The Prodrive M3 Rally Cars

autohabit · #1 Dec 4, 2008, 18:11

For the 1987 season, Dave Richards Autosport would be renamed Prodrive, nowadays the Prodrive brand is recognised throughout the motorsport world, usually for their success with the Subaru WRC team, or various touring car and Le Mans projects, it should be noted though, the first cars to ever carry the Prodrive name were E30 M3's.

Prodrive had managed to secure a deal with BMW France and Rothmans to run the French pairing of Bernard Béguin and Jean-Jacques Lenne in the 1987 French Rally Championship, the deal would also include the WRC event 'Tour de Corse' which was in fact back then part of the French Rally Championship.

The car made it's debut on the Garrigues Rally on 26th March 1987, it had problems (you can read about them in the article below)

A couple of photos from that 1987 Garrigues Rally

Next was round 2, the Alpin Behra, Béguin gave the car it's first finish - 3rd overall.

One week later, a pair of M3's showed up at the start of the Circuit of Ireland Rally, one was for Belgian race and rally driver Marc Duez, the second car being driven by Irish rally legend Billy Coleman, the event was a big disappointment for he team with both cars hitting problems early on (again, see below article)

Here is Billy Colman at the start of the 1987 Circuit of Ireland, note the car has had it's Rothmans decals deleted, this was to satisfy UK television laws on tobacco advertising.

Below is an article originally from the June 1987 edition of CCC magazine, it was printed straight after the Circuit of Ireland.

Round 3 of the '87 French Rally Championship was held just one week after the Circuit of Ireland! Béguin became the first driver to take a rally win at the wheel of an M3 on the Touraine Rally. Four Rallies into it's career and the M3 was a winner.

Some photos from the '87 Touraine Rally

But next, was a far greater challenge, the WRC event in Corsica, the works teams of Lancia, Ford and Renault would all be present, you have to remember that Prodrive were a privateer team and BMW only gave them limited support, after all the M3 was a touring car not a rally car, so why should BMW care at all.

autohabit · #2 Dec 4, 2008, 21:19

Round 5 of the 1987 World Rally Championship, the Tour of Corsica, or as the French call it the 'Tour de Corse' The only WRC round held on clear tarmac roads, almost certainly the only chance all year that Prodrive would have to take a win at the very highest level.

The event was run to a new rally format, 24 special stages, approximately 380 miles of flat out driving over three days, on some of the most demanding roads in the world.

Béguin had last competed in Corsica in 1985 in a Dave Richards prepared Porsche 911, he had finished 3rd overall, so there was little doubting his ability on the island's incredibly twisty roads. The M3 created crowds as it arrived, this was almost certainly the first time anyone on Corsica would have seen an M3, as they had only just been launched.

Béguin went into an immediate lead.

...but on stage 5 the weather changed to rain and fog and most drivers were caught out, this allowed the works Lancia Delta HF 4WD of Yves Loubet into the lead, Loubet was a Corsican (so no need to question his local knowledge!) who had been signed by Lancia specially for the event.

Day 2 - Loubet held his lead for the first stage but he then hit tyre problems, Béguin didn't allow this to go unnoticed and snatched the lead back, the roads had now dried and would stay like that for the remainder of the rally, it was looking good at this stage.

Béguin's driving over those final two days was faultless, a high speed journey around the island of Corsica was to be had.

Although the '87 Tour de Corse is on record as being run entirely on tarmac, this photo shows the car did see a gravel section.

Service during the event. In 1987 the cars weighed in at 1050kg, produced 275bhp and used a 5 speed gearbox.

The end of the rally brought a popular victory for this French pairing and a very small British team, this was the first time a privateer team had won a WRC event since 1981 when Dave Richards was sat in the co drivers seat next to Ari Vatanen, this time Richards was team owner and Prodrive had scored it's first WRC victory. Not forgetting this nimble little car from Munich which was solely designed to win the World Touring Car Championship (Which of course it did later that year) To this day, no normally aspirated, front engine, RWD car has since won a round of the WRC, so I suppose it marked the end of an era for a certain type of rallying.

autohabit · #3 Dec 6, 2008, 11:00

Béguin's victory on the 1987 Tour de Corse is a well known result, but what is not so well documented is the sister Prodrive car which ran alongside the famous Rothmans M3 on the same event.

BMW Belgium made an entry for Marc Duez and Georges Biar. As you can see below, the car lacked major sponsorship, so Prodrive decided to make the most of the advertising space!

A scrutineer taking a good look under the car prior to the start. Note the group of four people stood at the other side of the car, David Lapworth is stood on the far left, Lapworth was a talented young engineer who had helped the Talbot Sunbeam Lotus team take the WRC manufacturers title back in 1981, where he had worked closely with Henri Toivonen, Dave Richards had been employing Lapworth since he set up his own preparation business, they still work together to this day.

Duez drove well in Corsica, he took 6th place overall, but finished over 15 minutes behind the winning sister Prodrive car, which just demonstrates what a specialist event the Tour de Corse is, I am not aware that Duez had any problems during the event - Incredibly, on his way to that 6th place finish, he didn't set a single top 6 stage time! He obviously just drove very consistently at his own pace.

Here are a few photos of Duez on the '87 Tour de Corse.

Here are a few more photos of the Duez car, I think these were taken at the end of 1987 for a magazine article.

Duez did a selection of events during 1987, here he is on the Ypres 24 Hours in Belgium.

Jon Woodner was an American real estate developer, who regularly competed on European rallies in the 1980s, this is Jon on the 1987 Mont Blanc Rally in southern France, driving a car he had hired from Prodrive, a nice way to enjoy your money!

The penultimate round of the 1987 French Rally Chmpionship was the Cevennes Rally.

Although the rally suit says 'Bernard Beguin', the driver is actually Francois Chatriot, quite what the reason was for this change of driver is unknown to me, Chartriot had driven for the factory Renault team in 1987, so this was his first ever appearance in an M3.

Chatriot must have impressed Prodrive, because they signed him for the 1988 season

The final round of the French series saw Beguin back behind the wheel of the Rothmans M3 on the Var Rally

Also competing on the '87 Var rally was Jon Woodner, who made another showing in a Prodrive M3, Jon always added his signature US licence plate 'FAST 1' to his rally cars. Sadly this was possibly his last ever rally, Jon was killed in a light aircraft accident in the spring of 1988.

autohabit · #4 Dec 9, 2008, 23:15

1988, Belgian driver Patrick Snyers had brought his long term Bastos sponsorship deal to Prodrive BMW. First event on the Belgian Rally Championship was the Boucles de Spa in mid February.

Snyers took to the M3 straight away, he won the rally by 3 minutes.

The Prodrive team were having an equally successful start to their season in France, Bernard Beguin winning round 1, the Alpin-Behra, with new team mate Francois Chatriot following him home in second place.

Beguin on his way to a win on the '88 Alpin-Behra Rally

Here are some photos of what appears to be a Prodrive test session, just prior to the 1988 Tour de Corse WRC round. As you can see, Bernard Beguin, winner in 1987, can be seen sat in the drivers seat. The big change for 1988 was the switch from Michelin to Pirelli tyres, there's a good chance that this test session was to test those Pirelli tyres.

Alan

autohabit · #5 Dec 10, 2008, 19:31

A three car Bastos / Motul sponsored team was entered for the 1988 Tour de Corse, drivers were 1987 winner Bernard Béguin, Marc Duez and Frenchman François Chatriot, hopes were high after the success of the previous year, but Lancia had since then homologated a new, better car, the Integrale. Lancia were doing the opposite to BMW, they had switched from Pirelli to Michelin. It was also significant that since being beaten by the M3 in Corsica one year ago, Lancia had remained undefeated since.

One of the nicest colour schemes seen on any competition car over the years. Note the side exit exhaust.

Bernard Béguin set off with the intention of holding on to his Tour de Corse winners trophy.

autohabit · #6 Dec 10, 2008, 22:54

Car # 15 was Duez.

For 1988 the lower (glass) driving lamps had been deleted from the works cars. However, unlike touring car racing, rallying did not allow evolution/homologation 500 versions, so the M3 was never able to benefit from the three evolution versions of the car that BMW produced.

Duez was the first driver to hit problems on Corsica in '88, he had to stop to change a punctured tyre, then he lost 15 minutes as the car refused to restart!

Servicing during the '88 event.

Béguin takes time out.

Things were going little better for Béguin or Chatriot, they were unable to find a Pirelli tyre that would give them the handling they wanted, or that were able to cope with the abrasive road surfaces on Corsica.

Chatriot about to blast off into a special stage...

...and attacking one of the many hairpin bends that Corsica is famous for.

At the and of the first full day, it was Corsican specialist Yves Loubet in the Lancia who was out in the lead. One driver who didn't even make it to the end of the first day was Marc Duez, he had an accident on stage 10, the photos below tell the story :-(

Day 2 - Loubet lost his lead almost immediately when his car got stuck in neutral, the lead was inherited, but not by a rally homologation special, it was another touring car, the Ford Sierra Cosworth of Didier Auriol.

Rivals - Francois Chatriot and Didier Auriol

Béguin was attacking the stages but the tyres were not still working to his liking.

Going into the final day, Auriol in the Ford had a two minute lead over Béguin in second place. Béguin needed to apply pressure, so he had a final attack, sadly he had a gearbox problem and then he put the car off the road. It was all over for Prodrive's challenge.

It was left to Chatriot to salvage the best result, he finished 4th overall, but he was over 11 minutes down on the winning Ford of Didier Auriol, the Lancia pairing of Yves Loubet and Bruno Saby took 2nd and 3rd places, it was a top three lockout for Michelin, was the switch to Pirelli by Prodrive a good idea?

Béguin brought his somewhat damaged M3 home in 7th place, he was the last works car home, not a good rally.

autohabit · #7 Dec 11, 2008, 23:54

Patrick Snyers won the first two rounds of the 1988 Belgian rally championship, here he is on the 4th round, the Haspengouw, this was just one week after the Tour de Corse, on this occasion it was a DNF for Snyers.

Round 4 of the French Rally Championship, and also a full scoring round of the European Rally Championship, was the Garrigues Rally which was based in Nimes in the South of France, the rally was won by François Chatriot, with team mate Snyers coming home in 3rd, Italian Fabrizio Tabaton in a Lancia Integrale split the M3's on this occasion.

Chatriot, Garrigues winner 1988

Here is Snyers on the '88 Garrigues.

It was a busy weekend in 1988 for the Prodrive team, not only did they win the Garrigues Rally in France, they also won the Targa Florio Rally in Italy, with Andrea Zanussi taking a comfortable win over the Ford Siera Cosworths of Stig Blomqvist and Franco Cunico.

Andrea Zanussi, '88 Targa Florio winner, I understand Zanussi was part of the Zanussi family who made electrical home appliances 'Zanussi - The appliance of science' Those of you who are old enough, will remember that advertising campaign :-)

Round 5 of the Belgian championship was the Ypres 24 Hours, also a full scoring round of the European Rally Championship.

Cars line up at the start.

Patrick Snyers and Marc Duez were again both entered, they finished 2nd and 3rd respectively, behind the winning Sierra Cosworth of Robert Droogmans, the Ford driver was becoming a thorn in the side of Snyers and his quest for the Belgian championship. Snyers was starting to become a threat for the European title by now, his most likely challenger (Tabaton) came home 4th in Ypres.

Snyers

Duez

In 1988 Prodrive also ran an M3 for the 1981 World Rally Champion Ari Vatanen on his home round the 1000 Lakes Rally in Finland, apparently the car ran with great promise during testing.

Photos of the Vatanen M3 are quite rare, Ari only completed 13 of the 39 special stages in Finland. He could always be relied upon for a good photo! Remember that Vatanen had won in Finland just 4 years prior, at the wheel of a Group B Peugeot 205 T16.

Steering failure ended Ari's rally, as you can see from the image below!

Round 6 of the '88 French Rally Championship was the Mont Blanc Rally, based in Annecy, southern France.

The cars of Beguin (in the foreground) and Chatriot prior to the rally, note the lighing set up for the night stages

Chatriot

Chatriot again, looks like he was having problems with wet roads and slick tyres, back in the late 1980s full slicks were still allowed on rallies

Chatriot failed to finish the Mont Blanc, but Beguin finished second to the Sierra Cosworth of Didier Auriol

Next major round of the European Rally Championship was the Manx International Rally on the Isle of Man, this was also the final round of the British Rally Championship, Patrick Snyers put in a legendary drive to win in the M3, with his Italian rival Tabaton finishing 4th, Snyers had now taken the lead in the European Rally Championship.

Snyers flying to victory on the '88 Manx.

There was only one full scoring round of the European championship left after the Manx, that was the Cyprus Rally, an event suited to 4 wheel drive cars, Snyers started the rally but retired, Tabaton took the European title with Lancia, but it was a great effort by the 2WD BMW.

Round 8 of the 1988 French Championship saw a new name in an M3, 26 year old Francois Delecour took a Cilti Sport M3 to 3rd place, although this was not a Prodrive car, it was built using Prodrive parts, Prodrive were the only company to develop parts for M3 rally cars. Beguin won the rally in an official Prodrive car

Andrea Zanussi made a one off showing on a WRC event in 1988, the mixed surfaced Sanremo Rally, sadly he retired, he did however finish second overall in the Italian Rally Championship, behind the 4WD Lancia Delta of Dario Cerrato.

Zanussi - '88 Sanremo

A team Prodrive photo, taken in 1988

The penultimate round of the 1988 Belgian Rally Championship was the Rally Van Looi, Patrick Snyers took another win

The middle of November brought the 8th and final round of the Belgian Championship, the Condroz Rally, Snyers won, and in doing so, he beat arch rival Robert Droogmans to the title by 22 points.

Patrick Snyers on his way to victory on the Condroz Rally in 1988.

For those who are interested, that is the Chateau d'Hodoumont in the background, close to the rallies HQ in Huy, Belgium

Francois Delecour again ran an M3 on the Cevennes Rally, the penultimate round of the French series, he netted another 3rd position

Beguin during the '88 Cevennes Rally, he went on to win the event, taking a healthy points lead into the final round over Didier Auriol

Final event in the French series was the Var Rally.

Beguin during service on the '88 Var rally

Francois Chatriot again getting caught out on slicks, the Var Rally was run in late November, he came home in 2nd place behind Auriol's Ford

Delecour - 3rd position on the Var made it three in a row on the '88 championship, Peugeot France signed him after this, the rest is history.

Overall, 1988 was a very good year for the Prodrive, as can be seen from this advert which was published at the end of that year.

autohabit · #8 Jan 23, 2009, 21:02

1989 - By now, David Lapworth was heading up a team of four designers (This may sound unimpressive in the 21st century, but back then Prodrive was a very small team). Lapworth explained the set up at Prodrive many years after the M3 rally project had ended:

"At Prodrive we re-engineered the M3 race car into a rally car using approximately 50% of BMW's Group A race parts and 50% of Prodrive designed parts. This was a fantastic opportunity and it was the first time that Prodrive had been given a clean sheet of paper to create their own rally car. The M3 was a turning point in Prodrive's history"

Prodrive were now using a six-speed gearbox which was designed in-house at their Banbury HQ.

For the 1989 season, Marc Duez had secured a very impressive deal with FINA Motor Oil to run a Prodrive M3 in five rounds of the WRC, the Belgian Rally Championship and various touring car events.

First event for Duez was the Monte Carlo Rally

Thankfully for Duez the '89 Monte Carlo was a fairly reasonable event for 2WD cars, although there was some snow and ice on the stages.

Here we see Duez on what appears to be a clear road, but note the very narrow snow tyres, the Monte has stages which climb high into the mountains, therefore it is important to choose the correct tyres, it's a case of deciding how much snow and ice vs. tarmac there is on a stage, and then making a tyre choice.

Tyres in rallying are designed to last one or two stages only, so they can show a weakness, especially if you make the wrong choice, Duez can be seen here nursing his car on a road section.

Setting out on what was back then the famous final night section of the Monte Carlo Rally, Duez can be seen leaving Casino Square for his final blast through the mountains in 1989.

8th place overall and first 2WD car home, this was a very good result considering that Duez was headed by seven works supported 4WD cars from Lancia, Mazda and Toyota.

Next WRC event for Duez was the Rally of Portugal.

The FINA car was yet again up against 4WD factory teams from Italy and Japan, not forgetting the elements of nature. 5th place and first 2WD car, an excellent result.

Prodrive were now supplying cars to well funded privateers, this is Bertie Fisher on his way to 6th place on the '89 Circuit of Ireland. Note the famous GXI 9427 registration plate, this was the car that Bernard Beguin had used to win the 1987 Tour de Corse, look closer and you will see that the car had been converted to right hand drive! Fisher had never rallied a LHD car so Prodrive made the RHD conversion. The car is still owned and occasionally rallied by a private collector in Ireland, this will come as shocking news to the purists, but the only M3 ever to win a WRC event is still to this day RHD!!

autohabit · #9 Jan 27, 2009, 00:07

One more of Duez on the '89 Rally of Portugal

davew · #10 Jan 27, 2009, 08:58

A fantastic read - thanks for going to all the trouble of posting it here.
Dave.

Sir Sidney Rough-Diamond · #11 Jan 27, 2009, 21:26

Excellent new pictures,Alan. You should write a book on the rally M3's

conrod · #12 Jan 28, 2009, 09:34

Thank you Alan for the effort you have gone to here, I have really been enjoying this thread!
cheers Conrad

Kiko · #13 Jan 28, 2009, 09:57

AMAZING thread, thank you!

autohabit · #14 Jan 29, 2009, 21:27

Round 5 of the 1989 World Rally Championship meant it was yet again time for the all tarmac Tour de Corse. Three Prodrive cars were entered, the same driver line up as 1988 - Bernard Béguin, Marc Duez and François Chatriot, Béguin and Chatriot were both in Bastos cars, while Duez was starting his third WRC event of the year in his FINA sponsored car.

Despite some spirited driving, Béguin was slightly off the pace

The man in form was Chatriot, he was having a dogfight for the lead on the first day with the Lancia duo of Yves Loubet and 1988 winner Didier Auriol who had switched from Ford to the Italian team.

Chatriot was in second place by the end of the first day.

Day two brought dry roads and also brought a full on attack from BMW.

A photographer caught the Prodrive pilots waiting to enter a special stage:

Chatriot

Béguin

Duez

Béguin was oddly off form, he failed to set a single fastest stage time during the entire rally.

The giants of the WRC in 1989 were Lancia and Toyota, Corsica was the one event where the 2WD M3 could give them a scare.

Cars wait prior to the start of a stage.

The car of Duez in parc fermé

Bernard Béguin negotiating on one of those amazing Corsican roads carved from solid rock.

Duez

Chatriot immediately took the lead on the first stage of day two, by the end of the day he had built up a lead of 15 seconds over Auriol's Lancia Integrale, the M3 was well in line for Tour de Corse win number two...

Day three, and disaster came from the skies - Rain! Most drivers were caught on the wrong tyres, but being on the wrong tyres in a 4WD car meant a lot less than it did in a 2WD car, Auriol took the lead from Chatriot, it was a lead he would not give away, he took victory over Chatriot by almost two minutes, cruel luck for Prodrive, they had turned up with a car capable of taking on the mighty Lancia team, but they were beaten not by a better car, but by the weather :-(

Second place Chatriot was backed up by Béguin in fifth and Duez in sixth.

Yet again Duez and his ultra consistent driving brought him a great result.

Marc Duez was also enjoying good results back home on the Belgian Rally Championship, here are some photos of him on the way to second place on the '89 Ypres 24 Hours Rally.

autohabit · #15 Jan 30, 2009, 17:18

Duez made his fourth WRC start of 1989 on the 1000 Lakes Rally (Now better known as Rally Finland). This was the first (and only) start for Duez in Finland, the rally is very much a specialist event, in fact back in 1989 only Finnish and Swedish drivers had ever won the 1000 Lakes Rally. A starting number of 20 was always going to be a bad thing on a forest rally, even more so in a 2WD car!

With some typical Duez style consistent driving, he came home in 12th place, this doesn't sound like an especially good result but he was first 2WD car home and this was his first attempt at the rally. Finland is also the fastest WRC event, the winning Mitsubishi Galant of Sweden's Mikael Ericsson had an average speed of 67mph (the average speed of Auriol's Lancia in Corsica had been 54mph)

Marc Duez scoring 12th place in Finland.

autohabit · #16 Feb 1, 2009, 18:30

The fifth and final WRC event of 1989 for Marc Duez was the Sanremo Rally, back then this was a mixed surface rally, about 30% of the rally was run on tarmac...

...Unfortunately that meant the rest of the event was run on gravel!

Duez came home best 2WD car and seventh place overall, beaten yet again by the 4WD might of Lancia and Toyota.

Four top eight finishes from five starts made it quite a good WRC season for Duez and the M3.

autohabit · #17 Feb 6, 2009, 20:11

Finishing off the 1989 Prodrive rally season, Marc Duez had been battling with Patrick Snyers for the Belgian Rally Championship, Snyers had switched to a Toyota Celica GT-4 but Duez got the better of him.

Duez on the penultimate round of the Belgian series - The Rally van Looi

Duez did enough on that penultimate round to clinch the title, although Snyers won the rally and also the final round, Duez took the title by half a point! I have no idea how Duez came to score half a point but I guess an event must have been stopped at the half way point sometime during the season.

Meanwhile, Chatriot was having a very good season on the French Rally Championship, he totally dominated, winning five out of nine rounds, comfortably taking the title. This must have made up partially for his second place on Corsica.

A (Renault!) Bastos BMW support vehicle on the French Rally Championship

1989 Belgian Rally Champions
1989 French Rally Champions

Another strong season, but the M3 was starting to struggle against the competition in international rallying, Lancia were now using their third version of the Delta. Toyota and even the Ford Sierra Cosworths were starting to pull away in the power stakes, the rules in Group A rallying at that point meant that the size of inlets on the turbos allowed power outputs of around 400bhp for such cars, the M3 was basically the same car as originally homologated in 1987, and in rally trim it probably never got much away from the FIA 'agreed' output of 300bhp for Group A rally cars.

autohabit · #18 Apr 20, 2009, 23:45

I had hoped to do this thread in chronological order, but I have only just found the photos below, and I think they are too important to miss out.

The final round of the 1988 French Rally Championship was the Rally Var which was based in Sainte-Maxime in the south of France. Bernard Beguin led the championship going into that final round, ahead of Didier Auriol in the Ford Sierra Cosworth, but as you can see from the photo sequence below, Beguin lost the championship in the most spectacular way possible! Auriol won the rally by over a minute, to a second Prodrive M3 driven by Chatriot, Auriol also clinched the championship by just 5 points over Beguin, I've no idea if it was a driver error or mechanical failure.

A view of that side exit exhaust, for anyone who's interested!

Declan · #19 Apr 21, 2009, 16:03

Fantastic read, Many thanks for posting.
Brought back lots of good memories.
Had the pleasure of having a drive in EDZ 4346 some years ago,

Going to pull the Car out for a spin tonight after reading that,

Declan....

autohabit · #20 Feb 3, 2010, 23:14

Europameister, Cecotto, Ravaglia, EvoI, EvoII, Sport Evo - These are limited edition versions of the M3 that we are all familiar with.

There is however one limited edition M3 that seems to have slipped underneath the radar of many M3 enthusiasts - The M3 Tour de Corse, these cars were built in 1987 to celebrate the M3's one and only victory in the World Rally Championship, I understand 50 of these cars were produced, they were sold (Exclusively?) in France. However, information on BMW M Registry tells another slightly different story:

'What distinguishes an E30 M3 Tour de Corse?

Though not considered an "official" model by BMW AG, the E30 M3 Tour de Corse was a special edition of the M3 Evolution I created by BMW France exclusively for the French market to celebrate the win of French drivers Bernard Beguin and Jean-Jacques Lenne in the Tour de Corse rally. The Tour de Corse model shares the "E-stamped" cylinder head, 7.5x16-inch cross-spoke alloy wheels, M dead pedal and special door sill plates featuring the "M3" logo with the Evolution I. However, the Tour de Corse does not feature the extended front airdam, additional rear lip spoiler or brake cooling ducts in place of fog lights. Instead, it is cosmetically identical to the standard E30 M3 aside from two "Tour de Corse" badges, one in place of the standard M3 badge on the grille and another on the left side of the trunk lid.

Inside, the Tour de Corse includes tri-color M stripe lapels on the front and rear seats and a numbered plaque on the center console bearing the signatures of Bernard Beguin and Jean-Jacques Lenne. It is thought that 200 examples of the E30 M3 Tour de Corse were produced within the series of 505 cars that make up the entire Evolution I production. All were Diamond Black metallic (181) with a Black leather interior and equipped with the power sunroof, on-board computer II, interior headlight adjustment and headlight washer/wipers.'

The cars are identifiable outwardly by a 'Tour de Corse' badge on the front grill and the rear

Standard equipment included leather interior (I think most of the US M3s came with leather, but in Europe this was not the case, it was an expensive optional extra)

Centre console had a plate signed by Bernard Béguin and Jean-Jacques Lenne, also an outline showing a map of Corsica, and unique number.

The engine was a 200bhp non cat version

The cars were also fiitted with Michelin MXX 225/45 ZR16 tyres (Michelin were the tyre supplier to the Prodrive car which won in Corsica)