Hartge H50 Compressor
Nick Hall rides this explosively supercharged 3-Series' wall of torque.
Hartge H50 Compressor
The old woman with the blue rinse hair simply didn’t see us coming. Or she just couldn’t believe that the 3 Series looming in her rear view mirrors could possibly come alongside her in the time it took to unwrap a boiled sweet, adjust her hearing aid, talk to her cat and pull out with no indication to pass a tractor. She simply ran us off the road.
I wasn’t driving the Hartge H50 Compressor at the time, thankfully. Chief engineer Volker Schu was at the wheel of this 550bhp beast and he doesn’t panic. We went grasstracking, overtook the nondescript Japanese hatchback -- which has faded faster from the memory than the look of horror on Grandma Frownline’s face -- and she was in the past, both figuratively and literally.
         |
Regulars will know we have a giant soft spot for the Beckingen company that's a manufacturer as well as a tuning house, shifting wheels and bodykits by the thousand. Its cars are relatively subtle, yet devastatingly fast and generally revolve around an oversized engine.
This, however, was Hartge's first foray into the world of supercharging and the result was its fastest ever car.
Wall of torque
After this machine was finally finished, Hartge went on to produce the 550bhp 3 Series with the M5’s V10 and seven-speed transmission – and it’s equally quick. But this, with its manual box, wall of torque and supercharger whine is far more entertaining.
The H50 Compressor goes 200mph, a figure verified at the Nardo test facility, and could crack 60mph in less than four seconds, if it could lay that monumental power on the road. But it can’t, and that’s half the fun.
Never before have a set of 275mm wide Continental ContiSport Contact 2 Vmax rear tyres felt so out of their depth, so like a set of worn remould rubber from some obscure corner of Korea. They’re the absolute best kit for the job, but prison couldn’t contain those 550 rampaging horses and simply ridiculous 502lb-ft of torque. Yes, really...
So the 60mph hit comes in under 4.5 seconds, but from 60 to 150mph, when the tyres finally get some purchase, this car will blow their tuned M5 off the road.
The acceleration is brutal, stupid fast and the car snapped to the side on the third-fourth change even though we had to nurse the clutch after a Japanese journalist left it held together by little more scorch marks and pure hope. Even a carefully tuned suspension system designed in-house can’t cope and without the limited slip diff this car would crash in flames before it got out the factory gates – in the wrong hands anyway.
Fun for all
Hartge believes its cars should be fun for everyone, not just those with the skills of Yvan Muller on ice. So the 0-99 per cent LSD is a regular feature on its machines. And this is a good idea when it comes to pushing to the limit with confidence or just sliding the thing at 45 degrees for unbridled, hooligan thrills.
The brakes are equally helpful, and effective, the fronts are two-piston callipers clamping on to fearsome 380mm discs while the rears respond to the input of four-piston callipers and 348mm of braking surface.
As for the powerplant, it’s hard to believe it started life as a traditional BMW 4.4-litre V8. Since then it’s been blown out to five litres and fitted with a clutchless Opcon supercharger running at 0.45 bars of boost, though. It all sounds reasonably straightforward, but the supercharger was the main reason why this car took seven months build time over the course of two years.
The theory was relatively simple, the compression ratio of the engine was lowered from 10.7:1 to 9.8:1 and the air that feeds the engine flows through an intercooler directly beneath the supercharger, through a 180-degree bow pipe with additional injectors, controlled by a separate ECU and then through a Hartge air intake manifold with standard injectors.
Last of the line
But electronics are often the source of hair-ripping frustration. First of all the increased torque sent the engine into safe mode, repeatedly, and there were other random problems like the windscreen wipers giving up. It was clearly traumatic and Volker was quite emphatic, this will be the first and last supercharged car he builds.
But that’s a real shame as this car has real personality. It’s useable beneath 2,000rpm and it’s hardly lacking in torque, so the higher gear is always an easy option in town. But as the revs spool up and the supercharger starts to make its presence felt this car tries to tear lumps out the tarmac and makes even the M5 kitted car feel tame and dull.
Hartge has gone to the extent of fitting smaller wing mirrors, as well as the obvious stuff like a lip spoiler and new rear wing, to help the high end performance. Of course it skips off bumps, but there were no jittery nerves apart from the drivetrain shunt on the changes and Volker happily talked me through the technical specs as we headed for the blank final sector of the speedo before the blessed moment of changing seats arrived.
A CSL-sourced carbon-fibre roof, centre console, door inserts and those less than comfortable seats helped strip a few unnecessary pounds. Getting hold of those parts is notoriously difficult without a chassis number, but I didn’t quite buy the tongue-in-cheek explanation of marketing man Jorg Wey that they robbed someone.
Optimum weight distribution
They could easily have stripped another 70Kg from the 1,486Kg kerb weight too, but felt the sacrifice in terms of the sheer volume of exhaust noise outweighed the gains. It’s still not the lightest car out there, but the base M3 was all about balance and poise and that 50/50 weight balance. And then came the bombshell.
“That’s a fallacy,” said Schu, who has more measuring equipment than us and no real reason to lie. “Our cars are closer to 50/50 than BMW’s, but you don’t even want the weight perfectly distributed. 52/48 is the absolute optimum for us, and we achieved this without trouble.”
That was pretty much the only thing he did manage without running into problems with this car, but it was worth all the work and then some. Of all Hartge’s cars, the ones I have driven in any case, this was the most fun. At €140,000 it’s almost a bargain and will remain 100 per cent unique thanks to all the electronic grief.
Beyond the bounds of reason
It would still be a hell of a purchase to justify when faced with the alternatives and cars like this probably belong in a giant stable owned by a Sultan – but sometimes it’s enough to know they’re out there at all. With the supercharger conversion, Hartge pushed the very bounds of reason, and for that they should be applauded.
Pictures by Chris Schotanus
The best sex with your clothes on
I also had at least 5 E30 M3 cars in my car(life) and besides some tuned versions and even a Alpina B6S version(E30 M3 with 3.6L 265ps) I'd also had a very nice E30 M3 with new type E36 M3 engine(320ps) that realy is a nice and good setup
a "classic" BMW icon with moderm and fast engine and suspension...maybe one day I buy such car again, they are just amazing, wonderful to look at, great to collect and nice to drive, even in modern times. GTRene
Excellent - the Alpina B6S is a very rare beast indeed. Loving the M Coupe in your profile too.
Gassing Station | BMW General | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff