05 Nov Beem me up, Deon

Mike Monk describes the background to the 1992 Wesbank Modified Saloon Car Championship-winning BMW 535i…

Over time, South African motor manufacturers have developed some unique and fascinating cars, and none more so than BMW. The Rosslyn-based company – which, incidentally, in 1973 was the first BMW Group plant built outside of Germany – has become synonymous with a wide range of premium quality vehicles, both for road and race. One such example of the latter is the E34 535i saloon, two of which were commissioned by the company’s newly-formed Competitions Department to compete in SA’s iconic Wesbank Modified Saloon Car championship. With input from famed race car development wizard Eddie Pinto, the task of building the cars was given to the late Owen Ashley, who was based at the Killarney race circuit in Cape Town.

Owen was a talented motor sport-oriented engineer, and in 1990 he set about preparing the cars to compete in Class B of the championship. One of the features that made the cars unique was the complex, Ashley-designed cantilever front suspension system. The new layout comprised remote, horizontally-mounted springs activated by an intricate series of links and levers and replacing the conventional MacPherson strut front/trailing link rear layout used on the production 5-Series BMWs. The reason for the modification was a desire to lower the silhouette of the cars. The relatively tall M30/M90 engines are canted over at quite a steep angle in the road cars and Owen tried to increase this angle even more. In the process, the alternator was moved to the rear bulkhead and belt-driven off the propshaft in order for the dry sump oil pump to be fitted on the right-hand side of the engine (when viewed from the front).

The 1990 and the 1991 Wesbank Championship seasons were pretty much development years for the BMW twins, but by 1992 the beautifully turned-out 535i machines were dominating Class B and sometimes getting very close to Class A times. Drivers were the iconic Tony Viana, who had been BMW’s top driver for almost a decade, and the fast-improving Cape Town ace Deon Joubert, son of racer and Killarney driving force Denis.  Both Tony and Deon were in line for championship honours, but, sadly, towards the end of the 1992 season Tony Viana had to withdraw due to his battle with cancer. Deon Joubert went on to be crowned not only the Class B Champion, but overall Wesbank Modified Saloon Champion of 1992.

For 1993, BMW entered the SA touring car race series and the ex-Viana car was loaned to Namibian racer Llewellyn Anthony. The following year, the ex-Joubert car was returned to Cape Town then on to BMW in Rosslyn, while the ex-Viana car stayed in Namibia for a while before following the sister car’s route back to BMW. Later, the cars went to Zimbabwe where Richard Robinson raced the ex-Viana car (#B16) and Gary Kirk the ex-Joubert car (#B17), wherein lies a tale…

In the 1980s, South African rallyist and journalist Leon Joubert had moved to Zimbabwe to go farming, but having achieved a number of competition successes with BMW, he was allowed to import one of the race team’s Group N cars and race it locally to support the local BMW dealer. Leon got sponsorship from Mobil and secured the (then) Zimbabwe saloon champion, Gary Kirk, to drive the car in championship rounds. After Gary won the Zimbabwe National Championship, the following year the car quickly became outclassed as locals began to import ex-Wesbank V8s. (The Zimbabwe regulations were very open-ended.)  Leon then arranged to ‘rescue’ the two 535is from the BMW SA competitions department (with as many spares as could be found), for Gary to race.

Gary obtained Caltex sponsorship to run the cars and began racing with his friend Richard Robinson. However, the cars were still not fast enough to keep up with the Wesbank V8s. Gary and friends started trying to turbocharge the cars, but the results were not particularly good. As an aside, the BMW M5 24-valve cylinder head and cam box did not fit the car as the suspension layout was in the way. The cars were withdrawn from racing and they ended up lying in a yard in a Harare industrial estate belonging to the Quest Motor Corporation, which had earlier taken over the BMW dealership.

The cars remained in Zimbabwe for the next two decades, almost lost in time… until Leon discovered the abandoned BMWs. Having previously signed a letter of responsibility for the cars with BMW SA Motorsport, he felt obliged to try and honour it, so moved them and all the spares he could find into one of his tractor sheds. When commercial agriculture got wiped out completely in Zimbabwe in 2001/2, Leon was forced to move (he now lives in Tasmania) and the cars were once more sidelined.

Enter Nick Sheward, who has restored some very important historic South African racing cars. Having just completed the ex-Viana Wesbank Modified Championship BMW 745i, Nick was looking for a new project to tackle. Word along the grapevine in 2014 was that Nick’s Zimbabwean friend Brian Evans had brought one of the cars down to South Africa, and that it was at a workshop in Boksburg. Nick received a call from Brian inviting him to view the car. It was very rough, but the bones were good and the car was complete. Nick made an offer on the car, which was secured after some negotiation. Then Nick found out about the ex-Viana still in Zimbabwe, by now long forgotten, but thankfully complete. “So I thought, seeing as I am doing the Joubert car, why not do both at the same time…” Nick recalls.

In retrospect, Nick reckons it was probably a mistake to take on both cars at the same time, as the amount of work doubled, but once committed, he commenced the restorations with his usual thoroughness.

Nick built a rotisserie so that he could swing the cars upside down or sideways, to help access the difficult-to-reach areas. Luckily, both cars had survived pretty much complete in terms of the components, although there were a lot of body parts missing. “Actually, the decision to go for a re-build on both cars was finalised when I managed to get hold of the body moulds for the original cars from Keith Bright, who passed away soon after I secured the moulds,” says Nick. The moulds were key to recreating two perfect restorations, as they included flared fibreglass bodywork for the rear fenders, the front fenders, the nose of the car and the bumpers.

Perhaps the biggest challenge of all for Nick was undertaking the entire restoration in his home workshop in Roodepoort. Working space was limited, In the 535i restoration, he was assisted by his friends Leon Postma, who spent countless hours in the assembly of all the components and extensive welding work, plugging holes in the cars, and Gerhard Heyns, a master machinist who does work for many top race teams in South Africa.

With his wealth of experience gained in restoring the 745i Wesbank car, Nick had assembled a massive collection of parts for race-spec BMWs of that era. For the 535i cars he had to have new inlet manifolds cast for both engines, which are 12-valve motors as Class B regulations prevented the use of multi-valve motors at that time. The ex-Viana car currently runs a trio of Weber 48 mm sidedraught carburettors, while the ex-Joubert car runs 45 mm carbs. Both motors were fully refurbished to original race spec. Accompanying the power plant’s open-piped six-cylinder exhaust music is the whine of straight-cut gears from the XTRAC gearbox, which apparently played a big part in the car’s success, simply because they were so reliable.

The standard of restoration inside the engine bay and in the cockpit is incredibly high. All the original race-specific components, such as fuel and oil tanks and switchgear have been retained. Instrumentation had to be restored to original finishes. Nick says he was lucky in that the original race seats and steering wheels were still in the cars, and these he simply refurbished. The wiring of the car was done by Nico Visagie, using Kelsey-Hayes switches and connectors. Interestingly, both cars still run the original wheel rims, which were made by famed F1 race mechanic Eddie Pinto. Pinto created the centres, while the rims were a combination of BBS and Compomotive items. The polished finish, with a rather retro ‘hole’ pattern, gives the two cars great authenticity.

When it comes to race car restoration, Nick is a perfectionist, especially as far as preserving the historic integrity of the cars is concerned. The restoration of both cars took Nick six years, and his endeavours have helped preserve a piece of SA motorsport history. Grant Viljoen, son of post-war SA racing hero Fanie, bought the ex-Viana car from Nick soon after it was completed.

These two E34 535i saloons are the only factory-entered E34 series BMW 535i machines that exist anywhere in the world: another example of South African automotive engineering expertise and ingenuity.

The 1992 Wesbank championship-winning ex-Joubert BMW 535i is currently on view in Hall D.

(Sincere thanks to Nick Sheward, Grant Viljoen, Leon Joubert and Stuart Johnston for material used in the compilation of this story. For further viewing, check out Grant’s website https://www.modifiedbmw535.co.za/)