RE: BMW M3 E36 Group N, looking for History

[ALong]

Hello all. Hoping someone can help me with some history on a car that I own. The car is a BMW E36 M3 Group N car. The car was built in 1997 by Steinlein Motorsports. From the FIA papers that I have, the rollcage/chassis work was done by Herrmann Motorsports in Munich. The chassis number is listed as BMW AD3. The car was built from a "body in white" chassis purchased from BMW Motorsports. Herrmann Motorsports installed a chromoly 16 point FIA cage similar to the BMW Motorsport/Matter cages, attaches to all the suspension pick-up points, welded to the A & B pillars etc. Steinlein Motorsports then assembled the car, to Group N spec, including a very trick Dual Fuel Cells (one in the original location under the rear seats and an auxillary cell in the trunk that feeds into the lower fuel cell where the pumps are located) with Carbon Fiber covers, apparently the lower fuel cell is BMW Motorsport part that at the time cost aprox $15k USD!. It also has a very neat BMW Motorsports/PI electronic Dash. The car was pretty much assembled using all the Group N parts from BMW Motorsports catalog.

The car was then raced in the Veedol Endurance series in Germany and is the veteran of at least 4 24 Hours of the Nurburgring. It also competed at the time in the FIA International Saloon Car Championship (ISCC) for Group N cars. From the research that I have been able to do it also raced in at least 1 24hrs of Spa. Unfortunately Dieter Steinlein, who ran the team, died several years ago, so my number 1 source for information is not available. The car itself is unique in that it was painted a bright Yellow (very close to Ferrari Fly Yellow) and the interior (rollcage, interior, engine bay, trunk) was painted a light shade of Purple! If anyone has seen this car, they would remember this! In period, this car was driven by Dieter Steinlein, Alfred Higer (a BMW fuel system engineer, who supposedly helped with the fuel system in this car) and was also rented out to drivers, possibly some Australian drivers for one of the 24hours of the Nurburgring. To confuse matters more, there is also a sister car, built at the same time that looks identical. Sometimes the car was entered under the banner of "Automobile Club Munchen" as it was for the following Spa 24hr entry (scroll to entry #34)

http://www.racingsportscars.com/etcc...-06-photo.html

Any help on tracking down more history would be appreciated. The car was imported into the USA (along with it's sister car) in 2001. Currently the car is located in Seattle, Washington.