More details on BMW M6 GT3, successor to the Z4 GT3

[tallshortguy]

Originally Posted by BlackJetE90

Now, when will Ferrari enter the turbo 488 into competition? If any of these manufacturers win championship with a turbo engine program. I see the next gen Corvette(C8) definitely being FI. Bentley has already been somewhat successful with their Continental GT3.

Nissan and McLaren have also been using turbo engines, the GT-R GT3 has won some races though I don't think they've won any major championships.

[Gunzaro]

Yup, the Z4 GT3 is one of the best looking modern day race cars ever! BMW should have released a road going M version.

[V8Beast]

Sweet. I see this evolution as a big leap forward in many respects.

[x.shell]

Originally Posted by BlackJetE90

Now, when will Ferrari enter the turbo 488 into competition? If any of these manufacturers win championship with a turbo engine program. I see the next gen Corvette(C8) definitely being FI. Bentley has already been somewhat successful with their Continental GT3.

Oh man. I can't wait to see the 488 GT cars.

[raysspl]

Definitely going to miss the Z4 GT3

[solstice]

Crazy $$$ for a BMW but I think it looks as spectacular as you can get when starting with a mellow fat ass GT car. Very cool indeed.

[chris82]

Originally Posted by Law

You are correct & strictly speaking even the Z4 GT3 meets the homologation requirements.
But what was meant is that nobody can walk into a BMW dealership and order a Z4 with an S65 engine for road use.

BMW, in this case, used a loophole in the rules that allowed them to homologate the base 4.4L S65B44 engine from the M3 GTS using the base chassis of the E89 and put them together. Other manufacturers "played fairly" by comparison (i.e., you can buy an 911 GT3, an SLS with a 6.2L engine, etc.)

But with the M6 GT3, one can at least buy the non-race version with the S63 4.4L V8 TT.

Ohhh, I see. That's a good point

[adc]

Originally Posted by solstice

Crazy $$$ for a BMW but I think it looks as spectacular as you can get when starting with a mellow fat ass GT car. Very cool indeed.

Nothing mellow about the M6 IMO. I drove an M5 ZCP and it's a fast hard hitting brute of a car. Heavy for sure, but mellow is not how I would describe it.

[Alpine F31]

Originally Posted by adc

Nothing mellow about the M6 IMO. I drove an M5 ZCP and it's a fast hard hitting brute of a car. Heavy for sure, but mellow is not how I would describe it.

Totally agree. "Explosive" is more like it.

[bradleyland]

Originally Posted by solstice

Crazy $$$ for a BMW but I think it looks as spectacular as you can get when starting with a mellow fat ass GT car. Very cool indeed.

Crazy $$$ ? Maybe it's not clear by the posting, but this isn't a street car. I could see someone being confused, as if this were a Porsche 911 GT3 competitor, but that's not what this is at all. This is a full-blown race car that will compete in series like the United SportsCar Championship. 379,000 euros translates to around $415k in US dollars. As USCC race cars go, that seems like a reasonable price point.

[scrammer]

Why not the M4?

It looks like ///M Racing wants to stick with a V8 engine in all of the major series that they race in!

… When it comes to performance, the BMW M6 GT3 is uncompromising: the 4.4-litre V8 engine with M TwinPower Turbo technology

DTM
Tudor
ELMS
etc

[adc]

Originally Posted by scrammer

Why not the M4?

It looks like ///M Racing wants to stick with a V8 engine in all of the major series that they race in!

… When it comes to performance, the BMW M6 GT3 is uncompromising: the 4.4-litre V8 engine with M TwinPower Turbo technology

DTM
Tudor
ELMS
etc

Most of these race series have performance equalizers, make the engines breathe through air restrictors. You don't really believe a Ferrari or Vette would otherwise be beaten by a 4L BMW.

Anyhow, I believe the main reason is torque, or rather the supremely wide power band. So even if the power gets capped at 500 or whatever flavor of the moment in that series, the motor can make a tremendous amount of torque over a wide powerband, more so than the S55 due to the extra displacement.

[bradleyland]

Originally Posted by adc

Most of these race series have performance equalizers, make the engines breathe through air restrictors. You don't really believe a Ferrari or Vette would otherwise be beaten by a 4L BMW.

Anyhow, I believe the main reason is torque, or rather the supremely wide power band. So even if the power gets capped at 500 or whatever flavor of the moment in that series, the motor can make a tremendous amount of torque over a wide powerband, more so than the S55 due to the extra displacement.

Precisely. BMW would prefer to build as few variations of racing engines as possible. They're very expensive. The P63B44 can compete in a very wide variety of classes, and is easily fielded in a homologated coupé because of the S63's use in the M6.

Don't forget durability as a factor as well. At 4.4L of displacement, the P63B44 will work less hard than a P55B30 would.

[hellrotm]

Originally Posted by bradleyland

Don't forget durability as a factor as well. At 4.4L of displacement, the P63B44 will work less hard than a P55B30 would.

That is my thinking, especially in the 24hr and 12hr races. They never had any intentions to develop a race engine program based on the S55. It still feels odd they chose big F13 chassis, but what were they going to do if they felt they needed a V8.

[solstice]

Originally Posted by bradleyland

Crazy $$$ ? Maybe it's not clear by the posting, but this isn't a street car. I could see someone being confused, as if this were a Porsche 911 GT3 competitor, but that's not what this is at all. This is a full-blown race car that will compete in series like the United SportsCar Championship. 379,000 euros translates to around $415k in US dollars. As USCC race cars go, that seems like a reasonable price point.

It was clear. You can build these race cars out of anything since it shares close to nothing with the standard car. A Camaro for example but also an Aston Martin. If they both end up costing around half a million guess which one is easier to swallow