BMW will continue its involvement with the American Le Mans Series in 2013 as well. But this time around, the M3 GT race cars are being replaced by the Z4 GTE, a successor to the Z4 GT3 racing roadster that has been very successful in the GT3 championships.
At the BMW’s annual end-of-season awards banquet Saturday evening in Munich, Jens Marquardt, BMW Motorsport director confirmed the news for SPEEDTV.
“This change in model shows that we are focusing fully on the BMW Z4 as an all-encompassing GT car,” said BMW Motorsport director Jens Marquardt. “The BMW Z4 GT3 has been very successful on the GT3 scene in recent years, and has proven its ability to win races. I am confident this car will also play a major role as a GTE car in the ALMS.”
Based on the successful GT3, the GTE will debut in the 61st annual Twelve Hours of Sebring in March.
The Z4 GTE replaces the equally successful M3 GT, which in its 3 ALMS years has collected back-to-back GT championships, including the driver, team and manufacturer titles in 2011. BMW’s partner in ALMS is Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
Details of the Z4 are unclear at this moment but testings will begin early next year.
