Description:

Schnitzer BMW CSL 3.5 liter Group 2

• Genuine early Schnitzer BMW CSL Group 2 built for Précision Liégeoise
• Proven and documented history from new evidenced by its very rare FIA Heritage certificate
• Excellent European Touring Car Championship history from 1973 to 1977
• Maintained with no expense spared, with current FIA HTP and needs renewal of date-related items
• Eligible for all Touring car races including Peter Auto

We have the pleasure to offer this genuine 1972 ex-Schnitzer BMW CSL 3.5 liter Group 2 – VIN Nr 2211373 - for sale.

Our car was delivered to Schnitzer workshops from BMW Munich, Oct. 27th, 1971. It was one of the early aluminium lightweight prototypes of which only 139 were produced before the injected versions. Schnitzer converted this car to the 1972 Gp2 specification and sold the car to "Poppa" Peltier, of Précision Liégeoise in Herstal Belgium, who bought it on behalf of the "BMW Belgium" racing team. "La Précision Liégeoise" were Precision Engineers who among other things made early motorsport parts for the Munich factory such as the alloy slide injection throttle assemblies. The car was Golf Yellow from new and, after negotiation between Poppa Peltier and Herr J.u.H Schnitzerr, was delivered to Herstal in Dec.1971 (original letters, emission measurements, power readouts and parts lists are in the car’s documentation).

The young son, Alain Peltier, had raced a Group 1 BMW CS in 1971 with some success and was now ready for a full Gp2 ETCC season in 1972. The 1972 ETCC Championship went well for Alain, coming sixth in the drivers championship, racing against not only the Schnitzer and Alpina teams but also the full Ford works team with their Grand Prix star drivers. In 1973, Alain was drafted to drive for the Alpina "semi-works" team on a number of occasions, up against the BMW full works team which helped BMW win the manufacturers title that year. The Précision Liégeoise car was not used much, being a Schnitzer car, although it was raced a couple of times in ETCC later that season. For the next year (1974) Poppa Peltier bought Alain the winning Stuck-Amon ex-works car, and when that car was painted blue with Gitanes livery, so was the older car, as a spare. We do not know if it raced in 1974.

In 1975 the CSL became the property of Serge Power, the team’s head mechanic from 1972 to 1975. He used it as a rent-a-car for paying drivers such as the Swedish Grand Prix driver Reine Wissel and Bernard Carlier, who raced in national touring cars. The only time it raced that year in ETC was at Jarama where it came 5th driven by Bernard Carlier and Jean-Claude Doret. It was still in its blue "Gitanes'' colours.

The car was subsequently sold by Serge Power to Italian-Belgian car dealer called Rene Granelli, who updated the car to the 1976 ruleset. It was fitted with the new "eyebrow" arch extensions and painted dark red but Granelli did not race the car but sold it on to Raymond Raus of Antwerp for the 1976 season. Raymond Raus, "Mon" as he was known, had raced a 2002tii in the early seventies and continued with some touring car successes and trophies in 1976, giving him second place overall. In 1977 Raymond won the Belgian Touring Car Championship. On one occasion the car raced in the ETCC at Zandvoort, where with Frans Lubin and Serge Maasen (who brought the Tonka Toys sponsorship) they came 5th against the Jaguars, Luigi UFO CSLs, its sister Power car, and the Alpina Gosser Beer CSL, not bad for a national competitor! The car was red with a black aeroset. Raymond then bought a Kremer Porsche and after a couple of years sold the car to Hugh Van Es, a Dutchman who hill-climbed it a few times, then it seemed to languish in his BMW spare parts warehouse until a guy called Klaus Rath bought it sometime in the late eighties. It was now white with two stripes one blue and one green stripe looking like Alpina stripes. Rath did not have it very long because he was eager to buy a Gp5 CSL. This is when a couple of Swedish guys, Lars Knoppel and Charles Douglas, bought the car from him. They transported it back to Stockholm in 1989, played with it a couple of times then stuck it in their workshop/showroom along with their collection of Porsches and BMWs. It stayed there for the next 15 years with regular start-ups to keep the engine sweet but did nothing else with it until – in 2004 – BMW racer and specialist Chris Randall discovered and bought the car, still on the original Schnitzer "Electra" wheels and slicks it had raced on, with its original seat and fire extinguisher. Randall immediately took the CSL to Serge Power in Hasselt Belgium, who would know whether it was indeed Alain Peltier’s 1972-73 Gp2 CSL. Recognising all the odd brackets and struts etc, him and "Fox", another mechanic who was with the original Précision Liégeoise team, confirmed it was that very car. It was then also shown to Rene Granelli and Frans Lubin, both of whom recognised it also. Everyone was amazed and pleased to see the old original racer again after 30-plus years!

When back in U.K., Chris Randall undertook a bare-chassis restoration of the car (the restoration file is with the car) back to its Golf Yellow Précision Liégeoise livery ad updated the car to the latest 1975 Group 2 specification with 3.5-liter engine. He also applied with the FIA to obtain a FIA Heritage Certificate, a document which the FIA no longer provides, with success and it must be one of the few occasions where such Heritage Certificate was awarded to an historic Touring race car.

It was bought by the current owner in 2007 who has successfully campaigned the car from 2008 to 2019 in Peter Auto’s HTC races as well as the 2014 Le Mans Classic. During this period, the car was maintained by specialist Laranca (UK) with no-expense-spared and a lot of development work was done to make sure that this Schnitzer CSL would remain competitive. As it has not raced for a few years now, the car remains in excellent condition but will need a go-through, new fuel cell, seat and belts upon which it would be ready to continue its rich racing career. The car also has an FIA HTP valid until 2027 and comes with 3 sets of spare wheels and miscellaneous running spares.

This is a rare opportunity to acquire a genuine, ex-Schnitzer BMW CSL Group 2 with clear, proven provenance which is a welcome entry to all historic Touring car races including Le Mans Classic.

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