BMW to offer customer race cars

Do you find your new e92 M3 getting passed too often at track days in Barcelona?

Tired of Porsche Super Cup cars blowing by your old factory M3 GTR at the Ring?

Does your ex-works WTCC 325 not provide enough thrills at Silverstone?

Well if you have $156K,  BMW Motorsport may have your answer.  According to Brian Morgan at Roundel, you can now buy your very own factory race-prepped M3, although with a much more pedestrian motor.

Now I know that many folks will say that this is another example of ///M standing for Marketing instead of Motorsports.  I'd say that this a far better deal for US track addicts than any M3 CSL, so let's hope BMW brings it stateside 

BMW Motorsport has announced that it will offer an out-of-the-box M3 race car—called the M3 GT4—to private teams for €120,000, about $156,000 at current exchange rates. 

In the press release on the new car, BMW Motorsport director Dr. Mario Theissen says, “In 2009, we will witness the BMW M3 racing not only for the BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team in the American Le Mans series. The new BMW M3 GT4 now also provides private teams with numerous opportunities. For over 50 years, customer racing has been a cornerstone of BMW’s motorsport programs. After all, what better global ambassador for the performance pedigree of BMW cars than a privateer who is competing for victory in a BMW vehicle?”

While the new car will resemble the ALMS M3 in some respects, it is not the same vehicle. The ALMS car’s engine is designated P65, while the engine in the customer car is an S65—the same designation as the street M3 V8. But it is fitted with a single-mass flywheel, a racing clutch and release bearing, and what BMW calls an “optimized race exhaust system.”

Specific information on the engine-management system is not provided in the information now available on the car, and output figures have not been released. The customer-car transmission is a six-speed H-pattern gearbox, while the ALMS car runs a six-speed sequential box. Brake diameters differ slightly between the two cars. 

Other customer-car specs include a 3.85:1 final-drive ratio, a suspension with adjustable Ohlins race shocks, and stiffer anti-roll bars and suspension mounts than those on the production E92 M3. The car runs forged BBS wheels, 9.5X18" front and 10.0X18" rear—and, like the ALMS car, it is fitted with Dunlop tires.

The car is available for the 2009 racing season. But well-heeled BMW CCA Club racers should not get their hopes up; the car is not being offered for sale in the USA.—Brian S. Morgan, motorsports editor, bmwcca.org