Allan Grice’s John Player Special E21 318i Turbo: JPS Team BMW ran a BMW 318i Turbo (updated in 1984 to a 320i) in the Australian Sports Sedan Championship and later in the Australian GT Championship (the car started its life in Craven Mild colors in 1980). The turbocharged 318i proved to be fast but fragile in the hands of Allan Grice who usually gave unfavorable reports on the cars handling, with the usual complaint being that the power of the engine was causing the chassis to flex and twist, something that even track marshals noticed at times according to Grice.
The car was sold to sports sedan racer Bruce Lynton in late 1981 and a new car was built in its place. The new car was taken over by Jim Richards when he joined the team who raced it with moderate success. Richards actually finished equal second in the 1983 GT championship after winning the opening two rounds at Lakeside and Sandown, before it was badly damaged in a start line crash at Adelaide in Round 3. The crash, which took out one-third of the field, was caused by the Chevrolet Monza of Peter Brock which suddenly turned left, directly into the path of the oncoming traffic. The damage saw the team put the car away for almost the rest of the year to concentrate on developing the 635CSi touring car, though Richards did drive the repaired car (complete with a racecam unit for Channel 7) in the Sports Car / GT Challenge support races at the 1983 Australian Grand Prix at Calder Park Raceway in November.
The car’s last race before being sold was at the 1984 Sandown 1000 which was part of the 1984 World Sportscar Championship season. The only change the team made to the car for the race was upgrading it to a 320i plus the removal of the high powered turbo engine, in its place the team put in a much less powerful, but much more reliable naturally aspirated 2.0 liter 4 cylinder BMW motor.
