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BMW M4 GT3 to feature as part of Spa 24 Hours lead in
The newest addition to global GT racing, the BMW M4 GT3 took to the track for the first time amongst it rivals during testing ahead of this year’s TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa.
Although it won’t compete in the world’s largest GT endurance event scheduled to take place on July 29-August 1, the test provides BMW M Motorsport personnel the perfect opportunity to continue the M4 GT3’s development ahead of its race debut at the Nurburgring this weekend.
This is the result of more than 14,000km of testing since it was initially revealed in July 2020.
Factory drivers Augusto Farfus, Marco Wittmann and Nick Yelloly shared duties behind the wheel.
The M4 GT3 replaces the highly successful M6 GT3, which was officially debuted by BMW in 2016, but had featured on GT grids through Alpina back in 2009 as a privately developed package.
BMW Australia is no stranger to the Australian scene after previously supporting an M6 GT3 program with Steven Richards between 2016 and 2018. BMW is also a regular feature at the annual Bathurst 12 Hour where Chaz Mostert scored pole for the marque in 2017.
Fitted with a race-developed version of BMW’s S58 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged inline-six producing 439kw of power, this is mated to a six-speed X-trac sequential gearbox and electro-hydraulic clutch.
BMW highlighted improvements had been made in three key areas: driveability, cost efficiency and operation upon its reveal.
The final area is significant as the M4 GT3 is the only model to feature a Fanatec steering wheel, which can be utilised not only in the cockpit of the race car, but also on a racing sim without modification.
It is anticipated that the first customer orders will be fulfilled at the start of 2022.
The next round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Powered by AWS will be held at Sandown on September 17-19.