Select cars from the Henry Schmitt Collection of rare and significant motorsport BMWs is heading to market via Stratas Auctions.
Of the cars to be offered, the highlight is a special 3.5-liter CSL Batmobile — chassis #987 — the very car that was driven to victory at Sebring in 1975 by Hans Stuck and Brian Redmond.
![](https://www.linkagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/75BMWIMSACSL_exterior_StratasAuctions-38_1605144573.jpg)
The car’s identity wasn’t always clear — in fact, it wasn’t identified as the Sebring race winner until 2016. Schmitt, who has owned the car since 1997, at first just assumed the car was a Motorsport-built IMSA CSL without race-winning provenance. He bought it to race, and that’s what he set about doing starting in 1998, making modifications to keep it competitive in historic events. However, the real history — as is often the case — was just under the surface.
Schmitt always wondered about this car’s earlier days — and he suspected it had not been a spare. “There isn’t a corner on it that hasn’t been brazed, hammered, straightened or welded,” said Schmitt. “That car was driven hard and put away wet.”
![](https://www.linkagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/75BMWIMSACSL_engine_StratasAuctions-2_1605143350.jpg)
At the close of the CSL program, BMW wasn’t all that interested in either saving or documenting its old race cars — and all but one were sold off to privateers. This car, #987, and another, #988, made their way to South Africa, where they were raced and then stored for two decades by BMW racer and dealer Vasek Polak. Polak’s estate sold #987 to Schmitt in 1997 along with a bunch of spares.
After years of running the car in anger, Schmitt found out the truth in 2016. The car was confirmed by BMW to be the Sebring race winner — while it was built later than #985, the car widely thought at the time to be the Sebring car, that car hadn’t made it to the U.S. until May of 1975. The higher-numbered cars were actually the older CSL racers, and #987 had some real provenance.
This car, alongside #988, worked at the hands of Stuck, Redman, Posey and Moffat to take out Porsche at Sebring in 1975. Chassis #988, driven by Stuck and Posey, ran flat-out, while #987 held back from top RPM to preserve the car’s mechanicals for the long haul. The plan worked — #988’s fury took down the Brumos Porsche before taking itself out, and #987 remained in the fight, finishing the race with all the drivers participating. It reportedly cruised across the finish with a bad wheel bearing, a pegged axle temp and a dead alternator. But it was three laps ahead of the nearest challenger.
![](https://www.linkagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Sebring-Winning-Batmobile-994_StratasAuctions-13_1607365770-786x1024.jpg)
Fitting, then, that it kept racing for the long haul with Schmitt — but that history weighs heavy on a serious racer. “I don’t want to use my 15 seconds of fame being the guy who crashed #987, the Sebring winner. Now that I have a duplicate that doesn’t have that history and that can be just as if not more competitive because it has a stiff new chassis, I can still be out there vintage racing a CSL.”
![](https://www.linkagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/75BMWIMSACSL_exterior_StratasAuctions-3_1605143846.jpg)
Learn more about this car, and the others planned for auction, at www.stratas.auction.
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