BMW has a long history in South Africa. Since it was the first place BMW built a plant outside of Germany, there are a number of special models that were made just for the region, and that extends to motorsport. Those motorsport stories include two E23 745is that went touring car racing.
This 745i ran in the 1986 Wesbank Modified series. The widebody, flares, and all the aero mods look out of places on a 7 Series. This isn’t the sort of car that you normally see on a race track. What’s even wilder is the engine, and why it’s there. In Europe, the 745i received the turbocharge M102 engine. But in South Africa, a right-hand drive market, the M102 wouldn’t fit. So BMW equipped the 745i for SA with the M88/3, which is a derivative of the M1’s engine.
The entire video is worth a watch, since this is part of BMW’s motorsport history that many likely don’t know anything about.
