MORE THAN FOUR years have passed since I last drove a race car in anger. This thought is running through my head as I sit in the too cramped driver’s quarters, feel the weight of the gearshift and ponder my relationship with the steering wheel, which seems to be pressed up against my chest. The pedals are too close and I have had to perform human origami just to get into the car and hunker down in the seat. There is some time to go before I drive the beast but I just want to make sure I fit into the car before having a quick chat with owner Tato Carello and get a few instructions from technician Peter Botha.

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Tato was frustrated with the fact that the GT class is currently dominated by Porsche and Ferrari and was looking for another nameplate to spice up the championship and give him a fair shot at being competitive. With initial support from motorsport benefactor Paolo Cavalieri, the car would be sponsored by his own company, the Sfera Group. And since he wanted a car to stand out from the other exotics BMW’s M3 seemed like a logical choice – made sweeter by additional backing from BMW dealership Sandton Auto. M3s run in various GT championships internationally, so there is an existing template for an M3 race car. A fully race-prepped M3 from Europe was not an option due to budget and availability considerations, so the car would have to be built and developed here. Tato secured a shell and motor and tasked Evolution 2 in Kyalami to commence with construction. Gestation was slow since many key parts like those beautifully flared fenders and bumpers were not available locally and had to be shipped in. Even the gorgeous split BBS wheels had to make a journey across the pond while much of the suspension was fabricated locally since the imported bits did not fit the local shell.

With construction complete the M3 made a short in-field Kyalami trip to VMP, a specialist race preparation company jointly owned by Vic Maharaj and Melville Priest. Vic is responsible for the set-up of many a successful race car and is unmatched when it comes to getting the best out of the Motec engine management system fitted to the M3.

Beyond the custom suspension, which employs Sachs dampers at all four corners and the imported bodywork and rear wing, modifications to the car are not as extreme as you would think. The motor is stock save for the management system and exhaust. AP racing disks and pads take care of retardation duties and are complemented by an AP Racing pedal box. The standard M3 gearbox remains but an AP Racing clutch now does duty along with a worked flywheel. The exhaust exits ahead of the left rear wheel and endows the car with a soundtrack somewhat reminiscent of a Nascar racer at full chat. Big sticky Dunlops (260 front section, 300 at the rear) complete the picture.

Track time is a scarce commodity in South Africa and the car has had a passenger seat fitted for today’s jaunt, which includes joyrides for sponsors and guests as this is in fact a customer track day organised by the Daytona Motor group. Given the clientele the pit lane is awash with Astons, Porsches, Ferraris, some rather quick BMWs and a sea of trophy wives.

Earlier I had positioned myself at various points around the circuit to observe Tato’s lines and braking points while he dutifully belted out laps for the sponsors and hangers-on. Passengers or not he is driving with commitment as the rear steps out here and there as power is applied with more than a little verve. I make my way back to the pits for my session but my heart sinks as the M3 limps into the pit lane clearly only firing on one half of the V8 bank. I resign myself to the notion that today might be over before it even gets started. However Peter soon diagnoses the problem after lifting the airbox and finds that one of the electronic plugs is fouling the right-hand throttle body bank, preventing them from opening under acceleration.

It’s my turn now but we have lost time in the pits and there are still guests to be ferried. Tato asks if I wouldn’t mind taking passengers during my session. ‘Not at all’ I reply with as much nonchalance as I can muster, though the thought of a witness sitting next to me while a figure out a new car on a technical track filled with some exotic machinery adds slightly to the nerves. Peter’s instructions are brief: ‘Watch the shift lights. When they go blue as you hit 8000, grab the next gear.’ I ruminate on the idea of telling him I haven’t driven a race car for some time now but decide that some things are better left unsaid. Just as I close the door the phrase ‘keep it on the black stuff’ escapes Peter’s lips. Like all technicians he dotes on the car and the thought of some ham-fisted journo thrashing his baby is almost too much to bear.

Heading slowly down pit lane the short first gear and lofty power conspire against me and the car performs a huckabuck in front of the beautiful people, so I quickly slot it into second and trundle onto the track. As we merge with the pit straight I glance in the mirror and to my horror discover a brace of Astons and a rather enthusiastically piloted Audi S5 looming large in the mirror. No time to muck about. But fuel pressure is not what it should be so the motor is not pulling cleanly and as we progress to the back straight I pull to the inside and let the traffic go. I dip the clutch, blip the throttle and start to smile as the motor clears and then swings cleanly to the rev limit. Dump it back into gear and give chase. Within half a lap we’ve dispensed with the gentlemen’s carriages and they disappear from the rear view somewhat shattered by the cacophony of spent gases venting from the exhaust pipe as we passed them. Without pushing hard it’s obvious the M3 has huge reserves everywhere and as we start the first flying lap I decide to give it horns – there’s not enough time to work up to the limit and besides the car feels very planted.

I keep my foot buried through turn one and precisely position the front end before breathing on the brakes for turn two, then shift down to 3^rd and floor it on exit. The rear sits perfectly poised and speed builds steadily. Turns three and four are trickier, so bleed off the power, heel and toe down to 3^rd for the first apex then a quick squirt on the accelerator and then a big heel and toe down to second. All the while the camber of the track falls away to the right as we’re turning left and the rear end fidgets as the weight transfers forward. The front end is mighty though and hunts the apex, positioning us perfectly for an exit onto the back straight. Sunset arrives far sooner than I’m accustomed to but by now my faith in the brakes is immense. A quick dab, downshift to 3^rd, turn in as late as I dare and then stoke the coals all the way down to Clubhouse. On fast sweeps rear grip is incredible, so good in fact that the car exits with the merest hint of understeer despite all the power flowing through the back tyres.

Two laps in and I have already decided that this is the most sorted chassis of any race car I have ever driven. No doubt the slick rubber is contributing but I can’t escape the notion that, like all BMW 3 Series coupes, there is a big nail through the centre of the car around which the front and rear pivot depending on the inputs I give it. Credit must go to Mark Sachs who built the dampers since the car is always poised. Longitudinal and lateral weight shifts are always progressive even through the esses where the lateral load shift from right to left happens almost instantaneously. Despite the firm springs and short suspension travel the car actually feels comfortable, which is not something one can often say about a race car. Eventually I manage to break traction at the rear on some of the slow corner exits, but the tyres gave their best many laps ago and the resultant power slides are more to do with tyre wear than chassis balance.

The only vice I find during the remaining laps is that the rear end tends to snap away under hard braking loads. At first I feel this may be the aero load coming off the rear wing as speed diminishes or perhaps I was not downshifting with enough subtlety and compression locking the rear wheels. But no matter how I try to smooth my inputs the characteristic remains, so I chalk it up to the brake bias that is simply adjusted a little too far back for my preference.

So, where to improve? Well, the gearing is not ideally suited to the race track since it is rather long and means the car runs outside of the peak power band too often. Tato already has a Quaife sequential gearbox on order, which I believe will improve lap times dramatically with better chosen ratios and the benefit of flat shifting. I would take the brake bias forward a smidge but that’s about it from the chassis perspective. When a car is already this good the only way to find lap time is to add power. Roadgoing M3’s feel powerful but this race version has such a well sorted chassis that the motor somehow feels a little lost. Make no mistake, it has plenty of power, the dyno revealing outputs approaching the 350kW mark. I have just punched a lap time that improves on the fastest time I ever managed in a Class A production car by the thick end of six seconds. At the last event Tato managed to drop into the 1m49’s at Kyalami, which anyone who knows the track will tell you is a very competitive time. But it could handle so much more. Remember this is essentially a standard M3 motor, so I’m sure there are plenty of horses still lurking under the bonnet and I would go and find them with haste. My view is that this car is a match for the Ferraris and Porsches currently ruling the GT Championship roost and with a little more fettling it should be running at the sharp end in no time at all.