The trip to Germany Part II

(Day 5)

ore cars, ore speed, ore tuners and Power!

Dinner at Fasanerie and visit at Hartge   After leaving Daimlerstrasse we headed for a new hotel in Zweibrücken, hotel Fasanerei. The M5 drivers arrived much more rested than the M3 and Alpina drivers because of the superiour torque of the M5 and less wind noise. Thanks to Klas' excellent planning for the M participants the lodging at the hotels and dinners went very smoothly. Notice the special M5 Menu, a wonderful five course dinner. German attention to detail is found among a lot of things. And not found on some surprising places, did I hear brakes? The perfect end to a perfect day. It started nicely with high-speed driving towards BMW M on empty concrete Autobahns and a first-calss tour of BMW M. If the drivers drink first class the cars should too! Here we are fueling up with Shell Optimax 99 Oktan which can give some extra power, especially on turbocharged cars. Chatting after an Autobahn race (which in the wet is an interesting excperience for cars without DSC and ASC such as the M3 3,2). Notice Mats' nice Porsche brakes in front and rear. Huge 380 mm Porsche 993 GT2 brakes in front. Visit at Hartge in Beckingen It is always interesting to check out Hartge in Beckingen. This legendary tuner is a classic, which has been around at least as long as Alpina. We were very well met by Mr Wey, director of sales at Hartge. We looked forward to seeing the engine tuning for the E39 M5, the M5 engine in the E46 M3 -the H50- and the M Coupé 5,0. Here we have the brutal H50. Hartge cannot just drop in the M5 engine from above or from under, they have to disassemble the whole front of the E46 3-series. The firewall remains intact, but the M5 engine is of course much wider. That resulted in the steering column having to be routed through the left "exhaust header spaghetti".This conversion could be done for any kind of 3-series, Limousine, Convertible or Touring. But installing the brutal M5 engine in the M3 E46 makes the most sense because the M3 is already quite tuned for such a high performance engine. Also the new variable M Differential makes a huge difference in grip. I test-drove the H50 without DSC on all the time and even though it was a little wet it helped a lot with the new differential. This is the ultimate BMW was what I thought when I drove it. The power is just insane, torque everywhere. This M3 had the manual gearbox, and I really enjoyed it. The M5 is too heavy some say and the M3 lacks torque. So get the H50 I'll say! While the most of you probably know the potential of the M5 torque spread with a max of 500 Nm, most of you won't know that Hartge runs a shorter gearing than the stock M5, 3.15:1 axle vs. 2.81! The weight distribution is 53% in front and 47% in back. Hartge's own side-view mirrors. On the E36 M3 I didn't like them, because the M Sport mirrors were so stylish, but on the E46 M3 I would actually prefer the Hartge mirrors. Notice the enforcements. The Powerdome of the M3 is now really in use. This is what you will see if you drive a sub-400 HP car... The Hartge M5 has 450 HP. Notice the Hartge doorsills. Standard M3 / M5 brakes do not pose a problem because of the M3's lighter weight. M3 + V8 = Fun! This is the brutal Hartge Coupé 5.0. It has a 540i / 740i based engine, tuned to to 350 HP and 5 liter capacity. It will produce better torque than the M5, 510 Nm. This was a brutal car! Much more demanding than the H50 because it lacked the M Differential and also has the relatively primitive rear suspension of the Coupé. It actually has a legacy straight down to the E30 3-series so it's no wonder this one was an "interesting" car to drive. Notice the aggressively designed engine hood! A PowerHood maybe?