[brown dog]

This thread is a bit old, but I can fill in some of these gaps anyway.

Originally Posted by anthony81901

Am I correct in thinking that the 325i and M3 were identical and that the differences lay under the bonnet and with the suspension?

From this thread in the Chassis History section http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=98823 I gather that all the M3s were built to a point by BMW and then sold to the teams who completed the build and numbered M3/1-001, M31/002 etc. Presumably the JPS cars were included in this..

Only the caged "Matter" shells sold by BMW Motorsport carried the M3/1-xxx numbered tags. A number of M3 race cars were built from primered M3 shells, and just carried the BMW part number on the scuttle panel below the wiper. I believe the JPS cars were all built from these primered shells, so I doubt you will find these M3/1-xxx numbered tags on any.I was told that Frank Gardner allocated his own numbers (FGRxxx) to these cars, but have not seen any to be able to confirm.

Originally Posted by anthony81901

I guess it would be logical to try and capture the history of the 2.5 litre M3s here. Two Schnitzer cars were raced in New Zealand by Emanuele Pirro & Johhny Cecotto and Steve Soper & Joachim Winkelhock at the end of 1990 after which the Benson & Hedges team took delivery.

These were used as the B&H racecars throughout 1991, with a 3rd car purchased from the Bigazzi team in Italy. This was painted in a white livery for the BMW Advanced Training Centre, it was used as the T car at Bathurst. One of the Schnitzer cars was badly damaged in Wellington at the end of the year, although I believe repaired.

For the 1992 ATCC there 3 cars, 2 in B&H livery for Jones and Longhurst and the ex Bigazzi car for Paul Morris in the white livery it had appeared in 1991. For Bathurst 1992 there was a new car, I think this was the last ever M3 E30 built.

Mostly correct, but the car crashed at Wellington was not repaired. A new car was built in Australia for Longhurst to race in 1992, at Bathurst that year Longhurst got the "new" car and the "old" car was handed to Denny Hulme/Paul Morris.

Originally Posted by anthony81901

For 1993 the team entered 4 cars, Longhurst and John Blanchard in B&H livery and Morris and Geoff Full in Diet Coke livery, presumably being the new car, the 2 Schnitzer cars delivered at the end of 1990 and the Bigazzi car..

For 1993 Longhurst's used his "new" car from Bathurst 1992, Blanchard's was the "old" Longhurst 1992 car,(also converted to 2 litre for 1994) Geoff Fulls car was the 1991/92 Alan Jones B&H car (ex Schnitzer 1990 Wellington car) and Paul Morris got a brand new Bigazzi 1992 spec. car.

Originally Posted by anthony81901

The last built car was sold to Cameron McLean who used it to win the 1995 Australian Sports Sedan Championship, Blanchard raced one in the 2 litre series in 1994, while one was sold to Asia.

The ex Longhurst/Cameron Mclean car is now with Rick Allen in Sydney. Both of the 1993 Diet Coke cars are in NZ, as is the 1992 Longhurst/1993 Blanchard car.The white "T" car from 1991-1993 ( a very early spec. car) went to Asia until it sold recently to someone in the US.