You don’t need to be a BMW fan to both recognize and appreciate the classic 2002 for the cool runabout and road racing star it absolutely was. within the world of performance driving its a ’70s icon, and to this day it enjoys a robust following. Case-in-point is that the team at Gruppe5 Motorsport, a corporation that presently seeks your classic 1968-1975 BMW 2002 so it may morph into a road-legal monster of epic proportions. It’s known as the Gruppe5 2002, and if the stats we’re reading within the press release come to fruition, hold on to your hats and kidneys as a result of this thing should go like hell in pretty much any direction.
The process begins with a donor car, that is totally disassembled and essentially restored from the bottom up. A healthy infusion of steel and carbon fiber adds strength whereas reducing weight, and to make sure this street-legal GT car continues to be track compliant, proper equipment to suit with FIA safety protocol is a component of the build. the outside treatment clearly provides the plucky 2002 a hardcore widebody look, however, that additionally allows larger rubber for better grip in the corners and under acceleration.
Speaking of that, that grip is going to be sorely needed as a result of the initial 2.0-liter four-cylinder is ditched for nothing less than a V10 sourced from the E60 BMW M5. It doesn’t stop there, because the engine is punched up to 5.8 liters and is claimed to generate no less than 744 H.P. (555 kilowatts). If that’s not enough, a 5.9-liter option creating 803 HP (599 kW) is additionally on the market. Mind you, this is powering a car that, according to Gruppe5, can solely weigh 2,200 pounds. It’s also said to provide 2,400 pounds of downforce, so yeah, at speed it should seriously stick to corners – if you’re brave enough to roll onto the throttle.
This all sounds a touch too fantastic and admittedly, we’d be waving the vaporware flag at once if it wasn’t for folks involved during this endeavor. Hardcore racers might acknowledge Riley Technologies as a builder of Daytona Prototypes that were rather dominant within the Grand-Am Rolex Sportscar Series. Hardcore Bimmer enthusiasts can likely acknowledge Steve Dinan and his company CarBahn Autoworks, as he’s been tuning quick BMWs for many years. you’ll be able to probably guess that group can handle the chassis and suspension, and which can tweak the engine.
Pricing for the conversion isn’t mentioned, however, we are told that solely 300 cars can go underneath the knife. 200 will have to get by with the Dinan-tuned 744 HP engine, while 100 can brandish the 803-hp mill. We’re additionally told that Gruppe5 Motorsport is currently accepting orders with plans to start production this summer.
