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Hartge of Darkness
This innocuous BMW 3 Series blends into the outside lane with the workforce of Beckingen, Germany, as they scuttle homeward. There is rarely a second glance in our direction, as there's no outward sign to even hint at the violence that lies within the 2007 Hartge H50.
Once the autobahn opens out like a red carpet, we mash the throttle and the machine beneath my seat takes off like a stabbed rat. Though the 2008 BMW M3 is now upon us, not even such a car could muster this kind of forward thrust.
The telltale howl from under the hood belongs to the BMW M5's V10.
M5 Engines 'R Us
Ex-racer Herbert Hartge has made his trade from transplanting big engines into small BMWs since the 1970s, when Formula 1 world champion Keke Rosberg drove one of his M5-engined E30s on his days off. Since then, Hartge has put the M5 engine into more or less everything with a Roundel badge with predictably explosive results.
One of the few German firms to achieve government recognition as a manufacturer rather than simply a tuning company, Hartge has built its reputation on M5-engined anything. The V10 under the hood of this 3 Series coupe certainly qualifies. And while none of the crowd at Hartge's headquarters in Beckingen are fans of the BMW's SMG automated sequential gearbox, they've made the best of a bad job by matching it with the M5's V10 in a 3 Series coupe body to create the ultimate sleeper, distinguished visually only by the Hartge badging and a subtle body kit.
Inside the car, you notice a speedometer that ends on the far side of 205 mph, as well as the homemade dashboard add-on that contains a gear indicator and all the vital information about the setup of the SMG gearbox. As for the primeval noise and guttural vibration when the V10 clatters into life, well, this is the start of a 200-mph journey.
Another Dimension of Speed
With the engine screaming toward the red zone above 8,000 rpm, the Hartge H50 just tears up time and space, depositing itself at the apex of the next bend before the previous straightaway has truly registered in your consciousness. It's supercar fast, and it takes just a click of the finger on the shift paddle mounted on the steering wheel to sustain the surge of acceleration.
Hartge didn't just transplant the living, breathing V10 from the M5 into this E46 coupe. While it was on the operating table, the corporate engineers fitted reworked cylinder heads, high-performance camshafts, a new engine map and a near straight-through exhaust system to coax 550 horsepower and 391 pound-feet of torque from BMW's masterpiece.
The legendary stability and intrinsic balance of the BMW 3 Series seems unaffected by dumping the bigger engine in the front end, and Hartge claims the weight distribution has changed to 52 percent front/48 percent rear. The H50 just hoovers up the road with disconcertingly low levels of drama. Only the high-pitched scream of the engine gives away the rate of knots, and the chassis exudes a serene sense of calm even at speeds that would precede a major incident if anything goes wrong.
On the brakes into a bend, the H50 blips the throttle to produce the perfect down-change into a lower gear and all that's left to do is to hurl the car into the corners with ever-more ambition. The low-slung stance of the 3 Series and the swarm of electronic pulses coursing through the three PlayStations' worth of computer chips in the H50 mean the Hartge coupe simply never fails to stick, even when it's asked for the impossible.
Full Article:
First Drive: 2007 Hartge H50 V10
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