Blair Smith to contest that year’s two-litre-only
AMP Bathurst 1000.
Cornish and Barclay in turn sold the by-
now five-year-old car to Anthony Robson,
who contested the Australian Super Touring
Championship in 1998, as well as the second
two-litre-only AMP Bathurst 1000 race with
Sydney driver Ric Shaw.
Robson also raced the E36 at early rounds
of the 1999 Australian Super Touring
Championship, before upgrading to a later
model Honda Accord, plus a pair of early
rounds of the BOC Gases–backed 2000 series
before parking it up and eventually selling it to
Lindsay O’Donnell in 2003.
Once it was in New Zealand, in Christchurch,
O’Donnell had the car rebuilt and re-liveried in
its original Warsteiner (a popular German beer)BMW Team Bigazzi ‘war paint’ — white base
with multicoloured chequered flag over its hind
quarters — and he and his son Matthew used
it at events such as the South Island Endurance
Series and the Skope Classic.
With interest in a dedicated Historic Touring
Cars series for cars such as the E36 growing at
the time, the O’Donnells decided that the car
needed another ‘birthday’, so, in 2015, it was
again completely stripped; rebuilt; and, this
time, re-liveried in the distinctive Longhurst
colours it wore when it won the 1994
Australian Manufacturers’ Championship
title — and appeared, of course, in that video
on YouTube (which, by the way, has now been
viewed more than 94,000 times).
To say that the E36 still looks great, and
every millimetre a racer, is an understatement.
With its modest aero package and slick-shod
18-inch Dymag racing wheels tucked deep
up into the standard wheel arches, it, and
cars like it, stands as a tribute to the intent of
the original Super Touring rules: to provide
a showcase for manufacturers to sell on
Monday showroom examples of a model of
car that won on Sunday!
themotorhood.com | New Zealand Classic Car 59