TotalMotorSport All the latest Motorsport news, race reports and photographs from around the world. Alms, Touring Cars, Formula One & Le Mans 24 Hours

Sebring

Exxon Superflo

17/03/2001

BMW

Going in A Familiar Direction with New M3

© Tom Kjos

Sebring, Florida--When BMW announced its new M3 GTR this week at Sebring it was both something new--the car--and something old--a potential return to the kind of program the Bavarian manufacturer supported in Touring and Supertouring through the eighties and nineties.

Some of the new has also directly thrown out some of the former. In fact the race going M3s of the past few years have depended heavily on some of the suspension and drive train bits developed for the Supertouring cars of just a few years ago--bits that were designed for cars developing up to, say, 340 horsepower. The all-new M3 GTR replaces all of these with new components more suited to the "over 400" horsepower of the new car.

Only the basic structure of the chassis is carried over from the development of the E46 done by Tom Milner's PTG, and BMW Motorsport is quick to credit that work. Beyond that, however, the new car, running here at Sebring as Number 42, sports new aerodynamics, suspension, drive train, and of course, engine.

Among the changed necessitated by the increase power are a new gearbox and step-up final drive. Formerly aluminum suspension uprights and trailing arms are now forged steel, adding to the "toughness of the car in the on-track scraps that take place here in ALMS." Bob Wollek will be happy to hear that.

Significantly, BMW Project Director Albert Biermann specifically denied that "a possible DTM use was in our minds when we designed this engine." He said what was in their mind was a future road car application, which he would not identify, except to say it will not be in an M3. The current generation of M3s will continue to be powered by the in-line six cylinder engine that is so closely identified with the character of the car. There will be the rules-required homologation, of course with "perhaps as few as ten very expensive cars." By very expensive he said "as much or more than the race car." And of course, no plan to sell any in the United States. So a sort of CLK homologation is in the offing.

Importantly, it was indicated that Motorsport fully intends the new GTR to become a customer racecar in the Porsche GT3-R/RS mold. That is what puts the company back in sync with its touring car roots.