LAKE FOREST, CA., November 27, 2012 – GSR Autosport Racing is partnering with BILSTEIN (a division of ThyssenKrupp) for sponsorship and technical assistance during the upcoming 2013 Formula Drift season.

GSR Autosport will be launching a new car for the 2013 season based on the BMW E46 chassis. Michael Essa, Co-owner, Director of Motorsports at GSR Autosport and driver of the #101 drift car explains. “As the sport continues to progress we felt we needed to make a few changes to keep pace with some of the top competitors. With increasingly higher speeds we needed a bit longer wheel base to provide for more stability and more fluid transitions — the E46 chassis gives us nine more inches of wheelbase over the Z4.”

BILSTEIN and GSR have been working together over the last several months to custom build BILSTEIN motorsport MDS (Modular Damping System) dampers specific for the E46 drift application. “Much of the mechanicals carry over from the Z4 so we have a good base of knowledge to start from,” said Dirk Walk, Sales & Product Manager – Tuning at BILSTEIN. “We will be providing engineering support for the GSR drift program from our staff of top motorsport engineers. This combined with the data we will be collecting during testing and throughout the season will give us the ability to progress the suspension tuning quickly.” In early development GSR was able to model the E46 suspension in SolidWorks (3D CAD System) to simulate camber and toe changes as the suspension articulates using different suspension pick-up points.