From 7 to 9 May 1987, a BMW M3 drove into a gap in rally history in Corsica — and it closed right behind it. Bernard Béguin and co-driver Jean-Jacques Lenne won the Tour de Corse, entered by Prodrive in Rothmans colours. It remained the only win for the M3 E30 in the World Rally Championship.
The right car for the one right rally
1987 was the first year after Group B was discontinued, and the World Championship suddenly ran with Group A cars. This was exactly what the M3 had been built for — just for asphalt. On Corsica’s 10,000 corners, the only pure asphalt rally on the calendar at the time with no gravel or snow sections, the free-revving rear-wheel-drive car could demonstrate its precision. Against the emerging turbocharged all-wheel-drive cars, it had no traction disadvantages to fear there.
Three superlatives in one result
Béguin/Lenne’s victory was historic in three ways: the M3’s only overall WRC win, the first WRC win for the British team Prodrive — which would later collect world championships with Subaru — and to this day the last WRC win for a rear-wheel-drive car with a naturally aspirated engine.
What came after
- 1988: Tour de Corse — François Chatriot fourth in the Bastos M3, Béguin seventh.
- 1989: Chatriot/Périn second at the Tour de Corse; French championship title in the Prodrive Bastos M3.
- 1990: Chatriot again on the Corsica podium (third) and French champion once more — then the M3 era at Prodrive comes to an end.
In France and Belgium, the M3 remained a serial winner beyond the World Championship as well: Béguin was runner-up in the championship in 1987 and 1988, and Patrick Snijers took the Belgian title in the Bastos M3 in 1988 and won the Manx International Rally. We tell the story of the same car’s circuit racing career in our feature on Group A.
Sources: Wikipedia (FR: Tour de Corse 1987, Bernard Béguin; EN: Bernard Béguin), juwra.com (Corsica results lists 1988–1990), Echappement Classic. Photo: MOTORSPORT24 — production M3 from our own archive; no freely licensed photo of the rally car exists. Hero image: Calreyn88, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Bildnachweise
- Lizenziert · Calreyn88 · CC BY-SA 4.0