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You are right it no longer looks factory now that it has the new TopCat (Burmese) "logo" all over the front spoiler!


Or are you making an offer for the (other) TopCat???

Fame at Last!

Apparently Herman features in June's edition of Classic Cars- which comes out any time soon! Hopefully good PR for the E21.....?

told this by one of the few Manx Classic Competitors to get here from UK before the storms cancelled the Seacat Ferries etc today (he gets his copy via subscription hence before newstands)

Nice! Not sure if the magazine is easy to locate in Holland otherwise I'm up for a scan in the Articles section

I attach below my letter printed in Classic Car magazine June 2012 edition
have become less reticent about copyright- given that I wrote the letter!



KR

I have already commented at length upon the 2012 Manx Classic

Going well until I broke a driveshaft on the Governors Sprint event on day 1!
Anyway herewith the Article in Total BMW July 2012 edition by Paul Hardiman- who is a chum.
This was the same edition that featured Mark's MIB so well

And yes that is a graveyard behind Herman in picture!

Herman Update update!
I was talking to "Fritz" off whom I seem to be getting more and more bits and he told me that the 3.5 was the best engine BMW ever made and that he could easily extract another 40 bhp

Well I offered him a plane ticket from Gloucester and a ringside seat at Manx Grand Prix and he has been working his magic on Herman.

Wow what a difference, and he has found some very useful info on Herman as well.
The most important discovery is that IT HAS THE ORIGINAL 2.8 ALPINA ENGINE BLOCK from the car (god bless European TUV regs) onto which has been dropped the cylindar head from a B9- so we don't know for sure the engine size- other than it clearly has been bored out more than 2.8. This is the most difficult and perhaps proper way to modify the Alpina- in UK we would be tempted to drop in a complete new modern engine since we are not bound by the TUV regs on modifications that are particularly strict in Switzerland.
It has the complete Motronic 1.2 from a M535i- rather than the Pierburg and Hartig set up that the B6 came with originally

Photos posted:

Anway Fritz brought along an 061 ECU togther with a Group A chip fitted a one way pcv between brake servo and manifold and hooked this up to a 027 Airflow meter
What a difference- this has completely transformed Herman
Great power, no lumpy start up, and huge torque- feels measurably quicker - sadly we have have no rolling road here- but I aim to get her on the drag strip to see the improvement
The old ECU is a VERY interesting item
it is a 013 for a Motronic 1.1 for a B9 E28 3.5 1984 and later- Fritz thinks it is "Kat ready" for swiss Alpinas. The outside has an Alpina sticker- and inside half the mother board has been replaced by Alpina (different colour) and has a removable chip (number below) Fritz tells me that this unit is VERY valuable for an Alpina B9 wanting originality and ability.

You can see it is an Alpina 1356609
and the chip itself is an Alpina unit WAPB93500573- as you can see
Other jobs he has suggested (to help me beat that sequentially equipped MK1 Escort at next year's Manx Classic ) will be a tubular manifold (another 30 bhp!) onto the original Alpina boxes and set up, as well as E28 M535i engine mounts to replace the e34 ones- that is why it hits things at the front-too low!

Fritz works his magic on Big Red today- and now the cylindar head has been changed (good Griffin item with all the Hartge stuff added) you can see where the old head had cracked! More anon on this in Hartge section etc................

Only problem I do have is that he is quite taken by Manx Classic himself and may well turn up in something himself (which would give Herman a good run for its money) have offered him a bed etc for the event
He has said that Herman is one of the best engineered cars he has ever come across- which is a relief from my perspective!

Nice to read, and all good news!

BTW note that Alpina only fitted the Pierburg DL fuel system and the Dr Hartig ignition on the early cars. Later versions did have Motronic fitted. And also, because of the limited reliability, many Pierburg/Hartig cars were converted to Motronic at some point by dealerships. I spoke to a guy with a E12 B7 some time ago and he had the Pierburg system overhauled through Alpina for originality reasons. Believe he told me for the cost of that alone you could buy an Alpina car

TopCat wrote: I was talking to "Fritz"

Who's Fritz?

Rich Hearn of "Fritz Bits"
http://www.fritzsbits.co.uk/

Brilliant guy

Intresting to see what he can do with the manifold as the ones for me and mark where not perfect, aslo the power claims as I was building a M30 for racing at one time with input from a guy who builds them for e9 batmobiles in historic racing and 30bhp from a manifold alone would be impressive.

I have to admit some may have had a bad word or two say about fritz's, but for my past dealings they have been perfect..
Richard Hearn jnr and his father were my main point of contact when i was looking to "tune" my standard red 323i well overs 10yrs ago now.. we ended up going for the full 3.5 m30 set up with e12 diff close ratio gearbox and of course a full stainless steal system, suspension and brakes(m535 servos ect.).. the engine/diff and manifold was a first for them on a road car at that time... to give an idea of how well the conversion was done i drove the car as my daily driver over the winter( even collected my christmas tree) and following year clocking up over 8k with no problems apart from scaring myself a fare few times...
Also the manifold was made specific for my car as they had it sent to there supplier, then used that as a base for future cars.
its my car pictured on the top right of there web page just showing the back rear corner..(red with the spoiler)
Top cat if richard is still up there with you please pass on my regards.. i think i maybe needing one of these grp A chips rather soon..



Daniel

dannyboy wrote:I have to admit some may have had a bad word or two say about fritz's, but for my past dealings they have been perfect..
Richard Hearn jnr and his father were my main point of contact when i was looking to "tune" my standard red 323i well overs 10yrs ago now.. we ended up going for the full 3.5 m30 set up with e12 diff close ratio gearbox and of course a full stainless steal system, suspension and brakes(m535 servos ect.).. the engine/diff and manifold was a first for them on a road car at that time... to give an idea of how well the conversion was done i drove the car as my daily driver over the winter( even collected my christmas tree) and following year clocking up over 8k with no problems apart from scaring myself a fare few times...
Also the manifold was made specific for my car as they had it sent to there supplier, then used that as a base for future cars.
Top cat if richard is still up there with you please pass on my regards.. i think i maybe needing one of these grp A chips rather soon..

Daniel

Just dropped Fritz off at airport first thing today

message passed- he sends his regards

As for your M30 G 265 E21 conversion and Herman - it can't be a coincidence that both our cars have such similar specs! It clearly works....

been a bit "off topic" as Jeroen would say
but i thought i would share the latest re herman with you!
heeding the "taste police" we swapped hermans chinese alpina roundal for a gen Bmw one- well it flew off !!
i retraced my steps and couldn't find it- so it looks like we will be going back to the alpina job afterall!! viva chinese alpina roundals!!!

been concentrating on getting big red fixed of late- but i havent forgotten herman
we now have
stainless m30 manifold from your previous site sponsors to fit
rear spring seats to make the rear level =front
and E28 535i engine mounts which will raise the engine marginally over the e34 535i mounts currently fitted
i have an offer for a nat geographic tv crew in october- lots of excitements even if off topic -more to follow I promise!

Nice! Got your stick as well, hope to be able to upload some videos later this week. Updates on the red monster are welcome as well!

Thought I would post an update here on Herman
As usual we are rushing around fixing things prior to first event at the last minute

But first of all the guys have done a really great job fitting the M30 stainless to the backboxes. Have deleted the centre box!
lovely shiney stainless:


more spagetti:



twin pipes throughout:






What is a bit puzzling is that it is no where near as loud as we expected- it has simply Huge back boxes- which look like original Alpina ones. Just surmising that Switzerland where Herman came from has very strict noise restrictions.

Anyway we will run as is for the Manx Classic- and look at some other solution later Fritz bits back boxes or similar- does any one have any recommendations?

Have ordered 1 new 205 50 15 Federal to go on the front to match the spare and give a little more clearance over the 195 s we have now. The E34 engine mounts had to stay as the E28 ones would not fit with new exhaust!

Have ordered some recon Volvo 240 calipers and braided lines to solve that sticking caliper- went with the Volvo as it sort of looks more stock than some meaty Willwoods (I am trying to Keep Herman wholly in period-ish)
Got some Gorilla glue to fix the gearknob from flying off- it is great stuff!