ore
speed, ore
tuners and
Power!
The trip to Germany Part II
(Day 3)
ore
cars, ore
speed, ore
tuners and
Power!
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Dauer Sportwagen
After our visit to Brabus we drove to Dauer Sportwagen in Nuremberg. Above is Michael taking it easy on the Autobahn going 180 km/h in the Alpina B8 4,6.
Overtaken by a much faster M3 3,2 :) Sorry for the annoying ad below ->
On the way to Dauer we experienced some problems because of an accident Johan had with his car earlier. We discovered that the wheel arch had been wearing on the left front tyre while braking. Not so good if it had worn all the way to a flat tyre at 200+ km/h! So here is Gustav the expert mechanic using a PolyGrip from the BMW toolbox to do some "fine tuning" bending out the left fender again. Notice the red Porsche brake caliper in front.
Here we are at Dauer Sportwagen. Some of us showed up earlier because of alternative plans for this morning, but here we are meeting up. One of the participants Björn- showed up in his new 2001 M5. It has every option from BMW including Individual exterior colour Hellrot and Interiour full leather Walknappa Titanicblau dunkel / Walknappa champagner. It also has the double glasing and comfort seats with the Active seats option from the BMW 7-series (E38). It's also equipped with Hartge Nova 20' wheels and has Kelleners Sport full engine tuning package that gives around 465 HP and a top speed of 306 km/h.
Notice the button for the active seats besides the button for the seat heating. You also may already have noticed the special Individual interour.
Reception at Dauer Racing GmbH by Jochen Dauer
Mr Dauer arrived in a Mercedes S 600 L and was awaiting us. When we went into the Dauer premises we received champagne from beautiul servants. Jochen Dauer explained that he wasn't in a very cheerful mood becuase he had recently attended the funeral of the french racecar driver Bob Wald (Bob Wald was killed while cycling when a van hit him with the sideview mirror near a racetrack in USA). Of course we understood that. But despite the tragic incident, Mr Dauer, along with his expert mechanics gave a presentation a few of us will not soon forget. The Dauer LeMans 962 Mr Dauer has been a professional racing driver for over 20 years and won the 1994 24 h LeMans along with Porsche in a car developed jointly, the Dauer 962 Le Mans Porsche. Based on his excperiences gained from the racetrack he developed the world's fastest street-legal production car, the Dauer 962 LeMans. It has a top speed of 402 km/h. Fourhundredandtwo km/h which is 250 mph.
Above is the training race car Dauer trained for LeMans in 1994 with. The Dauer 962 is inspired by the Porsche 962. In 1982, Porsche expanded its supercar design from the then aging 936. An aborted Indianapolis project in 1980 yielded a twin turbo flat six engine. Porsche was determined to use it.The 956 was born, and in all its forms (including the 962) won over 40 world championships from the time it first took Le Mans in 1982 (then again in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986 an in 1987). After a successful run in IMSA, countless race wins, and setting the world record for numbers of Le Mans wins in a row (and many other records), the 962 was taken to the history books. But
the 962's life was not over yet. In 1994 a change in rules at Le Mans
prompted Jochen Dauer to enter a modified 962 into the event. The
result was not only a GT1 win, but an overall Le Mans victory. In
commemoration of the event, Jochen Dauer built several road going
versions of the new variation on the 962 theme. And thus it was born,
the fastest road car in the world. The Dauer LeMans was presented at the international auto fair at IAA Frankfurt in 1993. It has been produced in 11 examples. Some specifications:
Above is the Dauer 962 LeMans which they broke the 400 km/h barrier with. It has a sequential five speed gearbox and is rear wheel driven. The bodywork and chassis are Kevlar carbon fibre.
At last some serious brakes! Some M5 owners were very jealous of these... 355 mm in diameter. The Sultan of Brunei -his royal highness Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah aka Sultan of Brunei and his brother Prince Jeffrey Brunei- own three examples. Dauer technicians flew to Brunei regarly to perform maintence on the 962 at Jerudong Park Workshop, Brunei. However, some issues came up with Prince Jeffrey which resulted in the Sultan, outraged by his brother's "issues", exiling him from the country. At this time the Sultan, for either financial or emotional reasons, ceased spending money on automobiles and locked up the cars. And the garage with around 5000 cars is currently locked up... Jerudong workshop is in Jerudong Park. the "playground" of the sultan, where he indulges in his favourite pastime, polo. Jerudong Park is a huge complex with a polo stadium, luxurious stables, a golf course and trapshooting and croquet facilities. Unfortunately, you'll only be allowed in if you've been invited. Oh, I forgot to mention the warehouses where he stashes his cars. So, why does McLaren claim to be the fastest street legal production car without even having a top speed of 400 km/h? To quote Mr Murray himself from a letter he wrote to the British magazine Evo: "Firstly, our records are only valid for a true production car which has passed full EEC type approval and emmisions testing. There have been several other low volume specials (such as the Porsche 962) that have acheived a higher top speed)." Gordon Murray, technical director McLaren Cars Ltd So, the Dauer may not have passed the European emmissions testing, but it has passed the German tests -the TÜV- which validates the 962 as a legal road car. Mr Dauer told us that the change of rules in 1991 GT1 was that the racecars must have a street legal equivalent. This brought us super road cars as the Ferrari F40. Usually the racecars first won the races, then they sold the street legal version. But the Dauer 962 LeMans is the only one which was first sold as a road car, then won races. Inspired by the Porsche 962, the car had been registered for road use and was eligible for Le Mans 24 hours in GT 1 class. The Porsche factory decided to adapt three 962 chassis in order to run the race. The entry was made under the "Le Mans Porsche Team" name and some of the mechanics were from the Joest team. There were two cars in the entry list : 002 won the race and 003 finished third, and 001 was used as a training car during the practice session. The cars have been built on the chassis 962-176 (002), 962-173 (003) and 962-169 (001).During the 24 hour day, Jochen Dauer visited the Le Mans country with the road car. See the pictures below:
The 962 racecar had A LOT of downforce, and because of this has a very high Cw value (high wind resistance) and a poor top speed. Dauer changed this on the roadgoing car, so from a Cw of 0,54 he lowered it to 0,30. Without sideview mirrors it would have a value of 0,29 but this can't be tested because then the Michelin tyres could explode. Dauer continued to tell us about the actual high-speed tests of the car at Wolfsburg test track which belongs to the VAG Group. This was also the place for the Mclaren F1 to set it's highest speed. There the Dauer reached a top speed of 350 km/h easily but because of weather they couldn't go any faster.
To the left is the turbo boost switch. And no, I have never seen a 420 km/h speedometer before! Quite nice with 200 km/h at 12 o'clock on the speedometer! Official video (Realaudio 1 MB) here! 6 min 40 s. Including Axel Foley annoying soundtrack ;) So, on the first lap at 9 o'clock in the morning when they drove around the banked track, the test display showed 391,4 km/h! After that they made a second run before lunch and hit 395,8 km/h! The third lap at 2 o'clock beat the previous speed record set by the Mercedes C111 at the corner of the banked track by 10 km/h. For the last attempt they had the boost button on "Wet" setting out of the corner -which is 1,5 Bar- and the test instruments showed 404,6 km/h! The price of the car is 1,8 million DM which equals a little less than 1 million USD.
Here we have carbon fibre interior, long before it was a trend in the automotive world. The switches for turn signals and wipers come from the Porsche 911. It actually has full leather interiour! The Dauer EB 110
In the golden age of 1985 when venture capital was flowing like the .com era, the car enthusiast Romano Artioli decided to re-live one of the most legendary brands of all time, Bugatti. As a base for the project he built a state-of-the-art facility near Ferrari and Lamborghini in Modena, Italy as opposed to the original factory which resided in France. He hired top engineers such as Gianpaulo Stanzani and Marcello Gandini.
The expectations for the new car and brand were of course huge. It's not enough with a very good supercar. It had to be something very spectacular to live up to the legendary Bugatti brand. In 1991 it had a premiere in Paris, almost exactly 110 years to the day after Ettori Bugatti was born. It turned out to live up and exceed the excpectations. The motoring world was amazed by this cutting edge supercar. 3,5 litre V12 with aluminum block and cylinder head in titanium/copper, 6 valves per cylinder (as the Mercedes E55 AMG), four IHI turbochargers working at 1,2 bar max, six-speed gearbox and full-time 4WD with 27/73 distribution. Match this with 553HP... If you thought this car was "slow" you could buy the sport version one year later -the EB 110 SS- with lesser comfort amenities and even more power. But even such a great supersportscar couldn't survive the early 1990's when there weren't as many Gordon Gekko's around as when the project started in the golden eighties. Bugatti produced 159 examples of which 20 are of the SS version. The Bugatti party cost the investors at least 250 milion USD which resulted in the production Bugatti EB110 sold to the customer costing 33% of the manufacturing price! In this business you have to have a profit...
Checking out the EB110. The wheels are magnesium and are manufactured by BBS. Michelin Pilot SX MXX3 tyres 245/40 R18*9J in front and 325/30 R18*12J in rear. So in 1997 Jochen Dauer bought all the remains of the Bugatti factory including spare parts and the right to produce the EB110. He also is the only certified servicer for the remaining Bugattis, which of course a few are in Brunei. Michael Shumacher has a yellow EB110. Jochen Dauer told us: "A classic recipe is: if you can't make a better engine, then make the car lighter". So he did. Instead of having the bodywork in aluminum as the original car had been, he produced them in carbon fibre. That resulted in a 200 kg lighter car which did wonders to such an already light car.
Michael (aka "B8 Guru" on the Messageboard) asked if he could order the EB110 SS in carbonfibre. Mr Jochen Dauer answered: "When you have bought the EB110 and say you want a EB110SS, I'll build you one!"
The interiour is very luxurious (rarely seen in supersportscars of this caliber). It has all the amenities you wouldn't excpect in a car that outruns the Ferrari F40 and F50): full leather, wood, AC and a high quallity stereo. The picture to the right illustrates what a light material Kevlar cabon fibre really is.
60 degree V12. Three inlet valves and two exhaust valves. Bore/stroke is 81 mm*56,6 mm with a compression ratio of 7,65:1. Engine oil is Elf Victory HTX. In Dauer form it produces 680 HP at 8250 rpm with 611 Nm of torque at 3750 rpm.
The parts of carbon fibre.
Now this REALLY IS Carbon Black colour, not dark blue M5 Carbon Black.
A Nardi manufactured steering wheel. And "only" a 400 km/h speedometer! Notice the exclusive driver shoe... There are two fuel tanks with a capacity totalling 100 liters. Some quotes from British magazine Car from March 1994 regarding a test between Bugatti EB110 vs Ferrari F40 vs. Jaguar XJ220: "..performance is unrelentingly rapid." "[the acceleration] ...pushes you back into your seat and holds you there -hard. Unless you're absolute immaculate in you gearshift timing, your neck jerks forward and then crashed you back to the headrest every time you interruptthe flow of power." "The most sophisticated of the trio is the Bugatti. The EB110 has 4WD where tohers make dowith two, it has ABS, it has more ylinders, it uses aerospace constructions techniques and materials." "Aerospatiale -one of the French government interests have provided the most omoney for the project- builds the monocoques from carbonfibre using solid carbon from bulkheads."
The Dauer EB110 will cost you 480 000 USD which frankly isn't a lot when you consider what a state-of-the-art auto this is. Some specifications:
When we asked where you put the golf bags in the Dauer cars Jochen Dauer answered "You have a Range Rover for the golf bags!". So what happened to Bugatti brand? When Dauer bought the material left over a certain "friend" (grrr) Ferdinand Piëch -CEO of Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche bought the rights to the trademark and brand. VW have recently bought the castle and premises around it near the original Bugatti factory in Molsheim, France and have launched a lot of prototypes. One of them is the Bugatti Veyron with a V16 engine giving an output of 1000 HP and 1250 Nm! Well, it'd sure have to be special to be a better car than the Dauer EB 110!
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