Auto racing has gotten better and more competitive in the last few years. Not that it wasn't as competitive all the years before, now with the added technology, it puts more race cars on an even keel. Some will agree and disagree with that statement.
One thing is for certain though, the original BMW M3 GTR that raced in ALMS was a dominator. It did however, lose miserably in its first season to their arch rival from Stuttgart, Porsche.
They only won one race and it proved to be a dismal season, unless BMW were to learn alesson from it. They did and they ended up taking 6 of 8 races in the 2001season, along with taking the drivers’ title for Jörg Müller and also theManufacturers’ championship. Unfortunately BMW were forced to hang it up afterthe 2002 season due to new regulations that stated BMW had to make 50 V8 M3’s…They were only able to produce one and they couldn’t have pumped out that manyin time, and at especially $225,000 a pop. Or they could have to add a smallerrestrictor and add 220lbs to the car. BMW thought this to be worthless to evenrace its GTR and decided it needed to focus on Formula 1 more anyways. So theywere out.
Nowthe M3 is back. It is being brought back to us by Rahal/Letterman Racing. It looks better than ever and it will be better than ever. Thefirst GTR was tested by Car and Driver tested back in March of 2002 and they had some wonderfulthings to say about it. Their equipment that they ran on it put it at 60 inonly 3.4s and to 100 in 7s with a ¼ mile time of 11.4 @ 127 mph. The GTR onlyweighed 2450lbs, and sported a 6-spd manual transmission.
Thenew M3 ALMS racer will have to make do with only 485hp from its 4.0L V8 borrowed andmade even better from the E92 M3 road car. The new M3 will also weigh 2535lbs.That is only 85lbs more than the previous GTR but, with 41 more horsepower. Canwe say look out GT3 RSR? This already has my body tingling for the racing thatwill take place. With the same carbon fiber roof in place from M3 and now withenough lips, wings and spoilers to make a Fast and the Furious movie work hardto produce more bodywork. Since BMW has been so successful with its recent F1cars, the F1 tunnels have been fully used to make sure that the new M3 isperfect for the race track. Talk about an advantage.
Rawspirit. That is what makes the new M3 ALMS racer an amazing car already. It’swhat made the original GTR the best and what should make this one even better.It hasn’t touched the track for the public’s eyes and we can already guess thatit will take to the track just as the new M3 has taken to the streets, withease and comfort like it has been for the past 21 years here in America. Withsix manufacturer championship titles in only nine US sports car racing seasons,the previous two generations that raced should be a good clue as to how goodthis new M3 will be. Sure, competitionis more prevalent, and ALMS is a much bigger racing series now than it was inthe early 2000’s (the American Le Mans Series was formed in 1999). Look for thenew M3 to start the 2009 season off with a bang in Sebring for next March’s 12hour race. I was wondering why Porsche had been making some subtle improvementsto its current GT3 RSR for GT2. They heard BMW was coming back!
