Embellished, empowered, emulous – Road & Track
This company, is not hunting big game. No, leave that to other larger West German tuning firms whose employees delight in modifying Porsche 928S 4s and Ferrari Testarossas by cramming multiple turbos and superchargers into every underhood void, all the while thinking prurient thoughts of doubling, maybe tripling the engine’s output. They writhe with excitement at the thought of covering gauge faces in leather, creating visual unrest with clashing interior colors and covering impossibly wide tires with b bodywork that oftentimes is tasteless.
Hör (that’s pronounced her) Technologie has been steadily cranking out a small, high-quality product line composed of camshafts, timing gears, high-performance suspension springs and exhaust systems, all in applications to fit most German cars since it was established in 1979. Though not a prominent name in the U.S. market, Hör Technologie has been steadily toiling away for years, manufacturing camshafts that are sold under the names of other manufacturers. Now it’s coming out of the closet, so to speak, looking to make the Hör name as familiar a word to the enthusiast as Alpina or AMG.
Aftermarket parts glisten, gleam and look wonderful through the glass of a display case, but what’s
really needed to show them off is another showcase, the rolling kind. Enter Hör Technologie’s recently opened U.S. branch (1800 N. Glassell St. Orange, Calif. 92665: 714-974-4655). The folks there arranged for Road & Track Specials to borrow a privately owned example of their project car: an orange/red BMW M3 fitted with a sampling of Hör parts as well as other manufacturers’ performance bits they market.
By selecting the BMW M3, they presented themselves with a challenge. The M3 stands for Motorsport, and this 3-Series Bimmer was built from the outset as a homologation special to compete, albeit in somewhat modified form, in the Group A class for 4-seat sedans. The racing car does quite well, thank you, as demonstrated by its popularity and strong showing so far in this year’s German touring Car Championship. As one would expect, the road going M3 has a very competent chassis, honed and modified through racing efforts. And making it all the more difficult for Hör Technologie to improve it.
As for the bodywork, the Hör folks did the bet thing they could possibly do: They left it alone. Group A regulations prohibit any sort of add-on aerodynamic aid, so BMW saw fit to equip the stock M3 with a rear wing of monumental proportions, a deep chin spoiler, rocker panel extensions and a rear valance panel. The regulations also state that racing wheels and tires cannot stick out beyond the stock fenders: to that end, BMW provides lots of tire clearance with an ample set of blister fender flares.
The stock M3’s tires (205/55VR-15 Pirelli P600s) don’t take full advantage of all that under-fender room. Out they went, to be replaced by grippy Yokohama A008Gs, size 225/45VR-16, mounted on Etoile 16 x ½ in. wheels, at all four corners. Nor were the OEM underpinnings safe from their tinkering hands-the stock shocks were tossed in favor of a set of Tokico Illumina 5-way adjustable units ($454), and a set of Hör Technologie progressive rate performance springs ($345) take residence where the stock ones used to be. To cope with the increased cornering loads a beautiful Motorsport Series strut tower brace ($240) lovingly welded up from elliptical-section tubing pieces, Höres up the chassis.
The modifications improve the car’s looks considerably: it’s like comparing a custom-tailored suit to
one bought off the rack. The wider tires fill the wheel wells just right, and the springs lower the car
25-30 mm just enough to eliminate any visible, vertical gap between the tire’s tread and the fender lip. Wheel/tire packages that fit this well usually have interference problems, but no evidence of rubbing or scraping was seen, felt or heard. The polished rims and 5-spoke black centers of the Etoile wheels add the final dazzle; they’ll make the valets want to park this car in full view.
For whatever reason, some aftermarket “tuners” mess up the balance of a perfectly good chassis with modifications. Thankfully, this fate hasn’t befallen the Hör M3. The progressive springs keep body roll to a minimum without paying a high impact-harshness penalty when meeting life’s little bumps. Sure, it’s stiff, but not painfully so: the reward is a stable, responsive chassis that can put the generous Yokohama’s to their best use. The Hör M3 negotiates the skidpad at 0.852g, besting the stock car’s 0.82g by a considerable margin. Road Test Editor Kim Reynolds lauded the chassis’ competence: “It’s the kind of car you could drive real fast down an unfamiliar curvy road…you could hustle down that road safely and securely because of the car’s basic stability.”
An up rated chassis can safely handle more power, and Hör’s engineers claim they’ve increased output 27 bhp (the stock 2.3-liter 4-cylinder makes 192 bhp at 6750 rpm) through their sport camshafts, reprogrammed engine-management microchip and large-diameter exhaust package ($2595). The exhaust system includes a free-flowing Emitec steel catalytic converter (similar to ones used on some BMWs and Porsches) that’s said to reduce back pressure up to 65 percent compared to conventional ceramic units.
The accompanying acceleration figures speak for themselves. It is too bad a stock M3 wasn’t available for back-to-back testing, but when compared to previous test figures, there was no appreciable performance gain. The character of the modified engine was much like that of the stock version-smooth and not especially exciting below about 4000-4500 rpm, but humming like a kitchen blender set on puree as the tach needle bolts toward its redline 7300 rpm. The aluminum-plated steel exhaust system (which tucks up against the chassis as neatly as the stock setup) lends the spent gases a throatier, slightly boomier note that’s consistent with the car’s newfound good looks.
While I can’t condone engine modifications that don’t make a car appreciable faster or change its character for the better, the Hör M3 as a whole has better grip and composure than its stock counterpart. Its looks make it stand out in a crowd (even a crowd of other M3’s), and modifications to its suspension require very few concessions from the driver (with four adults on board, it only scraped its muffler once on a steep entrance to a gas station). It’s a car that, in a world of take-it-or-leave-it cars, gets lots of double-takes, and that in itself is something special.
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December 29, 2008
1986 - 1989, Articles