The Belcar series, Belgium's national endurance championship, enjoys
worldwide attention thanks to its large grids of recognisable yet powerful cars.
Liberal technical regulations allow cars to run that are banned from many other
series.
One team that is stretching even the Belcar rules to the limit is Team Qvick
who have an interesting little project on the go.
Team Qvick is a small West Flemish team, which raced a BMW E36 M3 in the
Belcar touring class. After two successful years, they've decided that a New
Mini will replace the BMW. But not just any Mini. According to article 39 of the
technical regulations, an engine of the same make may replace the standard
engine. So the Qvick engineers opened the bonnet of the Mini, and found what
they were looking for - a small BMW emblem. Stretching article 39 allowed them
to replace the original engine with any BMW engine they pleased. Article 39 also
dictates that the new engine must be placed in the original engine compartment
so the V12 was out of the question!
Under the watchful eyes of the technical inspectors, the engineers set about
doing something that many insiders deemed impossible. The engine choice was
obvious to Qvick, as they already had two years experience with it: a 340bhp 3.0
litre BMW M3 straight-six!
It was placed between the two axles, and as low as possible, for ideal weight
distribution. The chassis had to be changed from FWD, to RWD and the bodywork
heavily modified. The rear wheel arches for instance grew by 6" each.
It was huge task for a small team, but the hard work has payed off. The
Cooper SM3 will be ready for the first Belcar race, 20-21st April. It won't be
shown to the public until then. An official presentation will follow on 28
April.
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