Seizoen 2017

The 2016 King of Europe Champion, Remmo Niezen, started working on a new drift car back in 2016. He had a couple of demands when he was building it:

• more speed than his current BMW;
• it has to be a reliable car;
• it has to be a special car.

A lot of spare time has it cost, by Remmo, his girlfriend and his whole team, but the car is finished and has done a lot of testing mileage on the circuit. Right before his first and also last driftingtest we talked to Remmo at his workshop in Holland. The day after, we were present at the wet drift track in Lelystad (NL).

“Almost  a year ago you were also here at our workshop and we talked about the narrow and fast BMW Z4 in the Falken colours. Now it’s finished and I’m happy that I made a lot of fast and safe test millage. Problem is, that it was only testing at a racetrack (circuit Zandvoort) where drifting is not allowed on a dry track. I felt right away that the car is great, especially on high speed sections. The response of the car reacts magnificent on every move I make. The last couple of months we worked very hard to get the car finished before the season starts. We’ve done a lot of small things de last couple of months and it costs us a lot of time. But, we are ready for the fight in King of Europe to keep my title.”

“A BMW Z4 is not known for its space inside the car, but we made an exception on this, we’ve managed to get 30cm more free space inside the car. I’m quite tall, but for me it’s no problem to get in the car. The co-pilot place is quite large and we can fit big people on it, that’s a problem at some other cars I’ve driven in the past. It is a engine from a BMW E92 M3, it is a S65 V8 engine on top we have mounted a G-power compressor and a handmade Guerilla exhaust at the back. The exhaust has a remote controlled bypass valve so we can make a lot more sound. I wanted this engine, because the sound and we wanted to keep the car as a BMW. The car is built with the 2018 King of Europe regulations in mind, in 2018 everything will be FIA approved and some of the things have to change a bit. We can now arrange that with a couple of small adjustments in the next winter.
We didn’t choose not to make a tube frame front and back of the car, but keep it as original as possible. Of course we made the bodywork of polyester. I hope the car will weigh between 100 and 1200 kg. With the certified roll cage and fuel tank, we could also sell this car as a racing car.”, this could be useful in the future.”

“During the tests, it was not allowed to drift, so we could only test the speed and reliability. We did this a lot and we’ve learned that the car is very good on high speed. I could overtake a lot of circuit racing cars even if I setup the car as a drift car. And as you can you, we’ve touched the curb stones a lot, the tray beneath the engine is pretty damaged, that is the purpose of the tray.

We’ve fitted an electrical power steering during the winter, but at the first test I notched I didn’t liked it, so we changed it to a conventional power steering very quick between test 1 and test 2. Now the car response as I want it.”

Season 2017

“The season is ready to start, only a couple of days left till we travel to Austria fort the first round of the King of Europe championship. For us, April is very busy. On the 2^nd of April we do the last and only drift test, in Lelystad at driftsport.nl. Just a week later, we challenge the first round of King of Europe in Austria. Maybe we visit the Nurburgring driftcup in the Easter weekend, to test one more day at high speed on a dry track. The end of the month is demo time, we do a demo on top of the Citadel in Namur (Belgium) during the Friday night of the Rally de Wallonie. There are a lot of enthusiast rally fans who liked the drift show a lot the last couple of years.”

“The main goal for this year is to get the title at King of Europe again and be The King of Europe. Last year I had to miss one race, this year I want to race them all. The championship is pretty close planned at some rounds. Round 3 and 4 are just one week apart, both in June of the year and the next one is all the way in August, that is pretty difficult to plan with a garage I had to run.
Last year we noticed that the car wasn’t quick enough in the last two rounds in Oschersleben and Slovakiaring, this year it will be different.”

“I’ve already heard that some competitors are scared of me and my new car, last year I won the championship with an “old” car. They have seen some footage of the new Z4 and saw it was quick and handles very directly. I like the idea of they being scared of me, I’m convinced that I can challenge the title and keep the title. The car is bit faster and has a bit more power, it depends on the type of gas, but we can get 530-600bhp out of the engine.”

Plans 2018

“It sounds silly, but we’ve already some improvements for the 2018 season especially for the new regulations in 2018. We want to build the gas tank behind a fire proof wall in the back of the car. We wanted to made it this winter, but we didn’t had enough time to do it.”

Calendar

De calendar King of Europe:
8-9 April Greinbach – Austia
6-7 May Valencia – Spain
10-11 June Anneau Du Rhin – France
17-18 June Castelletto – Italy
12-13 August Ligneres – Swiss
9-10 September Oschersleben – Germani
30-01 September/October Greinbach – Austria
7-8 October Barcelona – Spain

Scource: A. Voorberg
Pictures: A. Voorberg