Racing News

    It's been just a couple weeks since BMW Team RLL closed the chapter on the BMW Z4 GTLM at Road Atlanta, and just a few days after Marc VDS Racing sent the BMW Z4 GTE off into the sunset with a victory at the European Le Mans Series finale at Estoril, but the next chapter for BMW Motorsport has already arrived on American soil.

    After quite a bit of development over the last year, the M6 GT3 was unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. More recently, the new race car was at the FIA Balance of Performance testing at Michelin’s high-speed proving grounds near Clermont-Ferrand where BMW was reported to have tested two cars, the GT3 and an unannounced GTE/GTLM version.

    Turner Motorsport has already announced that they have purchased two BMW M6 GT3s to race in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The team will campaign two of these all-new race cars in the 2016 24 Hours at Daytona in the new homologated GT3 spec class. 

    This car was reported to have been found uncovered on the tarmac at Atlanta and we can already tell that BMW has made a few small changes from the car they showed in Frankfurt. Most obvious is the extra set of fog lights in the front bumper. In the show car, there were air vents in place of the inner set of lights.

    The aerodynamics seem to have been changed a little as the rear diffuser has a couple more vertical elements to it, the vents between the front corner panels and doors appear to be thicker, and a couple dive planes have been added to the front bumper.

    Sportscar 365 reported just last week that BMW Team RLL was expecting to receive their M6 GTLM in the next week or so, thus even though this car has GT3 markings, it could be the GTLM car.

    BMW Motorsport has not announced when the first race will be for the M6 GT3 yet, but rumors have been floating around for quite some time that it will be either the Dubai 24 Hours, January 14–16, or the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona on January 23–25. Either way, we are excited to see the next chapter starting to unfold for BMW Motorsport!—Nate Risch

    [Pictures courtesy of Matt. M.]