Unlim 500+ people: Tamirlan Singariev

Many participants of Unlim 500+ are familiar to you. You've seen some of them in our clips, and the other during stages. Today we have decided to tell about our members in a more detailed way. So we are glad to introduce our guest, Tamirlan Singariev and his BMW M6 ESS VT3 + — some of the most active participants of Unlim 500+.

DT: How did you get intersted in cars Tamirlan?

Tamirlan: My interst in cars started out in early childhood. In the 1980’s me and my family lived in Africa. My dad worked in Angola, Central Africa. There was the first time I saw a Formula 1 race, which deeply impressed me. I came to my mother and said I wanted to be a racer, but my mother did not share my enthusiasm and discouraged me about the idea, telling it was very dangerous. This talk and my passion was «brushed under the table». Later my interest in cars resumed, I think, mainly because it is in our nation's blood. It started when I drove away father's car (laughs). He gave me the keys so I was to warm up the car in winter. I made copies of the keys, and when dad was at work I «hijacked» his car and went for a drive. Of course, my father found out I had the key, he took them away from me, but I still had extra copies, and it repeated again and again until dad started to trust me.

DT: And how old were you then?

Tamirlan: It was 1993–1994, as far as I remember, and I, respectively, was 14–15 years old. This was the time when we first moved to Almaty from Grozny. That's how my passion began. My room was always full of supercar posters of that time, such as Ferrari and Lamborghini. Back in the days I felt I love that, felt I was born for it. I regret that in our Soviet childhood, as we were all born in USSR, there was no karting or any other available opportunity to join the car racing. The primary goal of that time for me was to buy my own car.

DT: We all know that you are pretty faithful fan of the BMW brand, but was it always this way?

Tamirlan: Frankly speaking before BMW appeared in our family, I thought there is no car like «Mercedes». But there came a time when my father needed a new car and thus asked my opinion. There was a choice between BMW and Mercedes-Benz. At that time the only argument in favor of BMW was that it had more power. This reason, coupled with the fact that even our friend, a car expert and «Mercedes» fan advised BMW, determined the result of difficult choice — we bought a BMW and then it all started. It was the BMW series 5 in E34 body with M10 engine, produced in 1989. With this car my love for BMW began. Though the car was nasty: it seethed at every 100 km, antifreeze repeatedly spilled along the road, dad hated it, but I really loved it. At that time it really “burned the wind”. And that was the car I started driving with my dad's permission. After a while I saw a BMW 850 and literally fell in love with it and dreamed about being its owner. Later, I had two BMW 850-s — black one and green one. I remember I was a cool cat in the university (laughs).

DT: How did your fascination with cars grew into participation in professional competitions?

Tamirlan: Well, it all started, of course, from amateur races at traffic lights. However, when official competitions appeared, I decided to take part and was hooked by the taste of the events and by people, people passionate about cars. I think, that a car for a man is like the horse in the past — a true friend. I believe that enthusiasm about cars is a noble passion for men. I perceive cars not as technology, but as a living creature — I praise it, scold it, talk to it. Going back to the first drag-racing experience in official competition, I would say that I wasn't, of course, the winner that time, but the experience made me realize that I really liked it. And from that moment on everything — the Internet, garages, sleepless nights before races, clutch and universal joints replacements, became part of my life. I flung myself into it and and fully experienced all the bright sides of my hobby.

DT: Tami, would you please tell us about BMW M6, a landmark car in your life, because at the moment you own the third M6 already and each of them has it's own story many people are interested in.

Tamirlan: Well, here's a short background — even before buying the first M6 I had been a zealot of the BMW brand. Since 2002, I have been registered in the BMW club, though that time I had no car myself. I used to be a frequent visitor at BMW dealership, I had already been recognizable by everyone there (laughs), and once they said, «Here comes the new BMW M6». It should be noted that I was 25 years old, just recently graduated and having no money in my pocket, especially for a car worth more than 100,000 EUR. I remember, how they started it, and I heard the sound of V10... I got into the car and realized that I wanted this car with all my heart, I really did. Why M6? Because at that time M6 ​​was the fastest BMW. And as it happens in a fairy tale, a few months later one of my projects successfully started to generate income, and collecting the required amount of money I bought the snow-white M6, exactly the one that was shown to me. Car dealership immediately installed the «Lambo doors» and I bought it. Almost then I began to upgrade it — the first thing I installed were the alloy OZ wheels. A little later, I set so called “equal length” exhaust manifold, BMC filter of zero resistance and new firmware. Then it was the maximum of the existing improvements.

DT: Those days your M6 must have been a menacing opponent for any other car, wasn’t it?

Tamirlan: Actually, after tuning this car I haven't lost any race on it, despite the fact that I willingly took part in any. I have repeatedly competed in different races with Subaru Impreza WRX STi, different Turbo Mark and Supra cars, E55 AMG with Klemann modifications. In short I have never been defeated in M6. But after all that, in February 2008 I went to ride on it, turning off electronic systems and enjoying all the pleasures of rear-wheel drive car. At one moment during the switch from the 3rd to the 4th gear I lost control and went off the road. The car was broken, and I got a spine compression fracture. A week later, still lying in the hospital, I called the dealership to find out about the availability to buy the new BMW M6, but there was no such car there. Then I got the idea to create a BMW M6 no one else in the world would have. So came the idea of creating M6 Hell Rot — an aggressive bright red color car unavailable for order at M6. After examining the broken (white) M6 we came to the conclusion that only it's front end suffered, leaving all the strategic nodes were safe, so we ordered a new M6 body. That's how M6 Hell Rot, that is currently owned by my best friend, was born. It feels good and rides excellent up to this day. A friend bought it from me before his wedding, and I didn't plan to buy M6 as my next car. That moment BMW X6 was already out and I decided to try it for a change, but the M6 ​​haunted me and didn't let me go to other cars. A friend had made prepayments for BMW M6 Individual, but he was not able to pay the whole sum, so he offered the car to me. That's how M6 fell into my hands again. The first thing I did was immediately setting all the improvements I had on previous ones.

DT: But unlike the previous ones, the black M6 got to Unlim 500 + and showed decent results. How did you dare to come to Unlim? After all, the car was not in Moscow but in Almaty.

Tamirlan: Even before the black M6 I watched Unlim 500 +, having no chance to come. Later I was turned on to come to «Unlim» and defend the honor of the brand. However, by that time the rivals waiting for me were too serious and powerful, so I started surfing Internet to find options to upgrade the car. Having spent lots of time I came to the conclusion that the cars able to show good results had been prepared only by ASR (USA), in particular, the specialists put the car on nitrous oxide (N2O). I contacted the company, paid for «nitrous kit» and then had to wait for a year until their arrival. In fact, they arrived only after my lawyer threated to sue them. Feeling they might get into trouble, they arrived to Kazakhstan in quite a short term and installed nitrous on 2 cars — my black M6 and my ex red M6. With no opportunity to test nitrogen I took the car to Moscow. First test of the nitrogen system happened at UNLIM in the race with a really fast car — AUDI RS6 Evotech Stage 2. From the start AUDI with its AWD «jumped» by the distance equal more than 3 car bodies, but then, having higher speed I started to confidently catch up with her and by the finish line was already ahead by 0.3–0.4 seconds. I remember that it was a big surprise for everyone, for me either. During that UNLIM I showed the best time — 29.2 seconds. However that was still not enough to win in my class. RS6 owner improved his time, and by the second day my tires were pretty worn out, leaving me no chances to improve the performance fundamentally. And so it charged me with real enthusiasm: how can you lose to AUDI? (Laughs)

DT: Did the atmosphere of competition motivate you to make new improvements?

Tamirlan: Surely! Another round of Internet, searching and I found ESS compressor kit, being at the time under development and testing. The company had already approved itself by the example works with my friends cars so I decided to try. I started to annoy ESS every single day suggesting they should send me this kit, as I had not much time. And in their turin they didn't hurry testing it for safety before sending. They started selling these kits after a while, but only 625-horsepower version was available at first. Of course I immediately told them that 625 hp Isn't enough and I need more power. But ESS, in their turn, did not want to sell devices that could produce more power. Finally I managed to convince them that if anything happened to the car, there wouldn't be any claims from me, and only after that they sent me the kit. Everything was installed in Almaty and I should thank ESS — every single detail came to it's place, immediately wound up and there wasn't a singlle error.

DT: Tami, and what was in that kit?

Tamirlan: It was a completely bolt-on kit which means the tuned components absolutely replace the factory ones. The kit included the compressor, fuel injectors, intake receiver, pulleys, belt, piping, and cooler. I was satisfied with the car and brought it to Unlim. After testing, it occured that the car is now able to move normally as it used to with nitrogen oxide enabled. 29.0 sec is the time that I showed only with the usage of the compressor. However, the competition required significant results improvement and I decided to use nitrogen, although after the compressor installment I did not use it. I had to check one of the fastest AUDI RS6 and I said to myself that I would not lose! Honestly, I was mentally prepared for the fact that the engine will «bang», but believe it or not, it went over more then well! At the start everything looked the same — RS6 flies forward, but gathering speed I caught him up and overrode confidently. I remember dancing lezginka after the finish of the ride. But that was just the beginning — having realized that the engine normally works with nitrogen use, I played with the tire pressure and in the next race, «reduced» another 0.4 seconds — I drove a mile in 28,020 seconds. At the moment, the best time was at AUDI RS6 Sportec with 27.9, so the difference was just a few hundredths of a second. But I made a mistake and instead of lowering the pressure in the tires a little bit more, I pumped the tires up. My mistake became the reason I took second place at that Unlim.

DT: As far as I know, the competition between RS6's and your M6 wasn't over back then, and continued at the next stage of Unlim 500 +?

Tamirlan: Certainly! Next Unlim took place in autumn, and the weather in the days of the races has made its adjustments. On the first day, I effortlessly showed the second time in the group — 27.9 sec. So I stopped tormenting the car, and kept fresh tires and sport petrol in the tank for the second day, the day of «grid» races. The next day it began to rain, which ruined plans and hopes of many participants, including me, because it was physically impossible to improve the time. The organizers decided that the award would be based on the results shown in qualifying, i.e. during the first day. It was a wise decision, because the wet surface increased risk of accidents. Safety of human life is above all, therefore all participants, including me, have agreed with this decision, and no one would dispute it. According to the results of the qualifying rounds I took second place in my class again.

DT: Tami, quite a short time is left until the 2013 autumn Unlim 500+. Are you prepairing any technical modifications of the car?

Tamirlan: We must be just to AUDI — if there was no such healthy competition, I would be quite unlikely to get this far. However, either me personally or my nation representatives have an urge to leadership. I have enough cups for second place, I won't be able to answer my kid, why I haven't been the first. So yes, I'm getting ready and preparing very seriously. This is the first time I «reach into” the engine. All the previous improvements were „bolt on“. Nowadays it is the only project in the world, where a fully road car will be set upgrades of such a remarkable level and moreover all that would be on so-called „stock“ transmission. As nobody in the entire world has any experience of building such a car, we have to consult with everyone. ESS, for example, honestly told me: „We naven't not built such machines, so we can give advice, but there are no proven solutions for such power“. And the first piece of advice from them is to change the connecting rods, as the factory ones will not withstand the planned load. Besides the forged pistons were ordered, that will reduce the compression ratio from 11.5 to 10.0, wider Dinan throttle bodies. Also both compressor and the crankshaft runners will be replaced in order to increase boost pressure. There will be an additional fuel line to maintain the necessary pressure in the fuel rail. The nitrogen oxide injection system will also be upgraded — the nitrous used to be „dry“ before, but now it will be „wet“, i.e. it will be submitted along with the fuel, that should add much more power growth. And forged pistons, in their turn, will allow the use of C23 race fuel, which has a high knock resistance.We want to bring the final power to 1000 hp, although the pre-tests shown that one can achieve even higher performance, but we wish to lay the reliability and refrain from limiting loads on different engine and transmission nodes. I want to thank my good friends Dauren, Gosha GTT (Gosha Turbo Tech), who support me and help me assemble the car, as well as Leonid, who supports morally, not the least because he is a BMW fan too.

DT: Well, I see that the setting is very serious, I wish you success! The last topic I would like to discuss with you is Unlim 500 +. Tell us about the atmosphere both at the event itself and during the «off-season».

Tamirlan: If you recall the child years of Unlim 500 +, it becomes clear that it used to be a completely non-profit project. There was a group of people who owned fast cars, but for obvious reasons did not want to ride on public roads, as it was risky and illegal. Today, «Unlim» is one of the world's brightest automotive events, which is watched in all countries. Participants come from the nearby Europe and Asia. In the U.S., there is an event similar to UNLIM called «The Texas Mile». However, despite the fact that the 1 mile «drag» format of the races is the same, there are different features in winners identifying system. Our american rivals «fight» for the maximum output speed to a mile, and Unlim 500 + is a fight for one mile passage time. Unlim 500+ is one big family and all of us, its participants, are the children of the event. There is a healthy atmosphere of competition that motivates the implementation of projects, which have no analogues in the world.

DT: Tamirlan, thank you for a very interesting and comprehensive talk. We'll be watching your progress at Unlim 500 +!

Characteristics and dynamic performance of BMW M6 E63 ESS VT3 +

* Estimated figures

Technical specification of BMW M6 E63 ESS VT3 +:

• Engine:
  Forged pistons, reinforced connecting rods, 10.0 compression ratio (stock 11.5), Dinan wide throttle bodies, increased crankshaft pulley smaller compressor pulley, nitrogen oxide injection system (wet), the engine head porting, COMETIK gaskets (layer pads), RP cotter pins modified rod inserts.
• Fuel system:
  Additional fuel line to maintain the necessary pressure in the fuel rail
• Transmission:
  Package of ceramic clutch, gearbox oil additive that reduces friction of synchronizers.
• Other improvements:
  BMW Performance seats, VOLK RACING VRG-2 Wheels, the weight of each disc is a little more than 7 kg.