BMW agrees to V8STAR body.

After the first BMW M5 lookalike for the new German touring car series V8STAR had been turned down by the Munich marque, BMW has now agreed to allow modified bodywork to appear.

The general idea behind the new V8STAR series is not to use stock cars from the respective manufacturers, but rather to manufacture lookalikes of the cars' bodies and place them on top of identical tube frame chassis. Silhouettes looking similar to a Mercedes E Class, BMW M5, Opel Omega, Jaguar S-Type, Audi A6 and Lexus were in the frame - but one after another, Mercedes, BMW and Audi informed the Essen-based organisation of V8STAR that they did not want bodies looking like their cars to be used in the series, even if they would not carry typical design details like logos, bonnet and indicators.

Only Jaguar allowed full use of their lookalikes, while Opel at least released the body minus the typical trade identifications. BMW and Mercedes strictly declined even that. But under the leadership of former Sauber Formula One team director Max Welti, the V8STAR organisation never stopped trying.

"BMW were not happy with us using a body similar to their cars, and they have informed us about that via their legal department," Welti recalls, "After speaking to the legal department, we have now come up with a second suggestion. We were never about to do anything against BMW's wishes but, at the same time, we were still keen to get a BMW lookalike running in our series."

The new proposal saw further changes to the silhouette, altering the front end, the bonnet, the side windows and the huge BMW rear significantly.

"Any insider would still recognise the shape of a BMW," Welti claims, "However, it may not be that obvious to everybody and his brother now."

The BMW legal department has taken a close look at V8STAR's new suggestions - and agreed to allow a car of that shape to run in the new championship. With 13 places already taken, and a few teams that had developed concepts for a BMW lookalike entry being sidelined after the Munich make's original decision, this is good news for the first European championship to follow the lines of NASCAR - with its mighty, all-Jack Roush, 5.7litre V8 engines and identical, 265,000 Mark cheap rolling chassis produced by Nitec, an affiliate of Zakspeed.

V8STAR will take two prototypes to Misano on Thursday and Friday for an open test meeting which ever team owner and driver is invited to attend and take a look at the brand new idea, see the cars and meet the people behind it.

Altfrid Heger will carry out tyre testing with rubber from likely partner Goodyear mounted to a Jaguar S-Type lookalike, while Christian Danner will compare the aerodynamic impact of two different bodies, running a Jaguar silhouette on the first and an Opel counterpart on the second day.

V8STAR's promoters hope for a large attendance at this test and expo at one venue - they plan to bring 24 cars to the grid in their inaugural season, where they are racing on Saturday afternoons in the co-called Top Ten package.