4/7 BMW V12 LM98 Presensation

// This is a direct reupload of the post I made for Instagram and Facebook

BMW V12LM98 Presentation Part 4/7

Le Mans 99 mark the return to competition for Chassis 002/98, now under the care of Team Goh, who previously ran the Lark McLaren F1 GTR in 97. This event was also the debut for the fully upgraded car, now sporting a look much closer to the V12 LMR. While the design is very distinct, I somehow feel the road car design in this version.

Pre-Qualifying went well enough for the car to secure 20th place. A detail I enjoy is the simultaneous use of both the '98 and '99 mirror configurations seeing 3 mirrors on a car is quite an unusual sight.
In qualifying, the car secured the 15th place, improving by 0.4 seconds compared to 98, then, this would have been good enough for 6th place. This show just how much the field have stepped up in a single year. 15th may seem underwhelming, it’s quite respectable given the sheer number of manufacturer entry. Its 3rd among privateer entries and in front of both R8C…

Unfortunately, the start of the race was a stark contrast to '98. In the first corne, Katou was rear-ended by O'Connell’s Panoz, sending the car into a spin. Katou pitted at the end of the lap to replace the engine hood. The race ran smoothly, and the car climbed the standings, reaching 9th place during the night. However, it later spent 4h in the garage. After returning to the track, it ran trouble-free until its DNF late on Sunday morning.

The chassis made its final appearance at the Fuji 1000km, an ACO experiment to establish a Japanese "Petit Le Mans." Despite the prize of a Le Mans 2000 entry, few cars participated. The LMP field included a Toyota GT-ONE, Nissan R391, McLaren, and Riley&Scott. The BMW qualified 3rd and held that position throughout the race after an intense opening-lap battle with the Nissan and McLaren to heat up the tires first. The best result for the LM98.

Afterward, this chassis was heavily reworked by Dome for 2000 and served as base work for the futur Dome S101, but never returned to competition. An attempt was made to race at the Suzuka 1000km in 2002, but it never materialized.

This chassis is still in its Dome form and is in private hand in Belgium, it have done very sparse public apparition at some car show

🎨 Lark livery by Sylphide