BMW S1000 RR Powered Hillclimb Car

The British hillclimb scene witnessed the first racing car in the UK to be powered by a BMW S1000 RR superbike engine. The car made its debut at the MSA British Hillclimb Championship meeting at Gurston Down Hillclimb over the May Bank Holiday weekend.

OMS constructor Steve Owen has installed one of these power units into a lightweight OMS 28 chassis that will run in the 1100cc racing car class at British Championship events.

Steve and Lynn Owen had collected the car from the dyno on Thursday afternoon before travelling straight to Gurston. Steve sat in the new car for the first time in the paddock on Friday afternoon. Whilst his co-driver Harry Pick had his seat fitting on Saturday morning before his first practice run.

OMS 28 BMW S1000 RR

With no time for testing prior to the event, there was an element of uncertainty about whether the car would complete any runs over the weekend. Any concerns were soon dispelled when Steve took the car up the hill for its first practice run. He recorded speeds of 98 and 102 at the traps and an overall time of 35.51 seconds, having taken it easy to check all the systems were working. A very encouraging start for what is essentially an 'out of the box' car.

The OMS 28 continued to run faultlessly all weekend with each driver reducing their time on every run, completing six climbs each in total. Steve explained that he just wanted to run the car and get a feel for how the engine performed before embarking on any modifications to the installation or engine management.

Steve takes his first run with Harry assisting

Harry had not driven an OMS 28 before so everything about the car was new for him. Added to this he had only twice driven at Gurston previously, so he was also getting to know the hill. With each climb he lowered his time getting down to 33.18 seconds on his final timed run. Steve's best time over the weekend was 31.93 seconds.

More development is needed to fully exploit the potential of the BMW engine. But both drivers were more than pleased with the overall performance of the chassis/engine combination.

Date: 25/05/2015 | Author: L.Owen