Visit to Manhart Racing - Review and photos (Updated with videos)

[Boss330]

First let me give you some background info. I live in Norway and have had no connection with Manhart before my visit there today. The idea of visiting Manhart came when I was planning the trip to Nürburgring that me and my youngest son are doing now (I will go the Top Marques Monaco show later in April with my oldest son). I'm siting at Hotel zur Burg as I write this. The Ring is closed all weekend due to bad weather/snow... Talk about bad timing Anyway, I contacted Manhart Racing via e-mail a few weeks ago and they immediately welcomed me and my son to come and pay them a visit while we where driving down to the Ring.

I dealt with Franz Simon and Ansgar vom Orde via e-mail and Franz took care of us on our visit. More welcoming and knowledgeable person is hard to find. He went out of his way to show us the premises and give us a great experience It was on a saturday, but people was still working in the workshop and Mr Simon took his spare time to guide us.

I expected it to be a fairly short visit and possibly a quick trip in the MH5 S Biturbo if we where lucky It ended up being a three hour (I really didn't look at the time) grand tour of their facilities and a great trip in the MH5 S Biturbo on the Autobahn

First impressions when you arrive is of a modern building with a clean showroom, well presented and very professional looking. No backyard chop shop this! The cars that meet you in the showroom is enough to make any BMW enthusiast occupied for some time.

But it's the workshop that really shows that these guys mean business and that this is first and foremost a ENGINEERING company. Not some glassfibre and stickers tuning company (like some other well known companies I shall not name here ).

Manhart does most of their own stuff in house. Like carbonfibre body parts (some being made while we where visiting), engine conversions etc. There was this E9x M3, but with a N54 engine and X-drive!!! The basis had been a brand new M3 body shell where the customer wanted a personal idea of what the next M3 should be like. They had done allmost countless other engine conversions with E30, E36, E46 etc. bodyshells and V8 and V10 M5 engines. M3 Touring and so many more special projects that I believe I have forgotten more than I remember...

Manhart also does ECU/software tuning in-house and we got to see some of the stuff they used.

This is the real deal!!!

We even got to see and learn about some stuff that will possibly make for some interesting news/discussions in the future

Then, the MH5 S Biturbo:

What an AMAZING car!!! Let me start by saying that I have driven cars like the Koenigsegg CCR, BMW M6, Merc SLS and numerous other high end performance cars. The new M5 is an amazing beast in it's own right, but this conversion is just awesome!!! First of all I was super impressed with how comfortable and "every day" the car could be. The suspension was not too harsh, the exhaust had virtually no drone and the car felt like a "regular" M5 in normal driving. But when you started pushing it, BOY did this thing pull!!!!!!!! This is the most impressively accelerating car I've driven apart from the Koenigsegg CCR.

For those that have been sceptical about the possibilities of F10 M5 tuning and this company; I've been there and seen (and felt) the results. This is no fake, made up claim. This is the real deal!!!

And to be clear: The MH5 S Biturbo has some stuff on it that no one else has at the moment. This is not the same spec tune as others do, something's similar but there are vital differences as well

One other thing that really speaks volumes about these guys. Due to the cold weather they had even changed the tires on the car just for our visit!!!

I could, and should, probably have written even more about our day at Manhart, but I'll let some photos from the day do the rest of the talking

[boots]

Nice shop Simon. I like the hood on the m3 outside.

[Boss330]

Update: Added some videos

The day before our visit Manhart had just done a new Vbox run with the car:

0-60 KM/H in 2,4 seconds
0-100 KM/h in 3,9 Seconds
100-200 KM/H in 6,8 Seconds
80-250 KM/H in 13.5 Seconds (Std M5 takes 19,9s)

[Ahmed]

Very nice indeed

[Falcao]

Fc*n awesome videos from Manhart.


0-100 KM/h in 3,9 Seconds
100-200 KM/H in 6,8 Seconds

^^
That is very fast (Stock 458 times are 6.5 or so i think) for 100-200KM/H. 6.8 Seconds 100-200KM/H for a car that is close to 4400lbs is impressive. I think i saw 1.45g on Vbox. Now that is how you video.

PP please take note. If you are tuning company, you should be able to afford quality video for customers you will be charging thousands for tune/mods. Just common sense. That is all and im out.

[DrewBert]

Vs 430.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aA32X3rX8E&sns=em