History
Built by Vic Lee Motorsport and raced in the 1992 British Touring Car Championship by Tim Harvey.During a test session at Snetterton prior to the final race of the year Harvey spun and backed into the barrier resulting in damage to the rear of the car. For the final race of the year at Silverstone, with Harvey still in contention for the championship the team decided to swap cars - Harvey would take over team-mate Steve Soper's car whilst Soper would drive Harvey's now-repaired car. What followed would become part of Touring Car legend.
On the opening lap, Soper spun whilst trying to overtake David Leslie for third and was hit by Robb Gravett's Peugeot, resulting in significant damage to the rear of the BMW. Despite the damage Soper was able to work his way back through the field eventually overtaking championship rival John Cleland, and putting Harvey through into a title-winning position. With two laps to go Soper and Cleland clashed forcing both cars out of the race and meaning Harvey would secure the championship title.
At the end of the year the assets of Vic Lee Motorsport were purchased by the newly formed Team Dynamics, who sold this car to the French Oreca team. The car was run for Arnaud Duprey for a single round of the 1994 Championnat de France de Supertourisme. From then the car remained unused until being sold in 1998.
It's believed the car then spent time in Denmark and Norway, before being brought back to the UK and sold to Rick Michels and shipped to New Zealand. Eventually acquired by Warren Good and restored back to original 1992 BTCC livery.
It should be noted that although the car has 'VLM E36-001' stamped into the bulkhead, this is not the original chassis number. There is no evidence that the number was not present 'in period' and was added at a later date. The 3 shells supplied by BMW were E36/1 002 91, E36/1 008 92 and E36/1 017 92 but it's believed that VLM removed the original chassis plates so there is no way of confirming which is the correct number for this car.