The BMW M4 GTS is one of the contenders running for MotorTrend’s 2016 Car of the Year award. The U.S. magazine is putting together an impressive list of models for this year’s award and the special edition M4 is one of them. After seeing it go around the Virginia International Runway as part of Car and Driver’s Lightning Lap contest, today we’re taking a look at how it performed in the hands of Randy Pobst.
Unlike the Car and Driver approach, the guys from Motor Trend have decided to use the same driver for all cars involved in this contest. Pobst has sort of become the equivalent of “The Stig” over at Top Gear, however, unlike his Britsh counterpart, he’s actually outgoing and fun to watch throwing cars around the track.
His thoughts on the M4 GTS are also worth taking into account, especially if you’re pondering getting one yourself. Of course, you’d probably have to pull some strings as most of the 700 units planned for production have already been accounted for. Nevertheless, the car showed great poise on the track, with little body roll, incredible agility and plenty of power.
Compared to the stock model, the GTS uses water injection to get up from 431 PS to 500 PS, a drastic power increase by any means. As a matter of fact, Pobst actually pointed out that at times he had to be extra careful with the throttle to make sure he doesn’t light up the rear tires. Even so, the difference between the normal version and the track-special BMW is quite noticeable. The standard M4 ran the Laguna Seca in 1:39.69 while the GTS managed to post a lap time of 1:37.66, being 2.03 seconds faster. Is that worth double the money? You’ll have to be the judge of that.
