The M4 GT3, the customer race car that will replace the M6 GT3 in 2022, was rolled out for the first time on Saturday, July 18 at the BMW plant in Dingolfing. The car will get its first track tests at Miramas in the south of France next week.
BMW Motorsport says that works driver Augusto Farfus “rolled out of the garage at the wheel of the BMW M4 GT3 for the first time at 9:40 hrs last Saturday and set about completing the first important function tests. The BMW Motorsport engineers spent the whole day putting the new GT car, which will replace the BMW M6 GT3 from the 2022 season, through its paces.”
The race car is being developed in parallel with the next production version of the M4; the road car will be launched in September. The M4 GT3 will contest its first races, that BMW says will be “for the purpose of testing under competitive conditions,” in 2021, in advance of the M4 GT3’s rollout as the company’s new high-end customer race car in 2022.
BMW says, “The rollout in Dingolfing was a milestone and a highlight of the development process, which began back at the start of 2019 with CFD computer simulations. The engine, generating more than 500 hp, took to the test stand in Munich in February, while initial tests were performed in the BMW Group wind tunnel from the middle of the year, using a 60% scale model of the car. The first test chassis of the BMW M4 GT3 was produced at the BMW Group plant in Regensburg in early 2020. After that, the test car used for the rollout was assembled within roughly six weeks in the BMW Motorsport workshop.”
BMW motorsport director Jens Marquardt says, “It is always an emotional moment when a newly-developed BMW race car takes to the track for the first time. This time, however, I am particularly proud. Given the difficult conditions of the past few months, it is quite remarkable that we have managed to implement our development program as planned, and while complying with the BMW Group’s strict safety and hygiene regulations throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, have managed to stick to the date originally envisaged for the rollout of the BMW M4 GT3. I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who has shown such commitment and the passion we have become accustomed to in the face of the extraordinary challenges faced in recent months, and who have overcome these challenges imperiously.”
He continued, “Thanks to the very close and intensive collaboration with our colleagues at BMW M GmbH, we have been able to use the basis provided by the new BMW M4 production model to develop a race car that has everything it needs to continue the successful history of BMW Motorsport as a new GT icon.”
The rear-end view posted here is the only image of the car released to date. There may be more photos after the Miramas test.—Brian Morgan
[Photo courtesy BMW Motorsport.]