BMW T102
The BMW T102 was a Formula 2 racing car that was used in 1968 and 1969.
The BMW T102 was built entirely by Lola , but exclusively for BMW ; hence the type designation BMW T102 and not Lola T102. The design came from the British racing car designer Len Terry . The T102 had Lola's typical bathtub monocoque . The body ran slim along the cockpit and only became wider in the rear part to accommodate the engine. This was a design by the Austrian BMW engineer Ludwig Apfelbeck . The 2 liter engine had four cylinders with four valves each. When the engine had to be reduced to a displacement of 1.6 liters, difficulties arose with the valve control and BMW brought in a new unit.
When there was no great success in 1968, the two T102 were completely redesigned. At the 1969 Jim Clark race in Hockenheim , a run for the Formula 2 European Championship , Hubert Hahne achieved the first podium finish in second place behind Jean-Pierre Beltoise in the Matra MS7 . 14 days later Joseph Siffert had to admit defeat to only one Matra in the Eifel race at the Nürburgring , this time with Jackie Stewart at the wheel. After further strong performances, Hahne finished second in the overall ranking of the European Championship at the end of the season.
But the team also had to accept a tragic accident. Gerhard Mitter had a fatal accident in a BMW F269 , the successor to the T102, during training for the 1969 German Grand Prix after a technical defect.
literature
- David Hodges: A – Z of Formula Racing Cars. Bay View Books, Bideford 1990, ISBN 1-870979-16-8 (in German: David Hodges: Rennwagen von A – Z after 1945. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 ).
