Greatest Racecar? Bernard de Dryver’s BMW M3

The 24 Hours of Le Mans was always good for me. Of the 12 times I raced, I finished six times—not a bad ratio in the world’s most enduring of races. My best result was in 1987, we finished a fantastic 2nd to the works Rothmans Porsche 962C of Derek Bell, Hans Stuck, and Al Holber—perhaps my greatest achievement? My teammates were Jurgen Lassig and Pierre Yver. We were in the privately entered Primagaz Porsche 962C and beat so many other factory and works teams. Every so often Le Mans has a David and Goliath battle, and I was pleased to be part of one of them. Without any doubt it was the pinnacle of my career. It would be easy to say that my greatest racecar should be the Porsche 962C, and indeed it is a tremendous car.

However, as a Belgian, the Spa 24 Hours is a very special race. For me, the 1987 race was something to remember. I was driving a BMW M3 entered by Garage du Bac and co-driven with Fabian Giroix and Pascal Fabre. A very troubled first practice left us in 27th position. In final practice, we knew we had to get places back. Fabian was really charged and we ended up 8th quickest. For the race, it was damp then drying and then damp again; typical Spa weather conditions. After the first two hours, we were lying 5th. Brake trouble dropped us back to 13th, but by 8 a.m. we had fought back to 5th again. We continued up the order to 3rd by lunchtime and finished on the podium. The BMW M3 was simply a great car and has become an icon over the years. I think it’s the simplicity of the chassis, the power of the BMW engine and the pure drivability of the car that makes it many drivers’ favorite. It certainly worked well for us that day.