Targa Newfoundland 2004 – in an E30 M3

It's hard to describe what is 'best' about Targa Newfoundland. Is it the friendly people that line the roads or ask if you need help? Is it the rugged simple beauty of the coastal villages? Is it meeting old friends and making new ones? And those do not even consider the driving. In a week, the event covers over 2000 km, and you get to drive as fast as you want on 500 km of closed public roads that incorporate high-speed sections and devilish tight stages through people's back yards. The by-line of Targa Newfoundland is 'The Ultimate North American Tarmac Rally'. Targa is that, and more. Targa is both the vacation of a lifetime, and the most intense driving experience you can have, rolled into one.

First, a little background on the Targa Newfoundland, Targa means 'plate' in Italian, and its history can be traced to the Targa Florio that was run in Sicily for many years. Modern Targa events are held in Tasmania, New Zealand, and since 2002, in Newfoundland. The formats are similar, with cars starting at intervals and running against the clock. The structure and awards honor quick, consistent, driving. To top it off, BMW was honored as Marque of the Year in 2004 in Targa Newfoundland.

One of the great things about Targa is that you can drive it on any level you choose. If you want a fun vacation, with 'spirited driving' and low risk, you can enter the 'Touring' class. Here the base times that you must run are set at 'brisk' (achievable but get a ticket in any other land) speeds. Car preparation requirements are minimal, and top speeds are limited to a 130 kph maximum. In the Targa Class, the speeds are raised to pro-rally speeds (200 kph maximum), and full cages are required. If you haven't done local road rally's or competition rally, its OK, because the organizers have developed a program to allow teams to get their competition license and practice on the island before the start of the actual event. The Targa competition has classes for any age and modification of car, so you can bring anything from your daily driver to a club racecar and find a spot for it. Instead of 'how fast can you go' like a pro-rally, Targa sets 'base times' to reach. There is no advantage in scoring if you go faster than the base times. For Touring class, you want to run as close as possible to base times to win, like any TSD (Time-Speed-Distance) event. For Targa, the base times are gradually made less obtainable as the week progresses, and the teams that have the lowest amount of penalties for being late are the winners.

Warning – this event is so challenging and fun, you may not be able to do it just once. That's what happened to Adrienne Hughes and me after we ran the event in 2003. We did well in Targa class, finishing 2nd in Modern division (cars newer than 1977) and 7th overall in my very tired E30 M3 ex-hill climb car. We had so much fun; we had to try it again. Buy default, the car choice for this year's event became another E30 M3, our recently acquired JS Club Race car. Learning from our experiences last year, Eksten Autoworks in Rochester NY helped by preparing a fresh motor after the crank broke at a hill climb in July. We fitted the car with taller springs more suited for rough roads and a rare factory skid plate with extra reinforcements. Gault Autosport in Endicott NY and BMP Design of Tyler Texas helped supply a big shopping list of maintenance and rebuild parts. After towing 22 hours to the Newfoundland Ferry last year (which takes 16 hours to cross), we decided to ship the car from Toronto (by Mantis Racing) and fly in.

The 2004 event had 90 entries, about evenly split between Touring and Targa Classes. The event continues to grow, and may soon have a waiting list like Targa Tasmania. At least four factory teams were entered in the Targa Modern Division. Many big horsepower cars were present, including a Pro-Rally Subaru, a supercharged Mustang, and a turbo Neon driven by General MacKenzie (overall commander of NATO in Bosnia in 1992). Fortunately, Targa base times are adjusted by car age, displacement, and modifications, so an E30 M3 still has a chance of doing well. On the demonstration and Prolog practice days, our times, while not slow, showed that we had a lot of fast competition, and that we may have brought a knife to a gunfight. The fastest car in our class 7 was an English Darrian with 300hp in 1600 lbs. Also in class 7 was the 3.2 liter Euro M3 motored monster E30 323 of Scott Smith and Peter Guagenti. In class 6 modern, we knew Glen Clarke and Even Gamblin would be tough competitors in a light weight modified 911.

Our game plan was simple – be safe, keep the car on the road, don't overdrive, and let others make mistakes. Many of the Targa cars were clean (no points) through the first day. But the Smith/Guagenti E30 went nose down into a ditch on stage 1. (* See Anecdotes, attached) Day 2 saw the base speeds raised, and only 9 cars made it through the day without points. The tough stages included Greenspond, a short, incredibly tight stage that included a triple caution dive towards a T left in front of the ocean. Fortunately, Glen Clarke had time to shout a friendly warning to us to 'watch the gravel' before we started. The fast Darrian spun and picked up a 5 second penalty. It later had a brief mechanical failure and dropped out of contention.

The second tough stage that day was a high-speed blast through the streets of Gander. The course in Gander consisted of endless 90 degree corners 'through a sub-division', with cheering crowds lining the streets. At the end of day in the arena, we were surprised to hear that only us, and Glen's Porsche had zero points in Modern Division. Day 3 started with a reverse run of the Gander stage. To maintain time with the limited power of a JS M3 I had to push the car to the limit on every corner. You have fractions of a second at each corner to brake, shift, and pick a line that avoids the high curbs, drainage grates, and manhole covers but maximizes the exit speed. The soft rally suspension meant the car was corning on its door handles, but the Toyo RA1's stuck like glue and we zeroed the stage.

A high speed stage into and out of Leading Tickles (a Tickle is an inlet open to the ocean) claimed four Targa cars due to 'off road' excursions. All but one would be repaired to rejoin the next day. Leading Tickles is one of the most beautiful pieces of Newfoundland you can imagine, and to top it off we got to relax and enjoy some moose for lunch.

At the start of day 4, only 6 Targa cars had zeros, 4 classic, and 2 modern (us and the Clarke/Gamblin 911). Because of the sliding base time scales, the older classic cars such as the big V8 Arcadia (Nova) and vintage Mustang and Austin don't have to run as fast of base times as the M3. The Euro M3 powered Bavaria of Bill Arnold and Tamara Hull had similar base times as us, while the 911 base times were a few seconds under ours. Day four promised to sort out the top cars, with a combination of a high speed run in and out of Burin (another breathtaking scenic ex-fishing village) and some more devilish tight in town stages in Marystown, Grand Banks, and Fortune. Quite frankly, I was amazed we were still tied for first. The little M3 was performing flawlessly, with the exception of a few slams into the front skid plate. (* See Anecdotes, attached)

As expected, all the top teams picked up points in Fortune. The best way to practice for the roads in Fortune would be take a tight little race track and have a gravel truck dump a coating of stones across the track at ever corner. Then erect a picket fence on each side of the road to narrow it to 10 feet wide, and for good measure install some light poles and fire hydrants at the apexes and track-outs. Now drive the course as fast as you can as the grip changes from 1 G stick to 0.1 G in and instant. We picked up 4 seconds of penalties; it would have been less if I'd kept my foot down on one of turn exits instead of lifting to save a picket fence! The Bavaria only picked up 2 seconds, and 911 had 7 seconds. The stage back into Marystown wasn't as gravelly, but all the base speeds were raised enough to make the times unobtainable. The 911 needed reverse gear after sliding by a corner, and had 11 more seconds added. The Bavaria had 8 seconds in Marystown, we made it through with only 7 seconds more penalty. The fast Arcadia was right in the mix with only 12 seconds penalties for the day. So at the end of day four, it was as tighter racing than anyone had imagined, with the top four cars separated by 8 seconds.

Day 5 dawned with fog and misting rain. This increased the chance of a big mistake by some team shaking up the results. All but 2 of the day 5 stages were high-speed runs, where the biggest risk is encountering a moose or 'breaking out' and incurring a penalty for exceeding the 130 kph maximum average speed for a stage. In general, unless there is a very long down hill straight, we didn't have to worry about the 200 kph top speed limit with the limited power of the M3. The first critical tight stage was before lunch break in Placentia. It's another impossibly tight, twisty in-town stage that gave competitors fits last year. The stage started with its biggest straight, a whole 0.4 kilometer before the turn into town. Due to the fog, several cars missed that turn and had to back up. I saw it at the last second and slid around the corner. The roads had numerous puddles and some gravel to charge through. At one point, the road had a marked blind crest, I remember asking about 3 times if it was 'straight over the crest', and Adrienne was repeated it was. I kept my foot down over the crest in third gear and we caught big air and the car slammed the skid plate, again. Several times, I had to catch the tail of the car on corner exits with wild spins of the steering wheel. Just as I was thinking I was pushing too hard and risking a crash, Adrienne called out "don't overdrive, we are ahead of time!" I backed off only as much as too much adrenalin would allow and we cleared the stage with 15 seconds to spare! Bill Arnold admitted to needing reverse 3 times in the Bavaria, and still cleared the stage by 5 seconds. The top cars all cleared the stage, so the event came down to the last event of the day, a high speed run though a town called Petty Harbor. No one cleared Petty Harbor last year without penalties, so nerves were on edge between the top teams. The roads were 'medium tight', open enough for high speed, but tight enough to require heavy braking and dancing the car over bridges and between guardrails. Our run, while not perfect, was quick and safe and we crossed the line right on base time. The Bavaria and 911 both cleared the stage, and the Arcadian only had a 2 second penalty, so the top positions didn't change. Wow, we survived, won Modern Division, and couldn't believe the competition was over!

There is no official 'overall winner' according to the rules, but Bill Arnold and Tamara Hull were 1 second ahead of use in winning classic division. A great result for team BMW!

Anecdotes

1. On the first timed stage, we were running well under base time as we neared the end, so I began to slightly back down just as the road began to narrow. Adrienne had just called a right turn leading to a left. Entering the right, we saw a smashed triangle on the road – not a good sign of what was ahead. Slowing more, we both let out a bit of a gasp, as we saw 'our car in nose down in the ditch'. It was a very weird, almost out of body experience to see what looks like the same Red BMW M3 that you are driving off the road ahead of you. After the end of the stage, we compared what we thought, and it was very similar – Adrienne focused on the white spoiler lip on Scott and Peter's car (703), and thought –"we don't have that spoiler, its not us", and I focused on the blank license plate area, and thought "it does not say 706, its not me". Later, a competitor said he saw the car and thought it was us, and Adrienne's classic reply was "when we saw the car, we thought it was us".
2. Right before the start of last stage of day 3, the right front rotor of the M3 began the classic 'thump' of a crack forming. I only had time to look quickly, and saw that the crack extended from the outer edge of the rotor right to the hub, on both sides of the vented disc. Now what? No spare is in the car, and it's a fast stage ahead with a slow, tight, little town in the middle. Nothing to do but pray that the rotor has a few more stops in it… As I get back into the car, Adrienne asks "will make it through the next stage?" I reply, "I think so, but make sure your belts are tight, because if the rotor lets go, we are going in". Maybe not the thing you want to say to give your trusted co-driver confidence we aren't about to crash! We zeroed the stage and eased the car back to Gander. I had just unbolted the wheel and set it on the ground when the rotor broke the rest of the way through the hub with a large BANG. If the rotor had cracked earlier in the day, we would have missed stages or crashed trying…
3. Marystown – pm – A quick visual inspection of the car reviled the skid plate was torn from its mountings and hanging down. A good hit and it could tear off and do extensive damage as the car went over it. I asked our CRO, Wanda, if there was a weld shop nearby, and she sent over Max who arranged for Karl from H&H to help. Karl called a friend who was the stage commander, who quickly opened his huge truck shop. After a few quick welds, the M3 was fixed. Then the silver Mustang moved in and began a long night of repairs. The Mustang had earlier 'fell off the road' and landed on top of a Honda CRX that had just slid off a few cars before, smashing the Honda beyond repair.

Note, all but one of the cars (the Honda) that broke or flew off the road managed to get back running the next day!

Notes:

BMWs in Targa

1. Our E30 M3 JS club race car, Winner in Modern
2. Bill Arnold/Tamara Hull 3.2 liter, 330hp, Bavaria with 5 series suspension, Winner in Classic
3. Scott Smith and Peter Guagenti, Class 7 Modified 323i E30, with 3.2-liter 330hp Euro M3 – Fantastic fast stage times late in week, but 1st day mistake cost them.
4. David McIntyre/Ross Karlin, Class 8, 95 M3 Won entry to Targa, scrambled to build car and enter, we tried to tell them what to expect, but they still had a look of shock and awe for a couple of days. This soon turned into huge grins and stories of sliding the car around corners. Had a great time, and a good finish for 'stock car', that rules forced into modified.
5. Geoff Corlett/Scott Lamb – 1974 2002 factory Turbo, Class 5 – Beautiful car, fought mechanical troubles but turned in some great stage times. Broke a diff (welded solid to fix) and changed head gasket.

BMW in Touring

1. Brian and Ken Jarvis – great looking 2002tii, ran last year, crashed, spent all winter rebuilding to return. Just bought Club Race 2002 to run in Targa next year.
2. Perry Butt/Cherie Redden – E30 M3, live in NF, one of only two E30 M3 on island – looking to return in Targa Class

By: Roy Hopkins