{"id":84868,"date":"2026-02-17T09:04:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T14:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=84868"},"modified":"2026-02-17T09:04:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T14:04:21","slug":"bmw-3-series-race-car-too-wide-did-not-fit-car-transporter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=84868","title":{"rendered":"This 3 Series Race Car Was Too Wide To Fit On The Trailer, So BMW Improvised"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"post-summary-wrap\">\n<h3 class=\"post-summary-title\">Article Summary<\/h3>\n<ul class=\"post-summary-list\">\n<li>BMW unearths 49-year-old images showing an original 5 Series towing the Group 5-spec 3 Series race car.<\/li>\n<li>The track-only E21 was too wide to fit on the trailer.<\/li>\n<li>BMW used the base 518 with a carbureted engine to do the hauling.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/section>\n<p>BMW Classic\u2019s Instagram account is a treasure trove of automotive history. In case you missed it, we recently spotted the original 7 Series wearing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmwblog.com\/2026\/02\/02\/bmw-7-series-e23-prototype-camouflage\/\">funky camouflage<\/a> during testing. But the story doesn\u2019t stop there: the same year the E23 debuted, BMW\u2019s motorsport division ran into a logistical hiccup. In 1977, the car transporters meant to haul the 320 Group 5 race cars couldn\u2019t carry the track-ready E21s.<\/p>\n<p>Why? The race-spec 3 Series was simply too wide to fit on the trailers, so BMW had to improvise. Spectacular images from nearly half a century ago show the \u201cFlying Brick\u201d being towed by a first-generation, right-hand-drive 5 Series. It\u2019s not just any E12, but a base 518 with a carbureted M10 engine producing 89 horsepower. Enough punch, apparently, to haul a race car all the way to the Kyalami circuit in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Seeing those race cars out on the road, towed by two 5 Series models, must\u2019ve been a sight to behold. For context, the N1 is a national route in South Africa running from Cape Town through Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, and Pretoria. Those wide fenders on the E21s must\u2019ve turned plenty of heads in traffic.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DU0yQc3DSzQ\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\"\/>\n<p>BMW enthusiasts will also recall that 1977 was the year Roy Lichtenstein transformed a Group 5 E21 into the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmwblog.com\/2014\/11\/25\/bmw-present-bmw-art-cars-roy-lichtenstein-michael-jagamara-nelson-art-basel-miami-beach-2014\/\">third official BMW Art Car<\/a>. The J\u00e4germeister livery is arguably the most beloved among Group 5 fans. While the original 3 Series road car topped out at 141 hp, the race-ready E21 had over three times that power. The 1979-spec version with its iconic orange livery produced 443 hp from a turbocharged 1.4-liter engine, hitting peak power at a screaming 9,000 rpm and reaching 180 mph (290 km\/h).<\/p>\n<p>Fast-forward to 2026, and BMW is preparing to retire the seventh-generation 3 Series to make way for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmwblog.com\/2025\/02\/05\/2027-bmw-3-series-spied-production-body\/\">new G50<\/a>. It won\u2019t arrive alone: an electric version, the i3 (NA0), is also launching this year. The EV is likely to get a Touring variant, and there\u2019s hope that the combustion-engine model will once again see a wagon body style. All four are likely to get the M Performance and M treatment, so the future looks good for both ICE and EV fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Article Summary BMW unearths 49-year-old images showing an original 5 Series towing the Group 5-spec 3 Series race car. The track-only E21 was too wide to fit on the trailer. BMW used the base 518 with a carbureted engine to do the hauling. BMW Classic\u2019s Instagram account is a treasure trove of automotive history. In [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84869,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/84869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}